A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 31: Bring Me That Horizon

Chapter 31: Bring Me That Horizon

Nora walked into one of the larger rooms on campus, finding over a hundred college students in little huddles, talking, laughing, and hugging. It was her first time going to the big group meeting that the campus ministry had weekly, something Maddie had also been inviting her to ever since she'd started going to small group, but only something she'd felt ready to do recently.

She knew about a dozen people that would be in attendance, which helped her nervousness immensely. A lot of girls from her small group were there, not to mention Kayden, Samuel, and Joshua. It was a relief to know that Levi and Oliver would have people present that they knew, too, and Nora was going to make sure they were as comfortable as possible. Especially Oliver, since he seemed the most apprehensive about the whole thing.

She squeezed herself past the people she didn't know, so many of which said hi to her despite not being designated greeters, all of them with that same sincere look on her face that Maddie always had. It also reminded her of Cast Members and how friendly they always were.

Maybe this was her place after all.

Nora was hugged by Maddie, Abby, and Naomi as soon as she made it over to them and was introduced to a few more people.

"It's okay if you can't remember names. I've got you." Maddie pointed to a man on stage tuning his guitar. "For instance, that's Beardie."

"Still quoting The Office," Abby stated. "Every day."

"Have you seen Levi or Oliver yet?" Nora asked, still looking around the room. But she didn't have to. They came in together right then, Levi looking a lot more optimistic than she was used to and Oliver a lot more frazzled.

Naomi nodded towards Oliver. "Is that the one you said was super popular in high school?"

"Yep."

"We'll make sure he's befriended, okay?" She squeezed Nora's hand, then barked at Samuel, who was standing and talking to a few of his own friends. "Hey, go talk to him."

"Slave driver," Samuel muttered, nudging his sister on the way over to greet Levi and Oliver.

Naomi pushed her hair back, obviously pleased.

Nora kept from going over immediately, trusting Samuel to introduce them to some people. She didn't need to mother hen them. She also wanted them for her own comfort level, though that didn't make much sense to her considering she didn't think she'd seen Oliver and Levi at the same time since their run in at Gaston's Tavern, where they'd apparently been having a silent argument about Levi's lies.

Not to mention she'd kissed Levi and wasn't sure how she felt about either of them still.

She internally screamed.

"It'll be fine," Naomi said, pushing her along towards a row of seats, raising her voice to her brother, "You guys better sit with us!"

Samuel said something in Levi's ear, causing him to give a short laugh. It was something Nora wasn't very used to hearing. She shared a look with Oliver, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"He's weirding me out with all the changes," Oliver whispered to her as soon as they were close enough.

"Same."

"They good changes. I just want to make sure I keep up." His face softened. "Thanks for forgiving him."

She wondered if they'd talked about the kiss. She decided it wasn't a good time to bring it up and merely nodded before introducing him to some of her friends.

It was nice to say she had multiple of them.

Soon, the actual service started. There was singing, which was somewhat embarrassing because she wasn't the best singer. It was silly of her to care what people thought, especially when she never cared what people thought when she sang Disney songs, but still, she wanted the night to go smoothly. The songs either were fast and exciting ones to clap along to or slow and passionate. Either way, people had their hands up in praise, which Nora wasn't used to, but the idea of it definitely intrigued her and she wondered why it was a thing. She made a note to ask Maddie about it more about it later.

The entire group was really excited every time anyone on stage had anything to say. Samson was there, working the crowd, making announcements feel much more entertaining than they ever should be, and all the students that went up to share for whatever reason had really thoughtful things to say.

Maddie's dad, Daniel, ended up giving the sermon that night. She hadn't had time to study him before, but he was the spitting image of Kayden, except obviously older. That's where the demeanor came from. The relaxed, content, deep vibe. From this man. And when Kayden looked at him, there was a sort of pride on his face that she wasn't used to seeing from kids who looked at their parents. Even Maddie was beaming, as she had been when she talked about her parents, and Nora knew by some miracle God must have orchestrated that.

He talked about Jesus and how he was more than this man on a page, how he had a personality that people don't get to see much of, that he was real and loved us so much to the point he died for everyone. How rare that was, especially nowadays, for people to not be abandoned at the drop of the hat, to be forgiven despite so many mistakes, especially repeated ones, and how we take it for granted.

It wasn't condemning at all, but it did hit home, how she took so much for granted. She looked at her row of friends, how they were all here in this moment, together. No matter how confused or worried she was about the future, at least she had this and knew these people weren't going to leave her. It brought tears to her eyes.

They sang again to close out, then people started mingling again.

At the end, a group of new people had come over to Oliver and Levi, introducing themselves. After a few minutes, Oliver broke away, hovering by her.

"You okay?" Nora asked.

He took a stifled breath. "I swear I'm trying. It's just for the longest time I was the life of the party, but it was me putting on a façade. So I want whatever this is to be real and it can't be real until I'm comfortable."

"I understand. It took me awhile to get to that point too."

They started walking towards Levi, who was facing away from them, chatting to some people Nora didn't recognize.

"We actually don't go here," Levi said to the group. "We're Cast Members."

"That's awesome," one guy said. "I go there all the time. Which park do you work at?"

"I'm actually a character performer. Jack Sparrow."

Oliver gaped at him. Nora couldn't help but follow suit.

"Really?" the guy asked, also looking surprised.

"Yeah."

"Good for you. And here my mom wants me to go into astrophysics."

The group laughed, then moved onto another subject.

Oliver went to the other side of the room. Nora followed. "Are you mad?"

"Some character performers share about it online. They just have to be careful about what they say and how they present the information," Oliver said, his face troubled. "Still, it's weird sharing it when it feels either like a boast or like the other person is going to want something from you. And for Levi to be the total opposite of how he was before..."

"Daniel would talk to whoever it was, if they did that. And as for Levi...you seem upset that he's changing."

Oliver shifted. "I just don't want to get left behind."

"You won't."

He sighed. "I know. But that's what I'm used to. I can't help but think that."

She grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Thanks for coming. I think you did it more for yourself than for him this time."

His eyes met hers. "How'd you know?"

"Intuition?"

"Yeah. I'm going to try. I promise."

"I hope you're not feeling peer pressured."

"Kind of? But I need it. This is a good thing." Oliver pushed her arm gently. "So thanks."

"Hey," Levi said, walking over. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good." Oliver nodded over to the group. "Looks like you had a line, just like at work."

Levi shrugged. "Oh, you know. I'm pretty popular."

"You should be," Oliver replied, smiling.

"What'd you think?" Nora asked him.

Levi was practically beaming. "Can we come back next week?"

Oliver patted him on the back. "I'm seriously proud of you."

"Me too."

"We can do this," Oliver said. "We can figure this out."

She looked between them both, heart bursting at the sight of them here, together. They really could do this. After all, it was kind of fun to do the impossible.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading, guys! I know that's not really an ending ending, but I'm working on the next book, so stay tuned!

-Flips