Page 7 of My Vows Are Sealed

Okay, so this “they” thing was going to take some getting used to. But I liked these two already. They were sweet, funny, and had made the effort to reach out to me when I was being harassed, even though they didn’t even know me.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?” Ashton raised an eyebrow. “You mean that, preacher’s kid?”

“Yeah, I do. The Bible says not to judge. You both made the effort to reach out to me and defend me when you didn’t have to. That’s what matters to me.”

“Would you look at that? A Christian who actuallyactsChristian. It’s a miracle!”

Kate peeked out from behind her hands. “Some welcome to public school you’ve gotten, Darla.”

I snorted. “It’s definitely not like St. Bishop’s. I’m sorry. For what Ethan said. I go to church with him. We’ve never gotten along, but I never thought he was that much of a jerk.”

“Eh, I’m used to it,” Ashton said with a sad smile. “It stings, but when you’re as fabulous as I am, there’s bound to be a few jerks who don’t get it.”

The second bell rang, and we all turned toward the front of the classroom as the teacher started to take attendance.

How was it that the people my dad had “warned” me about, the ones he was always saying were evil sinners who were headed straight to Hell, were the nicest kids in this classroom, and the guy I went to church with was the biggest jerk? Was it opposites day and I hadn’t been informed? Or was the world not as black and white as my dad – and my teachers St. Bishop’s – had always said it was?

Chapter 2

Brendan

She’s So High

Ihuffed out a sigh as I pulled my car – er, my parents’ old car, which was now my car – into the student parking lot. I found a parking space at the very back of the lot and pulled in, putting the car in park and taking the key out of the ignition before I grabbed my backpack off the front passenger seat and got out, hitting the button to lock the door and shoving it closed behind me.

“Yo, Carter!” I heard my friend Alex from youth group call.

I turned in the direction of his voice to find him walking toward me. I swore I could physicallyseethe ego boost that being a senior this year gave him. Lucky him. I still had another two years at this cesspool until I was free.

“’Sup, Gleason?” I asked.

“You finally got some wheels this summer! You’reguaranteedto get laid now,” he chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder as he came to stand next to me. “That thing’s going to be a chick magnet!”

I rolled my eyes as I started to walk toward the building. “That would imply that I’minterestedin getting laid, and I’m not.”

“You’re seriously still following that shit Pastor Jones is preaching?” he scoffed. “I lost it when I was fifteen, man.”

Yeah, I knew that. He’d barely been able to shut up about it since it happened two years ago, which I’d always thought was a dumb move. I didn’t know whohe’d slept with, but Ididknow that she was a couple of years older than him, which meant she could have gone to jail for statutory rape if anyone found out. The age of consent in South Carolina was sixteen, so legally, he hadn’t been able to consent to that encounter at all.

That was never going to be me. I was never going to give any part of myself to a girl like that just to say I’d done it. When Ididmake the choice to be intimate with someone, it was going to be because I cared enough about her to take that step, not just because everyone else was doing it. And I hadn’t even found a girl I cared enough about todatehere, let alone one I cared enough about to have sex with.

“As you keep reminding me. But it’smybusiness, not yours,” I snapped.

“Whoa, dude, chill. I was just saying. And speaking of, IknowHeather’s had a thing for you forever. You should ask her out.”

“Yeah, not interested,” I chuckled weakly.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Heather, because I did. She was a sweet girl. Even my parents had commented on that and tried to encourage me to date her. But I just didn’t see her as anything more than a friend, and I highly doubted that’d suddenly change this year.

“Why not? She’s hot,” Alex insisted.

I snorted. “That’s your entire criteria for why I should date her? Because she’s hot?”

“I mean…she’s a nice girl too. But seriously, have youseenher rack?”

I rolled my eyes. “Real Christian of you to talk about her like that.”

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