by Mia Archer
A buzzing brought me from the dark silence around the pool back to reality. I looked at Chloe.
“Are you buzzing?”
“Yup!” she said. “Not a chance I’m leaving my phone where I can’t get at it.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to bring your phone into a sauna like that,” I said. “That can’t be good for the electronics.”
Chloe waved a hand to show me what she thought of that. “It’s working, isn’t it? Besides, the thing is waterproof too so it’s not like I have to worry about it getting wet.”
I pursed my lips but kept my thoughts to myself. If she wanted to play fast and loose with her phone that was her business. I know I’d never taken a phone into the sauna, and that’s even going all the way back to when I was in elementary school and my parents wouldn’t let me have a smart phone.
Chloe pulled her phone out of the band of her suit and I shook my head. I probably should’ve noticed that, but I’d been so preoccupied with how the rest of her looked that I hadn’t been paying attention.
She looked at the screen and frowned. Then looked up at me. I was immediately on guard.
Everything had been going so well for us. Well, mostly it had been going well for us. Admittedly Pastor Dave chewing her out hadn’t been all that great, but it had worked out in the end.
“What’s up?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“It’s a text from my mom,” she said.
My heart sank even more. Her mom had changed her mind. She was going to come out here and get Chloe. Our night of fun was over and it wasn’t even all that late yet. It’s not like we’d reached midnight, but it was later than the last time she got picked up.
Oh well. Those were the breaks, I suppose.
“When is she picking you up?” I asked.
Chloe arched an eyebrow. “Why would she be picking me up?”
“Why else would she be texting you this late?” I asked.
“My mom isn’t coming to pick me up,” she said.
“So she expects me to leave the party to drop you off?”
“No, not exactly,” Chloe said. “Actually she texted me to see if you’d want to go to church with us on Sunday.”
And suddenly I was reeling. Of all the things her mom could’ve asked me that was the last thing I expected.
“Are you serious? After what happened the last time I went to that church? What makes you think I’d ever…”
Chloe held up a hand. “Will you at least hear me out before you say no? And I totally understand why you might be a little reluctant to go there, so you don’t need to preach to the choir here.”
She smiled. A thin smile at her own little joke. A joke that wasn’t all that funny, thank you very much, no matter how proud she seemed of herself for making it.
“She says that she talked to the pastor tonight. That he very much wants to talk to both of us. She’s making it sound like it’ll be really worth our while to go.”
“Does that mean I have to sit through a sermon and all the singing and other crap they do?” I asked.
“Well probably if you’re going with us, but it’s not all bad. And it’s not like you have to stick around for Sunday school. I’m not going to make you go to youth group, that’s for damn sure.”
I barked out a laugh. “Chloe. You have a regular potty mouth on you. I think I like it!”
She blushed but she didn’t look away. She’d been doing less and less of that lately. It was a good sign of her getting more and more confident in herself.
I figured that was a good thing. A very good thing. Even if it got me into situations where she suddenly had the confidence to try and wrangle me into doing things I didn’t want to do like going to church with her.
Stupid me and my stupid big mouth teaching her how to stand up for herself. I sighed. I wasn’t going to enjoy this, but I probably deserved it.
“What time do I need to be over at your house on Sunday?” I asked.
Chloe leaned in and kissed me. That was enough to distract me from the thought of being stuck going to church for a little bit. It wasn’t enough to completely distract me, but it went a long way towards making me feel better.
“Come on. It’s not like it’s the end of the world or anything. My mom wouldn’t invite you along if there wasn’t something big going on here.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “I think before I feel better about this you’re going to have to do some more convincing.”
“Convincing like this?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me in for another kiss.
Oh yeah. She was so not the blushing shy goody-two-shoes church girl I’d met on that first day of school when Courtney scared her and that preppy girl I’d never seen again half to death.
It was hard to believe this was the same girl who couldn’t believe there were actually gay people in our town, but here she was and she was all mine and wasn’t that just fucking great?
Even if I was being dragged to church. Ugh. The things we do for love.
27
Chloe
I wasn’t sure what to think as I walked back into the church offices. I’d only been here a couple of times before. Pastor Dave’s office was down in the basement so there really wasn’t any reason for someone my age to come in here.
Now here I was though. With my mom and with Sarah right beside me. The whole thing felt weird. I couldn’t help but feel just a little like I was deep in enemy territory or something.
I know that was a silly thought. This was my church. I’d grown up going to this place and there would always be a part of me that felt at home here no matter what happened.
Still.
I had to admit there was another part of me that was uneasy here now. After everything that happened with Pastor Dave it was difficult not to feel a little uneasy.
