New Believers Of God

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

While eating lunch the next day, I told the guys about me and Holly.

"Way to go Cole!" said Shane "You've got yourself a girlfriend!"

Even in Elementary School, Shane had always been good at getting the girls. A true ladies' man, or should I say ladies' boy.

"No." I told him "She's not my girlfriend."

"Not yet." he replied.

How original.

"I barely even know her." I continued "I mean, she's nice and all. But I don't "like her" like her."

I honestly wasn't sure if I meant that or not.

"Come on." said Victor "Don't be embarrassed. It's cool."

"Shut up." I said back, jokingly.

It's not that I was embarrassed or anything. I just didn't like them calling her my girlfriend when she wasn't.

Another girl then walked past our table.

"Hi Daryl." she said, smiling at him.

"Hi." he said back, also smiling.

When word spread about Daryl winning the football game at Laurelville, his whole reputation soared. All of a sudden, he had become the class superstar, and was even considering joining the school's football team. Not to mention, girls paid him a lot more attention, especially with his new haircut.

"See Cole." he told me "There's nothing wrong with that."

"You should feel lucky." Ethan added "You get to sit next to her for a whole hour all month."

He had a point. Not too many other kids were lucky enough to have that kind of pleasure. But it wasn't as perfect as they were making it out to be. Here, sitting next to each other was all we would be doing. There wouldn't be any time for socializing when our focus was meant for the mass. Still though, it did sound tempting. I guess to them, getting to be that close to a girl was a big enough deal alone.

"You guys are so immature." I told them.

"What?" Shane asked, "You're not scared, are you?"

"Scared of what?" I asked back.

"Of sitting with her." he answered.

That was another thing. Sitting beside each other in silence would certainly take some getting used to. Although the mass did require us to move around a lot, there were going to be plenty of moments where we weren't needed. I wouldn't say I was necessarily afraid, but rather concerned about how to handle it.

"Of course not."

"So what's the problem?"

Upon being asked that, I looked across the room at Holly's table, where she was eating with her friends. However, as I did so, she ended up noticing and looked back with a smile and a wave.

"Nothing." I answered, "Nothing at all."

I realized then that this project was going to be an awful lot of work. Maybe more than I was expecting.

"Just wait." said Shane "You'll see."

"Yeah." said Ethan "You never know."

"It's true." said Victor "There's no telling."

"Really." said Daryl "Honestly."

Boy, were they right.