~Selena~
Oddly enough, the next place on our to-do list was a church.
Surprise surprise, the whole 'pointing out each others' wrong doings' soon led to a full on debate on who was the worst human being. As far as I could tell, the only one not in the running for being the sin-emperor, was Tom.
Again, surprise surprise.
After ages of pointing out what terrible people we were, everyone began feeling shitty and guilt ridden. Well, everyone except Jerry, who took pride in his immoral endeavors. (I thought that in itself proves who the worst of us really was.)
So Lilly suggested that we go to a church and do a confession, where we can actually tell another person about all of the illegal crap we've done over the years and not get arrested.
Of course, all protests were silenced by Lilly's warning glare.
As it turns out, there was a young priest-in-training who happened to be there, (though at this godly hour who knows why?). He was a slender slip of a young man, with floppy brown hair, wide blue eyes, and delicate features. Everything about him, just screamed innocent. Also, he seemed to genuinely want to help us, which was probably not very smart. He gladly offered to be in the other box and take our confessions or whatever, as soon as he glanced at our stripper and shirtless street fighter outfits.
He ushered us inside with haste, and I could see it in his expression that he was thinking 'These loons need Jesus ASAP'.
To this day, I never really understood confession booths. No matter how you look at it, talking to someone in a box, while you're sitting in an adjacent box but equally as boring box, is just about as abstract as it gets. In fact, I'm pretty sure I had a strange dream like this, except that the person in the other box was Brittany Spears and my box was on fire.
As usual, I wasn't quite sure what my subconscious was trying to tell me.
Tom offered to go into the box first, though I knew that his worst crime was merely going along with the rest of us, in addition to possibly stalking Lilly like she had stalked him.
Next came Lilly, who had started crying at some point during her turn. We could hear her wailing from where we were waiting outside, and the two more inconsiderate boys (guess who), exchanged disbelieving looks. I elbowed Jerry in the ribs just as Lilly stepped out, sniffling into her arm. I wasn't sure what she was feeling bad about, but I gave her a comforting hug afterwords regardless.
Alex took a long time during her turn. Like, a very long time.
It made sense though. Her list of sins was probably as long as the quantity of pi.
She looked relieved when she emerged from the box, one hand absentmindedly curling around her stomach. My heart warmed, and a sudden wave of affection for my misunderstood friend had me rushing in to hug her.
Next was my turn.
I'll admit, I was nervous. Touchy-feely heart to hears has never been my forte, even with the people I was close to, let alone some stranger in a box who I would forever imagine as Brittany Spears.
Conner noticed this, as usual. He took my hand and pulled me into the box alongside him, slamming shut the door before the others in our group could even ask 'Are you stupid or what?'.
Of course, the young priest on the other side could see us through the tiny speaking holes between the two boxes.
He cleared his throat, and I knew he was about to tell us that confessional booths were supposed to be with one person at a time. But he stopped abruptly, and turning my head to see the threatening glare in Conner's green eyes, I harshly kicked him in the shin.
"Ow!" Conner yelped. His glare turned to me.
I rolled my eyes. "I'm like, 80% sure that threatening a priest is a sin."
"Only 80%?" I heard the priest mutter to himself.
Conner huffed, crossing his arms over his bare chest and facing forward, looking an awful lot like a pouting kid. "Whatever."
I couldn't resist ruffling his hair affectionately, until he snorted and batted my hand away.
"Excuse me...." A small voice came from the other side as the priest spoke up. "Would you like to...?"
"Make out? Don't mind if we do-" Conner was cut off when I harshly elbowed him in the gut, and he bent over, gasping for air.
"Yes, of course." I replied politely, ignoring Conner. I cleared my throat, thinking back to all of the... well, immoral things I've done over the years. "Forgive me for I have sinned. Or something. I've done many...... unethical and not entirely legal things in my life. And I'm truly sorry that I........ ever listened to this idiot's ideas."
"Excuse me?" Conner piped up, thoroughly offended.
"Breaking and entering, underage drinking, vandalism, evading arrest, public disruption..." I listed off, shrugging. I turned to the priest. "Is lying still a no no?" He nodded, looking disbelievingly like he wanted to speak but holding back. "-Lying. I'm just saying that the only reason I've done anything bad in my entire life is because of you. Just saying."
"Hey!" Conner protested. "I did not-!" He looked back at where the priest was sitting, pointing at me accusingly. "She's a big fat liar!"
"Tsk tsk." I wagged my finger in his face admonishing. "Slandering an innocent young female, in a church no less! That's low Con, even for you."
