Fallen Angel

12

Carter's POV:

Since I left home so early, I had time to go get myself a coffee and a doughnut, which I almost never do. Since Dad assists so much with my rent, using the savings Mom helped us to build, all of the money I made when I had a job in high school goes to extra stuff I want.

Four hundred level English as a junior is pretty difficult for me, but what's more surprising is that Amanda is a freshman in this class. It's my only class with her, and I didn't even know she was in this class until she started hanging out with Janelle. Usually, I sit with my friend, Ben, who's on the swim team, but today I slide into the seat beside Amanda.

She usually keeps to herself because she doesn't know many people in this class as we're all much older than her, but I need to speak with her today.

"Good morning," I say, and she peeks over at me before relaxing. "What? Did you think I was someone else?"

Amanda scoffs. "I thought you were someone I wasn't friends with who was trying to hit on me," she says. "Is Jeremy doing okay?"

"I can't really tell... I took him to the church-"

"You did what?!" she shrieks, making a lot of people around the room glance at her and fall silent. Amanda lowers her voice and waits for everyone to look away. "Hasn't he been damaged enough by the church?! What the hell, Carter?!"

I wait for her to finish being angry and yelling at me.

"If you would have let me finish, I would have told you that I took him to the church that my dad and I go to. The one that has the priest whom I spoke with when I came out and who encouraged and supported me," I say, and she raises an eyebrow. "I think it may have helped, but he's upset and is considering going home at some point, so I tried to get him to stay with me for a while."

"And?"

"And I think he might. It's not like he can easily move himself anyway."

Amanda sighs, clearly worried for her ex-boyfriend. It's weird to think that Jeremy is technically her ex-boyfriend, because the two never acted like a couple. Not that I've known Jeremy enough to see them as a couple and they're not even dating anymore.

"He needs to get away from his damn family. They're all fucked, except for his sister who's my age," she says. "She and her boyfriend are both really nice and she and I were friendly in school, but the rest of them... ugh."

I pull out my notebook as our professor enters the room. "Yeah, I met them," I mumble before telling Amanda about my brief interaction with them. "They don't seem very nice."

"They're fucking insane," she agrees as Professor Johnson quiets us all down to start. "I know you have questions for me about all of... this. We can chat after class."

I'm glad she notices, because I need to know how long Jeremy has undergone this abuse and I need to know how best to help him. No one deserves to hide their sexuality from the world and his parents can suck dick for what they did to him.

I just don't know how Jeremy is going to be able to undo all of the religious teachings that have been forced upon him. It's such an integrated part of him... what he needs is a therapist, not a priest.

Our class is as boring as always and we end up with an article to annotate and write an in detail response about that's at least three pages long. Professor Johnson just loves to fuck us all over and keep us from having a peaceful week.

"Do you have another class?" I ask Amanda as soon as class is over.

"Not for thirty minutes and it's just across campus. Walk with me," she insists, and I don't have another class today so I can follow her. "So... what's on your mind?"