Boys Will Be Boys

Chapter Twenty-Three

Author's Note:

You guys are going to hate me so much for this chapter. And for so many reasons. Please don't hurt me.

xoxo,
Q.

“Bryce and I grew up together. We were friends since his family moved in next door when I was three. My dad went over and offered to help them with the boxes, and our dads ended up becoming really good friends. Bryce’s dad was his whole world, ever since he was a little boy. You know that Bryce is the youngest, the only boy after five girls. His dad adored him. He was the one who taught Bryce how to play basketball in the first place. Bryce idolized him. His parents, and especially his dad, were what Bryce constantly strived to be.

“But when Bryce started getting older, he started realizing things about his parents that he hadn’t noticed as a child, the way we all do. His dad would still smile when Bryce was around, but there was pain, pain that Bryce saw, but said nothing about. It seemed to only be getting worse. Bryce’s dad was getting thinner and older fast, and for a while Bryce thought he had a disease or something and just wasn’t telling him. But Mrs. Phillips was as oblivious to the reality of the situation as Bryce was.

“But then, when Bryce was thirteen, that completely changed. It was sudden, and no one saw it coming. Bryce was the one who found him. It was sick, to be honest, and not something a thirteen-year-old wants to see.”

Chase pauses and looks down. I notice that my breathing has gotten shallow and I’m leaning forward, listening carefully to every word of the story.

“His dad left a set of notes. One to Bryce, one to his mom, and one for each of his siblings. And that was his coming out. He declared he was sorry for everything, that he loved them all, but couldn’t keep living his life as a lie. That he was gay; he’d always been gay and had spent his whole life trying to repress it. He didn’t want to keep living if he wasn’t being honest, so he killed himself. Ever since then, Bryce has hated him. I don’t know; I think his whole mentality about it is screwed up because of what he went through. It’s rough.”

I’m silent.

I don’t know what to say.

I don’t know what to think.

My brain is still trying to process what Chase is telling me.

“His dad…killed himself?” I murmur. “Because he was gay?”

Chase nods.

My mind flashes back to when I got jumped by Bryce and the rest of them the most recent time.
“No, he deserves this.”

Suddenly, I don’t think he was talking about me.

“Um, Luke, don’t you have to drive Gabe home?” Chase says, tentatively.

“Shit!” I exclaim, jumping to my feet. “Right, thanks. And…thanks for…you know, telling me all that.”

“Of course, dude.” Chase says, clapping me on the shoulder. “Thought you deserved to know.”

I shoot him a smile and then grab my backpack and sprint off as fast as I can in the direction of the school parking lot.

Gabe is leaning against my car, slouching his shoulders and doing something on his phone. He looks up briefly, but then snaps his head up when he sees me strolling towards him.

“Well, took you long enough!” he exclaims.

“Busy.” I say, the Bryce thing still running through my mind.