Sophia ✔

Chapter 18

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

✔

The next few days I saw that "thing" over and over wherever I looked. 

Trees, houses, cars, on the side of roads, anywhere. But it would never come closer to me than twenty feet. It was all too much, seeing her again and then having her disappear.

And after a full week of madness and me hiding in my room, afraid to even go out and risk seeing that thing again, it stopped. But It still felt as if she was here. 

Watching me. 

July twelfth, 2006, 

I step out of the car and close the passenger door.  Looking down at my baby blue sundress, I smooth it down and nervously pull my jean jacket closer to my body. For a mid-summer day, it was really chilly. 

tying my hair into a messy bun so it would stay out of my face, I open the doors and am welcomed by warm heat and a lung-crushing brunette. 

"Sophia!" Cathy drawls out in a high pitched voice as she hugs the life out of me before I even get through the doorway, "I didn't get to tell you happy birthday!" 

"Thanks, Cathy," I breathe out tightly, laughing as I begin to peel away from her side, "but can you please let me go? I can't feel my lower body."

"Oh yeah, right," She says with an awkward laugh of her own and she releases me so I can hang my purse up in the coat room and walk back out.

We smile at each other and immediately walk off towards the snack counter. I sigh and pick up a pamphlet for the service as I nibble on some cheap cheese while we talk away. 

"Where's Ema?" Cathy asks me and I huff.

"She got dragged away to another camping trip with her family this weekend, she'll be back on Tuesday," I explain and frown a bit at the thought of not seeing my best friends for a few more days.

"Oh, sounds awful," Cathy says pretending to shiver in horror and I laugh as I nod my head in agreement.

"Well, service is starting soon, we should get in there," I say, nodding towards the crowd of people walking into the sanctuary. 

"Well then, Let us go," Cathy chirps, looping her arm through mine and we walk into the sanctuary, sitting down in one of the back rows so we can easily sneak out later. The lights then dim and my dad walks onto the stage. 

"Good morning church," He says standing in front of the podium. 

Some people greet him back and he takes that as leave to start service. 

"Welcome to living Covenant Church, today I want to talk abo-"

 It was the same as usual, Worship, Service, and worship again while I eventually sneak off with Cathy and we help run the children's church. Once that's all done the church gathers around in the lunchroom to eat. I sit by Cathy at one of the pull out tables that were put up for everyone. We talk about Percy Jackson as well as boys, obviously.

We're teenagers, sue us. 

I eventually pull out of her the name of her new crush, a random boy from our Bio class named Jackson, and she tries to get any "juicy details about my hot waiter boy." I immediately shove her at that phrase and blow it off, trying lamely to throw in her stupidity as an excuse for my heavy blush. 

Once everyone was done talking and catching up with friends I am left in the building to clean up for lunch while my dad finishes up some work. Eventually, I get bored and tired of roaming the empty halls and go off to find him.