Chapter Text
Alex's POV
"How was the meeting with Youth Pastor Jason?" Mom asks me. I refrain from rolling my eyes to the ceiling and giving her what she'll call "an attitude."
"Fine." I lie.
I hate that man. I hate him with a burning passion. My parents don't get it. They never will. I hated him before Mom started making me go to meetings to "save me from my gay sin"
I hate him because of what he did to my sister Ester when she was only twelve. No one believes her, other than me. My parents think she lied and made it all up, but I've seen the way he is even around everyone else, how he's always so touchy with the younger boys and girls. How uncomfortable Ester always was around him.
Jason was a monster. And when Ester told me about what he had done three years after it happened, I had no reason to believe she was lying because that guy always gave me the creep. But of course, everyone else did think she was lying. The fact she came forward with it three years later didn't help. They saw Jason as a saint and my sister as a "lying and deceitful sinner sent by the devil"
My parents and everyone at church tried to get her to "confess she was lying" but she wouldn't. She's always been headstrong, and really stood her ground. What Jason did to her didn't break her, or maybe it did and she was just good at hiding it. She didn't back down. Maybe if she did, she'd still be here and not at that awful camp my parents sent her to.
They won't even let me write to her. Its been almost two years, Ester would be seventeen now. I don't even know if she's okay. It's not fair, what Jason did to her was not okay and she's the one suffering for it. Jason should be behind bars.
"That's good to hear. How's your progress?" My mom asks.
"I don't know." I shrug.
Am I really broken? Do I really need fixing all because I don't like girls that way? Luke and Reggie keep telling me it's okay, and there's nothing wrong with it, but what if that's not true. What if I really am broken?
"I guess that means no." My mom sighs. "Because if you were actually making any progress you would know. I'm going to up your sessions."
"Please no." I groan.
"Alexander, don't take that tone with me." She says.
"You know how I feel about these sessions. Can't we drop them?"
"You're not fixed yet." My mom says. "I'm only doing this because I love you."
"Yeah did you send Ester to that death camp because you love her too?" I say. I did my research on that place, and if Mom did any research on that place she wouldn't send her child there if she really loved her.
"Seriously!? This again?"
"Why won't you let me write to her?" I ask.
"It's the rules. She can't have contact to the outside."
"I researched the place mom, it's horrible!"
"It's going to help her!" My mom snaps. "We could easily send you there to, but the youth pastor suggested we do these sessions instead. But if they aren't working I can send you to that camp."
If I'd be going to the same one Ester is at, I'd let them send me so maybe me and Ester can escape together. But from my research, escaping is way too dangerous and the boys camp is miles away from the girls camp.
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry." I say. "I have band now, so can I go?"
"I thought you weren't gonna be friends with those boys anymore." My mom says. For whatever reason she thinks Luke, Reggie, and Bobby are a bad influence on me and doesn't want me to be friends with them.
"Uh, it's a different band." I straight up lie to her. "Don't worry, anyways I gotta go." I say and leave the house to make my way to the studio.
"Hey Alex." Bobby says as we cross paths. "Ready for this summer?"
"I guess." I shrug.
"You guess? Dude we're playing the Orpheum!" Bobby says.
"Yeah but that's not till late July. It's only the end of May. So much can go wrong from now until we play the Orpheum. So much."
One of could get sick or injured and be unable to perform, what if one of us move away, what if we get kidnapped before the show, we could all die! Literally anything and everything could and will go wrong.
"Relax, will you." Bobby says. "This summer is gonna be great, and we are gonna be amazing. They are gonna make a new theater and name it after us."
"I doubt that." I say. "Let's just focus on rehearsing and getting everything down perfectly before anything else."
"Yes sir." Bobby says and I roll my eyes at him.
We walk into the studio and Luke's already there, tuning his guitar.
"What's up Lukas?" Bobby says.
"Call me that again and my fist will be in your face." Luke says.
"That's a little violent don't you think?" Bobby says. "Someone's in a bad mood today."
"Sorry, my mom was giving me crap about the band again. I don't get what her problem is, it's my life!" Luke says. "And she's all worried that I'm just throwing it away. Why can't she believe in the band? We literally have the gig of a life time at the Orpheum and it's like she can't even accept that."
"I'm sorry man." I say. Having parents meddle in your life is never fun.
"It's fine. I just wanna get to rehearsing." Luke says. "Is Reggie on his way?"
"I don't know, probably." I shrug.
Suddenly Brooke runs into the studio, Reggie following her.
"Hi!!!" Brooke runs over.
"Hey, you gonna watch us rehearse?" Luke says.
"I hope it's okay I brought her." Reggie says. "I would have asked first but-"
"Don't worry man, of course it's okay. We love it when you bring her." Luke says. "How's it going little one?"
"What song are you guys playing!?" She asks excitedly. "Reggie says you're working on a secret new song."
"Yep! It's called Now or Never. You go sit on the couch and we'll play through it for you."
She runs over to the couch and plops down and we get our equipment set up so we can play. I can't help but notice a suspicious mark on the side of Reggie's face. Almost like a bruise. I've been noticing a lot of random bruises appear on his face and arms lately, and whenever I ask he always says either he doesn't know how it got there or he ran into a door or something.
"Reg, you okay? What happened to your face there?" I point.
"Oh, I don't know." He shrugs. "Maybe slept with my hand under my face or something."
He's probably telling the truth, but I can't help but worry. I worry about everything. What if it's something else? What else would it even be. I'm just worrying for nothing again. He's fine. It's Reggie, he's an open book. If something's wrong he'll speak up. Wouldn't he?
"Let's get playing!" Luke says. We take our spots and I count us off from the beginning.