Philophobia: A GerIta Story (Rewritten)

Chapter Eleven (Feliciano)

It's been a few weeks since Ludwig and I begin talking, mostly over the phone and through text, however we did go on a walk together with Alaric and Noodle at a park in a middle location between our houses on January 2nd and Ludwig did come to the group meeting the week after the first one, though he hasn't come to anymore.

Now it's Sunday, January 17th, and the bakery is closed for this months 'religion day'. This month it is Sunday's turn, meaning the schedule revolves around the Christians of the group. We trade days each month between Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for Islam's salaat al-jumu'ah AKA Juma prayer, Jewish Shabbat prayer, and Christian church services, in that order, however we do take off for the Wiccan holidays as well since Lukas and Emil don't have specific days of the week for worship.

So, from 10:00 to 12:45, all of us will go to our respective locations of worship to attend the service, read the Bible, Torah, or Quran, pray, or talk with other people there. Occasionally we switch around or join others at their service or prayer, however no one is doing that today. After the service is over with, everyone will be meeting for lunch.

Lovino, Antonio, Gilbert, Camille, Elizaveta, Roderich, Alexander, Vash, Lili, Toris, Feliks, Vlad, and I are going the church, Alfred, Matthew, Arthur, Francis, Natalia, and Ivan are going to the Synagogue, and Michelle, Sava, Berwald, and Mathias are going to the Masque, Lukas and Emil are doing their own prayers at home, while the rest of the crew who are Atheist, including Emma, Lars, Yao, Kiku, Tino, and Leon, are going to the library to hang out until lunch.

Arthur is taking Peter with them to the Synagogue since the Kirkland family is Jewish and both Berwald and Tino want Peter to be a part of that.

What's even more exciting is that this is the first time Andrei, Vlad's three-year-old brother, will be coming since Vlad and Sava finally won the court case to have custody over Andrei. He was, until about a week ago, was in the 'care' of one of Vlad's father's parents, who convinced the jury and judge that Sava and Vlad were unfit caretakers due to their homophobic views despite Vlad's fathers, Charon and Deimos Vasile, wills stating they wanted Vlad and Sava to have custody of Andrei if anything were to happen to them. We haven't been able to see them since as they were allowing Andrei sometime to settle in, however Vlad and Andrei will be coming to church with us today at least.

Not only that, but today is also the first time Ludwig will be joining us at church. He said it's been a few years since he last went and wanted to try again, so I happily invited him along.

Currently, Gilbert, Matthew, and I are driving to drop Matthew off at the Synagogue then to pick up Ludwig, and after that, Gilbert, Ludwig, and I will be meeting everyone at our Roman Catholic church. Well, everyone minus Roderich, Alexander, Vash, and Lili, who go to the Protestant church down the road.

Driving with Gilbert is awesome because he listens to rock music as apposed to Antonio's Spanish, which is great as well, but you can only listen to the same songs for so long without wanting to change it up a bit.

Ludwig knows I'm coming to even though Gilbert tried to tell me to keep it a secret, however I eventually cracked and told Lud anyways.

We pull up to the Temple, the route from my house to here is a familiar one to me, and I hear Gilbert putting the car in park, opening the car door to, I'm pretty sure, get Matthew's wheelchair from the backseat.

"Have a nice time at church, Feli, and please tell Ludwig I say hi and that I will see you three at the restaurant for lunch," Matthew tells me, and I smile.

"Thank you! And I'll be sure to tell him," I promise just as Matthew's door opens.

"Alrighty Birdie, ready?" I don't hear a response so he must have nodded since I hear him moving from his seat to his wheelchair before getting himself situated.