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Chapter 8: Want

When I woke up, it was nine in the morning the next day. I flipped through my phone and responded to all the messages I had missed from the night before. I looked at the time stamp on the messages and realized I had been asleep for almost twelve hours. I decided to get up and get ready for the day. I would take my time and then meet my dad at his office to go to lunch with him and work on some things for the youth group while I was there. Keegan had asked me to plan three events for the summer. We would have theme nights for each Wednesday night and then the three events. I was in charge of all of it.

In the parking lot of the church offices, I noticed Jordan's car. I shrugged and guessed that he was there shadowing Keegan. The old parsonage at the north end of the church parking lot had been converted into church offices. I walked in to find Jordan sitting at the small table in the kitchen.

"Whassup Ind!" He yelled with his arms in the air.

"Hey, buddy! What are you doing here?"

"Just hanging out with Kee," he rolled his eyes and I laughed. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I need to work on some stuff for this summer for the youth group. I may work on it in here with you if that's okay."

"Sure! Here, I'll move my crap and you can sit there," he said, pointing at the chair to his left.

I walked back to my dad's office to say hello and let him know that I was there. When I got back to the table in the kitchen, Jordan had cleared it off for me to be able to put my computer and planner down.

"So," I said looking around, "where is Keegan?"

"That's a good question." He said with his eyebrows raised. "He said he would be here in thirty minutes. That was two hours ago."

 "Typical," I laughed.

Jordan leaned in close, "you know, I don't really know if I like him or not," he whispered.

"You'll get used to it," I whispered back.

We sat at the table in the middle of the kitchen for an hour. I was working on the theme nights, occasionally getting his input, and he was sticking address stickers to thirteen hundred envelopes.

"You know," he said quietly, "I think they just get me to do their busy work when I'm here."

"Probably," I said without looking up from my computer. "Better you than me," I chuckled.

Once I was done coming up with the theme nights and planning out the eight different nights, I looked at my phone to respond to anything I had missed. Greyson had sent a message in our group chat saying that he was going to a play that Thursday night if any of us wanted to join.

"Are you going to this play with Greyson?" I asked Jordan.

"Probably. You should go. It'll be fun. I think it's just me and him going though."

"That sounds like fun. Good bonding time," I laughed, "I'll be there."

"Are you two hungry?" My dad said as he entered the small kitchen.

"I'm starving Rook," Jordan exclaimed.

"Me too. Where are we going?"

"You two want to go get us some lunch? I'll buy if you go get them," my dad said, pulling out his wallet.

"Sure, come on Jordan," I said as I grabbed the card out of my dad's hands. "Just text me what you want and I'll get it," I called to my dad as we walked out the door.

I had always tried to be a "good girl" (for my dad's sake) but I had still felt trapped by the restraints being a preacher's kid put on me. Everyone always watched you and expected you to be perfect. So when Jordan and I stepped out of the church offices, I felt as free as I had been on my drives home from Wagner. We hopped into my car and I immediately gave him the aux chord and rolled the windows down.

"I just wanna do something crazy, ya know?" I said as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"What do you mean? What kind of crazy?" He yelled over the music.

"I don't know," I yelled back, "like party, get drunk, drive until I run out of gas. Just something wild!"

"We need to have another night like Saturday night!" Jordan shouted.

"Hell yeah!" I smiled at him.