Hearts, Scars & Horseshoes

Chapter 66 - Faith

"The world hurts." Tori complained from where she was balled up on her bed.

"Drink some water."

"It hurts to move." She whined, not listening. "Why did I drink so much?"

I was flipping through a magazine, barely scanning the pages. My mind was on Toby, it seemed more often than not I was always thinking about him. I loved how he always just made things seem okay, he always knew exactly what to say or what to do. It was like he knew me more than I did myself.

"Ugh stop day dreaming about Tobias. We all know he's perfect and handsome." Tori groaned from the bed, peering out of her mess of white bedding.

"Okay, Miss lets get cozy with one of his friends." I teased.

We hadn't talked about her and Mark yet. She was a sloppy, incoherent mess when I drove us back to her house in the early hours of the morning. I had to sneak her up the stairs and to her room, trying my hardest not to wake her sleeping parents. Tori didn't have a curfew but I also didn't think the Andersen's would approve of us coming home at two in the morning, their daughter drunk.

She let out a groan, covering her face with her pillow. "I probably made a fool out of myself."

I tossed the magazine aside, climbing into her bed with her. She scooted just slightly leaving me to balance precariously on the side of the mattress.

"How so?"

She rolled her eyes, her long brown hair a tangled mess. "Please, I basically threw myself at him."

I hadn't paid attention to how Mark and Tori came together, but from where I stood he had looked equally as interested in her as she was of him.

"Did you give him your number?" I asked.

"I can't remember." She had her face buried in her pillow causing her words to come out muffled. "I don't even know where my phone is."

My eyes wandered her room, trying to recall a moment from last night where I remembered seeing Tori's phone.

"I think it's in that sweatshirt you were wearing." I commented, climbing back off her bed kicking things around as I searched for it. "Whose sweatshirt is that anyway?"

"Mark's."

I dumped the clothes I had worn last night onto the floor, the navy sweatshirt underneath them all.

"Found it!" I dug my hand into the front pocket, my fingers wrapping around the rectangular shape of Tori's phone. "And here's your phone."

For someone suffering from a hangover, Tori sat up unusually fast, throwing the covers off her. Her hand was outstretched toward me, her fingers waggling for her phone.

"Oh my gosh." She said on a. exhale as she took the phone from me.

"What?"

"He texted and called."

Her brown eyes met him, wide and excited. I sat down next to her so close both our weight had us dipping toward each other.

"I've never had a guy text and call the next day."

"Well what'd he say?" I peered over her phone watching as she navigated to his text thread. I read over her shoulder, he had enjoyed meeting her. "What should I do? Should I text him back?"

I was stunned for a moment, Tori never asked me what she should do when it came to a guy. Mostly because up until Tobias my experience with the opposite sex was purely platonic. I didn't know the unwritten rules that clearly everyone else followed. I'm pretty sure I had done everything wrong but somehow it had worked.

"Would you text him back?" She asked when I didn't answer.

I waited a breath, thinking back to the beginning of Toby and I. How he had called me that night but I had turned my phone off thinking the worst. I hadn't remembered my phone until the early afternoon the following day. My heart stampeding as I danced silently in my room at the voicemail he had left me. As soon as I had listened to it, I called him. Not thinking about the unwritten rules that may have existed.

"Give me your phone." I said, holding out my open palm.

"What why?" I watched Tori with an amused smile on my face as she clutched it just a little tighter.

"Just trust me."

I yanked it from her hand, hitting the little info icon in the corner of the screen to pull up the options for Mark's unsaved number. I pressed call, waiting until the third ring to hand it back.

"Oh my god! You can't call him! I don't talk on the phone!" Her words rushed out of her in a jumbled mess.

"You should do everything you don't normally do." I said, shoving myself off her bed just as I heard Mark's voice come through the speaker.

"Um hi, it's Tori. From last night. At Perrin's. You let me borrow your sweatshirt.." I smiled at her nervousness. She let out a laugh, her face flushed. "No I'm not busy.."

I left her room, giving her some privacy. I pulled my own phone out of my pocket, the screen informing me I had three texts from Simon.

Simon: ran into Mrs. Galowski...

Simon: you haven't been going to your bible study

Simon: if you don't tell mom and dad I will

I let out a sigh, irritation rushing through me. I wasn't naive enough to think they wouldn't find out. In fact I was surprised I'd gotten away with it for as long as I had. But I didn't see what the big deal was. It was just a bible study. It wasn't like I even paid attention when I did go. I just sat there like a zombie, staring as the minutes ticked away, my mind a thousand miles away. Just like I did every Sunday morning in church. I wondered what my parents and Simon would say if I said I didn't want to go to church anymore. That I wasn't sure I believed anymore. How I didn't understand how they weren't doubting that God was real.

The old Faith believed blindly.

The new Faith wasn't sure there was anything to believe in.

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Not to shabby. Only a couple days wait. Happy New Year everyone! Last year around this time I was talking about New Years resolutions and I think I said one of mine was to get a six pack. Well I got one but its still hiding under a little bit of fat because I can't for the life of me stop eating junk. Chocolate especially. It's like "oh I'm bored" eat chocolate, "oh I'm hungry" eat chocolate, "oh I'm happy" eat chocolate, "oh I'm sad" eat chocolate, "oh what the hell" eat chocolate. I might be bordering on the line of having a problem. So this year I'm going to keep my goals in perspective and try and cut my chocolate intake by 1/3 😂. We'll see.

Also can we talk about how I've been writing this story for almost a year? I didn't look to see the actual date I first posted but come on! A year? Why am I so fucking slow? It's all the damn chocolate probably.