B+A

Aizlynn Sunday

I ask, "Is this your uncle's house?"

"Yeah. He's got a mansion, too," Brice replies.

"I don't have a mansion."

"Small mansion."

"Big house."

"Fine, then. I agree..." He steps out of his truck. "...that it's a mansion."

"Sure, Brice. Have fun agreeing with yourself."

He flashes me a smile and jogs inside the house. I go in after him.

"Wow, this is... huge. To say the least..."

He says, "C'mon. I'll show you upstairs, then you can explore. Just don't go in the basement. There's clowns. I'm just kidding. But Will is still working on the house, and he's got a bunch of tools down there, and there's no light. So we probably don't wanna go down there. Plus, I don't trust basements."

"Great." He picks up some of my stuff for me, and I ask, "Where are we sleeping?"

"Right. Upstairs." He leads me to the staircase, and there's literally, no joke, an elevator. He then sees me eyeing it, and sighs. "Okay, c'mon."

And let me tell you. There is no elevator music like that.

Once we reach the third floor, Brice shows me around. "And this here is the last room."

"How many rooms are on this floor? Geez."

"Oh, yeah, thanks. You reminded me."

We both already agreed that we didn't want to sleep in his uncle's room, because, well, he has kids. We also discussed sharing a room. To be honest, it's because we both don't wanna sleep alone.

He continues, "There's one more." He pulls me by my wrist to a closet at the end of the hall and opens the door.

"This is a closet..?"

"Yeah. Except look."

I'm momentarily confused, until he opens a smaller door in the wall.

"Oh?" is my answer.

"Yeah..." Brice looks so proud to have shown me this secret entrance I'll never be able to fit my butt through. He's got the biggest "Brice grin" ever.

"Okay. Um, that's nice."

His smile fades. "Yup." A couple seconds later, he's still staring at me. "Well, this is awkward."