➼Adamaris and Everett

chapter one

CHAPTER ONE: ADAMARIS, THE GOOD GIRL

As soon as the religious service was over, I made my way through the crowd and out of the church. Sunday was my least favorite day of the entire week, because of my mother's choosing of how to spend the day. At home, relaxing after a long, stressful week? Not her type. Visiting relatives and eating delicious food cooked by elderlies? Wrong again. Spending all day long in the Church, praying on her knees and after having dinner with the priest and some nuns that she calls friends? Oh, yeah! And I'm not one to judge, mother can do whatever she wants with her life, but she should ask me once in awhile what I want to do or if I'm alright with our weekly plans. But she never bothered.

Priest's younger daughter, Mary, sat on a bench, in her plaid skirt and button down and finger linked, looking in front of her. Staring, really. She doesn't notice me so I sneak away, heading towards the trees on the other side of the street, where I can hide.

Not only I didn't like Sundays, I hated them. I thought that they weren't days to praise the Lord and spend it in the church, but a simple day like every other. But Mother does not understand it.

"Adamaris!"

I was so close to the trees — my trees— that I really thought that I could speed up and hide behind one of them, but Mary's voice shouted once again, so I turned myself around.

"Oh, hi, Mary!" I practiced my surprised face, because I chose to ignore lots of people and when they call me out on it, I try to be subtle and believing.

She made a gesture with her slim hand, inviting me over and then patting the bench, right next to where she was sitting.

"Great," I muttered under my breath. "She won't let me go now."

"Is it over? The service, I mean," she asked when I'm near her and I can hear her.

Her short brown hair was tightly tied down, her bangs reaching slightly above her eyebrows. She doesn't wear makeup — now or anytime — and she keeps pressuring me into doing the same, not changing my appearance for that's how God left me to be, which I smile to and also ignore. She doesn't wear earrings either, she doesn't even have holes for them!

"No, not yet. I was feeling quite sick so I had to get out," I tend to think that half truths are more believable so that's what I told her. I wasn't sick, but I had to get out of there. For sixteen years, every Sunday of mine was spend in the church.

She nods and invites me to sit, once again. I sit down and wait for her to talk, trying to soothe my black hair. It was an awkward pause between us to, and then she spoke rapidly, making me blink at her words. It sounded like Klingon to me.

"Mary," I say, her big brown eyes full of anxiety as I spoke, "I didn't understand a word you said. Calm down!"

She was obviously scared of something; the way she hold her breath once in a while, her posture and her face gave her away. She looked like a lost deer in the headlights of a car, that scared. I'm sure it wasn't a life or death thing. It couldn't — she doesn't do anything life threatening.

"I'm a sinner, Adamaris!"

Her dramatic tone almost made me laugh.

"What makes you say that? What happened?" I try to stay serious as she took a breath in. I never find myself in such trouble.

"I'm so ashamed of myself!" She cried out, hiding her face in her palms, not saying anything anymore. I was sure she wasn't crying, but I didn't know what she wanted from me. Maybe a pat on the shoulder? "My dad would be so disappointed of me if he found out..."