Page 9 of My Vows Are Sealed

The smell of greasy, mass-produced food invaded my nostrils and turned my stomach as I walked into the cafeteria. Yeah, I definitely hadn’t missed the food here, that was for sure. I headed to the line and got my overcooked spaghetti and meat sauce, rock-hard garlic bread, and scoop of peas and carrots – becausenutrition, that’s why – along with theoh-so-nutritiouscardboard box of chocolate milk.

As I left the line and looked around for a place to sit, I absolutely wasnotlooking for Darla. Notat all.

Okay, yes, I was. And it didn’t take me long to locate her. She was sitting with two kids I’d never met before…and who her father would have a heart attack if he’d found her talking to. Well, at least one of them. I was about ninety-five percent sure this person was a guy in drag, but honestly, the makeup job made me second-guess myself, because it was so subtle that it actually looked like a girl had done it. If that made any sort of sense.

I walked over to their table and set my tray down next to Darla, which made her look up at me. And I swear, the smile she flashed at me made my heart do a somersault in my chest.

“Hey, Dar. This seat taken?” I asked.

Her cheeks darkened several shades, which made me chuckle. Was it wrong that I kind of liked that it was so easy to embarrass her just because I liked seeing her blush?

Andwhydid I like seeing her blush so much?

“It is now,” she mumbled.

“Going to introduce us,Dar?” the kid who may or may not have been in drag asked her. And their voice didn’t help me at all, because it was right in that range where it could have belonged to a guy or a girl.

“If younevercall me that again,” Darla chuckled uncomfortably. “I’ve known Brendan forever, and he’s literally theonlyperson I let get away with calling me Dar.”

Yeah, I knew that. A couple of other kids in the youth group had tried to call her that, and she’d shut it down immediately. But for some reason, she still let me get away with it.

“Brendan, this is Ashton and Kate,” she continued, pointing first at the kid whose gender I was having a hard time figuring out, and then at a girl with dark, wavy hair and fair skin.

“Hey, Brendan.” Kate gave me a shy smile.

“Hi,” Ashton said.

“Hey. Nice to meet you,” I said, smiling at them. “How’d you guys meet?”

“Homeroom,” Darla told me. “Um, Ethan’s in the same homeroom as us and he started being a jerk to me the second I walked into the room. Ash and Kate invited me to sit with them.”

I smiled. I liked these two already just for looking out for my girl when I couldn’t.

Wait. Why was I calling Darla my girl? She wasn’t my girl. She was my friend, who happened to be a girl.

Right?

“Ethan Smith?” I asked, trying to distract myself. “From church?”

“Yep,” she clipped out, sounding somewhere between annoyed and pissed off.

“Heard him making a bet with his dipshit friend Tommy about who was going to nail her first this year,” Ashton muttered. “Figured we had to save her from the uncivilized pigs.”

Note to self: make sure that little punk knew that he’d have me to answer to if he triedanythingwith Darla or her friends.

“Yeah, and then Ethan started giving her a hard time for sitting with us. Ash had a little bit of a reputation at our last school,” Kate sighed.

“But his reaction was hilarious,” Darla said, and then she gasped and covered her mouth like she was mortified at what she’d just uttered. “Oh, my gosh, Ash. I’m so sorry.”

Huh? What was she apologizing for?

Ashton chuckled and reached across the table to squeeze her arm. “It’s okay, honey. I know it takes some getting used to. You weren’t trying to be mean.”

“And we’ve lost Brendan,” Kate said.

Darn it. Was my confusion showing on my face? I didn’t care if Ashton was a guy, a girl, or a Martian. What mattered was that this person was being a good friend to someone I cared about when they’d only just met her. But yeah, I was lost.

“Ash prefers to be called ‘they,’ not ‘he,’” Darla explained.

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