Chapter Text
“ Okay, hi ,” TK says over the recording. Carlos scoffs. “ Uh, the date is, um, July 17, 2015. So, Carlos just left to pick up his parents from the airport. And left me standing in his yard. But, that is not the end. I won’t let it be, okay? We started this and I don’t… I don’t want to keep… giving up.” He pauses for a moment. “ So I’m not. Not anymore. Okay, uh, question 20: What does friendship mean to you?”
Carlos hits pause on the recording. He’s not entirely sure how TK had managed to find his way home without his GPS (there’s no way TK had a map in his car) but what he does know is this: TK was gone by the time Carlos got back with his parents but his phone was in the mailbox. The password was deactivated— not that it needed to be, Carlos knew the code— and the last app opened was the voice memo. There were a few saved but only one was titled.
The Last 16
He was in his old room— his mom was in the kitchen mumbling to herself about how she wishes Carlos had never met TK; his dad hadn’t said anything since the airport— the phone on the bed in front of him.
He can’t do this. Not now.
The phone has been burning a hole in his desk drawer for months. When he got home after the whole fiasco at the ranch, TK had left his key on the kitchen table but had taken the rest of his stuff. Carlos couldn’t bring himself to get rid of the phone like he’d promised his parents he would.
He also hadn’t listened to the whole recording.
So he tossed it in his desk drawer— he doesn’t know why, but he did— and put it out of his mind.
But then his boyfriend found it. Luke had no idea what it was and Carlos had told him it was an old phone of his and that he’d throw it away later.
Fast forward to now— three weeks later— and Carlos is sitting there, staring at the phone.
“This is a terrible idea,” he mumbles to himself. “I shouldn’t be listening to this.”
He hesitates for a moment then grabs his earbuds, glancing toward the door.
“ Okay, hi .” The familiar voice sends a sharp pang of guilt through him. “ Uh, the date is, um, July 17, 2015. So, Carlos just left to pick up his parents from the airport.” He skips forward a few seconds. “ What does friendship mean to you? Dependability— see back to question 16.” Carlos can’t help but roll his eyes. “ Question 21 : what role do love and affection play in your life? Hm, well, until recently, love and affection played a pretty big role. Guess that’s over though…”
Carlos hears the papers rustle and a thud as TK puts the phone down.
“ Um, question 22: Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items. Easy. I think you’re very attractive.” Carlos laughs softly. “ I think you’re very kind. Usually. I think you’d make a really, really good parent.” There’s a long pause. “ Yeah, you’d be an amazing dad. You care really strongly about things and you love helping people. Is that five? Yeah, alright. Question 23: How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other peoples’? Oh boy, uh…
There’s a noise on the recording and it takes Carlos a moment to realize what it is.
TK’s crying. Or starting to at least.
“ After yesterday, I really don’t think I need to answer that for you. Question 24: How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?” TK scoffs. “ Well, we used to have a pretty good relationship. I lived at her place most of the time. I couldn’t tell you now though. I haven’t talked to her since I left.
“Question 25: Make three ‘we’ statements. For instance: we are both in this room feeling…’ Okay, well, I am sitting on this porch feeling…exhausted.”
Carlos hasn’t really thought about it but TK probably hadn’t slept in days.
“ I am sitting on this porch secretly hoping that Carlos is going to turn around and tell me everything’s going to be okay. I’m… I’m on this porch trying to figure out what’s next.” TK sighs and laughs defeatedly.
“ Question 26: Complete the sentence: I wish I had someone with whom I could share…“ TK barely needs a moment to think. “ my feelings. My real, actual, bullshit feelings. The ones that Jace never had.”
There’s a rustle of paper and he mutters something under his breath but he doesn’t stop. “ Question 27: if you were to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know. I’m terrified that everyone’s gonna leave me. Everything is always changing and I never know who’s going to stick around.
“ Question 28: tell your partner what you like about them; be very-“
“ Carlos.”
Carlos pulls the earbuds out. “Yes, yeah.” Luke is standing in the doorway to the office, frowning. “What’s up?”
“We have to go soon, remember?”
It takes him a moment but he nods, tucking the phone back into the desk drawer. “Our meeting with the social worker, yeah. Yes, I’m ready when you are.”
