There Will Be Blood

41. Helen of Troy

Justin's POV

How boring can church get?

We had already been here for about an hour. I was hoping that if I closed my eyes, it would all just go away, but no such luck. Father was going on and on about how we needed to give more to our community and shit like that. It seemed like he forgot about how generous the Biebers had been in the past few years. This church was basically built with our money, so I think we were done in the gift-giving for the next century or so.

Maybe it was the fact that the sun was shining today, but no one seemed to be fully here. We all wanted to be outside and enjoying our first day of good weather. It was also one of the first times that I had been allowed to be in normal society. A couple of days ago, the doctor gave me a thumbs-up at my appointment. My health was getting better; I guessed all of Maddie's psychotic theories were working.

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the day because of fucking church.

To make matters worse, this snot-nosed kid was sitting in front of us, who kept turning around and making faces at me. What happened to parental control? He must have been about four, but he should have known how to act normal. This was ridiculous. It was like his parents didn't even notice his bad behavior.

"Can we go?" I whispered to Maddie, who was sitting next to me.

"I think Pattie would kill us both."

"This kid won't leave me alone."

"Just ignore him. He'll stop if you don't react."

"I highly doubt that." I sat back in my seat.

The kid smirked at me and turned around, sticking out his tongue.

I ground my teeth together and just kept my eyes forward. He continued to make noises and wave his hand in front of my face, but I was trying to be a grown-up about this. I should have just smacked the kid, but that might provide some issues with child abuse and things like that. I was pretty sure people would take my side when I told them the story of how this brat was messing with me. Maybe not.

As the minutes went on, the boy got more and more daring. He eventually started blowing spitballs in my direction. I was ducking them like bombs and probably making a fool of myself. Keegan and Finn were laughing their asses off.

"He keeps bothering me," I told Maddie.

She reached in her pursed and pulled out a piece of candy, handing it to the kid who took it with eager eyes. He sat back down and started munching on it.

"This is why I don't like children. If he messes with me again, I might snap."

She was fighting a laugh. "I wonder where Pattie went wrong with you."

"I was a bad apple from the start," I teased.

I went back to not paying attention to the stupid sermon. My mind started to drift off further but was immediately brought back when a wad of spit landed on my forehead. This time, it was sticky, and I smelled grape.

"Son of a bitch." I took out my handkerchief and wiped the glob off of my face.

The boy was laughing under his breath and snorting like a pig at his new form of torture. He kept ducking down into the pew, trying to see if I was looking at him. I reached my limit and had to remind myself that I had a heart condition, or I might have just blown up right there.

He popped his head back up, and I snatched the straw from his grubby little fingers. He pouted and his lips went into a snarl.

"Go away," I said.