Chapter 18
Chapter eighteen
December, South Carolina
Bryce stared out his bedroom window. He had his kindle in his lap and a blanket over his shoulders.
It was a cool fifty-eight out, but nowhere near cold enough to snow.
Maybe it would be better if it did snow, or if he could go somewhere that snowed.
As it was, his view of his back yard was brown grass, dried up and brittle with a few piles of leaves that he should probably help his dad rake up, but he didn’t feel like it.
He didn’t feel like doing much. He couldn’t even concentrate on his book and it was one of his favorite yaoi novels, Maiden Rose.
The sexy soldiers in the story usually held his attention, but not today, not this close to Christmas.
The only thing holding his attention was wondering what Tate would be doing for the holidays.
He probably would have a fabulous celebration with a fabulous family and a fabulous boyfriend.
Later they’d ride together on some dirt track and then make out in front of a fire on some bear-fucking-skin rug.
And he could have had Tate and he’d just tossed it away like a baby, like a brat.
“Bryce!” his mother called. “Come help me.”
He tossed his kindle on the bed and dropped the blanket on the floor. He grabbed his hoodie with the tiger ears, pulling it over his head as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Here. Peel.” She handed him the vegetable peeler and a potato. He started sheering the skins into the garbage can. “Why are you so mopey today?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he huffed. Again like a brat, but he didn’t want to discuss it with her. She already had her nose too much in his life.
“Okay. So, are you planning on going back out to the bike camp or somewhere else to practice before the season starts?”
“Not the camp. I don’t know for sure. I have to call George.”
For a few minutes, the only sound in the kitchen was the click-click of the peeler and his mother clanging through pots and pans. “Why not the camp?”
Why did she have to push? He just shrugged a little and made a non-committed grunt.
“Seriously. I thought it went well there.”
“It went fine.”
“So? You can go back.”
“I’m not going to that camp. Geez, Mom!” He tossed the peeler on the counter and stormed off. Why the hell did she always want to be in his business?
He slammed into his room and dropped onto the bed. Great—another temper tantrum. He was just a baby...a kid. Tate would never want him back.
He opened his laptop and clicked open his email. He hoped to find some team news to get his mind off of the bullshit his life had become.
Then he saw an email that he wasn’t expecting. He opened it. It was Warren Tanner.
I know where you are. I know what you want. I told everyone about you and that dick Tate. Next time, you should get on your knees when I ask you to...or maybe next time I’ll shove you down and take what I want. You’ll love it too, bitch.
He deleted the email without a second thought.
That Tanner had been a bully at the camp and was only one of the reasons he didn’t want to go back.
He had threatened Bryce, but Bryce wasn’t about to give in to him.
Bullies backed down when you stood up to them.
Wasn’t that the going theory? Maybe Tanner backed down, maybe not.
It sounded like he made good on his threat and spread his dirty lies all over the camp.
Bryce wouldn’t be able to show his face there again.
He didn’t want his mom to know about any of it. “I’m not a kid,” he said out loud. He had to handle it himself like an adult, but he didn’t really know what to do about it. He pulled his hood up over his head and shut his laptop.