JUST SAY SOMETHING

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Orientation

Mike Williams

Where the hell are you? This is not funny.

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Gabriel Mitchell: What’s going on?

Dean Baker: Caleb’s missing, we got ambushed.

Marc Harris: Please tell me you’re kidding.

Gabriel Mitchell: You have got to be joking. Dean, seriously, this isn’t funny.

Mike Williams: Ollie will be here tomorrow. We’ll meet up by then. Everyone has to be here.

CHAPTER 15:

“Are you asleep?” Nicole asked.

“No,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll ever sleep.”

The lights were turned off, which was mandatory. This place was a hellhole and completely bogus. We did not talk for a while. Dinner was sent to our room, which apparently was protocol for new arrivals. I was not allowed to interact with anyone else aside from my roommate without the proper orientation, which was scheduled for my first morning.

“Do you wanna talk?”

“Talk about what?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Anything would be fine.”

“What’s it like here?”

“I can say after a week, it is complete hell. Be strong Caleb.”

“I’ll do my best. I think it’s obvious that your parents didn’t like you coming out.”

“Well,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if they were fine with it.”

“How did you come out to them?” I asked. “You know, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind. It was real civil actually. I sat them down, including my older brother, and we talked. I started out by telling them that this was something I couldn’t hide from them anymore. They waited patiently until I finally told them I was a lesbian.”

“Did they freak out?”

“No, actually, they were really calm. Mom asked if I was sure, but Dad was silent. My older brother left the table. I said I was sure and we left it at that. I thought that everything was okay. Days, even weeks, passed by and they never brought it up. Then, a week ago, I came home from school and these goons from North Hill were waiting for me with my parents and my brother.”

She began to cry. I wanted to move and comfort her, but the darkness around us was constricting. I felt my own tears well up as I thought about how betrayed she was. There was nothing I could say that could help her.

“Once they grabbed hold of me,” she said through her tears. “They started to say what they truly felt about me. Actually, my mom still loves me, but my dad and brother were the ones who told me I was trash. My father is the one that controls the family. He wanted me to be ‘fixed’ and what he says goes. So, here I am.”

Her crying died down and she was down to sniffles. “Well, what about your story?”

“My coming out was somewhat generic. My mom rummaged through my stuff finding a note that indicated that I was gay. They confronted me about it. At first I denied it and they started going on and on with how they hated gay people. I went on and told them that I was gay. I ran to my room and came out on Facebook.”