Last Hope

Chapter 9

The entire drive with Kelly and Sam was painfully silent. For some reason, the tension was so fu.cking thick and it actually made me antsy. None of us dared to let out a single word and it was just so weird and at the same time, it boiled up my anxiety level. To make things weirder, my sister seemed so shaken up after that day. She still drove me to and from the church but there's this certain mythical barrier that somehow stood between us. I know to myself that I didn't do something wrong and same thing goes to her but it just feels so weird. She was being so distant and it confused me so much.

Setting those thoughts aside, I am actually joyous to the fact that I get to hang out with Vic from time to time. I mean, we don't really spend an entire day with each other but a couple of minutes is better than nothing at all, I thought to myself. Since their band was on a break for a month or so, Vic decided to stay with a friend so that we could sneak and still hang whenever we can.

Like today, for example. Since I would have an entire day of church service, I asked Vic if he wanted to go and meet Brendon since the pastor had been so keen with the idea of meeting him anyways. Vic was reluctant at first, saying things about his past encounters with these up-tight, crazy and shallow-minded kind of religious people. I told him that Brendon's way past that stereotype and that he's actually chill about me being gay, for starters.

I've been inside the church, dusting off the little cubicle thing where people go for their confessions, glancing at the huge wall clock just above the wooden cubicles every now and then. Vic should be here any minute but time seems to be crawling in an awfully slow pace today and it made me feel so impatient.

"Looking at the clock every thirty seconds wouldn't make it tick by any faster." Pastor Urie said as he re-entered the huge door of the church, seeing as he was done talking to the last person that went in an hour ago for confession.

"I know. I'm just excited for you to meet Vic." I said, a goofy smile climbing up to my slightly sweaty face. It's always ever-so hot in this huge church. It isn't air-conditioned but there are numerous gigantic and fascinating stained-glass windows at every walls but apparently, that doesn't help with the circulation of the air in here.

"Excited for me to meet him or excited to hang out with him without worrying about your parents seeing?" He cheekily shot back with a slight laugh. I rolled my eyes at him, feeling my cheeks heat up and trying to hide my face to my hair.

"A little bit of both, maybe." I said, finishing off the last cubicle that I was dusting off. I walked back to the closet where we keep all of the cleaning stuff and went to look for the pastor, seeing as he wasn't down in the main room anymore. I was half-way up to the stairs when my phone started vibrating from my jeans' pocket. I quickly swiped the screen, seeing as someone's calling me.

"Hey, I'm outside the, uh, church. Where are you?" Vic's voice announced, not even letting me greet him but that's whatever. A smile found its way to my face once again and I felt my heart start beating against my chest.

 I was practically running down the polished steps of the stairs, trying to not fall and topple over the thing. "Wait, I'll be there in a sec." I muttered and in a couple of seconds, I surely was outside, almost out of breath and trying to act cool and as if I didn't just ran down because I was overly-excited to see him. "Hi." I muttered as we met half-way in front of the church. Cliché, I know.

"Hey." He greeted back. "What were you doing, you're kinda sweating just a little bit." He observed, staring at me with adoring eyes, his smile looking so sincere and adorable and his eyes sparkling with just the perfect amount of reflection from the sun above us. He brought his hand to my face, swiping away the few stray strands of hair that were covering my eyes.