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TEMPEST
I haven’t been sleeping that well since arriving here. I can’t stop thinking about how close King is to me, and that I can’t touch him. Before things turned to shit, I would always sleep cuddled up with him. When the sun rises in the sky I give up and take a quick shower, then throw some clothes on and head to the kitchen. I figure, since I’m wide awake, I might as well make some breakfast. I'm not a huge baker or chef like Chastity, but I can hold my own.
I'm plating the eggs and pancakes when King comes stomping in. He won't look my way and seems to be upset. I know sooner or later I’m going to have to confront him and tell him about Chastity and I.
I bring the dishes to the table and turn to grab the syrup from the fridge, but I guess I shouldn’t have bothered. King shoves past the table, not even stopping.
"I'll be home later," he says before leaving out the side door with a slam. I jump and Roman shocks me by placing his hand on my bare shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. I didn’t even notice that he had arrived. Once again, King had my full attention.
My skin pebbles and I thank God I'm wearing a padded bra right now or my nipples would be making an appearance. “He’s not the best morning person, and we have a busy day today at the church,” Roman grumbles as he reaches over me to grab a mug for the coffee I brewed. I glance at him from over my shoulder, noticing how close his chest is to my back.
“While you’re here, there’s something else we need to discuss. Starting today, I need you to attend church on Sundays, while you're staying here, and help with the bake sale afterwards. We’re short on volunteers since we have a few parishioners who are sick. Anyone who is living under this roof must attend,” Roman begins, his voice low and rumbly. This topic shouldn’t be sexy, but something about his voice makes me pay attention.
“Okay,” I say softly, even though church and I don’t have the best track record. Part of me worries it won’t go well, but if Roman wants me there, I’ll go. I owe him a lot already for agreeing to take me in, despite King and my history.
Running upstairs after breakfast, I look at my clothing options. They all show a lot of skin. Biting my lip, I shrug and put on a short dress, then go back to the kitchen. Roman’s eyes widen as he sees me, but instead of complimenting me, he’s silent as he bustles me out of the door.
The drive to the church is short and no one speaks. I have to struggle not to pull my dress down to cover the long expanse of leg I’m showing. I’ve never felt like I needed to hide my body before, and I blush, feeling ashamed.
“Look,” Roman grunts, parking the car as he glances over at me, his lips pursed as his eyes sweep down over my body. “I feel like our ideas of church appropriate clothing are very different. You’re currently showing a lot of leg, and I prefer my parishioners to be focused on God and prayer during church. I think it may be a good idea if we go shopping together, to find you some better clothing options, if you’re going to be living here, okay?”
Roman leverages himself out of the car as if it’s on fire, desperate to get away from the uncomfortable conversation, and I rub the back of my neck. Getting out, I look at the bright sky and ask myself why I can never do the right thing.
Always shoved to the side. Always wrong. Never holy or righteous enough.
There’s so many things wrong with me being in this small, quiet, religious town. I’ll never fit in.
Walking into the church, I ignore the stares and whispers. You’d think church would be a place to focus inwards, and not use it to gossip about the new girl. They’re all hypocrites.
Head held high, I sit down and listen to the sermon. Soon enough, even ignoring the whispers doesn’t keep me from hearing Holly and her friends call me a “whore”. I recognize her from a photo King has on his phone. I don’t know how he could be with someone so cruel. Isn’t the Christian way to welcome new people and not judge them?
As soon as I can, I escape to the bake sale table. I need to get away from all the judgy eyes.
“Pastor Roman sent you?” an elderly woman asks, her face so scrunched up I’m worried it’ll stay this way.
“Ah, yes?” I whisper softly.
“No, no. He must be mistaken. I think the Lord is calling me to send you to do charity work over there,” she says, pointing to a table collecting money for raffle tickets. “This way you’ll be sitting down, and completely covered. Thank goodness everything else is modest. Go, off with you now.”
Face flaming in embarrassment, I walk quickly to the table, where someone takes one look at me and forces me into a chair. I get it, my dress is short, but it’s like these people have never seen a pair of legs before. Forced to smile and deal with the knowing looks from people makes me want to run away. I’d even take one of Mother Superior's punishments right now over all this.
I thought being expelled from Holy Cross was the lowest I could fall, but I was so so wrong. Now I’m stuck in this hillbilly town, with the boy I have always loved, who can’t even bother to look at me, and his father. A small town pastor who I may be fantasizing about bending me over and punishing me. All while having the community look at me the way my mother does. As if I’m going to corrupt their innocent lambs.
So much for a new start…
Two hours later, I pretend I need to pee and escape. Roman effectively forgot about me, and is walking around and chatting. It looks like this is a church fair, and I’m just along for the ride.
I also would have thought raffles were the equivalent of gambling, but not when the money is being donated to the church. Whatever. Clearly, I don’t make the rules on morality.
Escaping to the corner store, I grab a cold soda. The only upside to being here is that everything I consume isn’t being watched by my mother, or reported back to her.
Stepping outside, I sit on a bench to just watch the sky. The clouds are beautiful, and it reminds me of when I was little, and would pretend they were animals. I didn’t have much of a childhood, but this is something I remember and loved.
“Hey, can I sit here?” a voice asks and I stiffen. I don’t want to deal with anyone from the church right now. Looking over, I see a gorgeous girl in ripped up fishnet tights, boots, and a skater dress. She grins, and I spot a cute little nose piercing too. This girl looks lost in this little town.
“Yeah. Of course you can. Sorry about that… I was just zoning out. Hiding from some people too,” I confess, wrinkling my nose at the truth.
Shrugging, she doesn’t take offense as she sits next to me. “I’m Kylee. I recently moved here, and I always feel like I need to hide.” She laughs with a shrug. “Were you over at the Church of Light earlier?”
