The Church Boy

~ 2

2:45 PM

"What's your address?" I asked Jayson.

"You're coming over?" He asks.

"My dad's stressing me out, andI'm bored." I said.

"Oh." He says. "One West Lake Drive. Near the lake."

"Alright. I live really close to you, so I'll see you shortly." I say.

"Okay. See you soon." He says. He hangs up, and I stuff my phone in my pocket. To avoid my family, I run up the street, and I approach a really big house. Slightly bigger than mine. I saw Jayson sitting on the steps of his house. He had on a blue sweatshirt, black shorts, blue slides, and socks on.

"Sup." He said to me. As I approached him, I put my hair up into a bun.

"You got money on you?" I ask him.

"Yup. Where're we going?" He asks me. He puts his glasses back on, and stands up.

"I'm gonna show you around. Now, come on!" I say, as I start walking past him. He gets up, and walks next to me.

***

"How long you been here?" He asks me.

"Moved here when I was born." I said, as we crossed the street. "Since '02." I say.

"You seventeen?" He asks.

"On Sunday, yup. We're celebrating my birthday on the church vacation." I say, as I kick some rocks. "Not the best place to have a party."

"Aren't we staying in a five star hotel?" He asks.

"Yup. But I usually like celebrating with my friends. I never get to have parties with friends." I say, as I look up at Jayson.

"I'll celebrate it with you." He says, as he runs his fingers through his hair. I smile, and look back down. We continue walking, and we come to this fried chicken shop.

"I'm come here every Sunday after church." I say, as I push the door open.

"What's up, Shak!" The store owner says.

"Hey, Max!" We do our secret handshake, and he looks up and down at Jayson.

"You got a boyfriend now?" He says. "How's your dad feel about him. I roll my eyes.

"He's not my boyfriend, but my dad doesn't like him for some reason." I say.

"It's weird." He says, while shrugging. "Jayson, by the way." He sticks his hand out and shakes Max's hand.

"Maxwell." He says, while looking at me. Jayson wanders around, looking at the menu. "He's definitely a keeper." Max winks at me. I roll my eyes.

"I wanna get to know him, but I'm SLIGHTLY attracted to him already." I say, as I brush my hair behind my ear.

"Ah." He says.

"Can I get my usual?" I ask.

"Of course." He says, getting my thigh and two wings ready. "And what would you like, kind sir?"

"A breast and a wing." He says, as he looks around.

"You two playing together or separately?" Max asks. I look over at Jayson, who was looking at what drink to get.

"Separately." I say, Max nods.

"You're older will be done shortly." He says. He runs to the back, and I can already hear the chicken frying. I look around, and then I walk over to Jayson.

"What're you gonna get?" I ask. He turns, and looks down at me.

"Either a sprite or a water. I dunno." He says. He turns back to look at all the drinks, and I open the fridge next to him. I grab an Iced Tea, and shut the door. "Is there a court at the private school?"

"Yup. The boys are always there during lunch, but not a lot are there after school." I say, as I drink my tea. "They're afraid of me." I say, while I laugh. He laughs too.

"Yeah, right." He says. His watch dings, and he looks at it. "Why the fuck is she always texting me?" He groans.

"Who?" I ask. He pulls his phone out from his pocket, and shows it to me. "Alissa."

"My ex girlfriend. I broke up with her when we moved, and she won't stop texting me." He rolls his eyes.

"Tell her to stop." I say.

"It's not that easy." He licks his his lips, and looks at Max.

"Your foods done." Max says. He puts the bags on the glass counter.

We both walk over, and pay for our food. After we do, I say goodbye to Max, and we walk out the store.

***

After we purchased our food, I showed Jayson around and we ended up at the Hills Park. We sat on a bench, and just looked at the water while we finished eating.

"This park is beautiful." He says. He takes out his phone, and takes a picture of it.

"Are you gonna post it?" I ask him.

"Probably." He said, going into snap. "Did you download snap yet?"

"Nah, but I can now." I pull out my iPhone XS, and open the app store. I type in Snapchat, and download it. "As soon as I make an account, you should tell people to friend me." I smile with him. He chuckles.

"Yeah, I will." He says. A few seconds later, I hear giggling grow closer to us. We both turn, and see three girls. They all went to my school. The three 'Queen Bees'.

"OMG! It's church girl! How come you're not praying?" This one blonde girl named Tracey says. "Hanging out with a guy is pretty sinful on your day of worship." She and the other two girls laugh.

"Chill." Jayson says. Tracey looks at him, and I see her cheeks turn red.

"And who might you be?" She says all flirty like.

"Jayson." He said. "You're creeping me out." He turns to face the water again.

"Do you have snapchat?" She asks. He ignores her. She got mad, and walked closer to us. She pushed me off the bench, and sat next to Jayson. I didn't fall on the ground, but I did trip. Jayson looked at me, and tried getting up, but Tracey got in his way.

"Move out of my fucking way!" He says. Suddenly, all the girls gasp.

"You just cursed in front of church girl!" Tracey says. She shakes her head. "How co-?"

"Look, blondie. I don't care about what I said. You can either leave now, or just leave her alone." Jayson says. "You're not getting my snap, and I have no interest in you." He says. He gets up, and helps me up. Tracey and the girls look at me.

"Stupid bitch." She says, and they continue their way through the park. Jayson lifts me up, and sits me on the bench.

"You okay?" He asks. I was currently blinking back a thousand tears, and nodded.

"Yeah. She's just some girl from our school." I say. He groans.

"I gotta deal with her too? Sick." He says. We both laugh.

"She only got into the school cause her parents paid tons of money for her to get in." I say. "Rumor has it she does things with the teachers so she can get good grades."

"Ew." Jayson says, as he stuffs his garbage into the bag. "That's pretty scary."

"Right?" I say, as I giggle. "You wanna go now?"

"Sure, but you gotta show me around another time." Jayson says. We get up, and walk over to a trash can.

***

"See you in school tomorrow?" He says, as we stand in front of my house.

"Yep. Call me if you get lost. It's a really big school." I say, and I wave back at him. He makes a cute smile, and I blush. I go back into my house, and stand in front of the door while sighing.

Today was the best day ever.