"Wha-" He turned back to glare at me. "I'm just saying that I've never made you do anything you didn't agree with! And now you're pinning all of the blame on me!"
"Denialllllll." I sang out with a triumphant smirk.
He turned back to the priest, opening his mouth in what I knew would be his defense. Naturally, I interrupted him before he got the chance. "Is there anything else you'd like to confess, Concon? Like say....." I tapped my finger against my chin dramatically. "Committing acts of indecency before marriage?"
The priest on the other side audibly gasped, and I smirked as Conner's face heated up. He glared at me, emerald eyes shimmering with frustration. "Like you're one to talk!"
"Oh dear..." The young priest murmured to himself, and he cleared his voice to speak up. "Th-thank you for confessing your sins. God offers you his forgiveness th-through kind deeds and self-reflection. I-is there anything else you'd like to mention?" He sounded afraid to ask.
"Actually, there is one more thing." Conner cleared his throat, grabbing my hand. I looked at him in surprise. He was still blushing a little bit, but he seemed to be speaking seriously, and was making an effort to be composed.
I could see traces of sorrow appearing in his eyes, and I squeezed his hand comfortingly, letting him go on.
"This girl-" He raised up our joined hands. "This is the girl that I'm in love with- the girl that I will be in love with for the rest of my life. And I've done everything I could to protect her and make sure that she's happy. But I....." He trailed off, squeezing my hand tighter and looking down at his feet ashamedly. "I let her down recently. I was irresponsible and naive and I got her pregnant, but by the time we found out-"
His voice cut off, and his head turned to face the wall opposite where I was sitting. I realized with a pang that he was trying not to cry.
My heart clenched painfully in my chest. I gripped his hand just as tightly and faced forward with what little determination I had left. "I was just as at fault as he was, if not more. Perhaps if I had realized that I was pregnant sooner-" I gulped down my emotions and stormed on. No way was I giving up this time, especially when Conner was clearly so upset beside me. "Then I wouldn't have had a miscarriage. I irresponsibly went to a party, and got drunk, and got into an accident. And for that, I'm truly sorry."
I gazed lovingly at the back of Conner's head, which was still turned away from me. But by the shaking of his hands, I knew he was listening. "But I never once wished things had happened differently. Regret won't do anything but cause us more heartache. And if that hadn't happened, despite the anguishing circumstances, Conner and I might never have confessed our feelings to each other."
Conner finally faced me again, his eyes swimming with conflicting emotions of sorrow and enamour. I leaned over to give him a soft kiss on the cheek, and was rewarded with a million watt smile, with an adorable dimple on the side.
I faced forward again. "So if there really is a God out there somewhere, I just wanted to say... I'm sorry. And thank you."
The young priest smiled softly at us, nodding his head. "Amen."
We walked out of the booth, hand in hand.
I breathed out a sigh of relief when we finally sat down in the stands alongside our friends. It felt as if the weight that had been looming over my shoulders since the incident, had finally been lifted, and breathing suddenly wasn't difficult.
"Feel enlightened?" Jerry asked dryly, seeing our expressions.
"Yes, actually." Conner gave me another warm smile that made my heart race. "This sort of thing isn't so bad.... once in a while."
"Oh please." Alex rolled her eyes. "We heard you two when you were bickering- were you guys actually having an argument in a confession booth?"
I shrugged guiltily. "Call it self discovery?" I offered.
Lilly snorted. "Self discovery usually involves one person, not a pair of idiots." Tom only rolled his eyes in silent agreement with his ex-girlfriend.
Jerry stood up and made a show of dusting himself off. "Well," He clapped his hands together. "I guess I'm up last!" He jogged over the the box with a mischievous smirk on his face, and I silently prayed for the young priest.
Jerry almost took as long as Alex did, which was surprising in that he seemed to take pride in his wrongdoings.
When he finally emerged from the box, we all groaned at the self-satisfied look of triumph on his face.
"What the hel-heck" Alex corrected herself. "-did you do to him?"
The young priest in question shakily emerged from the box, face beet red and eyes downcasted and watering like a terrified rabbit. He trembled and stiffly walked away from us without another word, and it was then that I noticed the obvious bulge in his clothes.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I gaped at Jerry in pure disbelief. Tom groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. "Please tell me you didn't. Please, for the love of God tell me you didn't."
Jerry merely shrugged, glancing back at where the priest was hurriedly leaving with a sly grin. "What? Cute is cute."
"Sexually harassing a male priest, in a church? Really, Jerry?" Conner asked incredulously.
