“Hang on,” I told her. “I really do have something else for you.”
I handed her now-melting coffee back to her and then rifled through my backpack for a minute before pulling out a Walgreens bag and handing it to her. She eyed it suspiciously as she took it from me.
“What the school doesn’t know won’t hurt them,” I explained. “I brought you a few instant ice packs and some ibuprofen to keep in your backpack.”
Darla gasped, then wrapped her good arm around me, and I felt a few tears wet my shirt as she leaned against me. A little bit of a lump rose in my throat as I thought about how heartbreaking it was that all it took to make her cry was someone giving her some over-the-counter pain relief to make her life at school bearable while she was recovering from injuries that had been inflicted on her by her own father. I kissed the top of her head, then pulled away just enough to give her a soft kiss.
“You’re not doing this alone anymore, Dar,” I whispered. “You’ve got me now, and I’m not going anywhere, no matter what. I promise.”
“I think I’ve found my million-dollar idea,” I told Darla as we walked through the cafeteria toward our usual table. “A rolling backpack.”
I wasn’t complaining about helping Darla out for a week or so while her shoulder healed – I mean, it did give me an excuse to see her between all of my classes – but damn, these bags were heavy. This couldn’t have been healthy for any kid to carry on their back all the time.
“I think they already have those,” she chuckled. “They’re called carry-on bags, and I’m pretty sure the school would frown on me bringing one of those on campus.”
“That’s what I’m saying, though,” I countered. “An actual backpack that has wheels. Then we’d be allowed to bring them on campus because they’re backpacks.”
“Is that your way of saying you’re tired of lugging my bag of bricks around?”
“Not as long as that arm’s still in a sling. I’m just saying, how awesome would it be?”
She snorted. “It would be pretty awesome. You should patent that before someone else does.”
As we approached our table, Kate, Ashton, and Naomi were already sitting there, and I saw Kate gasp and smack Ashton’s arm. She hadn’t been in the room yet when I walked Darla to Bio this morning, so I guessed this was her first time seeing us together since we’d made it official. Ashton looked in our direction, and I swear, I could hear them squeal from twenty feet away. Now that I thought about it, they hadn’t seen us together yet either.
Darla tried to turn around and walk away, but I grabbed her good arm.
“We can’t avoid this forever,” I chuckled. “Might as well get it over with. And it’s coming from a good place with them. They all love you almost as much as I do.”
“Ugh. Fine,” she groaned.
I led her over to the table, where she sat down next to Naomi, and I sat on her other side…after relieving myself of the extra seventy pounds I was hauling around. Seriously. Rolling backpacks. They needed to be a thing.
“Sweet baby Jesus, miracles do happen!” Ashton exclaimed.
“It’s about fucking time!” Kate said excitedly.
Darla and Naomi both looked at her with wide eyes, but I just laughed. I’d never heard her use a word that strong before, but I couldn’t really say it surprised me.
“What? This is major. The word ‘fuck’ is absolutely acceptable in situations like this,” she defended.
“Admit it, dollface. You’re just glad we’re not the only couple in this group anymore,” Ashton teased.
“Damn right. Now we can spread the teasing around,” she giggled.
They snickered and turned her head for a kiss.
Darla looked at Naomi, who had been silent since we got to the table. Naomi gave her a small smile, but something seemed off about it. I couldn’t place it, but I could tell she was upset about something.
“They’re right. It is about time,” she chuckled weakly.
“You okay, Nay?” Darla asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired. We missed you yesterday.”
“Sorry.” Darla flushed bright pink. “Brendan and I had a lot to talk about.”
Naomi giggled and hid her face, and Darla groaned. I couldn’t help laughing again.
How had it ended up being the case that most of my best friends were female? I was surrounded by estrogen…and I actually didn’t hate it. The people at this table were some of the most important people in my life. Really, the only other people I would have needed to complete that list were Heather and Nathan. And maybe Alex, when he wasn’t being a jerk. I hadn’t really talked to him in a while, though. I probably needed to fix that.
“Not just that,” Darla scolded her. “There was a lot I had to tell him, and yeah, it ended in him asking me to be his girlfriend again, but that wasn’t really the reason we had to talk.”
“Or maybe my nefarious plans worked perfectly because you think that,” I teased, kissing her temple.
“Okay, but you guys actually did talk, right?” Kate prodded, staring Darla down like it was a contest.
She nodded. “Yeah. We did. He knows everything.”
For a second, I was shocked to realize that Kate was asking Darla if I knew about the abuse. But then I realized it made perfect sense. She trusted Kate and Ashton, and they had no connection to the church or her father, so they were safe people to talk to. Maybe I should have been upset that she’d trusted someone with the truth before me, but I wasn’t. Not even a little bit. I was just glad she had people she felt safe enough to share with.
I draped an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her into my side, and she looked up at me, cracking half a smile. I put my hand under her chin and stole a kiss, which earned us a round of “awws” from the table. Predictably, she turned bright pink and buried her face in my chest, which made me chuckle.
“Okay, is it possible for you two not to be adorable?” Kate teased.
“Look who’s talking,” Naomi chortled.
