6 MONTHS & 4 DAYS LATER
BRYCE'S HOUSE…
"Hey, mom! Justin's coming to pick me up! We're going to lunch! Be back later!" Bryce shouts from the front door.
"No need to shout sweetie." His mom appears at the top of the stairs.
"Sorry."
"Just remember to be back before nine."
"I know." She walks down the stairs just before someone knocks on the door.
"Hey man!" Bryce says as Justin appears.
"Hey! Long time!"
"Yeah. We have so much to catch up on. I want to know everything that's been going on."
"Of course." Justin looks at Bryce's mom. "Good to see you again Mrs. Walker."
"Good to see you too. Have fun you guys." She walks off into the other room.
"So what's going on?" Justin looks around at all of the boxes.
"My mom wants to redo the entire house. Make it "our house"."
"Cool. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
They get into Justin's car and start driving.
"So, have you spoken to Clay yet?"
"I texted him. But no response yet."
"Okay…" Bryce notices Justin is acting weird.
"What's going on?"
"Well… I'm guessing you didn't hear about what happened at Hillcrest" Bryce looks confused. "They had a bunch of termite damage at the end of the year. It's going to take at least a year to rebuild. So a lot of their students are coming to Liberty this year."
"Well shit. That's gonna be interesting."
"It already is. A lot of the Hillcrest kids have been coming to Liberty parties."
"That sounds like a nightmare."
"Yeah, and all the sports teams have cleared all the players and doing full tryouts."
"So you have to try out again for football?"
"Yeah. And basketball. Are you gonna try out for some sports this year?"
"I don't know. I'm thinking of maybe trying something new."
"Great."
"What's going on with Clay? You guys hand?" Justin looks straight ahead.
"Oh and there's a new smoothie place in town. It's really good."
"Coooool… what about Clay?" He's getting suspicious.
"Oh and Monty is gay!"
"What?" Bryce is shocked, but not for the same reasons Justin thought.
"Someone walked in on him and this guy at a Hillcrest party. Pictures were sent to everyone."
"Oh…" Bryce understands exactly how that feels.
"His dad threw him out of the house. He's been living at the motel right outside of town."
"Oh shit." Bryce knows he should go and visit him. "Have you spoken to him?"
"Well after everything that happened with you and Clay, we never really hung out again. He was saying and doing some really… bad things. But once he was outed I tried talking to him. I see him in town every once and a while and we say hi. But that's really it."
"Well, things have really changed…" They park at the diner. "What about Clay?"
"Well…"
"If he's with someone just tell me. I can handle it."
"He's not with someone… or at least I don't think so…" Justin turns to Bryce looking very serious. "For the first two months after you left Clay was doing great. I hung out with him, Hannah, Tony, Brad, and even Zach started hanging with us. It was fun. We had movie nights, game nights, and became very close."
"Past tense?"
"It was after this end of the year party Marcus was throwing that things changed. The next day we were supposed to all hangout, but Clay never showed up. Next I know, Clay stops texting or calling back. He even stopped talking to Hannah and Tony. When I did see him he was always with these group of guys and girls from Hillcrest. I only really ever see him at parties. He's… he's been partying a lot."
"Clay…" Bryce is immediately worried.
"I tried talking to him once but he was wasted and tried starting a fight with me."
"I'm sorry Justin, but do you think you could drop me off at Clay's house?"
"I thought you would ask me that. It's fine. I understand." Justin pulls out of the diner.
"Thanks. We should definitely hang tomorrow though. Maybe with everyone else?"
"Actually we were planning on going to this back to school party at Scott Reed's house. I didn't know if you'd want to come to a party after just coming back."
"YOu're probably right. We should all definitely hang another time though."
"Of course! We've actually been talking about it and Zach is excited to hang out with you again."
"That sounds great. Thanks for the ride." They pull up to Clay's house.
"Want me to wait?"
"I'm good. Thanks. Bye." Bryce gets out.
He walks to the door and knocks. Clay's mom answers.
"Bryce!" She smiles and goes straight to hugging him.
"Did I hear you right?" Clay's dad walks into the room. "Bryce!" He goes in for a handshake. "It's good to see you."
"It's really good to see you guys too. I've missed you guys a lot. Is Clay home?" They both look to each other, giving a very worried look.
"No." Clay's dad looks sad.
"He really isn't home much of these days." Now his mom looks sad. "Want to come in?"
"Sure." They let him in and sit at the kitchen table.
"At some point, he just stopped talking to us, and when he did he was yelling and saying some very bad things. He hangs out with these group of kids from another school and usually just spends his time at their houses. He comes home after his curfew and leaves before we wake up."
"Do you know what happened?" Bryce leans onto the table.
"We were hoping you would know. Have you talked to him since you've been back?"
"No. He isn't texting me back."
"Well, we'll definitely tell him you came by."
"Thanks. I should get going." Bryce hugs them goodbye and leaves.
Bryce starts walking. He walks and thinks about everything he's heard. He only thing he knows is that Clay is acting differently and that it happened because of the night at Marcus' party. He walks until he reaches a park and stops to take a seat. He looks at his phone and text Clay again. He can see that it has been read, but no response. So then he calls. Clay doesn't answer. But it also doesn't go to voicemail. Instead, it tells him that he has been blocked by the owner of the phone.
