1987 [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 24 - The Truth Is...

An hour had passed since Bradley had left Billy's house. Billy's mom had returned home, and Billy asked Peter to stay the night so they could both get the news together. It also helped sooth Billy's anxiety to have him there. The two of them hadn't really had a chance to talk just the two of them in awhile. They didn't really know what they were. They liked each other—loved each other, but they hadn't had a talk about any labels.

Billy wasn't able to sleep. Even with Peter right next to him. All he could think about was if everything was going okay with Bradley. It was eating at him. He needed to distract himself from it, but he looked over at Peter and his eyes were closed.

"Peter," the boy whispered, slightly nudging the boy.

No response.

"Peter," he tried again, a little louder this time.

He was met with a groan instead of words. He hated being a bother, but couldn't think if anything else to do.

"Do you think everything is going okay? I can't help but worry."

Peter sighed loudly. "I think so. If something bad happened to Bradley, Denise and Sarah would come back and let us know. Stop worrying. You'll only stress yourself out. We'll know soon."

Billy took a deep breath and nodded to himself. "Thanks." Peter always knew exactly what to say to calm Billy's nerves. It almost frightened him at times. There was someone who knew him so well that he was always able to say the exact thing Billy needed to hear in the moment. And he needed it more than ever not knowing what was going on with Bradley.

Bradley had been sitting in the police station for 45 minutes waiting to talk to a detective. They told him there was only one late night detective and he didn't get in until 1 A.M. His nerves were through the roof. His leg was bouncing extremely fast. Bradley had kept going over what he and the girls decided to say in the car to make it sound as real as possible.

This wasn't the first time he'd lied to the cops. He's lied about small things before: like underage drinking and smoking pot, but nothing like this. He felt like he would go in there and slip up or just look guilty and the whole plan would fall apart.

The bell dangling from the entrance chimed, and Bradley quickly turned his head.

"How's it going, Mike?" A tall man with a black coat and navy slacks waltzed in, addressing the man sitting at the front desk.

"Good, McAllister. There's a boy hear who says he's got information on the Richards' case." He pointed directly at Bradley.

This was it. Bradley stood up and gave a shy smile, but tried to look confident. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket, and shook the man's hand.

"You found information about this case so late at night?"

Bradley gave an anxious chuckle. "No, sir. I've actually known about it for sometime, but I was threatened not to say anything."

The detective's face went from a smile to serious instantly. He motioned his fingers for Bradley to follow him. Bradley followed the man to a room with a plaque on it that read "Conference." The man unlocked the door to a long table with chairs around it and he placed his bags in one.

"Please, have a seat."

Bradley anxiously sat down. He was fidgeting with his hands and going over the story one more time. He was terrified that this was going to get him sent to jail, but he knew he needed to do this. Chandler deserved it and so did Brenda.

"So, you said you were threatened into silence about this information?" The man's voice had a hint of sarcasm in it which made Bradley get even more nervous.