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Chapter One
Rex
I slip into the last row of the bus.
I wear my hoodie with the hood drooped down to my forehead and plug my headphones into my ears.
I want to make it crystal clear that I have no interest in speaking with anyone.
This wasn’t my idea, after all.
Far from it.
So, I would just really like to get through this weekend with as limited social interactions as possible.
I don’t need anybody to try and save me.
A few days ago, when Mom told me that she was sending me on this retreat that she heard about at church, I lost my shit.
“You can’t just throw me to your Bible thumpers, Mom,” I told her. “It doesn’t work that way.”
My mom cried.
She’s been crying every day since she brought me home from college.
“I don’t have the answers anymore,” Mom told me. “I can’t fix this. Maybe God can.”
It’s a weird feeling.
My own mom thought I was so far gone that only God could fix me now.
Whatever.
If people think I’m broken, let them.
Maybe they’re right.
I pick at the hole in the cushion of the bus seat.
And then, I’m not alone anymore.
I look up to see who is joining me all the way back here.
And she is not who I expect.
The girl sitting next to me is not the kind of girl that I would expect to be hiding on the back of the youth group bus. She’s the kind of girl who I would imagine would be in the very first row.
She’s wearing a cross around her neck.
She’s wearing a plain, pink crewneck t-shirt that is a couple of sizes too big for her. Probably to conceal the large breasts that are hiding beneath it.
The strategy isn’t working. I see them anyway.
Her jeans have no holes in them.
She’s beautiful in that never-been-touched kind of way. Maybe I’m wrong to assume she’s a virgin, but considering where we are, it doesn’t seem like that big of a leap.
Her hair is strawberry blonde and she smiles at me with these berry pink lips.