“Yeah, but we already know we’re adorable. And we’re old news,” Ashton quipped.
“Old news?” Darla asked as she emerged from hiding. “You guys haven’t even been dating for a month yet.”
“Hey, that’s like a whole year in high school time,” they snickered.
“Wow, Ash. We’ve only been going out for a few weeks and it feels like a year?” Kate laughed. “You make it sound like torture.”
“Nah. You’re stuck with me, sunshine,” they said, kissing her cheek.
Chapter 14
Darla
Love Liberty Disco
“Hey, Darla,” Marie said with a smile when I walked into the children’s room.
“Hey,” I sighed, sinking down into the first available chair.
My shoulder was feeling a lot better, but my rib was still throbbing, even with the proper wrapping. Honestly, the ibuprofen Brendan had smuggled me was pretty much the only thing getting me through school. Well, that and the fact that he refused to let me carry my backpack except for lugging it off the bus in the morning and back on the bus in the afternoon.
“How are you feeling?” she asked me.
“A little better. My arm’s getting there, but I’m still sore,” I told her, trying to skirt the truth as much as possible.
I’d thought so many times about telling her the truth about what my dad had done to me on Saturday night. But there were just too many things that could go wrong. She could end up not believing me because my dad was the pastor and there was no way he’d hurt his daughter. She could end up believing me, but then whoever investigated it would end up falling for my dad’s line. And then my dad would ask me how they found out, and it would end up being worse for me in the end.
The long and short of it was, I was scared, and I had nowhere to turn if my dad didn’t get arrested. Plus, there was what my mom had said. If he did get arrested, we’d end up losing everything because she couldn’t afford to support us. So, basicall
y, I was caught between a rock and a hard place.
“Well, this might make you feel even better,” Marie chuckled as she sat down next to me at the craft table. “Peter talked to your dad about you coming to the Jars of Clay concert with the youth group next Saturday because we still have an extra ticket. I think he’s going to talk to you about it later tonight, but it sounds like you’re coming with us.”
I couldn’t help it. I let out a squeal. I was only allowed to listen to Christian music, and Jars of Clay was one of my favorite groups. When Peter and Marie started gauging interest in getting a block of seats to their concert here in Charleston for the youth group, I was elated. I’d never actually been to a concert before, and for it to be one of my favorite bands was icing on the cake.
But that was around the time when Ethan told my dad about Kate and Ashton, and my dad had told me to forget about it. Even though my “restriction,” as he called it, had been lifted, I still hadn’t been brave enough to ask him again. Especially not after the nightmare surrounding the homecoming dance.
She laughed. “Thought you might be happy about that.”
“That’s awesome!” Heather, who was already in the room, exclaimed. “Chris is coming with us too. She was hoping you were going to be there. She really wants another chance to hang out with you.”
“Really?” I asked, shocked that she’d invite her girlfriend to a church function.
“Yeah. Her family goes to St. Andrew’s on the other side of town,” she told me. “But their youth group doesn’t do many outings like that. She was all excited when I told her our group was going to that show. She loves Jars of Clay.”
The door opened, and my favorite four-year-old bundle of energy came barreling into the room, making a beeline for me. I smiled and turned toward Nathan…and his older brother, who really needed to get a little better about controlling his facial expressions around me at church. My dad would pick up that something was different in a nanosecond if he saw how Brendan was looking at me right now.
I mean, I wasn’t complaining because it gave me butterflies and made my heart do a somersault in my chest, but it wasn’t exactly ideal for us keeping a low profile at church around the kids. We’d talked about this at school today and agreed we needed to act like nothing had changed while we were working with the kids, because they might blurt something out without realizing what they were saying. I knew he hated keeping our relationship from Nathan, but it was for the best right now. At least until Nathan was a little older and we could explain to him why we needed to keep it a secret.
“Darla!” Nathan squealed.
“Hey, little man,” I giggled, holding out my good arm for a hug.
Nathan gave me the gentlest hug in the world, and then I felt another, much bigger, hand squeeze my shoulder. I looked up at Brendan, who was smiling at both of us, with those dimples I’d gotten so attached to on full display. I wished my free arm wasn’t in a sling because I really wanted to reach up and squeeze his hand, but my mom had given me strict instructions that I needed to keep it immobilized tonight. So instead, I leaned into his side just a little, which earned me another squeeze on the shoulder, and then he let go of me and took a few steps back.
When Nathan pulled back, he handed me a folded piece of paper that I hadn’t realized he was holding. I looked at the front and saw Get Well Soon scrawled across the front in his four-year-old handwriting, with some green scribbles at the bottom that looked like they were supposed to be grass, blue scribbles that were probably supposed to be the sky, and then a yellow circle with lines coming off it that looked like the sun. I opened it, and he’d written Love, Nathan on the inside with a big smiley face.
“Did you make this all by yourself?” I asked.
“Brendan helped me spell the words. But I colored it.”
I grinned. “You did such a good job! I love it so much. My arm’s still hurting, so I can’t color with you tonight, but do you want to color for a little bit before the lesson starts? I’ll still hang out here at the table with you.”
“Yeah!” he said excitedly.