The only difference was I’d stood up to him. No one else he yelled at ever had the guts to do something like that.
Pastor Hall peeked his head out of his office and smiled. It was a broad smile that made me feel just as welcome as I should feel at church. It was the opposite of the way Pastor Dave always seemed to be prowling around the church basement.
When he smiled and tried to act all warm and inviting you could tell it was an act. When Pastor Hall did it you could tell that he was actually happy to see you.
That or he was a very good actor.
“Chloe, Monica,” he said. “So glad the two of you could make it. Please come in, and bring your friend.”
We moved into the room and I felt my heart stop. I thought I was done with Pastor Dave in my life, but there he sat in one of the chairs looking like he wasn’t at all happy about being there. He looked up and scowled at me when we walked in.
I forced myself to meet his gaze. Reminded myself that the last time I saw him he’d been getting hauled off by a cop. By a gay cop, no less.
That had to be galling for him. I wondered if he even realized the relationship between Mr. Thompson and the cop who arrested him.
“What’s he doing here?” Sarah asked, a note of panic in her voice.
“Please young lady, Sarah is it?” Pastor Hall said. “Sit down. I can assure you all will be explained.”
I turned and pulled out a seat for Sarah. She eyed Pastor Dave warily but took a seat. Clearly she didn’t trust whatever was going on in here.
I didn’t really trust it either. If Pastor Hall was going to yell at me for what happened to Pastor Dave then he was going to have another thing coming.
I didn’t think it would come to that though. I’d changed a lot in the past couple of months, and one of the ways I’d changed was realizing that my mom actually had my back. She wasn’t the strict person I thought she was because we went to church.
She wouldn’t put us in a situation where we would be in trouble. It just wasn’t like her to do something like that.
“Chloe, Sarah,” Pastor Hall said. “Allow me to begin by apologizing to both of you.”
I b
linked a couple of times. Not what I was expecting. But he looked sincere. He leaned forward and he actually looked pained for a moment.
“When Monica here told me about everything that had happened I was horrified. Horrified. I can assure you I had no idea what David was doing, and had I known I would’ve put a stop to it,” he continued.
He tossed an irritated look towards David. Pastor Dave. Whatever I was supposed to be calling him now.
“This church is an inclusive church, and there’s no room here for the nonsense he was pulling. Yelling at children, really David, what were you thinking?”
Now Pastor Hall had turned his attention to Pastor Dave, and he looked as close to mad as I’d ever seen the man. He was one of those guys who was constantly cheerful. It was hard to imagine him getting truly upset about anything, but now I was starting to wonder about that.
I’d always heard people saying things about how the last thing you want to confront is the anger of a kind man. I was starting to understand what those people were on about as I saw the look in Pastor Hall’s eyes.
Pastor Dave opened his mouth as though he was going to try and defend himself. Pastor Hall held up a hand and stopped him before he could say anything.
“I’m not interested in anything you have to say David,” he said. “What you’ve done is inexcusable, and it’s not just these girls. I’ve talked with others in your youth group. You’re fired, and if I have anything to say about it you’re not going to work at any churches in this town again.”
I blinked a couple of times. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting when I came to this meeting, but that sure wasn’t it. I turned to Sarah and she was just as wide-eyed as I was.
Pastor Dave sat there for a long moment. His grip on his chair was so tight that his hands and knuckles were white.
Finally he stood. Tugged at his shirt to straighten it out. Without a word he walked out, and this time he didn’t even glare at me.
Good. The asshole got what was coming to him. It was proof of how angry I was that I was swearing, even if it was just in my head.
The jerk.
Pastor Hall turned back to us and smiled. “I’d like to take a moment to apologize to you again. I know that doesn’t begin to make up for what he put you through, but I hope you’ll take it as a start.”
I looked to Sarah again. I knew he meant well, but the real question would be how she reacted. She seemed like she was pretty down on the whole church thing, and I knew it was all because of what Pastor Dave had done to her.
It was a shame, too. He was supposed to bring people closer to God, not push them away. That was the most unforgivable thing he’d done as far as I was concerned.
She chewed her lip and looked like she was really thinking about something. Finally her face lit up in something that looked very close to a smile.
“Thanks,” she said. “Y’know that’s the first time someone’s ever apologized to me for what he did? Feels good, even if he’s not the one doing it.”
An hour later we were sitting outside the ice cream shop. My mom was inside talking to a friend who ran the place so it was just the two of us looking out over the town square.
“It’s been a pretty crazy semester, hasn’t it?” I said.
Sarah grinned. “You have no idea. It’s amazing how much you’ve changed in such a short amount of time.”
I reached out and touched her hand. Then frowned when I realized she had some sticky ice cream on her hand. Oh well.
