Finding Faith

His soft blue eyes took me in and his brows pulled down in confusion. Obviously I didn’t belong there—I knew and he knew it. A thick piece of caramel hair fell into his eyes and he ran his fingers through it, pushing it out of his face.

Seeing him made me panic. What if he told my dad I was there? I didn’t want to be surrounded by so many things I didn’t understand. I wasn’t okay with anything that was going on, and I wanted to leave, but more than anything, I didn’t want my church family to find out I was involved with that kind of people. What would my dad do? If I got the belt for practically nothing, what would sneaking out get me?

Quickly, I backed away from the garage door and disappeared outside again. As soon as the night air hit me, I could breathe better and the music wasn’t so loud. The dogs around me went crazy barking again. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I only knew I needed to get out of there before anyone else saw me or something bad happened. There could be a drive-by or a drug bust any minute. I didn’t need my father finding out I was anywhere near this side of town.

I figured I’d brave the ghetto and turned to walk back the way we came. It was crazy, the craziest thing I’d ever done. It trumped sneaking out on a whole other level, but I had to do it. I’d be sure to let Amanda know how unhappy I was with her at school the following day. Maybe my dad was right. Maybe Amanda was a bad influence.

I was down the street a ways when I heard someone call my name. When I turned around, the new boy at church, who I now knew was Finn, the lead singer of Kevin’s band, was taking long strides my way.

“Hey. Wait up,” he said.

I stopped. When he reached my side, he was out of breath. Leaning over, he rested his palm against his thigh and held up a finger, telling me to give him a minute.

“You know, if you didn’t smoke, you wouldn’t be so out of breath right now,” I said.

He looked up at me with a grin. A set of dimples dug into his flushed cheeks. “Are you going to preach to me, too, sweet girl?” He stood tall again after catching his breath. “Like I haven’t heard enough preaching at church. I don’t know how you can take that shit day after day.”

I didn’t confess that I was sick of being preached to. I couldn’t tell him that, especially since I was kind of preaching at him.

“Sorry.” I sighed.

“Don’t worry about it. What are you doing here?” he asked roughly.

He sounded upset. Not that I could blame him. I was pretty upset about being there, too. We both knew I didn’t belong.

I tried to think of a good excuse, but there wasn’t one. And as badly as I wanted to come up with some really great lie to get myself out of the trouble I knew was going to come, I couldn’t lie. I had to spill the truth and hope he didn’t rush to church on Wednesday and tell my dad all about it.

“I came with my friend Amanda. She’s dating your friend Kevin. I didn’t know we were coming here. I’m not even supposed to be gone. My parents think I’m asleep at home. Please don’t tell them you saw me. Please,” I blurted out.

He was obviously getting in trouble a lot. Not just anyone got community service, and he seemed comfortable in his situation. Really, he had no room to tell on a person, but knowing my luck, he would. Some people would love to tell the pastor at a very prestigious church that his daughter was being sinful and sneaking out past dark. Maybe he was one of those people.

His eyes filled with humor and he started to laugh. It was a hearty laugh that sounded from his insides. It didn’t help that it also made his adorable dimples pop. I hadn’t really thought about boys all that much, but Finn was making me notice things I never had before.

Like his arms—the way his muscles moved under his skin when he did something with his hands. My eyes had also strayed to his stomach, which I could see clearly through his snug T-shirt. The thin white shirt left nothing to the imagination since it stuck to the indentions of his abdominal muscles.

He bent over and wrapped his arm around his stomach as he continued to laugh. I’m not sure what annoyed me more—the fact that my thought processes had gone into sinful territory, or the fact that he was laughing at me in my face.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You think I’d tell on you.” He ended his laughter with a deep chuckle.

“Well, I don’t really know you. Who’s to say what you’d do?” I said, offended.

He sobered, but his cocky smirk stayed in place.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Well, don’t worry about it. I’d never tell on someone. I’m no nark. I do think it’s kind of funny that a person like you would sneak out, though. I had no idea you were such a bad girl, Faith. I bet you even have some sexy sneak-out clothes hidden under that ugly skirt, don’t you?” He reached out and pulled at my shirt.