Small Acts
The Seat Next to Him

Behind the Gym

August 25, 2026 · Part 5 of 10 · 2 min

Knox wasn't at school the next morning. He showed up just before lunch, late enough that a note from the office trailed him into third period, and when Gus caught sight of him in the hallway, something in his chest went tight.

Knox looked like he hadn't slept. Not tired the way a person looks after a long weekend — hollowed out, like something had been carved off him overnight.

He didn't come to the cafeteria. Gus checked, twice, scanning the room the way he used to scan it for danger and now scanned it for one specific face.

He found him instead behind the gym, in the strip of gravel between the dumpsters and the fence where the smokers usually hid during PE. Knox was sitting on an overturned bucket with his elbows on his knees, and for a second Gus almost turned around and pretended he hadn't seen anything.

Except Knox Merrow — the kid whose name got said like a storm warning, who'd shut Perry Voss down with a single flat word — had his face in his hands, and his shoulders were moving in a way that had nothing to do with breathing normally.

Gus had never in his life walked toward trouble on purpose. Every instinct in his body said turn around. He walked over anyway.

"Kn-Knox?"

Knox's head came up fast, and for half a second his face did something raw and unguarded before it slammed back into place. He wiped his face with the back of his wrist, hard, like he was angry at it for betraying him.

"I'm fine." The words came out rough, unconvincing even to Gus, who barely trusted his own voice most days.

"You d-don't look—"

"I said I'm fine." Sharper this time.

Gus didn't leave. He sat down on the gravel instead, not next to him exactly, just near enough that leaving would take an actual decision.

The silence stretched. Somewhere behind them a whistle blew for PE.

Then, quiet, like the words had slipped out sideways instead of being chosen:

"My brother stutters too."

Knox's whole body went still the second it left his mouth, like he'd heard himself say it a full second after Gus did, and understood exactly how much he'd just given away.

Continue the story Part 6: What Their Stepfather Did →

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