Rise (Colton Dixon)

Chapter 20

Alexis
I wake up to “Sick of It”, way too early for a weekend. Seriously. I’m never up before eleven on Sundays. But I roll out of red anyway, swearing quietly before turning to what to wear. I think you’re supposed to dress up for church. But that’s certainly not going to happen, so I grab a pair of skinny jeans and a blue cami, add my leather jacket, and I’m good to go.
By the time I’m showered and ready, it’s nine-fifteen. I almost go to check my phone again, but yesterday’s scene flashes through my mind, and I put it away. I am not greeting them in tears again. Especially because there’s always the chance that Joel and Luke might ******* see.
I’m already hoping that they don’t notice I’m not wearing their ******* necklace. I think I threw it away last night, but I’m not sure. I was so tired that it’s all kind od a blur.
I lean back on the couch and close my eyes, thinking back over what I do remember of yesterday.
I just can’t figure these people out. But whatever, right? They’ll leave for another show, and they’ll disappear from my life. Today’s the last day of them.
I have no idea how long it takes, but, finally, I hear a knock at the door and answer it to find Colton there once again.
He greets me with that same ready smile.
“You actually answered the door,” he laughs. “I wasn’t positive you would.”
“Yeah, me either,” I mutter, just loud enough for him to hear.
Waiting a little back are Joel, Luke, John, and Mike. Dude, they’re seriously scared of this place. It’s honestly slightly amusing.
This time, there’s more than just the van waiting for us. There’s several more vehicles that I can see waiting out on the main street. Apparently, they’re all going this time. But these guys are still in the van, and I follow Colton in to take the same place as yesterday, in the back with him and Annie.
I am surprised and slightly relieved to notice that they’re not exactly in formal wear either. Annie’s in a skirt, but Jen and Korey are both in jeans, and the guys are fairly casual too. Maybe they don’t have fancy stuff with them?
It isn’t a long drive before we pull into the parking lot of a large, white-stone building with a huge red cross wrapping around it. It’s not exactly the tiny wooden shack I was expecting.
We pile out of our cars, and I suddenly feel really self-conscious. I mean, we’re a huge group. And beyond that, to the people in here, I’m with a bunch of celebrities.
I turn to Colton. “Aren’t you gonna get quite a bit of attention in here?”
He smiles. “Maybe a little. The reason we’re coming here is because Seth is a friend of the youth pastor, Daren Foster. He did say that his youth group was probably going to freak out when they saw us, but Christians don’t usually go to quite the extremes as secular fans do.”
I nod slowly. I hope not. Because I don’t really want to be mobbed the minute we walk through the doors.
I don’t really know if I want to hide behind Colton as we walk in, or try to hide him so that we don’t get pounced on, but it’s not like I can cover all of them, so my own wish to not be seen clearly wins out, and I drop behind him and step so that he’s partially covering me. I just hope he doesn’t notice.
That hope was dead on arrival. Why does he have to be so freaking observant?
He takes my hand and pulls me to his side, grinning encouragingly.
“Relax. You’re gonna do fine.”
I sigh and fix my eyes on the ground as we push through the front doors of the church. Breath. Just breath.
There’s a receptionist desk directly in front of us, a set of nice chairs and couches around a fake fireplace to the left, and then there’s a bend around which I can see the edge of a small coffee shop. The place is inviting, I’ll give it that.
There’s a group of men around the fireplace, but they’re engaged in conversation, and they don’t notice us as we walk in and around the bend.
There’s probably fifteen teenagers sitting at the coffee shop tables and at the counter, plus another with a dude that looks around forty behind the counter. He looks up at us and smiles in the direction of Seth.
“Seth, my man!”
“Daren!” Seth greets him.
And the teens look up with little more than feeble curiosity. A gorgeous girl who looks a little older than the rest, probably eighteen or nineteen, realizes it first. Her eyes widen, and her hands fly over her mouth.
“Oh my gosh.” I barely hear her whisper.
And chaos breaks out, with everyone talking at once.
“Whoa, you really do know Skillet, Foster!” One girl says in utter shock.
They call him by his last name, apparently. That’s just weird.
He laughs. “Gee, it feels good to be trusted.” He turns to us with a smile. “I told you they’d be delighted.”
Seth chuckles. “Hey, we’re just people.”
I hesitantly follow Colton the rest of the way over to them, but, as promised, we’re not mobbed or anything. There’s some autograph signing and quite a few repetitions of “Ohmygosh”, but other than that, the teenagers talk to the people around me fairly normally… a little nervous, but that’s it.
Colton sits down at a free table, carrying on conversation with people as needed, and I sink down next to him, trying not to be noticed.
Several minutes, and my hopes are dashed.
Seth comes over with Daren… Foster… whatever, and he immediately turns to me.
“And are you an up-and-coming singer?” he asks easily.
I shake my head quickly, not meeting his eyes.
“We met her Friday night and have been forcing her to hang out with us while we’re here,” Colton laughs. “This is Alexis.”
The youth pastor holds out his hand to me. “Nice to meet you, Alexis. I’m Daren, or Foster, as the youth call me.”
I mumble something he’ll probably take as a greeting and shake his hand timidly.
