A Test of Faith [bxb]

8. Rich Blessings Are in Store

I'd always had a love-hate relationship with Mutual. The Wednesday night activities allowed our friend group to reconvene in a more casual setting, but there was always a risk of having nights like tonight.

Tonight's Mutual was being held in the church's gymnasium, a large room with carpeted walls, a yellowing basketball court, and a small performance stage with heavy curtains drawn. The stage used to feature annual plays conceptualized by one of the few members with talent, but I was too young to remember. Either they moved wards, died, or had given up. Considering the dreary aura of Maryville, I suspected the latter.

The leaders had organized a combined Mutual with the girls, which normally would be fine — if not awkward — but with the speakers set up on the stage and cheap disco lights around the court, this wasn't going to be a normal combined Mutual.

"This is fucking ridiculous," Manny groaned as he, Alex, and I walked through the gym doors. "We already know how to dance."

We'd had several dances during the year, from small ward dances to stake dances to district dances. They were genuinely miserable. Every event was hosted in one of the many identical church gymnasiums scattered around Tennessee, with subpar air conditioning, censored music, and a dress code.

And occasionally, on unsuspecting Wednesdays, the leaders would corral us in the gym for dance lessons. These Mutuals were almost as miserable as the events themselves, except now we would be forced to tango by southern white folks who'd never tangoed in their lives.

"I'm going to kill myself," Alex said as we watched the leaders setting up pizzas on tables along a wall, which would certainly be cold by end of the night. Papa John's. He gagged.

Manny lead us to the stage, where Madison and Evelyn were already seated. "I swear to God, if Jacob doesn't show up, I'm gonna go to his house and drag him here. He deserves to suffer, too."

Evelyn welcomed us with a soft smile as she patted the stage floor beside her. I accepted the invitation with a small curtsy, and she laughed. "So," Madison started, leaning forward to look at all of us, "does Ezra have a girlfriend?"

I used to like her. I decided, at the moment, that I didn't anymore. Alex elbowed me between the ribs. "Yes, he does," I said, and he elbowed he again.

"Seriously?" Manny asked.

Alex rolled his eyes. "No, he doesn't. Luke is thinking of something else, because if you ask Ezra, he'd say he doesn't." His glare was searing the side of my head, but I refused to meet it. He wasn't wrong; if Alex had agreed, then Ezra would be out of the loop and say otherwise, and everyone would wonder why we lied. Selfishly, though, I wanted him off the market. With his tall frame and crooked smile, no Mormon girl would hold back.

"Okay, I call dibs on dancing with him first," she said matter-of-factly.

Evelyn dropped her jaw. "Not fair!"

"Dance with Luke or something. Aren't you guys in love?"

We groaned in unison. We went on one date when she turned sixteen, a right of passage in the Church, and it had been nothing but platonic, as most first dates were in the ward. That fact never deterred people from talking about us, though. "By that logic, why don't you dance with Manny?" Evelyn suggested with a coy smile.

"Ew," Madison scrunched her nose as Manny stood up from where he was sitting to slide next to her.

"Mads, gimme a chance," he cooed with an arm around her shoulder as she tried swatting him sway.

Evelyn and I would look good together, no doubt. She was as short to me as I was to Ezra, which was ideal. She'd be able to rest her head under my chin, or easily wrap her arms around my waist, or have to stand on her tiptoes to kiss me. I envied her.