Page 8 of A Series of Rooms
“It is,” he said. “Or, it was. I guess it’s technically a new day now.”
“Sorry you didn’t have a good time.”
Liam shrugged. “It can only be uphill from soggy-and-naked-in-a-bar-bathroom, right?”
Leo huffed a quiet laugh of agreement. “That place is a shit hole,” he said.
“Do you go there often?”
Leo shifted, the bed springs creaking under his weight. “Often enough,” he said eventually.
“My friends chose it because it was a gay bar and they wanted to be supportive of mylifestyle,” Liam emphasized with air quotes. “But I’m pretty sure Nate was making out with some girl from a bachelorette party most of the night.”
“Your friends,” Leo said, pausing to consider his words. “They seem... different from you.”
“I’m sorry for whatever they said to you. They can be assholes.”
Leo shot him a sideways glance. “You don’t like them?”
“No,” Liam said, then quickly backtracked. “I mean, yes. It’s not that I don’t like them. It’s complicated.” Liam drew hislegs up in a mirror of Leo’s position. “Our parents have been friends since we were kids. We were sort of grandfathered into it, but it became apparent early on that we didn’t have much in common.”
“But you keep them around?”
“I think most people would see it the other way around.” Liam laughed, a bitter sound. “For me, they were a survival tactic. Not that it’s much of an excuse now, but being in their orbit got me through school mostly unscathed.” Liam returned Leo’s questioning glance with a knowing look. “I’ve never been very good at making friends. Being the weird religious kid would have been bad enough without the glass closet I was standing in.”
“Religious?” Leo asked.
“Past tense,” Liam said. “But I grew up that way. It kind of sticks with you, though. No matter how far you run.”
Leo rested his head on top of his knees, his face turned toward Liam. He blinked slowly, exhaustion lining his features. “Yeah. It does.”
“You too?” Liam asked.
“Past tense,” he echoed. “Pentecostal. Strict. Fire-and-brimstone.”
Liam wanted to press for more, but something in the way he spoke, the careful avoidance and carefully chosen words, told him to ease up. “Pop quiz,” he said instead. “Heathen to heathen—what was the first gruesome bible story to traumatize you as a child?”
Leo gave a small snort. He thought about it for a second, then a twitch pulled at his mouth. “Jonah and the whale,” he said. “For obvious reasons.”
Liam tilted his head. “Obvious reasons?”
In an instant, the soft smile was wiped from Leo’s expression. “What’s yours?” he asked a little too quickly.
“Sodom and Gomorrah.” Liam said. “Also, you know, for obvious reasons.”
Leo laughed. The sound, low and rough and sudden, seemed to surprise even him. “It’s hard to believe you’re bad at making friends,” Leo said.
“That’s because you don’t know me,” Liam said, horrified to hear that his tone hadn’t come out as lightly as intended.
If Leo heard how close he was to cracking, he gave no indication. He only shrugged, eyelids finally losing their battle against sleep.
The drone of the television was the only sound in the room after Leo drifted off. Liam assumed he wouldn’t be far behind, given the long night in the rearview, but he was wrong. Minutes strung together into a full hour, his eyes glazed over as infomercials flickered across the screen. His thoughts centered solely on the stranger in the next bed over.
Not so much a stranger anymore.
The conversation about their upbringings had Liam wondering what Leo’s childhood might have looked like compared to his own. Perhaps not that different at all,though somewhere along the line their paths had diverged in a significant way. He didn’t know Leo’s story. He didn’t know his past, or even have a good grasp of his present, but the details he had gleaned so far did not add up to something good. It had only taken a couple of minutes with Leo to feel the fear that pulsed beneath every action and word. He was terrified of something or someone, and Liam didn’t know what role he was supposed to play in holding that information. Or if he was to play any role at all.
It was closing in on 3 a.m. when Liam finally grabbed the remote from the nightstand and turned off the television. Just as he was about to click off the lamp, though, a small noise from the other bed drew his attention.
