John 8:32

3 - Colossians 3:8

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Dinner at the Morris household. Not Spencer's favorite thing.

His father always found something to complain about. Tonight, it was Damien. It was usually Damien.

"That damn Yates boy was flirting his entire way through service today," Spencer's father grumbled, twirling spaghetti around his fork, "It's always the people who need to hear the word of the Lord most who won't listen."

"Yates?" Spencer hummed, playing dumb. As far as his father knew, he hated Damien.

"As in Damien Yates?" Spencer's father elaborated, seeming almost exasperated, "The Yates family, that funds and organizes most of our outreach programs?"

"Right."

Spencer didn't have anything to say for a long moment. His father clearly didn't either.

"What's so wrong with Yates?" Spencer dared poke the bear. It wasn't like his dad would hurt him or anything, but Spencer didn't particularly want to get himself into anything either, "He's not the only guy who doesn't pay attention during mass."

"You see the way he walks around, breaking rules," Spencer's father scoffed, "Parading around his sexuality."

The way his father spit out the words, like they were poison on his tongue, it cut deep.

Spencer wasnt dumb — he knew his father's opinions on things. This wasn't anything new. That didn't mean it hurt any less, though.

"It's disgusting and it has no place on these grounds," his dad continued, oblivious to the way his words sharpened into knives in Spencer's chest.

Damn Damien, and his stupid flirt with everybody personality. Why couldn't he just be low-key?

"Frankly, it's just abhorrent."

Apparently, Spencer's lack of response was a sign to just keep talking in his father's mind.

Spencer couldn't shake the thought — the echoing, "Oh. So I'm abhorrent."

"I'm going to go do my homework," Spencer pushed his chair out from the table, bringing his dishes to the sink.

"Don't forget to prepare for your readings tomorrow," his father called out to him as he started climbing the stairs.

Of course. How could Spencer forget?

Leviticus.

His father had to have chosen that for a reason. Spencer had read the bible countless times over — he skimmed most of those passages. Except now he had to read them at Thursday night mass.

Part of him couldn't shake the thought that his father knew somehow. That was crazy — he couldn't, right? He couldn't.

Shutting the door behind him, Spencer fell onto his bed with a long, deep sigh. He grabbed the Bible from his nightstand, cracking it open and trying to focus on the little words on the page.

His Bible was old. Spencer got it when he was thirteen — it was almost five yeahrs old now. Full of dog-eared pages and highlighted passages, the works. The tabs marking his favorite pages were worn and nearly falling out.

It wasn't like he had to do much preparation to just read the words the next evening — but Spencer couldn't focus on it anyways. He just couldn't stop thinking about Damien in the congregation, listening to that.

No, why did Spencer care what Damien thought?

It wasn't like they were friends or anything like that. Right? Right.

The words on the page were starting to swirl together when Spencer finally decided to just give up and put the book back in his nightstand drawer. He pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocking it and opening his messages.

Spencer [6:52]

My dad was bitching about you again today.

Yates [6:55]

ha, course he was, what'd i do this time?

As it always was, the way Damien texted was nothing short of annoying. Spencer had to wonder how somebody who was so academically inclined refused to use even a few brain cells to type out a coherent sentence.

Spencer [6:56]

The same thing as always.

Yates [6:57]

guy needs to get his head outta his ass

Spencer couldn't help the small laugh that escaped him.

Spencer [6:57]

You could say that.

For a long moment — there was no response. The floating dots flashed on and off the screen. Damien was typing something, but he kept going back on it.

Yates [6:59]

how'd u do on that paper??

Right. Okazaki's paper. The one that Spencer wrote the night before and had Damien proofread in the bathroom before class. He still hadn't gotten a grade back.

Spencer [7:00]

She hasn't graded mine yet.

Yates [7:00]

damn

Spencer [7:01]

Yeah. What'd you get?

Yates[7:01]

a 97

Spencer [7:01]

Nice.

Spencer wasn't by any standards friends with Damien. No fucking way.

That didn't stop him from texting the guy all night until he was practically falling asleep in between messages. It was for class he told himself.

There was a large part of Spencer that knew he couldn't give less of a damn about the class.

But he liked to pretend.