Chapter 46
I felt a bit bad about turning down Justin’s offer to study with me, but I really didn’t have much time to think about it. The group met at five, so I had to hustle through my math homework and read for history. I don’t know how, but I had all my homework done and was out the door by four thirty. Grandma didn’t like how much I had to rush, but I couldn’t exactly skip.
At the church, I found the youth minister. Luckily I knew him, because on my first week he made sure to introduce himself. I wasn’t exactly sure whether or not that was Grandma’s doing.
“It’s great to see you again Emma!” He was a slightly overweight man who was always happy. Of course, he had nothing to worry about. He had the perfect family. His daughter, Sarah was only nine, yet she had mastered almost every instrument she could get her hands on. She played the piano during every mass, and from what I heard, she could also sing.
“It’s great to see you too, Mr. Schmitt.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Marcus?” He crossed his arms like he was being stern, but had a smile on his face nonetheless.
“Sorry Marcus”
“It’s fine, now I must be the one to apologize. I see you have signed up to work with the eight to ten year olds, but it seems we have three volunteers for that group and only one for the eleven to thirteen year old. Would you mind terribly switching?”
“Of course I’ll switch Marcus,” his small smile turned into a grin.
“Perfect, Sarah!” he called his daughter who had been teaching her friends how to play hot cross buns on the piano. She hopped up and came running over.
“Yes daddy?” Her hands were folded behind her skirt and she rocked forward and back on her feet.
“Sarah, you mustn’t run in church. I shouldn’t have to remind you again.” I started to feel slightly awkward while Marcus reprimanded his daughter.
“Sorry father,” the young girl looked down at her dress shoes.
“It’s not me you must apologize to. This isn’t my house-”
“It’s God’s house, I know, I’ll add it to my reconciliation.”
“Good, now will you take Emma here down to the pre-teen room? And then you and your friends better take your seats.”
“Yes daddy,” Sarah took my hand and led to the stairs. In the basement there was one large room and about five smaller rooms along with a bathroom. The doors were aptly marked, so I really didn’t need Sarah to take to the room with a red piece of paper reading 10-13s taped to the door, but she did. In fact she opened the door and walked in. “Hi Vince,” she said to the boy with his back turned to me.
“Hey Sarah,” he turned around. He indeed was Vince. “And Emma,” his voice matched the surprised face. “What are you doing here?”
“Grandma volunteered me, because I didn’t go to church Sunday.” I shrugged. “You volunteer every week?”
“No, I just volunteered to work this week.” His eyes went from me to the young girl next to me. “Sarah, you better get back upstairs.”
“Alright, bye Vince,” she waved and then skipped out the door.
“I think someone has a crush on you,” I smile at the thought.
“Yeah,” Vince laughed. “Ally thinks it’s adorable.”
“So what’s so special about this week?”
“No one told you?” Vince seemed honestly surprised. “This week’s topic is relationships. Marcus asked me to lead the discussion.”
“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.”
“Wow, you really are a jerk. My boyfriend asked me out after we kissed too. Actually, we told one another we liked each other and then got in a fight so we didn’t talk for a week until he kissed me. It was a few days later that he officially asked me out, because his girlfriend,” I pointed at Vince with my thumb, “told him he had to.” It was obvious that some of the girls wanted to hear these stories from the way they leaned forward. They must have thought it was like watching a cheesy romance film.
“I guess I would say that as long as you’re honest and just ask them, don’t try to be cocky, girls will probably say yes.” Vince finished with a bit of advice.
“And chocolate, girls like to get chocolate,” I added my two cents.
“Why didn’t I think of that when I was trying to get Ally?” I shrugged. “Time for the next question,” Vince pulled one out of the bin. “How do you know when someone likes you?” He read out loud. “I guess they come and kiss you in the middle of the school yard is not the answer you’re looking for?” I laughed with the rest of the group.
“I don’t have much of an answer either, mine is they tell you.” I shrugged. “I’m kind of terrible at this.”
“I guess the best way to know is to ask.” Vince and I were both at a loss on this one.
“Next question?” I suggested reaching into the bin. “How old is too old for a first kiss?” I smiled at the question. “It’s never too old. Your first kiss should be with someone you actually care about and not just with some random person because you want to get it over with.”
