Their love story started with a bet.
Date Me, Bryson Keller is a 2020 LGBT young adult novel written by Kevin Van Whye about the budding relationship of two male high schoolers and the obstacles they have to overcome.
Kai Sheridan, a closeted, socially awkward teenager, has no idea what he got himself into.
To clarify, Bryson Keller has this dare: Every week, he must date somebody new, namely the first person who asked him out on Monday morning and continue to do so until Friday afternoon. Very few think this is possible as while he may be the king of Kingvale Academy, Bryson has never seriously dated anyone before.
So when Kai asked him out on a whim, everything changes for the both of them.
In addition to his struggles navigating senior year and at home inside the closet, Kai has these newfound feelings from secretly going out with Bryson. Dating him becomes less of an act and more like the real deal after discovering there's more to Bryson than meets the eye. But Kai knows better.
After all, their "relationship" only lasts five days and the popular, good-looking Bryson Keller is straight... right?!
The book contains the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Shannon who constantly pursues Bryson during the time he's secretly dating Kai. Fat chance in hell as he's not only head over heels for Kai but she was rightly punished after exposing their relationship.
- The Ace: Bryson is the captain of the academy's soccer team, an excellent actor with a keen eye for directing and as Kai discovers, whips up scrumptious diner-styled breakfasts.
- Affectionate Nickname: Kai's father calls him Hayibo who in turn, cheekily calls his parents Sherlock and Watson whenever they're in interrogation mode.
- All Gays Love Theater: Downplayed with Kai. As much as he appreciates the art, he prefers writing scripts since he's an avid writer but a lousy actor. When forcibly outed, Issac used the trope to mockingly suggest Kai should play Juliet for drama class.
- Ambiguously Gay: What's definite of Bryson's love life is he never experienced any attraction towards anyone until Kai. He was okay with casually dating girls for the bet but made it a rule to not have physical contact or personal connections with them which he broke for Kai. Bryson stated himself he might be bisexual after confessing his feelings to Kai, but the latter said it's too early to tell, and always thought "love is love".
- Arch-Enemies: Shannon and Priya have been sworn enemies ever since the former wore a hijab, refuse to apologise for cultural appropriation and played the victim card when she was clearly in the wrong.
- The Beard: Louise Keaton was Kai's ex-girlfriend of two weeks before he couldn't pretend to be straight anymore. As short as The Beard was, it did the job well in convincing Kai's family he was straight but not interested in dating until proven otherwise.
- Becoming the Mask: Bryson was pretend-dating Kai like he usually does with the girls who initiated The Bet until he gained actual romantic feelings for him and ended up dating for real.
- The Bet: A lot of single girls were ecstatic over having the chance to date the most popular and good-looking boy in Kingvale Academy because of this. How the bet works is that Bryson must date the first person who asked him out on Monday and continue to do until the last bell of Friday. There is an extra rule imposed by Bryson of no physical contact, the dates are rarely outside of a school setting and should circumstances make him lose the bet, he'll have to forgo his precious jeep to take the bus. This all changes once Kai comes into the picture.
- Beta Couple: Donny and Priya, their relationship is touched upon a bit in the book like how Donny was in love with Priya since freshman year, even when she was going out with her then-current boyfriend, and both had a brief fallout in one chapter.
- Big Damn Kiss: What really cemented Kai and Bryson as an Official Couple was the tender yet passionate kiss between them after The Graces concert.
- Closet Key: Kai becomes one for Bryson although it's ambiguous whether he's gay, bi or demisexual since he didn't seriously date or felt romantic attraction until him but had only dated girls at that point.
- Coming-Out Story: The major plot of the story. Alas, Kai never managed to do this on his own terms due to others finding out before he could tell them and initially ostracizing him as a result. Bryson is thankfully a more successful example when he came out on social media with permission from Kai and both received showers of overwhelming support.
- Commonality Connection: Kai and Bryson first bonded over their favorite band The Graces and slowly fall in love as they find out many other things they have in common such as being punctual and diner-styled breakfast.
- Cool Car: Bryson's white jeep is noted to be the coolest and second most expensive vehicle in Kingvale after Donny's fire-red Mustang, the Quackmobile. It's so precious to him, he would have had to take the bus if he lost The Bet.
- Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: What others perceived Bryson and Kai as when they were secretly dating.
- Cool Teacher: Miss Henning whose literature lectures are never a dull day when she teaches, wearing snazzy Shakespearian costumes and doing plays instead of textbooks, and defends Kai against Issac's harassment of the former should be playing Juliet by pointing out it's historically proven men played both genders in theatre.
- Disappeared Dad: Bryson's father is not in the picture anymore after abandoning his old family to start a new one.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Donald Duckworth only answers to Donny with no exception. Priya inverts this by only allowing her close friends the nickname treatment whereas everyone else calls her Priyanka.
