Page 65 of My Vows Are Sealed

“Watch this, bud,” Kate instructed.

She took a piece of plastic off the top, then turned it over and pushed down on an opening in the top of the bottle. Sure enough, a small marble dropped down and sat on a thinner portion in the bottle’s neck, immediately getting little carbonation bubbles all over it. Then she slid the bottle over to him.

“Whoa! That’s cool!” he exclaimed.

“Try it,” she encouraged him. “It’s strawberry-flavored. Just be careful because the bottle’s glass.”

Nathan took a sip from the bottle, then grinned and took a bigger drink.

“Can I try a sip, Nate?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s yummy,” he said as he put the bottle back on the table.

Before I could take a drink of the weird soda, Mrs. Rhee walked over with a big tray full of bubble tea slushes.

“Don’t take Nathan’s Ramune,” she told me as she handed me a Thai tea slush with tapioca bubbles in the bottom and Nathan a strawberry one. “I’ll bring some over for the whole table. Do you two want to stay for dinner? I’m sure these four won’t complain. I’ll make something simple for him.”

“What do you think, bud?” I asked, looking at my brother. “Want to have dinner here with these guys?”

His eyes lit up. “Can we?”

I chuckled as I turned back to Mrs. Rhee. “Yeah, if you don’t mind letting me use your phone so I can let my parents know where we are.”

Not that they deserved that kind of respect, but with my luck, they’d send a search party out for us, and then Darla’s dad would find out that she was with not just me, but Kate and Ashton too. It was safer for her if I just told my parents that Nathan and I had run into Naomi and her mom at their store and they’d invited us to stay for dinner. That wasn’t a stretch, because the Rhees’ generosity and hospitality was well-known to everyone at church.

“Of course,” she assured me.

“Go on. We’ll keep an eye on Nate,” Darla said, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand.

Thank God for my friends. They’d somehow managed to turn what could have been a disastrous evening into one filled with laughter and, most importantly, love. Nathan needed all the love he could get right now, and my girlfriend and friends were delivering big time. I just had to hope and pray that all of our love was enough to make up for our parents’ indifference.

Chapter 18

Brendan

If God Made You

It was about ten-thirty at night when I donned my coat, grabbed the small box containing Darla’s Christmas present, and slid my bedroom window open. I carefully took the screen out and leaned it against the wall right next to the window, then quietly climbed out and slid it shut again. Well, most of the way shut. I couldn’t latch it, obviously.

Yeah, I could have just walked through the front door. My parents didn’t care enough to even bother to ask where I was going. Especially not tonight. They’d barely said two words to me since I’d brought Nathan back home after dinner. But I just figured it was safer for Darla if they didn’t know I was gone at all. If they didn’t know about my absence, they wouldn’t be able to guess that I was going to see her and warn her dad.

I couldn’t wait for the day when I could move out and get my own space. When the only reason I’d have to ever come back to this place was to see my little brother. But, then again, once I had my own space, he’d probably be able to stay with me at least some of the time, and at least if I had him with me, I’d know that he was getting the attention he needed and deserved.

God, how messed up was it that I was trying to factor making sure Nathan still had his needs met after I left home into my plans for the future? I was supposed to be planning a future for myself and my girlfriend and figuring out how I was going to support her so that she could move out of her father’s house as soon as possible and still go to college and do whatever she wanted to do with her life. I wasn’t supposed to be worrying that when I left home, my little brother would have no one looking out for him.

The streets were eerily quiet as I made the ten-minute drive from my house to Darla’s. Just like always, I did a quick drive-by first to make sure all the lights were out, and then I went and parked in the public parking lot a block over.

It was hard to believe Christmas was next week when the weather felt more like it was almost Halloween. The temperatures were in the fifties during the day, and right now it was in the high thirties, though it felt like it was right around freezing with the wind chill. I kind of regretted only wearing my letterman jacket rather than my winter coat, but at least the walk was only five minutes.

When I got to Darla’s window, I saw that she’d turned the main light off and just left her bedside lamp on. Hoping that she hadn’t fallen asleep waiting for me, I quickly took the screen out and rapped lightly on the glass, and she was pulling up her blinds and opening the window less than ten seconds later.

“Hey,” she said with a smile that took my breath away.

The desire to claim that smile with my lips was so strong I could taste it, making me almost dizzy. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted a kiss from her this badly, not even that night at the homecoming dance. This went beyond want. It was need, so acute that it was almost painful.

“Hey,” I sighed. “Sorry I’m so late. I wanted to make sure my parents were asleep.”

“It’s okay,” she chuckled as she stepped back so I could get in. “It’s winter break, so it’s not like I have to get up early tomorrow. Now, get in here. It’s freezing.”

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