He ducks into the guest room, taking a moment to breathe. Luke finally got Charlie down to sleep and Carlos hasn’t had a moment of peace all day.
When they adopted Charlie, the office was sacrificed for the nursery. Carlos had to scramble a little to find a new hiding spot for the phone that he had “thrown away”.
He reaches up and pulls the phone off of the shelf of the closet.
“ never know who’s going to stick around.”
“Question 28: tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you just met. I like how much you care about people. Not just me or your family and friends. But you love to help people. I mean, that’s why you got into your whole job, right? And I know you said that you, maybe, wish your dad thought you were less soft. But I think that’s what makes you a good police officer. Yeah that’s… Anyway, uh…
“Question 29: share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life. Well, gosh, let me think. There was that one time that I drove six hours to my ex-husband‘s ranch with a science experiment and thought it would magically fix all of our problems.”
Carlos hears him sniffle and his heart sinks. He forgot that was happening.
“ Question 30: when did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself? Uh, when we watch the Iron Giant on my birthday. And… well, I guess right now counts so…”
He takes a breath and Carlos wishes he was there. That he could fix everything.
“Question 31: tell your partner something that you like about them already. your smile. At first, it was just polite but friendly. It was always real. Which really—“ He’s quiet for a long time and Carlos can hear his mother’s wind chimes in the back. “ Sorry, I thought I heard something. If I’m being honest, I kind of hoped it’d be Carlos turning around and coming back again. Cause, yeah, I still think that Carlos is going to come back…”
He should have gone back. He should have gone back.
“ I need to do something else,” TK mutters. “ No, no, I need to finish, I need… I need to finish. Okay, okay, um. Question 32: what, if anything, is too serious to be joked about? Nothing! Everything is a joke. It’s all relative and everything depends on someone else and there's no base reasoning for anything. Everything deserves to be made fun of.”
“ Question 33: If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?” Carlos can hear the trees and the bugs over the recording. TK sniffs again and sighs. “ I’d want to tell you that... the way that I love you? It breaks me. You probably think I’ve done something horribly wrong. But I don’t see how it could be so bad if what I did let me have you… I’m… Yeah. Okay. Um, question 34: Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why? The journal I have hidden in the upstairs closet. I’ve had it since I was seven.
TK laughs softly. “Question 35: Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find more disturbing? Why? Mm, I don’t know. Enzo probably. I mean, he never married my mom but he’s family. He was better than dad was. Last one, okay. Question 36: Share a personal problem and ask your partner’s advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.”
“How do I let you go?” TK lets out a derisive laugh. “ How’s that for a problem ?” TK picks up the phone and Carlos can hear the gravel as he paces. “ No one wants things to end. You have to…it’s something we have to fight to get through. And, yeah, it hurts. A lot. But it’ll be better in the end, I think. So… this is it. That’s the end of this-- of us. So I’m walking away now. That’s it. I’m going to put the phone in the mailbox and you can… You can do whatever with it, I don’t need it anymore. And I don’t know if you’re going to listen to this, Carlos--” he didn’t realize how much he missed TK saying his name-- “ but if you are… I love you. I always will .”
The words echo in his head.
I always will.
He knows the feeling.
Luke is great, Charlie is amazing. but… Well, he doesn’t know. He’s got a weird feeling. Like he’s playing a part-- like this isn’t actually his life.
It’s been three years since TK. If he can get through it, so can Carlos.
“Um, so I know it’s date night,” Luke starts, “but I wanted to do something.. different.”
Carlos’ chest tightens. “Different?“
“Yeah,“ Luke says with a smile, reaching into his pocket.
Please, don’t propose. Please, don’t propose.
“Here,“ he says, holding out a stack of papers.
“What is —“ He doesn’t need the answer.
“It’s a science experiment,“ Luke explains anyway. “It’s supposed to help two people become closer. You take turns asking each other questions. There’s —“
“36?”
Luke shrugs awkwardly. “Yeah, I know it’s kind of a lot but I thought it could be fun?“ Carlos pauses and looks at the title again.
The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness.
“Yeah,“ he says stiffly. “Could be fun.”