- Dramatic Irony: Shannon keeps constantly declaring she'll be Bryson's soulmate once it's her turn. Unbeknownst to her, Bryson already fell for Kai and broke off the dare to officially date him so there will never be a next time.
- Adding onto the irony, she also hoped he would break his rule of no physical contact towards his dates for her. Cluing Kai in on Bryson's true feelings when he asked if he could hold his hand the other day.
- Early on, Bryson described his best friend Dustin Smith as a really cool guy who will always be there for him no matter what, especially if he were gay. When that exactly happens, Dustin's first instinct is to threaten Kai to stay far away from Bryson, disregarding any feelings between them, because the friend he knows isn't gay.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Other than the prologue which happened two months before, the entirety of Kai and Bryson's relationship, and the drama that comes with it, takes place over the course of about two weeks.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Kai never had the chance to come out to either his family or the general public on his own terms since his mother found the photo strip of him and Bryson followed up by Shannon posting an article of his homosexuality to the entire school.
- Incompatible Orientation: Kai's previous crush was Isaac who is not only straight and has a girlfriend but also absolutely homophobic later on.
- Intrepid Reporter: Shannon who'll do anything for the hottest and latest scoop and is the lead journalist of the Fairvale Academy Herald. This means being a complete nuisance to everyone especially potential interviewees and ultimately gets her into deep trouble after her latest article about outing Kai violates the school's privacy policy.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Rightfully so for both Dustin and Shannon. The former got severely punished in school and beaten up by his former best friend for leaking the photo of the main couple while the latter who wrote an article outing Kai is implied to be banned from ever writing for the school newspaper in addition to blowing her shot at class valedictorian, her choice of school and Bryson's good graces.
- Lovable Jock: Bryson is the school's star soccer player, a gentleman to his dates and all-time Nice Guy who everyone loves.
- Luminescent Blush: The protagonist couldn't help being so flustered around Bryson and other previous crushes. Bryson even finds this trait endearing and tries to bring it out by playfully teasing him.
- Official Couple: By Friday night of the first week, Bryson and Kai cemented themselves as boyfriends, sealing it with a tender yet passionate kiss.
- Open-Minded Parent: Bryson's sister and mother were very accepting of his relationship and after overcoming the initial shock, Kai's parents came around and become fiercely protective of him, even storming into the school to have a piece of their mind over his forced outing. Needless to say, Kai wasn't harassed about his sexuality after that.
- Queer Romance: Between the leads Kai (who is gay) and Bryson (who is on the LGBT spectrumnote ). The first week covers their developing feelings for one another which leads to them dating for real and the second week covers the unfolding drama when Kai's parents and the school caught wind of their relationship and how they overcome it.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Louise Keaton, is mentioned sparingly in the novel but if it wasn't for her spilling soda on Kai's blazer, he would have never been late for drama class, get paired up with the equally late Bryson and initiated The Bet out of frustration.
- Stepford Smiler: Bryson's home life isn't as perfect as his school life. Sure his mother and big sister are kind and supportive but his real issues come from his father when he caught him cheating with a young co-worker and forced Bryson to keep it a secret for an entire year. Only for his father to admit his unfaithfulness himself, booked it and started a family with said co-worker. He has bottle-up feelings over the whole ordeal and hides his sadness during school.
- Sweet Tooth: Kai's favorite foods are anything sugary and dessert-like.
- Third Wheel: Shannon unknowingly but irritatingly interrupts Bryson and Kai's dates at several points of the book as she wants to become closer to the former. Kai calls her by the trope when she tries stalking Bryson at The Graces concert even though she isn't a fan.
- Token Trio: Kai (mixed-race and homosexual) and his two best friends Donny (wealthy, caucasian) and Priya (female, Indian) form this.
- Trial-Period Dating: Bryson is dared to go out with someone new each week, namely the first person who asked him out on Monday morning and continue to do so until Friday afternoon. Since he never specified the suitor's gender, fellow male student Kai asks him out. After their Big Damn Kiss on Friday, Bryson calls off The Bet and they start going out for real.
- Twofer Token Minority: Kai is a closeted gay teen and of mixed-race (half-Caucasian and half-African). Because of this combination, it plays a part in his insecurity of coming out.
- Two First Names: Bryson and Keller can be used as last names.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Bryson beats up his former best friend Dustin after he exposed his private relationship and puts the heavily-closeted Kai in the face of relentless slandering.
- Unfortunate Names: Donny really hates the fact that his full name is Donald Duckworth and refuses to be called that by anyone except Priya.
- What Were You Thinking?: Even through his anger, Kai feels the need to ask this question of Shannon. She had been waitlisted for Stanford- did she really think that she could make the cut by transparently outing a fellow student through an article that supposedly explained in detail how serious and unfair the concept of "coming out" is? Indeed, Shannon's decision just takes her out of the running for valedictorian.
