My Savior | First Love Series

Chapter 1

"Nolan, come on! You're moving slower than grandma Jack!" Madaline rushes me out the church doors. Her white, flowery dress flows behind her, the wind doing most of the work. Rolling my eyes, I pick up my pace and try to take off my tie at the same time. Who needs ties anyway? They're honestly a nuisance. My parents don't seem to think so. They'd rather have me choke on the cheap fabric.

Speaking of parents, they're still in the church talking to pastor Drake. They want to be in his 'good graces'. Madaline and I think it's a ruse to get out of putting money in the basket on most days. My dad's a preacher and loves church. Probably in love with one too. You never know.

"Hey- watch where you're going-"

The feminine voice doesn't say much else as I trip and land on the dirty sidewalk. I scrape my hands pretty badly in the process, which is going to hurt even more later when I run cold water and maybe alcohol over it. My new, white shirt also got dirty and messed up. Why god? Why did you make me so clumsy?

Hearing footsteps nearing me, I try to sit up, so it doesn't look like I just fell on my behind. A hand reaches down and I can't help but stare at it. Said hand has so many rings on the fingers and even has a skeleton tattoo, making the hand look see through.

I look up to see a girl with a cigarette in her other hand and she has a lot of necklaces around her neck. They look good on her. Snapping out of my little trance, I take her hand and she pulls me up effortlessly. Am I really that light? Madaline did say I need to start eating more...but I already eat a lot. That's not the point.

"You good? I tried to warn you, but you seemed distracted."

"I-uh yeah. Was just fumbling with my stupid tie," I admit, holding it up. Don't ask why I did that. I don't know myself. The girl nods and lets go of my hand. I tuck the same hand into one of my pockets, suddenly feeling embarrassed. The girl puts the cigarette in her mouth, before blowing out a big cloud of smoke. "Those kill," I say out of nowhere.

"Oh, do they?" she asks, holding the same cigarette up to her face. I'm sure she already knew the answer, but wanted to be sarcastic.

"Yeah, at least that's what my dad told me."

"Your dad, huh?"

"Yep."

"He might be onto something," she says, throwing the lit cigarette on the ground. Before I can say anything else, she crushes it with her black shoes. I stand there awkwardly for a minute and end up scratching the back of my neck in nervousness. Looking around, I see that my parents are already at the car and so is Madaline with her parents. Have we been talking for that long? I don't think so.

"Oh! I should go. I think my parents are waiting for me."

The tattooed girl nods and turns around, getting ready to walk away. At least tell me your name..

"Hey, wait! What's your name?"

"Don't worry about it, church boy. I have a feeling we won't be seeing each other again."

What made her so sure? This town isn't so big, so we're bound to see each other again. Unless she's leaving this place. Yeah, that must be it. I nod and turn away, before heading to my parents' car. They question why I took so long, but I just ignored them. They don't need to know about the girl I just met. The tattooed girl.

Madaline motions me over, so of course I go to her. She asks me to ride with her and maybe stay over. That's an offer I just can't resist. We're on a short, temporary break from school. We'll go back on Tuesday, or at least that's what the administrators said. My parents say that it's okay to go with her which works out for the both of us. We get into her parents car quickly and put our seatbelts on.

"So, who was that girl you were talking to?" Madaline asks me, nonchalantly. My eyes look her way, before glancing down at my scraped hands. I don't know how to answer that question, when I, myself, don't know the answer. Shrugging, my eyes finally look away from my hands and out the window. "Come on, you can tell me. Is she your girlfriend or something?"

My head snaps to her so fast, I'm surprised I didn't get severe whiplash. Madaline smiles at me, almost knowingly. She shouldn't, because what does she know? Absolutely nothing. Plus the girl I met earlier said we wouldn't meet again. Therefore, Madaline doesn't need to worry about who she is. Neither do I. Her parents seemed to be listening in on our conversation because they decided to add in their own two cents.

"Ooh, a girlfriend? Is she a church girl, Nolan?" Madaline's father speaks first.

I shake my head, but that didn't stop their comments.

"Not a church girl? Don't tell your mother and father that, son. Might give them a poor heart attack," this time it was Madaline's mother who spoke. I chuckle, slightly amused. This is why I like my best friend's parents more. Their whole life isn't church, wife, and Jesus christ. Neither is mine, but I'll continue this little act if it keeps my own parents satisfied.

"I'll keep that in mind ma'am."

"Oh, no need to be formal with us! You're family!"

I nod again and the drive to Madaline's house seems to last forever. She asks if I want to stop by a nearby store to pick up snacks, but I decline the idea. Movies and sleep are the only two things on my mind right now. Due to my parent's insane thinking, they wanted to go to the morning church service and the afternoon one too. The afternoon one ended around 7pm, but it was so long. It could honestly make anyone tired, especially if they went to two.

Just thinking about it makes me yawn and lean my head against the car window. My mind drifts back to the girl from earlier. She had rings, tattoos, she smoked..she was carefree. Herself, I think. Humming to myself, I silently wish I could be like her. Minus the smoking. My dad really did say it killed and was bad for your lungs.

"Hey, Nolan" Madaline enters my thoughts, "want to watch Mulan when we go to my room?"

"We've watched that a thousand times already."

"Yeah, well now we can watch it a thousand and one times. Sounds good? Yes? Okay."

I shake my head at her bossy tone, but end up accepting my fate. We finally reach her house and race up to her room. We bet that if I won we wouldn't watch Mulan and would instead watch something else. I did end up winning, but Madaline wasn't having it.

Long story short we ended up watching Mulan and fell asleep about thirty minutes into the already seen movie. In our church clothes and all. Her parents came in and saw us, smiling to themselves, before turning off the room lights and leaving the movie on. They ordered dinner, but decided not to wake us. That will definitely affect us in the morning, but hey what could two sleeping teenagers do?