What Love is

Chapter 12

Maria was at her wits end.
Her dream had only had to the sea of guilt that currently crashed on the rapids of her mind. A frightening thought kept circulating through her mind as if it were blood running through her veins.
What if she broke up with Leon ?
They had only been together for about a half a year but Leon had grown so attached.

Leon had created a dependency toward Maria. He relied on her for almost all emotional support. In his eyes Maria was all he had.

It was a dark and rainy night when Maria took the bus to the only church she knew of in the city. It was old and big. It was made of stone and covered in Gargoyles. It was preserved as a reminder that was old may also be beautiful and with age a new beauty may emerge.

The inside had high ceilings and hundreds of candles illuminated the establishment with a warm orange glow.

Maria was dripping wet from the storm outside. The various stone monuments and biblical figures on the stained glass windows made her feel watched and small.

She quickly walked to find the priest that was around. He was a tall grey haired man with a thick beard who wore long black robes.

"Excuse me..." Maria said shyly.

"Oh hello, you're here rather late...is something wrong ?" Asked the priest.

"I'm in distress, I couldn't sleep...sir, I'm not a person of faith but I require guidance from someone if high morals and wisdom." Said Maria.

"Well my child, please...enlighten me." Said the priest in a comforting tone.

They sat together in the very front of the church in the hard wooden pews.

"I'm in relationship...with a boy...a young man...I love him...but not in the way he loves me...I'm afraid to leave him...I want to go to New York for school...but I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to function well with out me...to him I'm all he has." Explained Maria.

The priest sighed a thought for a moment.

"My child, you're heart is in the right place. But someone as young as you shouldn't confine herself due to the dependency of another. I consider myself a progressive man. So know when I say to follow your dreams that I mean it. You've got an entire life to live. Loves come and go. But if you leave and still love him than it was meant to be." Said the priest.

Maria thanked the priest and headed home, all the while her mind was filled with the stress of what could happen if she broke up with Leon.

Perhaps she didn't.

Leon didn't need to know everything she was doing. They weren't married.
All she needed to do was talk to him.