He moves on, much to my relief, and I turn to people watching. My eyes light on Joel and Luke, sitting and talking to a girl who was alone when we first came in. And my eyes light on her exposed arms. They’re scarred. Like, there are fresh scars on one.
What the heck? Colton, who’s just finished talking to another one of the teens, turns to me with a slight smile, obviously seeing where I’m looking.
“See?” he asks mildly. “You’re not the only one who gets the speech. But she doesn’t really seem to think of it as a lecture.”
I roll my eyes and look away. “Whatever. You don’t know that’s what they’re saying.”
“You’re right,” he agrees. “I don’t. But I have a pretty good feeling that it is.”
I don’t answer.
You know what, just because she’s here doesn’t mean she’s accepted here, right? I mean, she was by herself.
And the youth pastor passes by, turning to her and saying something. The look on his face makes it very clear that it was something out of fondness. Well, there goes that.
Whatever. I don’t care.
This is still a bunch of ****.
We sit out here and talk for about half an hour before heading into the service. It’s a large, open room with grey chairs lined up before a good-sized stage. And standing on the stage is what looks like a legitimate band. So maybe I was expecting straight wooden pews and a rickety old piano. Whatever.
The pastor is a man I’d put about sixty, and I have to admit he has a nice face. A kind face. He greets, then turns with a kind smile to where I’m sitting with Colton and the others.
“This morning, we also have some special guests with us. It’s good to see that none of our youth out there fainted when they saw you,” he adds, chuckling, “but these people are some very devoted worshipers of God that have become well known and used that to only further the Kingdom that much more, and we are very happy to have them here.”
He pauses, while people turn to look at us… and I slump further down in my seat… and chorus their agreement.
“We’re going to have some nice voices added to our congregation’s mix,” the pastor continues, then adds with another smile, “And please make sure to sign our friendship pads so that we have record of this and everyone knows I’m not lying.”
The congregation laughs, as do Colton and the others, but they do sign in to the little red book you’re apparently supposed to. Mike, who’s on the other side of me, offers the ******* thing to me, but I immediately pass it to Colton. I don’t want them to have my ******* name, never mind any of that other stuff.
The dude finishes his stupid announcements that I don’t give a **** about, before the team up on the stage starts to play. Some people… including all of the ones I’m with… stand, but there are still quite a few around the room seated and I follow their example. I’m not going to stand to worship some God I don’t believe in.
I basically zone out until the pastor gets up in front again, after three or four songs.
He prays… I zone him out again, and goes on to start preaching about peace, but I’m seriously not listening. If I wasn’t so nervous, I would be asleep.
But it doesn’t last the three hours I’m expecting. He’s winding down within an hour, talking about “as we go to the Communion tables” or something. Whatever the **** that’s supposed to mean.
But, as he releases us to go, everyone gets up and moves to get what looks like tiny cups of grape juice and pieces of cracker from tables around the room. Um, okay then.
Colton turns to me. “You’re welcome to come and take it,” he says quietly. “Jesus wants everyone to come.”
I just shake my head. “I think I’ll pass.”
“Okay.” He replies quietly. “Because He also doesn’t want to force us.”
He gets up to get it, returns with… yes, it is grape juice and crackers, closes his eyes in prayer for a good three minutes, and finally eats the cracker and drinks the juice. Seriously, these people are mental.
And they go back into worship. I zone them out again.
Finally, we’re released.
But it wasn’t actually as bad as I was expecting.
I walk with Colton and the others back out to the vans, and return to our backseat with Colton and Annie.
Finally, I honestly cannot take it anymore.
I turn to him, quiet, but not trying to hide the distain from my voice.
“Crackers and juice? What is that even supposed to mean?”
He smiles slightly. “You really didn’t listen to a word he said, did you?” he asks, obviously amused, but unsurprised. “Cause he did explain it to those who don’t know.”
I shrug. “Why would I care about what he’s talking about?”
He laughs. “I’m not even gonna try to answer that one. But, as for Communion, before Jesus was killed on the Cross and rose again three days later, He had his last supper with his disciples. When he was giving them the bread, He told them it was His body that was broken for them, and to eat it and remember Him. Then He gave them the wine, and said it was His blood that was spilled for them, and to drink it, and remember Him. We use juice and crackers sometimes, sometimes we use bread. I think some people even still use wine. But we do it to remember Jesus and what He did, just like He told us to.”
I give him a long look. “He told them it was His bread and body?” I ask finally. “That’s just creepy.”
Colton laughs. “He was talking about how the bread was broken and the wine was poured out – or spilled – not about eating them.”
I just shake my head, swearing under my breath. I’m serious. That’s just mental.

A/N: So, first off, sorry this has taken so long. I thought I was gonna write this chapter one way, and then I didn't like it that way, so I rewrote it about a billion times, plus yesterday I got to see the Thorn for the second time (ohmygosh, it's seriously amazing!), so I didn't have a chance to write. Anyway, better late than never, right?