AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hi,” she tells me. “I’m Faith.”
Jesus.
Even her name is a holy roller name.
What’s her middle name?
Grace?
“Rex,” I tell her blankly. My plan is to give her very little and hope she takes the hint.
“Nice to meet you, Rex,” she says. “I haven’t seen you at youth group before. Is this your first time?”
I still haven’t taken my headphones out of my ears.
That doesn’t stop her.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’m a youth group virgin.”
It’s an ironic joke.
Faith doesn’t seem to get it or maybe she just ignores it. She offers me this sweet, small smile.
“Well, we’re happy to have you,” she says. Then she takes a beat, staring at me in this soul-piercing kind of way. It’s unnerving.
“You’re angry,” she says.
I glare at her. “Oh yeah? Does your God make you a mindreader?”
“No,” she says. “You’re just making it really obvious how much you don’t want to be here.”
Now she’s just pissing me off.
I didn’t ask her to come over here.
I didn’t ask to be psychoanalyzed by some Jesus freak.
“What gave me away? The headphones? The hoodie? The fact that I sat all the way back here away from everyone?” I asked with a bite.
She is not thrown off. She doesn’t even blink. “Yes, those are the general tells.”
I laugh. I don’t know why she is still sitting here. “What’s your deal, anyway?”
“Well, for starters, I chose to be here,” she tells me.
“Yes, I gathered that,” I say.
The bus starts to move now.
And I’m trapped.
I’m about to ask Faith another question when an older woman standing at the front of the bus taps on the microphone, creating aphh phh phhover the speakers.
In the perkiest voice I have ever heard in my entire life, the woman says, “Good morning, everybody! Welcome to the Church of God Young Adult Spring Retreat! Wow. It is soawesometo see such beautiful faces on this bus with us today. I’d like to start us off with a prayer, sound good?”
There’s some mumbles of “yes” and “yeah.”
So, Perky Lady says, “Isaidthat I’d like to start us off with a prayer… sound good?”
