Fortitude

33-Flashback

A bible?
Where did this come from?

Images of a silver lip piercing started flashing into my mind as I tried to replay the events of the previous night. I held it in my arms as I flipped through the pages, revealing an array of multicolored highlighter marks. My head still hurt so I put it down and decided to take a shower.

I later went to the kitchen to find something to silence my grumbling stomach. I froze at the doorway when I saw a guy with a lip piercing talking to my mother.

"Lily! You're up! Your friend says that you have something that belongs to him,"

So my mother is now letting strangers into our house?

"Hey," his husky voice greeted me as he got up and walked towards me with a smile. Daylight is the most beautiful thing ever. Especially when it rests on a chocolate skinned guy with neatly shaven hair, lazy eyes, deep dimples and a pearly white smile that you could see from Timbuktu. Then there's the piercing that accentuates everything. Breathtaking my friend. Simply breathtaking. He was still short though.

"I'd like my Bible back. But I'd prefer if you brought it to a Bible study down the block," he said with a smirk when my mother left the room.

Wait what?

"Did you just say Bible study?" I asked completely baffled.

"Yeah,"

"And what makes you think I'll do that?"

"I managed to get myself into your house. I'm sure I also have the ability to convince your mother to believe a story about her curly haired daughter sneaking in dru-"

"Sssshhh," I cut him off as I placed my hand over his mouth. "Are you blackmailing me? I'm sure this is illegal! " I said as I let go of his mouth.

"So is underage drinking, so do we have a deal?" He answered with a raised eyebrow. I let out an exasperated sigh then nodded. He then headed to the door.

"Hey, I don't even know your name!"

"Ken, not for Kenneth or Kennedy, just Ken."

"Okay Kennethdy,"

"Come on Lily!" He protested and I shoved him out laughing.

One thing led to another and Bible study became my new thing. I was honestly just going to see Kennethdy, but at some point the Word actually spoke to me. I couldn't quite put my finger on a specific verse but it was just one after the other. Ken was always there to help me understand anything that troubled me as I was always there getting trapped in his charming nature. I gave my life to Christ during one of the sessions. It was the best feeling ever.

Considering neither of us went to boarding schools, we had more and more time with each other. He eventually learnt that my full name was Elizabeth and he never let slide. An year passed. I went to church every Sunday without fail and this made my parents fall in love with Ken. I learnt that he loved yellow and he learnt that I loved blue. We had a tradition of sending each other random blue and yellow gifts. The one gift I swore to myself that I'd keep for eternity was a little fluffy blue bird keychain.

We both graduated high school. And that is when the actual drama began. We had been together for two great years when Ken decided that there was no point in waiting any longer. So he proposed, with the most beautiful diamond ring I'd ever seen. He said that he wanted a sapphire one though, since it was bluish. He dropped the idea after going through a bunch of jewellery shops to no avail.