Chapter 5

It wasn’t until they were thirteen and snuck into a movie theater to watch Once Upon a Time in America that Francis realized he had a crush on Robert DeNiro, and that was partially because his best friend Marcus looked a lot like the actor.

It didn’t take Francis long to know that he’d fallen in love with his determined, kind, courageous best friend. The worst thing was, he couldn’t tell Marcus. Not when Marcus went home to his bible-thumping parents. Not when he’d whispered to Francis one night that he thought an older boy in their neighborhood, Jamal, was so cool and handsome. Especially not when Marcus had gotten his heart broken when his dad saw him talking to Jamal one day and forbade him from talking to “any niggers.”

Francis didn’t want to risk his own heart, but he really, really couldn’t risk Marcus’s.