Carlos reads first. And he’s honest— of course, he’s honest. Mostly.
“Question eleven,” Luke repeats back to him. “Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.”
That one makes Carlos freeze.
“I- We can probably skip this one, right?” Luke raises an eyebrow and Carlos shrugs. “I mean, we’ve known each other since high school.”
“Yeah, but there were a few years where we didn’t talk,” Luke reasons. “So what’d you do during that time?”
I was married and having the time of my life.
He takes a breath. “Well, after high school, I went to the APD, I’ve been there ever since, got married, then divorced, moved to Dallas for like six months, came back. Then we reconnected.”
When he looks up, Luke is shaking his head. “You were married— you’re divorced ?”
Carlos shifts. “Yeah, turns out we got married too quickly,” he says simply (and if it's a lie, Luke doesn’t need to know). “I actually did the questions with him.”
“Did they work?”
Twice.
“A few did.”
There’s a heavy silence that stretches across the seconds.
“Do you still love him?” Luke asks in his typical non-confrontational way.
But Carlos was not expecting that.
“I-I don’t…not love him?“ Carlos sighs. “He was a really big part of my life during that time and he was— and still is— really important to me. I think a part of me will always love him. But that’s not gonna stop me from this . From us.”
Luke smiles.
That night, Carlos sits at the computer. He takes a breath and opens it to his email, opening a new message.
He watches the cursor blink. After a long moment, he closes the computer and walks away.
He thinks he’s going to do it this time. Or he thought. He only made it as far as typing the email address into the spot.
Every now and then he thinks about it. A lot more lately. The day it all came down.
“Are you coming?”
“You are so impatient,” Carlos teases, putting the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.
“Am I impatient or do you just take forever?” TK-- or Jase, then-- raises an eyebrow and Carlos throws popcorn at him. He laughs just as the doorbell rings.
They both frown but Carlos waves a hand at him. “I’ll get the door, you choose the movie.”
TK nods and Carlos moves to the door. He opens it to two men he’s never seen before.
“Can I help you?”
“We’re looking for TK Strand,” the first man asks. “Do you know him?”
Carlos shakes his head and crosses his arms in front of him. “I don’t know the name. Is something wrong? I’m APD, I can help if I need.”
The second man held out his phone and it takes everything for Carlos to stay calm.
“No, I’ve never seen him,” he lies. “Is there something wrong?”
The first man shakes his head. “We were hired by the family. They’re just worried about him.”
Carlos nods and bids them a goodnight, waiting until they’ve driven away to close the door. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment and he slowly turns to look at his husband.
TK is sitting on the couch, eyes wide and frightened, like a kid caught redhanded.
“Carlos-”
“Are you in some sort of trouble, Jase?”
He shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. Just… please sit. Let me explain.”
“What’s your name?”
He freezes. “What?”
“Who are you?” Carlos presses. “What’s your name? Where are you actually from? Why did you lie to me for two years?”
“It’s complicated--”
“Bullshit.”
TK stiffens. “Technically, my name is TK Strand--” Carlos scoffs and shakes his head-- “but if you let me explain--”
“You lied to me for two years.”
“Not entirely.”
Carlos moves toward the dining room table and leans on it. “You know what? I think…that I should go.”
“No.”
“I’m going to go for a little while. Just to clear my head and to think some things over.”
“I really think this is something we should go over together,” TK reasons.
Carlos doesn’t listen. He can’t. Because if he hears TK out, he won’t get over this. The ring digs into his palm a little and it feels weird to be without it. He leaves it on the table and closes the front door behind him.
He doesn’t even know what he’s trying to say. He wants to check in but he doesn’t know where to start. What’s he going to say? “Hi TK, it’s your ex-husband. How are you? Oh me? I have a completely new life but still can’t stop thinking about you.”
Yeah. Okay.
Luke closes the door, and Carlos sighs. Is it bad that he’s more relieved now that the relationship is over?
To: TK Strand ( [email protected] )
From: Carlos Reyes ( [email protected] )
Subject:
He pauses.
The Final 16
Yeah, he knows how ominous it sounds— like a dystopian horror novel— but that’s all that there is. Sixteen questions left.
