Chapter 8 Bryce's Room

• Erica's POV
• "Are you going to stand out there all day or are you going to come in here and clean my room?" Bryce's eyes are full of amusement as he opens his door making room for me to come inside.
• I look around the room and it looks just like it did ten years ago. Clothes are all over the floor, dirty dishes are piled up on every surface, and there is a thick layer of dust that covers everything. The stench of a teenage boy hangs heavily in the room and I wrinkle my nose in disgust.
• "When was the last time your room was cleaned?" I murmur underneath my breath.
• "Mother tried to teach us a lesson a few years back and made us responsible for cleaning our own rooms," Bryce tells me. "But it didn't work."
• I don't have to turn around to know that Bryce is standing directly behind me. I can feel the heat radiating off his bare chest. Trying to ignore his presence I sit my bucket down and begin to get to work. Bryce follows me closely around the room as I pick up all of his dirty clothes off of the floor. My face flushes with embarrassment as I pick up a pair of Batman boxer briefs.
• "They look even better on me," Bryce laughs as he flops down on one of the chairs in the corner of his room.
• "I will take your word on it," I groan as I continue to clean up clothes.
• My arms are piled up with his dirty laundry as I search through the room for his laundry hamper. I try to hold my breath trying not to breathe in the heady scent of his clothes. Finally, I find his empty laundry basket in his bathroom. I dump the clothes into the basket and return to the bedroom to see Bryce laying out on his bed.
• His head is resting on one of his arms and his legs are spread open wide. I stand there in shock as I look at the Adonis that is laying on the bed in front of me. Impure thoughts run through my head and I have to shake my head to brush them from my mind.
• "Would you like to join me, Little Fox?" Bryce says as he rubs the bed beside him.
• "Keep dreaming," I say angrily. "Don't you have anything better to do than to watch me clean your room?"
• "Nope," Bryce replies playfully. "There is no place that I would rather be than right here."
• I roll my eyes in Bryce's direction and continue to clean up his room. Placing all of the dirty dishes in a pile, I gag at the amount of mold and stale food that is left on them. If it were up to me then I would toss them all. In fact, I feel it would be best to just set fire to the whole room and burn to the ground.
• After several trips to and from the kitchen with the dirty dishes, after several sexual innuendos from Bryce, and what feels like hours later the room finally looks somewhat presentable. The last thing that I need to do is change the sheets on the bed.
• "Where do you keep your extra sheets?" I ask Bryce who is still laying seductively on the bed.
• A flicker of amusement glimmers in Bryce's eyes. "In the bottom of the wardrobe."
• Of course they would be in the bottom of the wardrobe, the one piece of furniture that I have been avoiding since I walked in this room. Bryce hops off the bed and rushes over the wardrobe and flicks the lock, opening the door. I swallow my fear and walk over to the massive wardrobe and move some of the clothes out of the way and look in the bottom of the wardrobe and it is empty. There is nothing there.
• Oh, no. It is a trap. I begin to sweat and panic rises in my chest. I try to take a step away from the wardrobe but I bump into something hard behind me. Glancing over my shoulder I see Bryce standing there with a grin on his face.
• "Remember the last time you were in my room?" Bryce says as he wraps his arms around my shoulders. "You promised that you would never come in here again."
• "You can't be serious," I shout at him. "I was ten. I had no choice but to be in this room."
• Bryce chuckles beside my ear as he lifts me up. I begin kicking my legs back and forth as he tries to stuff me in the wardrobe. "You still broke a promise," Bryce says and he traps my legs with one of his arms and stuffs me in the wardrobe. "Now I get to keep you here forever."
• My body slams against the back of the wardrobe and the door slams shut behind me. The sound of the lock clicking echoes in my ears and panic rushes through my body.
• "Bryce," I try to keep my voice calm. "Please, let me out. I don't like small spaces."
• I can hear Bryce's laughter on the other side of the door. "You better get used to it, Little Fox."
• Then I hear the sound of Bryce's footsteps leaving the room and his bedroom door slamming shut behind him. I try to practice my breathing. "In... one... two... three... Out... one... two... three..." But the longer that I am in that wardrobe the smaller the space feels like it is becoming.
• Screaming at the top of my lungs I yell loudly. I bang my fists up against the hardwood. "Please! Someone let me out of here! Help! Someone, please."
• My back scoots down the back of the wardrobe and I curl myself into a small ball trying to make myself fit in the space as it continues to get smaller. Tears stream down my face as I try to think of a way out of the wardrobe. Surely someone will realize that I am missing and come looking for me.
• Suddenly I hear the lock on the wardrobe click and I burst through the door and fall flat on my face.