“I think Emma answered that one sufficiently,” Vince looked into the bin. “And there are no more questions left, so I guess we’ll have to answer the questions we were given by Marcus.” There was an audible groan. Vince flipped to the page full of questions. “Number one,” he read. “Oh I see we’re starting with a great one!” I couldn’t tell if his tone was sarcastic or not, but it was definitely patronizing. “How do you have the talk with a girlfriend or boyfriend about sex?” A few members of the group looked around and shifted uncomfortably. “You could have given more questions,” Vince smirked.
“This talk is necessary in every romantic relationship. Don’t think you can avoid it and have a good relationship.” Vince thankfully took this question. “You should talk about this early on, so you both know what to expect.” Justin and I haven’t had this conversation. “It’ll be awkward, but it will also save you from a lot more awkward moments later on. Just tell them you need to talk, probably not those exact words, because they’ll think you’re breaking up with them. Sit down somewhere where there are no distractions, and preferably somewhere private. Then ask them if they are ready for a sexual relationship. Now the church will teach you abstinence, so we won’t lecture you on that and school will teach you the age of consent, so we won’t push that either. Just make sure you are ready. You might not be ready until you’re thirty, and that’s fine. If you can’t talk about this seriously, you are not ready.”
“One last thing,” I figured I should add something, “just because your partner says they are ready, does not mean you have to be.” The rest of the questions were equally awkward, but we got through them and then got to eat pizza before we took the group upstairs for mass.
“Do you want to go to the diner and get a shake?” Vince asked we walked out to our cars.
“Ah, I don’t know, it’s a school night.” We had gotten to my car.
“What are you, my mother?” Vince joked, but we both grew silent when we realized what he said. “I think you deserve ice cream after what we had to go through tonight.” Vince spoke again after a long pause.
“Alright, but just because you have to tell me what you did to get ally to go out with you,” a smirk grew on my face.
“Deal, I’ll drive?”
“I can,” we were already at my car. Vince didn’t protest, instead he walked around and got in on the passenger side. He refused to tell me the entire ride about how he asked Ally out. He said he needed a shake in hand. He was just being stubborn. When we did get our shakes, I asked him again. “Thanks Maggie,” I said to the waitress before turning on Vince. “Now tell me!”
“Aren’t these just the best shakes ever?” Vince took a sip of his. I didn’t reply, but glared at him. “Fine,” his face broke into a grin. “Alright, alright, the first time I asked her out I went to her locker and said ‘I like you all of the time, will you go out with me?’ she replied with no and then shut her locker and walked away.” He toke another sip of his shake. “I texted and asked her every night after that. I would ask her every time I saw her at school and that when she told me she wouldn’t date me if I was a jerk. I was part of the fall pep fest, so when I had the microphone, I pulled Ally out of her seat and said ‘Ally I know you said you wouldn’t date me if I continued to be a jerk, and I promise I will never be a jerk again, but if you say no in front of the entire school, you’ll be the jerk. So, will you go out with me?’ She of course said yes. She later told I was a jerk for doing that to her and tried to get out of it, but we went on our first date and I woed her, so we’ve been dating ever since.”
“You’re still a jerk”
“Yeah, I guess you can’t change a guy. So, what about you and Justin, what are you going to say to Nana and the Petersons?”
“I don’t know,” I stirred the shake in front of me with my straw. “I’ve had other things on my mind.”
“Michael?”
I nodded. “He asked me to go to Rochester to meet him on Sunday. Grandma doesn’t want me to go alone.”
“The Mayo? That’s serious.”
“Yeah,” my eyes started to tear up as I thought of poor Bella being in my situation. “I’m worried about Bella.”
“I know you are, I know. If you want, I’ll go with you.”
“You will?”
“This girl might end up like me, the least I can do is make sure you’re there to help her through it.”
“You’re a good guy Vince.”
Author’s Note:
So when I was editing earlier chapters, I realized I switched King/Peterson family dinners from Fridays to Sundays, so I’m going to fix that and put them all back on Fridays. Sorry about that. I hope it doesn’t mess too much with the storyline. Anyhoo, thanks for being as hip as a hippogriff (can you tell I’m running out of ways to say how awesome you guys are?),
Devin4862