What is Miguel hiding in "We Were Here" by Matt De La Pena

        In the book "We Were Here" by Matt De La Pena, the main character Miguel is being brought to a home for troubled boys because he committed a crime that we don't know. And eventually Miguel escapes this group home with two friends, Mong and Rondell. And he goes on this big adventure to try and survive on his own without his family and without getting caught by the police. And throughout this entire adventure, we only get hints at what the crime he did was. And as Miguel is writing in a journal while he is on this journey, he still doesn't say exactly what he did, we just hear stories about his life before he committed the crimes like stories about his Mom or his brother Diego. But based on things that I've found in the book led me to a possible conclusion of what Miguel did. I think that Miguel killed his brother Diego.

        One reason that I think that the crime that Miguel committed was murder is because in one of the hints that he gave was when he relived the crime he committed in flashes. And when he did this he described himself getting beat up and falling to the floor with blood dripping down his head and with a knife i his hand. This suggests that he may have used this knife to defend himself against an attacker.  And as he explained in one of his descriptions of his brother, " Me and my brother Diego don't ever stop fighting. We beat the s*** out of eachother at every chance we get". I think that it is highly possible that this was one of these fights that escalated to Miguel having to defending himself with a knife and in turn he killed his brother.

         Another reason that I think that Miguel killed his brother Diego is because whenever he calls his house phone, his brother never answers the phone when Miguel specifically said, " Me and Diegeo would always race me and my mother to the phone to answer it because he said he sounded more 'professional' than the both of us together" If this is true then, why was it always Miguel's mother that answered the phone when Miguel called?

        Another reason that I think that Miguel killed his brother Diego is because of the way that everyone acts towards Miguel, including Miguel himself. When Miguel's mother dropped off Miguel off at the Juvie, she wouldn't even look at him. One can infer from this that she still cares about him enough to drive him there, so he may have been defending himself, but she also wouldn't talk to him so she obviously is struggling to decide whether to hate or forgive Miguel. Also Miguel always says that what he did was so bad that he can't even forgive himself.

       Overall I think that all of this evidence makes it a great possibility that my theory is correct, but I will never really know until Miguel opens up and says exactly what he did himself.