Read Milo's Story: Stories from The Gateway: Companion tales to The Gateway Trilogy for Free Online

instead of making me look like the other guys, I think it just made me stand out even more by contrast.”
    “That’s awful,” Hannah said.
    “It’s no legion of ghost stalkers, but it sucks, no lie,” I said, trying to keep it light. “That’s not the worst of it, though. I was so desperate to get out of the last place he sent me that I wrote home and told him I had found a girlfriend, and that I couldn’t wait to introduce her to them when I got home.”
    “You… invented a girlfriend?” Hannah asked, making an obvious effort to keep the judgment out of her voice.
    “Worse than that,” I said. “I actually asked some poor girl out. Her name was Haley, and she was so desperate for male attention that she would have thrown herself at a serial killer on death row if he’d so much as winked at her. I knew how vulnerable she was, knew I would damage her somehow, but I asked her out anyway. It’s probably the shittiest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life.”
    “But he gave you no choice,” Hannah said, and placed her tiny hand on my arm. It was cold and stiff, like it was made of porcelain. It only added to the aura of fragility.
    “I don’t know if that’s true, but it felt true,” I allowed. I didn’t shy away from her hand. There was something comforting about it. I focused on its cool pressure while I finished my story. “Haley must have known on some level that I was using her, but she ignored it, just like I did. Haley was released a couple of weeks after me, and we put on this hideous performance of a relationship for like, six months. I brought her over for dinner, held her hand, kissed her good night, used couple-y nicknames that make you want to vomit, all of it. But everyone kept demanding more of me; she wanted more, my dad wanted more, and soon I couldn’t pretend any longer. It all cracked and fell to pieces under the pressure and the scrutiny. Haley wound up on suicide watch, and I, after a series of unfortunate life choices I won’t get into, wound up here.”
    Hannah pressed her little hand into mine, and I took it as easily as if it had been Phoebe’s. We sat for a few minutes in the silence, not looking at each other.
    “Wow, you’re a real downer, huh?” she said at last, her face utterly serious.
    I burst out laughing. “Yeah, sorry, that was a real ray of fucking sunshine. I should save that kind of thing for group sessions. I bet I’d get a therapy gold star.”
    “Thank you for telling me. I think it’s good for me to remember that other people have to pretend, too.”
    “See?” I clapped her on the back. “Doesn’t it make you feel better to know that you’re just one of the freaks?”
    “I fit right in,” she said, smiling. “What a relief!”
    “Just another one of the unloveables. Congratulations.”
    “You know,” she said, her expression brightening, “that would be a great name for a band.”
    I considered this. “You’re right, sweetness, it certainly would. A really hipster one that only did covers of underground girl grunge bands from the ‘90’s. We could write some incredibly deep lyrics, what with all our teen angst. Do you play any instruments?”
    “Nope, not even a little. You?”
    “Not since my mandatory piano lessons during elementary school. I’ve completely blocked all memory of the wretched thing. So I guess we’re shit out of luck.”
    “I guess so.”
    “So in the meantime, what do we do about this stud?” I asked, tapping a finger on the scowling face of Jeffrey Stone.
    Hannah sighed. “I don’t know. He’s been in that room since he died, and he’s really adamant about staying. I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince him to leave, even if I do get the chance to go back in there.”
    “Maybe I can just request another room?”
    “I don’t think the staff are going to be very accommodating of your requests, now that you’ve been identified as ‘behavioral.’ Unless…” her voice trailed away and her eyes