Brendan sat down, then picked Nathan up and put him on his knee. He grabbed a box of crayons and a coloring sheet and put them in front of his brother, who started going to town coloring one of the twelve disciples bright green.
Did he even realize how hard it was to keep a straight face around him when he was sitting there being the world’s best big brother? Most guys his age would have completely ignored the little kid who idolized them and just wanted their love and attention. But not him. He absolutely adored his baby brother, and he didn’t even try to hide it. Sometimes it seemed like he was more of a parent to Nathan than their parents were. And that was one of the things I loved the most about him.
“So, you guys worked things out?” Heather asked quietly as she sat down next to me.
I nodded. “Yeah. We did.”
“I’m glad. It’s been long enough. It broke my heart, what happened at the dance. I hope you know I never wanted to hurt you. I was trying to help. Guess I’m not a very good wingman.”
“You’re a good wingman. He just didn’t let me in on the plan,” I chuckled, then took a deep breath. “Look, my parents—”
“My lips are sealed,” she promised. “If you haven’t figured it out, no one knows about me and Chris either. My parents would probably disown me if they found out.”
“You guys make a really cute couple, by the way,” I told her.
She chuckled. “So do you.”
I smiled, and I was sure my cheeks turned bright red. “Thanks.”
Naomi unceremoniously plopped into a chair across from us, and the same troubled look I’d seen the past few days at lunch was still on her face. But she wasn’t admitting that anything was wrong, even though I knew there was something going on.
“Hey, Naomi,” Heather said, flashing her a smile.
Her lips turned up a little, but she didn’t reply. Instead, she turned to Peter and Marie’s son, Dawson, and started doing a puzzle with him.
It broke my heart seeing Naomi like this. I’d known her for almost five years, and I’d never seen her this upset before. I had no idea what had changed in the past few days to make her distance herself, and that killed me because if I didn’t know what was wrong, I couldn’t help.
Just like that, a lightbulb turned on over my head, and I kicked myself for not realizing it sooner. I knew exactly what had changed in the past few days: Brendan’s relationship status. I remembered seeing her get embarrassed when he walked into this room a couple of months ago, and she was always giggly and happy around him at school. But then he’d asked me to be his girlfriend, and ever since, she’d been quiet and withdrawn around me.
I’d been so upset about thinking that Brendan had asked Heather out, and then so happy when he told me how he felt and asked me to be his girlfriend, that I hadn’t even realized Naomi was hurting too. I felt like an awful friend knowing that my happiness was making one of my best friends miserable, but I had absolutely no idea how to fix it. It wasn’t like, even if I broke up with Brendan, I could influence whether or not he saw her as girlfriend material. And maybe it was selfish and wrong, but even if breaking up with him would have fixed things between me and Naomi, I wouldn’t have been able to bring myself to do it. Especially not after the emotional rollercoaster I’d been on over the past week.
Why did having a boyfriend have to be so confusing?
“Hey, are you going to the Jars of Clay concert next weekend?” I asked Naomi.
She looked back at me and smiled, a real smile this time. “Yeah. My mom’s coming too as a chaperone. I’m not sure who’s more excited: me or her. She likes them almost as much as I do.”
“I think my dad’s going to let me go,” I said.
“That’s awesome! We can sit together,” she said, sounding genuinely happy about the idea.
That made Brendan tear his gaze away from Nathan, who was now in the middle of coloring Mary Magdalen
e bright red. Which was sort of an appropriate color in a way, I guessed?
“Really?” he asked.
“According to Marie. He hasn’t actually talked to me about it yet,” I clarified. “But I guess Peter asked him about me going because there was still an extra ticket.”
“Sweet,” he said with a grin. “It’s going to be fun.”
Fun. I barely even remembered what that was like anymore. I really hoped my dad was going to let me go, because I needed a little fun in my life after the craziness I’d been through recently.
By the time I walked into the house with my family, I was wondering if my dad was even going to acknowledge the conversation he’d had with Peter, or if he’d just said yes to Peter just to get him to shut up. That sounded like something he’d do. Plus, if he’d told Peter I wasn’t allowed to go, then Peter would have asked why, and that would have opened up a whole other can of worms.
Determined not to be the one to bring it up so I didn’t incur his wrath, I just quietly headed to my bedroom and started to get changed into my pajamas. I’d just managed to get my bra off – not an easy feat when my shoulder was still feeling tender – when the door opened.
“Darla,” my father’s monotone voice boomed from the doorway.
“Ahh!” I squealed as I scrambled to pull my nightshirt over my head.
My shoulder screamed in protest, but I could take some extra Tylenol and grab an ice pack in a few minutes. Right now, my main concern was to make sure my dad didn’t see me half-undressed.
Hadn’t he heard of knocking? He knew I was getting changed in here. I wasn’t allowed to have my door locked, but still. I wasn’t a little girl anymore, and my body was starting to reflect that. Common sense should have told him that it was a good idea to knock so he could make sure I was decent. Right?
“Peter said something to me about a concert next Saturday,” he said, completely ignoring the fact that he’d just walked in on me changing.
“Yeah. Jars of Clay,” I mumbled.
My Vows Are Sealed (Sealed With a Kiss) Page 15