Hey, TK. How are you? I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to but I’ve been thinking a lot about you.
No.
About us.
Carlos deletes the new words almost as soon as he types them.
About how we ended. I shouldn’t have left you there on your own, that was a terrible thing for me to do.
It was and he knows it. He also thinks that it was a fight-or-flight reaction.
Carlos knows that the questions work. They worked on him and TK before-- almost eight years ago now. He knows that’s not the only reason he fell in love with the man TK was pretending to be but it’s a big part of it.
When TK had found him again at the Ranch, Carlos had convinced himself he could answer the questions without wanting to run back to him. But he got too close. And it scared him.
I still have 16 questions left to answer. I’ve answered them all in the file that’s attached. You don’t have to reply but I think it’s only fair that you know my responses.
He leans back in his seat and rereads the email. His hands are shaking and he’d rather be doing anything else. And before he knows it, the email’s been sent. His eyes widen and he slams the computer down.
“Oh my god,” he mumbles, dropping his head into his hands.
Carlos stops when he reads the name on the notification.
“Uh, Charlie?” The little boy looks up at him. “I need to run to the car, okay? Can you stay where I can see you?”
“Yeah, dad.”
Carlos nods, his mind and heart racing a mile a minute. It only gets worse as he closes the car door behind him.
To: Carlos Reyes ( [email protected] )
From: TK Strand ( [email protected] )
Hey, Carlos. I’m really glad you reached out. And thanks for sending your answers to questions 20 through 36 I look forward to hearing them-
What?
-in person.
TK wants to meet with him. Face to face. That’s… He can do that, that’s okay. That’ll be fine.
Maybe.
There’s a new part they added last year where we have to look into each other’s eyes for four minutes. We don’t have to but I think it’s pretty cute.
He’s pretty sure that if the questions had included staring into each other’s eyes for that long eight years ago, he would have fallen in love at least four minutes faster.
Okay, so all he has to do is bear his soul to TK and then stare into his ex-husband’s eyes for 240 seconds without rehashing any complicated emotions toward him. He can do that. It’s just four minutes.
I don’t live in Austin anymore but I’m in town this weekend to visit family. How’s Friday at five for you?
He stares at the email. TK wants to see him-- to see him . He wants to finish the questions with him. He wants to reconnect in the least.
Carlos can handle that. Actually, probably not; he’ll probably be nervous and say something stupid. He glances out the car window to check on Charlie, taking a deep breath. Then, he types out a quick reply with an address for a restaurant.
Friday. Three days. He has so much to do.
Charlie hops out of the car and takes Carlos’ outstretched hand. “Are we meeting dad here?”
“No, bud,” Carlos says. “Remember I told you we were meeting someone?”
“Oh, yeah,” Charlie mumbles, and Carlos can’t help but smile as he holds the door open. He scans the restaurant and Charlie tugs on his hand. “Who are you looking for?”
“The person we’re meeting.” He pauses. “He’s here…” he says more to himself than to his kid. He waves at the hostess as passes.
TK meets his eyes-- those eyes -- before they get to the table and smiles-- just as warm as Carlos remembers. He seems to stiffen a little when he sees Charlie.
“Hey,” Carlos says, ushering the boy into the booth. “Sorry, I couldn’t get a babysitter and my ex is…” He shakes his head. “Sorry.”
“Carlos it’s fine,” TK assures him. “What’s his name?”
“Charlie.”
TK smiles again and waves at him a little. “Hi, Charlie. I’m TK.”
Charlie waves and looks up at Carlos. “I’m hungry.”
He nods. “Yeah, alright.”
Once they’ve ordered and set Charlie up with a kids’ menu and crayons, Carlos runs his hands over his jeans anxiously. TK sighs.
Carlos can’t tell if that’s a good sigh or a bad sigh.
“I hope you don’t mind but I printed your answers out.” He holds out the papers and shrugs. “For old times sake.”
Carlos just looks at the papers for a moment. He doesn’t want to do this. He does-- answering the questions will be good for everyone. But this isn’t--
“TK, I’m--”
“Question 20,” TK says stiffly.
