She waves me off. “Call me Barbie, everybody does. Mrs. Jamison is my mother-in-law. Call me Barbie, but not Barb. That just sounds like an old lady name too, and I hate it.” Barbie rubs her hands down her sides. She looks like a retired model. Barbie looks at Bryce with a concerning look. “And you! You never told me she was so hot.”
“Mom!” Bryce says embarrassed.
“Well, come on, Bryce-y, she is. Are you staying tonight in Bryce’s room, or would you rather the guestroom?” She winks at me.
“Mom!” Bryce says again. “We are seriously just friends. Can you stop now?”
Barbie nods her head. “Of course, right.”
A muscled bald man walks into the foyer with a thin frown. “My son gets confused sometimes.” He looks at me. “Of course, you two can’t sleep in the same room together, and the door needs to be open at all times.”
Bryce laughs. “Dad, nothing is going to happen, you know that.”
His father shakes his head. “What’s wrong with you?”
Bryce sighs. “Nothing. Elle, why don’t you just go upstairs to my room? It’s the third room on the right.”
I nod my head and quietly make my escape from his parents. As I go up the stairs, I can hear them arguing in the background.
“Dad, we talked already. You know I’m not into—”
“Shut up, boy!” his father yells. I can hear his mom crying. “In the Marines, do you know what we did to pussies? My son is no pussy. You’re just confused.”
“Why can’t you just have sex with your friend?” his mother blurts out. I quicken my pace up what feels like the longest flight of stairs I’ve ever been on. I open Bryce’s bedroom door, practically run in, and close it behind me.
This is starting to feel like a bad idea. Chase offered to stay the night at my place, and even said I could stay at his home in their guestroom, but I declined. The last time I feared for my life was at Chase’s home. God knows I couldn’t stay at Danna’s house. The whole time she would talk my ear off about how the note was from the Beasts, and what she thinks they are up to.
I’m just scared shitless and don’t need any more reasons to be anxious. Bryce’s seemed like the best option.
Bryce comes into his room and quietly shuts the door. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
“You’re doing me the favour. I need to thank you. I couldn’t sleep at my house tonight.”
Bryce nods his head. “The last girl I brought home was Danna. You should have seen how happy they were when I did. Soon after, we broke up and I came out. They still are in disbelief. Only male son of the most heterosexual parents.”
“Yeah, you can tell they feel like you still might go play ball for the other team.”
Bryce laughs. “My dad actually just asked me, ‘Do you want me to show you how to use that thing?’ I feel sick to my stomach.”
“I’m disgusted and appalled for you all at once.”
“Another year of this shit, and I’m out of here. I’m not sure I can come back to this. I may even be able to get a scholarship to Juilliard. Fingers crossed.”
I look at Bryce with a thin smile. “We could lie to them. I could be your fake girlfriend if it gets them off your back. It’s just a year, right?”
Bryce shakes his head. “I could get away with something like that with my mom. My dad, on the other hand. I swear, he’s like a walking lie detector test. He’s ex-military intelligence. I’m too nervous to try to lie to him. What a guy. As if there’s no gays in the military.”
“Well, offer still stands. If things get worse—”
Bryce sighs. “I was doing some cleaning, and snooping, I guess. I saw on my dad’s nightstand in his room a pamphlet for conversion therapy. I think they might try and talk me into it. But I’m eighteen, so fuck them.”
“That’s tough, Bryce. You can make it, though. If I can make it out of Ryland with my scholarship, so can you.”
Bryce smiles. “We should make a pact with each other.” I laugh. “What’s so funny? I mean it.”
“Not you, I swear. It’s just back in the city, I made the same pact with my close friend there. We made a pact to get out of the city together too.”
“Well, at least one of you did.”
I nod my head. I tell him about Candice’s story. He seems completely entrenched into every word I say.
“Wow. You know some interesting people,” he says. “Maybe you should invite her over to my house for our next sleep over. Have her wear one of her skimpy dresses. My dad will have a heart attack over me having two girls in my room. Is she going to visit you here in Ryland?”
“We talk about it,” I say. “Where’s Danna tonight?”
Bryce smirks at me. “Something told me you may not want her here tonight, so I didn’t tell her about our little sleep over. Danna is my girl and all, but she isn’t very sensitive about people being scared shitless. It’s almost as if she is formulating how she could write the story on it. You know, she mentioned that clock tower to me like three times the other day. She’s obsessed with it. I’m not blind. I remember. I saw what happened at the clock tower that night we visited the school after hours. I wanted none of it.” Bryce wipes some sweat off his forehead and changes the subject. “You’re still coming to my gala, right?” I nod my head. “Remind me to give you your ticket at some point. I have yours and Danna’s.”
My phone rings, and I quickly pick it up. “Hello?”
“It’s Cain, Arthur Cain. Is this Noelle?”
I almost feel stupid for the way I answered my phone. “Hey, yes, it is, sorry.”
“Thomas has filled me in on what happened today. I
