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Mom smacked his arm. “That’s fine, she can convert.”
“I’m tired. May I be excused?” I asked, falling back on the manners I’d had drilled into me my whole life.
Dad grunted and gave me a stern look. “No more tall tales, do you hear? This is the one time you get off lightly.”
I almost snorted at the wordsget offbecause I’d been too shy to let Ethan anywhere near the parts of me that would’ve made that happen. “Thank you, Dad.”
“There is a special place in hell for liars, Jonas,” he said dourly, shaking his head.
Mom nodded along.
Anger kickstarted my brain and burned off some of the fear that had been strangling me. “You say that about everything.”
Dad huffed and put his arm around Mom, tugging her close to his side. “Well, it’s true. And your friend Chet is about to find out about the consequences of that behavior.”
My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”
Mom patted Dad’s chest and leaned forward. “There’s a camp in Mexico where people like Chet can be sent. It’s a shame you can’t do it here in New York anymore. He agreed to go, thankfully.”
Jesus, they’d found apray away the gaycamp? Yeah, I was sure he’d agreed, but after how many hours of being sermonized at? A fresh wave of anger boiled in my belly. We’d had an entire afternoon of Dad and Mom and his parents looking down on us. The memories of the guilt and shame that had made my stomach ill while Dad had blasted us with Bible verses seemed so much worse after how happy I’d been today with Ethan.
“He did? He just agreed?” I asked. I couldn’t help that I sounded pissed off because for the first time in my life, I was. It was a startling sensation. I’d felt a lot of things in the past, but this was a pure, cleansing rage. They were just going to ship Chet off like trash because he happened to like guys?
“It’s for the best,” Dad said in that placating tone I hated, as if I was a child who was too stupid to understand.
“What will they do to him there?” I asked, stuck somewhere between stunned and infuriated.
“Fix him,” Dad said, just like that—like he wasn’t a monster.
My stomach felt hollow and I rubbed it.
“Oh, enough of this terrible discussion,” Mom said, smiling around at us. She tugged at the collar of her pink robe. “I want good news! What’s her name, honey?”
Dad stared at me, clearly also curious.
Mom leaned forward as if she couldn’t wait.
That anger wouldn’t stop and a horrible sensation slammed my chest while my pulse thudded in my neck and ears. “Ethan,” I said.
Mom nodded, mouth tilting to the right while her brow furrowed. “That’s an unusual name. I didn’t realize people were naming girls that one, but you know, I did meet a girl named Kyle the other day.”
Dad grunted and stared at me as I walked up the stairs. He knew. She would catch up soon. When I reached my room, I went inside and slammed the door. Feeling caged and unsafe, I moved my desk in front of the door and leaned against it while sweat poured down my temples and dripped off my chin. My heart wouldn’t slow down.
Pounding on the door jolted me, and I clenched the edge of the desk, shaking my head. Why did I do that?How could they do that to Chet?Just send him somewhere to be tortured with more of their garbage.
“Open this door!” Dad shouted.
Mom’s muffled voice came next, but I couldn’t understand her.
“Now, Jonas!” Dad bellowed.
To heck with that. I rested my face in my palms and tried to breathe while my body shook, and the door rattled against the desk. I shouldn’t have done that. What the hell was I thinking? I couldn’t take this back, but I hated lying. Chet hadn’t done anything wrong. Not a thing. I bet he wished he’d gone out and slept with a hundred guys now because he was going to be treated the same way whether it was zero or an entire roomful.
Eventually the pounding on the door stopped, and Mom’s soft tone going down the hallway let me know she’d probably convinced Dad to leave it for the night. My body felt like it was falling apart as I got ready for bed, and I made the decision to move the desk and dash out to the bathroom, half expecting to get waylaid on the trip back to my room, but nothing happened.
When I got in my room again, I put the desk back where I’d had it, securing the door, then crawled under my blankets.
My eyes wouldn’t close. I stared at the ceiling until the light was the gray of early dawn and my stomach was aching from hunger, then got out of bed again. All night I’d thought about Ethan and how much fun we’d had and how awful it was that Chet was getting sent away.
