One Way Bridge

Chapter 46

“Great,” I plopped into a seat with my voice full of sarcasm.

“Troubles in paradise?”

“No, it’s just Justin and I have decided to tell Grandma and his parents.”

“You told them?”

“No, we’re going to do it Friday at dinner.”

Vince was about to reply when the door opened. “Hey guys,” it was Marcus; “here’s the itinerary and list of suggested questions.” He handed a packet to Vince. “The kids are at opening prayer right now. We’ll being them down in a couple minutes.”

Both Vince and I mumbled a thanks as the door closed behind him. “So what are we supposed to do?”

“Um,” Vince quickly skimmed the first page. “We have them take a seat on the ground in a circle and go through names, and then we play a game.” He continued scanning down the page. “This week’s game is the passing game. And then it looks like we talk about relationships.”

“Sounds easy enough”

“Yeah,” the door opened again, but this time multiple people walked in. “Hey guys,” Vince turned to them. “Let’s form a circle on the ground.”  I don’t know what I expected, but when everyone sat done and Vince took a seat in the middle of a group of friends, I was surprised. Later I realized it kept them from being distracting to the rest of the group. I copied Vince and took a seat on the ground completing the circle.

There were about fifteen kids in our group and pretty evenly split from what I could see. Thankfully, Vince didn’t wait for me to start the conversation. “Alright guys and gals, I know you know each other, but we don’t, so we’re going to go around and say our names. I’ll start. My name’s Vince, I’m seventeen and a junior.” The boy next to him said his name was Ryan and around the circle we went. The first part was pretty easy, but I just let Vince lead.

We played a game where we tossed a tennis ball around in a pattern and then added more balls until it became nearly impossible. Then we sat back in our circle, this time Vince sat next to me so we could both see the list of questions.  “So guys, this week’s topic is relationships.” Vince told them and you could see the kids recoil. “I have been in a relationship with my girlfriend for about two years.”  He didn’t leave any time for me to state whether or not I was in a relationship, and for that I was kind of thankful. “I guess we’ll start with any questions you have?”

One girl raised her hand. “Are you two dating?” I could see how uncomfortable she was asking.

“No,” I spoke up. “I actually have a boyfriend, and we’ve been dating for a few weeks now.” It was weird saying it aloud.

“Oh,” I watched the girls shoulders raise and scoot a bit backwards out of embarrassment.

“What if we have you guys submit questions anonymously?” I offered up a suggestion.

“That’s a great idea!” Vince grabbed some paper and markers which were out on the counter. After a couple minutes, everyone who wanted to placed a question in the marker bin.

I picked the first one out. Written on it in sloppy handwriting was ‘How do you ask a girl out?’  “I’ll let you take this one,” I turned to Vince.

“Alright, well Ally, my girlfriend actually kissed me first and told me that she liked me when I wasn’t a jerk. That made asking her out a bit easier, because I didn’t think she would turn me down, but she did.” I smiled at the thought. It definitely sounded like Ally. “She told me she wouldn’t go out with me until I stopped being a jerk, so in the end I asked her out in front of the entire school. She had to say yes so she wouldn’t sound like a jerk.”