Fear Games

2. Bitch, Please

"Oh, just getting adjusted to the sophomore life," Cinder said quickly. "What are you two doing here?"

"Well, Arya wanted to come and join the club as an ally," Kael said, stepping further into the room with his girlfriend latched to his hip. "I figured it was a good idea, especially since you're here, Cin."

"The more the merrier," I said with a smile. "Welcome."

"My dads are gay," Arya said, "so I thought it would be nice to join the club. Do you have a lot of straight people in the club?"

"We did last year," I said. "Not sure how many people are going to come to this first meeting, but it's nice having you both here. Truly. Can I just get you both to sign in on this sign-in sheet?" I reached into my bag and pulled out a clipboard with the form on it and placed it on the empty teacher's desk.

Shortly after that, a wave of students came pouring into the room. After about ten minutes, the entire room was full of people, from freshman to senior, gay to straight, trans to cis, and white to black. Cinder came and stood by me and smiled.

"Look what you did, Em," Cinder said.

"Yeah," I said, smiling back. Calix would have been proud.

CINDER

After our LGBTQIA Club meeting, my mother took Kael and me to Echo's school to pick her up, then we headed home. The ride was mostly silent. Mom still seemed anxious about the message left on her car, but she tried her best not to show it.

When we pulled up to the house, we noticed that Rachel's car was parked on the side of the road and she was leaning against her vehicle, most likely waiting for my mother.

"Shit," Mom said. "Why the hell is she here?"

"Maybe because she's your best friend?" I said. I knew better than to be smart with my mom, but I didn't think she'd take too much offense.

She parked the car in the driveway and said, "Kids, go inside the house. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Can I use the car to go over to Emerald's?" I asked.

"She can't come here?" Mom replied with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"She wants me to help her with homework," I lied. Not like I was going to explain to Mom where I was really going. "She can't come here because she's preserving her gas for school."

Mom frowned. "They live like ten minutes away. Besides, she couldn't get a ride with her Mom who's parked on the side of our house if she was that desperate?"

"Mom, please," I said. "Why so many questions? It's like you don't want me going out or something. Is this about the message you got on the car?"

Mom sighed. "No, honey, it's okay. I'm just being overprotective is all. Lately I've been thinking about...the stuff that happened to your aunt Rachel and me as kids and I'm putting that stress onto you. Here." She took the keys out of the ignition and handed them to me. "Don't be out too late, okay?"

"Thanks Mom," I said with a smile. "I won't be. See you later."

We both climbed out of the car and I made my way over to the driver's side and got inside. As I waved goodbye to Mom and Rachel, I pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road toward our spot. He would probably already be there.

It only took me about fifteen minutes to arrive. I drove along the dirt road that led all the way into hilly desert. I found Colton's Jeep already parked and pulled up next to it.

He rolled down his window and I rolled down my passenger side window and saw him grinning at me. "You're finally here."

"Sorry, it's not like I took that long," I said. "I'm coming out." I rolled my window back up and got out of the car, making my way over to his. I got into the passenger side and closed the door hard.