Chapter 7
Finding yourself in a situation where everyone hates you, even yourself, is not good for anyone. Especially when that someone has recently discovered they no longer want to live with the past baggage they have been carrying around for years.
Ever since Tonya moved to the city, she carried baggage. At first, it started as a carrying case. A small lie here, a little fib there. Then she added a medium size suitcase. Too big for a carry-on, but still manageable. Going too far when making out with some guy at a party. But over the past three years, the baggage was piled so high, she could not carry them all, she would juggle them and move them around so that she could handle everything in her life. But, this summer, when everything fell apart, lies, her relationship with Heath being one-way and overburdened with guilt, and then Nana having a stroke. Tonya felt her baggage crumble down on her burying her in an avalanche of lies, deception and illicit actions.
Amazingly, when Tonya came to terms with her actions, she found that she was free. She no longer felt guilt and shame. She took control of her past and faced it head on. She knew she was living in truth now and God had forgiven her. She was now trying to forgive herself, and that was a bit harder. The worst thing was when Heath or one of his “friends” would remind her of the past. She tried to let things roll off her. Tonya was good at hiding things that bothered her. She always seemed to have a response to their jabs. Others that witnessed these events thought Tonya was funny or quick on her feet to reply to the insults. She was, but that was also her way of hiding that things really bothered her.
Occasionally, things would come out of her mouth and she didn’t even know they were being said until it was too late. One day, she was coming out of Calculus, her brain was still hurting from the past hour of trying to figure out complex problems. She was heading to the cafeteria for lunch and to meet Julie and Tanner. She saw Heath down the hallway, but he was with his buddies laughing about something. When suddenly she collided into someone. She had seen the new kid a couple of times in the hallway, but never this close. The hallway was rather empty, which surprised her when she knocked into what seemed like a moving wall. He was taller than he looked at a distance. His eyes were blue. His hair was dark and wavy. He was a lot more solid, built more than he looked too. Basically, he was cute.
“Wow! You’re CUTE!” Tonya said. “Oh Crap! Did, I just say that out loud?”
“Yes you did. And you are not bad yourself.”
“Not bad?” Tonya said as she bent down to pick up her books that were now on the floor.
Brent bent down to help her. After all, he wasn’t looking where he was going. “Well, you are cute yourself. But, I don’t normally go around telling girls I don’t know that.” He said with a smile.
As they stood up, Tonya started walking towards the cafeteria and Brent went with her. “Hi. I’m Brent Stevens.”
“Hi, I’m Tonya Perry. Nice to meet you Brent.”
“You too Tonya.”
“Already going after the new guy Tonya?” Heath said over her shoulder.
She didn’t see him coming and she hated this. She just met this cute guy and now Heath was going to tell him all her past before he even knew her. “Heath, you know, looking back, I can’t figure out what I ever saw in you?”
“Just trying to let the new guy know what he is in for.” Heath said smiling as he walked past them to the cafeteria.
“Sorry,” Tonya said to Brent. “We broke up the end of the summer. We only went out for about a month, but now he thinks he needs to insult me daily.”
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Sowing Faith, Reaping Love
Short StoryTanner had been in and out of trouble, fighting, stealing and this was his last chance. He had come to live on the farm with the Croft's during the summer, and fell in love with Julie. But, he had nothing to offer her. How did her faith work into th...