"Priest in training." Jerry corrected. He smirked. "His name is Levi."
Alex slapped a hand to her forehead and started marching out of the church, exclaiming, "I guess we're all going to hell!"
The rest of us quickly followed her out, leaving Jerry standing there with his arms outstretched in a question. "Why? Was that bad?"
However, just as we were rushing to the car in our escape from the church, we ran into a small group of hookers. And not like, snuck into a club to rescue some friends dressed up like hookers, either. Like, real hookers.
Cigarette-smelling, scantily clad, bitch I will cut you real hookers.
The blond in front was obnoxiously chewing on bubble gum, her lipstick smeared and her clothes virtually non-existent. She gave us one look over, taking in our less than savory outfits and makeup.
"Busy night?" She asked us sympathetically.
All Lilly and I could do was gape, as the other four burst into hysterical laughter.
Was this a thing? Did hookers regularly visit churches in the middle of the night?
Her eyes lazily glazed over the boys were shirtless forms, and her expression changed from indifferent to seductive in an instant. "Hey boys, how would you like to hang out with some real women?" She purred, running a hand over the nearest boy's chest, which just so happened to be Tom.
Lilly growled. "Just what percentage of your body is actually real, Miss Botox-gone-wrong?"
She turned to give the blond a murderous glare, and her posse of hookers gasped. "You might wanna be watching your mouth there, little girl." She spit out the words 'little girl' like an insult.
Lilly looked like she was seconds away from jumping the woman, so I cleared my throat and hastily stepped in. "Look, we're not-"
The hooker's scowl turned to me. "Was I talking to you, short stuff?"
I glared right back, all thoughts of peacefully ending things flown out the window alongside my pride. If this hooker wants to fight in front of a church-
I snapped my fingers. "Jerry!"
He popped up beside me, nodding in affirmation like 'girl, I gotchu'. He turned to the hooker and pursed his lips with distaste.
"Hoe, you look like ET."
Our entire group oooohed and laughed as the hooker's face flamed up, all of her friends jaws dropped open. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, trying to find the words to speak but coming up blank.
"And we out!" Alex cheered, before leading the run back to the car.
~
It was clear as day to every criminal on the face of the planet, that breaking out of prison was no walk in the park.
But has anyone ever considered how much more difficult it is breaking back in?
Right as these thoughts crossed my mind, I was standing at the end of my driveway, gazing warily at the house that was looming over me, shrouded in both the darkness of night and terror.
The lights were all off, which in itself was a promising sign that no one had noticed my absence so far. But by now we only had a few more hours before morning, and I had no doubt that my parents would be getting up for work soon. Adding that to the fact that I was naturally clumsy and just about as stealthy as a very large elephant in a very tiny room, simply waltzing in through the front door was not a wise option.
However, it was the only one I had.
Gulp.
The only thing that kept me from giving up and running for the hills, was that Conner was holding my hand, successfully being my anchor. Though truthfully, he looked as nervous as I felt, not that I blamed him. If my dad ever found out that I had snuck out to see him, he would likely hire assassins to throw my boyfriend off of a cliff, regardless of the fact that I hadn't known before hand that he would be there when we left to rescue Tom.
Did I mention the fact that I was still dressed like a certified hooker?
Luckily, Lilly had fished my out an oversized sweater from the trunk of her car. Regardless, my legs were pretty much bare, and I was hoping people would just assume that I was wearing shorts, and not a leather unitard.
"Good luck." Conner whispered in my ear, kissing me softly on the cheek. He softly pried my fingers from his, before giving me a meaningful look and jogging back down the driveway and hopping back in the yellow buggy. He was staying over at Tom and Jerry's house and wasn't being expected back at home, the lucky bastard. My friends all gave me thumbs up as they sped away, aside from Conner, who gave me a wink and a flash of a gorgous smile.
I let out a sigh, summoning my courage before stepping up to my front door. I reassured myself in my head that I had only been gone for a couple of hours, and most likely everyone was still fast asleep.
I quietly opened the door, which was still unlocked, and stepped into the darkness of the living room. I waited, but nothing made a sound after I shut the door.
Using every sneaky bone in my body, (there weren't many), I tiptoed to the stairs.
And the all of the sudden, a lamp in the living room lit up, revealing Stanton sitting in the recliner with a furious scowl on his face.
"And just where the hell have you been?"
Shit, am I dead or what?
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Happy New Year! Sorry for the wait, I've been out of town for the holidays. Hope everyone had a good break!
Tell me what you think!