Godless Girl

Chapter 7

Aurora's POV

I wake up to the sound of rustling beside me. I rub my eyes and yawn and slowly my sight focuses on Hope getting dressed. I almost say good morning  to her when I remember the events of yesterday and all the mockery of her and her friends. I roll away from her and sigh. After a few minutes she leaves the tent and I begin to get ready for the day. Today we have an art activity and tonight there's a bonfire party to "get to know each other better".

As I'm pulling on my bra, someone whips open the tent door and I dive into my blankets. "Calm down! I just forgot my phone!" Hope yells with her hands up and I feel embarrassed. She clears her throat and looks through one of her bags. I face my back to her and finish putting on my top. "Didn't mean to scare you. I assumed you had already left for breakfast." she says. I grunt in response and crawl out of the tent, trying to ignore her the most I can.

I decide I'm too hungry to skip breakfast so I head out towards the eating area. Once I reach the trail, I hear feet running on the rocks behind me so I turn around, only to see Hope coming towards me. Quickly I turn away and look at the ground while I walk. Hope comes next to me and slows down. She says nothing, but continues to walk beside me.

We reach the line for breakfast and I look over to her table of friends and see them staring at us both. Hope waves to them and they smile back at her, but then shoot daggers at me. I get my soggy eggs and burnt sausage and walk to my usual table and Hope splits from me to sit with her church friends as I expected. I sigh and pick at my food slowly. I hear Hope and her friends laugh among themselves while I sit alone and it feels like something I should be used to, at least in these dumb church situations.

I don't believe in most of the things these people do and it creates a giant divide. I don't believe in any god and they do. I think heaven and hell outside of earth is bullshit. But even though I'm the opposite of them all and even though I had nothing close to a friend with these people a few days ago, I still feel hurt that Hope has left me alone again.

I'm pulled out of my self pity when a very pale girl with black hair similar to mine sits on the opposite side of the table. She takes a deep breath and reaches her hand out to shake mine. I furrow my brows and shake her hand. "I'm Autumn and yes, like the season." She says in a small voice. "I saw you were sitting alone and I'm not exactly friends with anyone here. I don't think the person I share my tent with even likes me."

I chuckle and nod, thinking of my situation with Hope. "I'm Aurora and I can relate heavily to not having friends here." Autumn smiles and laughs a little. "Ah okay, Aurora, I've heard some about you. Evil lesbian atheist among Catholics?" she raises her eyebrows at me and I roll my eyes, shaking my head in disappointment. "Great to know that's what everyone automatically believes about me, but I suppose I better embrace it." I sigh and lean against the table. "So hi, I'm Aurora the gay atheist. I'll makeout with every girl I see and tell them about the reality of religion." I scoff and take a bite of eggs. All these people are the same and ignorant.

"Hey man, no need to be angry. I don't believe rumors, but if all that's true," Autumn leans across the table and whispers, "then we're twins." She leans back and laughs loudly. I can't tell if she's playing a twisted joke on me or being serious. Her laugh is so hearty that the majority of people eating stop to look at her, including everyone at Hope's table. Hope looks confused and slightly annoyed.

When Autumn finally stops laughing, she smiles at me. "Are you joking? Like did one of your friends put you up to this?" I ask her seriously. She frowns at me and shakes her head. "I'm not joking, man. I'm like you, I hate all these pricks who think they're better than everyone because they believe in a god. Also I am definitely gay or at least sort of. I find some dudes attractive, but very few. High standards, you know?" She giggles at her own comment.

This girl confuses me. I turn around again to glance at Hope and see she's looking at me as well. As soon as she meets my eye, she looks down at her empty plate and glares. I check my watch and see its almost 9:30. "So which tent are you in, Aurora? I'm in 9 with Jessica, the rude red haired bitch who's friends with Hope." Autumn breaks the short silence. I raise my eyebrows and think about Jessica tripping me yesterday. "Good luck with that. I'm in 7 with Hope. Didn't seem so bad at first because she got the biggest tent. You know, since she's metaphorically sucking Father Gabriel's dick, she gets the best stuff. It wasn't so bad, but then-" I clear my throat and shrug. "She just turned out to be as awful as I originally thought."

Autumn cocks an eyebrow and nods slowly. She starts to stand up and piles her trash onto her plate. "Do you want to check out my tent area? There's a really cool creek and a small waterfall I could show you," she offers. I look at Hope again and see her laughing with her cohorts. I stand too and smile. "Yeah that would be awesome, lead the way."

We walk past Hope's table and I see her look up out of the corner of my eye. Her eyebrows furrow and I grin to myself. Autumn links her arm in mine and we walk towards the trail to tent 9. I've gained what seems to be a new friend in this awful place.

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Thank you guys for reading! Also I'm sorry if you got multiple notifications for updates, I had to publish changes a few different times because I forgot to add the pov before a few chapters. I'm also sorry it's been taking me so long to update, I've been very busy lately with college and shit, but I'm definitely going to try to make more time to write. Thank you again!