Page 8 of My Vows Are Sealed

“Just because I go to church doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes. So, you going to ask her out?”

The obnoxiously loud bell sounded, telling me it was time to head to homeroom.

Thank you, Jesus, I thought.

“Saved by the bell,” I snickered. “And no. See you around, man.”

I turned and power-walked in the direction of my homeroom class, beyond grateful for the escape from that conversation.

Seriously, though. Why did society putsuchan emphasis on coupling? Why was I considered a freak or a weirdo because I’d never been on a date or kissed a girl? Weren’t the real weirdos the ones who dated people they barely even liked just because everyone else was doing it? The ones who kissed people they didn’t care about just to see what they were missing out on?

That wasn’t going to be me. When I kissed a girl for the first time, it was going to be because I actually felt something for her that went beyond casual friendship. Not just because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

“Hey, Brendan!” I heard Heather call as I was opening the door to my new homeroom class.

I turned to look at her, and she had a mischievous glint in her eye as she approached me. Great. Because letting her down gently was definitely something I wanted to do on my first day of school…not.

“Hey, Heather,” I said with a friendly smile, holding the door open for her. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” she said as we took seats close to the front of the room. “Ran into Darla on my way in today. Poor girl was hopelessly lost and people were shoving her all over the place as she was trying to look at her map. I totally forgot Pastor Jones couldn’t afford her tuition at St. Bishop’s anymore until I saw her standing at the gate.”

It felt like the entire world stopped spinning for a moment as I processed that information.

I didn’t know why it came as such a shock to me that Darla was going to school here now. I knew it was happening because she’d mentioned it at church, and we’d gone to the same school before and it wasn’t a huge deal then. But now? Now, it felt like everything had just changed. Hearing that she was a high school student too, something shifted inside me, and I didn’t know what it was or what it meant.

Ididknow that I wanted to find every single person who’d shoved her this morning and shove them back. Against a wall. Very forcefully. See how they liked it.

Damn it, I needed to get myself together. Darla was still younger than me. And she was my friend, nothing more.

“Hello? Earth to Brendan?” Heather chuckled. “Did you hear me?”

“Sorry,” I sighed, shaking the thoughts out of my head. “No, I didn’t.”

“I said it looked like Darla could use a friend. She was pretty overwhelmed,” she said.

“Yeah, I remember going from private school to public school a couple of years ago,” I told her. “I felt like a fish out of water.”

“Well, she has third lunch too if you want to try to find her. I think she’d like it if you said hi.” She flashed another impish smile.

Whoa, what?! How the hell did Heather know what lunch period I had? I didn’t remember talking to her about that. And what was with that smile she kept giving me today?

“How did you know what lunch period I have?” I asked.

“Um, remember comparing schedules at church?”

Right. Now I remembered.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. I forgot.”

Why had I needed a reminder of something that I’d literally talked to Heather aboutyesterday? Why had the news that Darla Jones was in the same building right now – you know, along with three thousand other kids – gotten methisflustered?

“Dude, you realize you’re going to want to pull yourself togetherbeforeyou talk to the girl, right?” she snickered.

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to respond, but the second bell rang, and we both looked at the front of the classroom at Mr. Herx.

Saved by the bell once again.

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