“Yeah, well those changes have all been for the better, and I have you to thank for it.”
“Yeah, well don’t thank me just yet. If you thought rehearsing the play for an audience was bad wait until we start rehearsing for competition. And we’ll have the winter play to worry about on top of all that.”
“Oh yeah? You think Thompson will let us try out for that while we’re working on taking the other one to competition?”
She grinned. “He’ll pretty much have to. He can’t leave his two favorite drama girls on the sidelines, after all. Just means we’ll have to work that much harder.”
“I bet that also means we’ll be spending a lot more time rehearsing than we were before,” I said, winking at her. “More opportunities to sneak off for a little while.”
“I’ve created a monster,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
We settled into a comfortable silence after that. I looked out over our small town square and thought about everything that had happened. All the craziness in my life.
Craziness that was worth it, because it brought Sarah into my life. Besides, everything had mostly worked out.
Now I had to look forward and hope we somehow survived putting on a new play while getting the old one ready for competition.
No one ever said the life of a drama girl was easy, but now that I’d thrown myself into that life I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Author’s Note
Hi! I hope you enjoyed reading Drama Girls! I’ve been getting more and more into writing Young Adult stuff and it’s been a trip down memory lane in more ways than one. Some good and some bad.
I always like to write a note at the end of a story where the inspiration is something that actually happened to me. Especially when that inspiration takes the form of a villain who might seem over the top.
Pastor Dave is a fictional character, but he’s very much based on a kind of person I saw growing up in small town America.
I watched a girl who was excited about opening night for a musical being reduced to tears because her youth pastor came and yelled at her before the show. Her crime? She danced in the musical, and dancing was sinful and against God’s plan. She still went on and she killed it, but talk about an asshole move.
I saw a gay couple who were brave enough to come out and date each other torn apart. Their only crime was loving each other, but their parents couldn’t stand that. One was sent away to a “special school” and the other wasn’t really the same after that. All because their parents’ religion told them their children were wrong.
They’re happy out and well adjusted adults now, but no one should have to go through what they went through as teenagers. And this was in the last twenty years or so. We’ve come so far, but there’s still so far to go.
I knew a youth pastor who always seemed a little off to me. He tried to be everyone’s friend. He had a guitar he played all the time. But the God he talked about was a hateful God who excluded people rather than welcoming. That youth pastor was a big part of the reason I stopped going to church myself. He was eventually fired when they got wind of what he was selling, but how many kids were hurt in the meantime?
I say this to remind people that there are people like Pastor Dave out there. As I was writing this I was worried, as I often am in cases like this, that he would seem too over the top. Then I decided that his behavior is authentic to my experience and I’m not going to shy away from depicting some of the darker sides of life in small town USA even if reality seems unrealistic.
Besides, this is one of my books so you know everyone’s getting a happily ever after in the end. ;)
I hope you enjoyed the book and that maybe I gave you something to think about! Pastor Dave might be out there in spirit, but as Chloe learned that doesn’t mean we have to put up with his bullshit.
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; Princess Charming
1
Dani
“This night has been amazing,” Colin said.
I shook my head and forced my attention back to Colin. My boyfriend. Right. I was at prom with my boyfriend and we were supposed to be having a magical night under the fake stars hanging from the gym ceiling. Even though I was pretty sure most of those stars were made from aluminum foil which kinda ruined the effect.
“Yeah, sure it is,” I muttered and pressed into him again which he seemed to take as a good sign.
The only problem? I wasn’t pressing against him like that because I enjoyed how he felt so much as because I didn’t want him to see my wandering eye. Or to notice the decidedly unenthusiastic tone when I confirmed how magical this was.
I looked out across the gym floor that had been converted into a dance floor for the evening. My eyes drifted to Sarah for a moment and she gave me a thumbs up from her spot with her arms wrapped around Devon Anderson. I gave her a thumbs up right back, but I wasn’t feeling it.
“I’ve dreamed about this moment since we first got together, you know,” Colin said.
A response. That sounded like it needed a response. I grunted. Hey, can you blame a girl? I was in a difficult situation here and I couldn’t think of words to deal with my boyfriend going on about how great this was when I was to the point of chewing my foot off to get away from the awkward.
The poor bastard had no idea he was getting dumped before the end of the night.
My eyes drifted over the dance floor again. This time they fell on Kara Thompson and I found myself distracted. I also pressed into Colin with something approaching interest as I gave the bubbly head cheerleader a thorough once over. She looked damn good no matter what she wore, she was just that kind of girl, but tonight in that sparkly black number that shimmered under the DJ’s lights she was looking particularly yummy.