Golden Rain [COMPLETE]

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I scrambled out of my bedroom, searching wildly for my phone that was somewhere in the living room area. I generally didn't have such a mess since I hated not being able to find things when I needed them, but recently—with graduation only two months away—I'd been a little more occupied with studying and spending time with my friends and family than cleaning up my apartment.

I finally found my phone halfway eaten by the couch cushions and quickly answered the FaceTime before it timed out. My face instantly pulled into a smile upon seeing Sav on the other end, her hair pulled back in Dutch braids that I assumed Miranda had begged her to let her style. "Hey, dork. What's up?"

"We're going to the beach and we're parked outside of your apartment right now. Get Kaybree and Abby and let's go!"

"We?"

Sav tilted the phone to show a smiling Miranda in the driver's seat and Rico pouting in the back. "Look where they've confined me, Kason. You have to come punish them."

I chuckled, shaking my head at him. "Isn't it still a little too cold for the beach?"

"Of course not," Miranda piped in. "It's a nice day! And it's not like we're going to swim. Just come hang out with us."

I pretended to think about it, pressing my lips together. "I don't know..."

When I stayed silent for several moments longer, Sav rolled her eyes. "Oh, just say yes already. You're being annoying."

Chuckling, I nodded. "Alright. We'll be down as fast as we can."

Sav's eyes sparkled. "Great." And then she hung up.

I just scoffed and then went to go get things together.

"Guess who gets outside time, flower?" I called as I came back into my room and made my way over to Abigail's crib.

She wiggled, peering up at me and babbling a string of incoherent gibberish.

But I said—like I understood her perfectly—"That's right; we do." I scooped down and picked her up, raising her above my head and then blowing a raspberry on her tummy. When I lowered her, she had a wide smile across her face. And while her smile still always made me smile, one of these days, I was going to get her to laugh and it would be the best sound I ever heard. But, you know, baby steps... No pun intended.

As I got her things together and put her in her car carrier, my smile lingered, thinking about how much better things had gotten over the past several weeks. How much she'd gotten better. Her lung recovered so fast that the doctors were calling it a miracle. Apparently, they weren't even sure what they'd done that had caused her healing to be so rapid and successful. But I knew better. It was nothing that they did. It was what God did.

That was another thing that pulled the edges of my lips. Ever since I'd accepted Jesus, things had just felt... different. And it was nice because I wasn't going at it as blindly anymore since Sav was here. Nearly every other time we hung out, we did a Bible study because there was so much that I didn't know but wanted to know. And Sav was like a biblical encyclopedia. Most times, we would talk into the early hours of the morning until one of us crashed. But every time I woke up, extremely late for classes, I was happier than I'd ever been.

As I locked my apartment door, I felt that same pervasive joy now, unable to suppress it.

A few floors down the elevator and I was at Kaybree's apartment. I knocked on the door and then walked in, knowing it would be unlocked as she always left it. "Bree, it's me!"

She slid out of her room in her socks, her hair flailing around her. She spit out a strand that had found its way into her mouth and then smiled. "Hey, what's up?"