Carlos clenches his jaw and takes the papers. “Question 20: what does friendship mean to you? Friendship means someone who will love and support you. In spite of your flaws.” He shifts. “Question 21: what roles do love and affection play in your life? They’re… really important to me. Sometimes to a fault. I forget that people… I don’t know, love in different ways. Does that make sense?”
He looks at TK for confirmation. He just nods, his expression blank.
“What’s the paper?” Charlie asks.
“Just give me a minute,” Carlos says softly.
“But what is it?”
He sighs a little and shifts again. He wants to run again. He’s fighting most-- if not all-- of his instincts just by sitting here.
“It’s sort of like a game-- a grown-up game,” he adds when he sees Charlie’s face light up. “Sorry, bud. Give me and TK a few minutes?”
Charlie nods, busying himself with the word search on his menu.
“Alright,” Carlos mumbles. “Question 22: alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five things. Um, okay. Well, you’re here. And you look great.” He’s not using the paper anymore-- though he’s so nervous, he probably should be. “You’re forgiving me-- I think-- even though you have no reason to. You’re fun and sweet. And complicated.”
TK hardly reacts. He has a sinking feeling in his gut, like he’s doing everything wrong-- everything .
“Question 23: How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most people’s? My childhood… wasn’t terrible? But, you know, my parents aren’t perfect-- no matter how hard they tried to be.
“Question 24: how do you feel about your relationship with your mother? I would say… I’m probably what you would classify as a ‘Mama’s boy’?” Was that a smile? Did TK just smile? “I love her a lot. And I was always closer to her than I was to my dad. For… reasons.
“Question 25: make three true ‘we’ statements each. For instance ‘we are both in this room feeling…” He puts the papers down again. “I don’t want to use the papers for this… I can’t really read you though.” His voice sounds pathetic but he’s kind of hoping TK will give him a pass.
He doesn’t. “Give it a shot anyway.”
“Okay,” he mumbles under his breath. “We are both in the restaurant feeling… Anxious, I think. And a little awkward. We’re both reliving the past, which is never easy.” He raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
TK just shrugs. “Next question.”
His heart sinks a little more.
“Question 26: Complete this sentence: ‘I wish I had someone with whom to share…’ I wish I had someone with whom to share… a nice conversation over coffee.”
That gets a reaction out of TK, however small it is. “Like our first date?”
“Yeah.”
Tk just nods again.
“Question 27-”
“Papa, I’m thirsty,” Charlie says, tugging on Carlos’ arm.
“I know, Charlie. The waitress will be by soon.” He clears his throat. “Question 27: If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know. Well, I mean you know this already but… I can be very stubborn when it comes to… defending my friends and family. Even if it means ignoring the truth.
“Question 28: Tell your partner something you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things you might not say to a stranger.” Carlos looks up at him. “You don’t really let the world weigh on you. I mean, yeah, you’ve been dealt a bad hand and you’ve made mistakes. But as long as I’ve known you… You still find ways to be happy.”
He thinks TK softens. His shoulders aren’t as tense, the corner of his mouth is pulled up in a slight smile.
“Question 29: share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life. Um, I think it would be having to tell my family… what happened?” It’s true. He doesn’t mean to reopen old wounds but he’s never felt more humiliated. “Question 30: When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself? I think--”
“Papa cried during the movie yesterday,” Charlie chimes in.
Carlos smiles. “Thank you, Charlie.” TK raises an expectant eyebrow at him and he can’t help but laugh. “We watched UP.” TK nods.
“I can understand that.”
“And by myself was…I relistened to the recording on your phone,” he shrugs. “It seems stupid but it was a lot for me to handle at the time.”
TK nods again. “Right.”
“Question 31: Tell your partner something you like about them already. Your laugh.” He doesn’t really have to think about it. “It’s one of the first things I remember about that day? When we met. You laughed and I wanted to hear it again.” TK’s cheeks are turning red. He misses that a little. “So I tried to make you laugh as often as I could.
“Question 32: What, if anything, is too serious to joke about?” He hesitates again. “It’s kind of a long list, I don’t want to scare my kid.”
“Just do the first one.”
Carlos nods. “Right. Uh, dying,” he says, his voice low, glancing at Charlie.
“Question 33: if you were to--” He lowers his voice again. “If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them?” He wrings his hands. “I-- I’d regret not telling you that I’m sorry . I should have said it sooner but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to hear from me.” He rolls his eyes at his own statement. “Which shouldn’t have stopped me. But it did.”
Fuck it, he thinks and leans over the table a little. “Do you ever think about where we would have ended up? If I hadn’t been so stubborn?”
“That’s not the question, Carlos.” TK looks like he has the answer. Carlos can see it in his eyes. He swallows hard and leans back again.
“Right. Sorry.” He takes a deep breath. “Question 34: Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?” He shakes his head. “We have similar answers on that one. I’d get that shoebox that I have, the one with the keepsakes in it.”
TK smiles a little. “Is that the one with the little cowboy boots?”
“I--” He laughs. “Yes. Yeah…”
“Question 35: Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing.” He looks at Charlie sitting next to him, humming to himself as he colors in a fish. “Present company. For obvious reasons.”
He looks at the papers.
“Question 36… Share a personal problem and ask your partner’s advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.” Neither of them says anything for a long moment. “How do I let you go?”
“Hm, that sounds familiar.”
Carlos shrugs. “Your advice?”
TK studies him. “It’s not easy. But you just need to live your life. You’ve got a great kid
, a job that you love, a family that you love… So hold onto that. And keep living your life. It’ll get easier. Don’t worry about what was as much as you are.”
Carlos folds the corner of the papers. “And now you reflect how I appear to be feeling?”
TK squints at him. “You seem… Ready.”
“Ready?”
“For the staring part.”
“The-- we’re doing that?”
TK laughs. Carlos wants to hear it again. “Of course we are.” He raises his arm, displaying the watch on his wrist. “I’ve got it set.”
“How long?”
“Four minutes.”
He can’t do this. He shifts and TK nods as he starts the timer on his watch. Charlie tugs on his arm.
“Papa, what are you doing?”
“We’re almost done, Charlie,” he says, not taking his eyes off TK’s. God, he might lose his mind. “Just a few more minutes.”
“Are you having a staring contest?” Charlie is still tugging on his arm. “I wanna play!”
“Not now, bud.”
“Why not?”
The corners of TK’s eyes crinkle as he smiles. Carlos doesn’t look at his smile-- TK would absolutely notice.
“Because we’re finishing the experiment. We have to look each other in the eyes for a certain time. It’s just a thing grown ups do.”
“But why?”
TK furrows his brows in a mock grimace. “Oh, you almost had him.”
“Because…” he scrambles. Everything’s a little too much right now. “Because when you look at someone’s eyes, you can tell what they’re thinking.”
“You can read minds?!”
“No-“ He laughs. So does TK. “No, you can see if they’re telling the truth.”
“You can see that in their eyes?”
He’s pulling again. “Sometimes.”
“Why do you need to?”
“Because sometimes people lie.”
“Why?”
“Jesus, he really is your kid,” TK smirks, still staring at him.
“You don’t lie.”
Carlos tenses. “I- I tell the truth most of the time.”
“Why would you lie?”
Carlos sighs. He gives T.K. an apologetic look and turns to his son. “The truth is… complicated. Sometimes it’s different for everyone. Sometimes it’s scary, or it may hurt, so people lie so they don’t hurt people they care about. Sometimes, lying is easier-- but that doesn’t make it okay. You should always try to do the right thing.” Charlie is nodding but Carlos doesn’t know if he’s actually understanding. “The truth can change over time too. Like… it used to be true that I liked mangoes, but I don’t anymore. It doesn’t make it any less true in either place.” Carlos nods and looks up at TK. He doesn’t fully know who he’s talking to anymore.
“And the truth about who you are-- who you love, how you act, or think-- that changes too. Sometimes that change is good. Other times it’s not but that’s okay.” He looks at Charlie again. “Like, the truth about you is that you ask a lot of questions. But you may not later on. Who knows?”
“Wow,” Charlie says, in his very ‘ I’m six years old and I don’t know what you’re talking about’ way. “The truth is hard.”
Carlos meets TK’s eyes again. “Yeah, it’s complicated, huh?”
TK smiles softly.