Somebody Else (Christian Romance)

THIRTY-NINE

It was day 2 of the camp. The day where the various camp activities would officially kickstart. It was 5:45 AM and everyone was in the hall for morning prayers. Williams stood behind the crowd at the far end of the hall, alongside several guys he hadn't met before. The choir from the Delta Youth church had finished leading them in songs and now a youth leader from one of the churches was leading them in prayers.
"Thank God for the safe trips of those of us who had to travel to be here, and commit the days activities into the hands of the Lord."

Heads were bowed and the voices of the people were audible as they prayed.

Despite how much Williams tried to concentrate on the prayer, the throbbing pain in his head wouldn't let him. He'd barely gotten any sleep last night as he'd spent the most part of the night in his car trying to finish up a web designing job for a client who needed it completed by Thursday. Williams had left his room to the car because of his roommates' loud chatters which made it impossible for him to concentrate. Thursday was his target date, and this was already Tuesday. Although Williams was grateful he was done with about eighty percent of the work, right now, his body was paying for his lack of rest.

He desperately wanted to sit, but virtually everyone was standing. He could spot Karen alongside most of the youths from his church. It wasn't long before he sighted Stephanie standing beside Vanessa. She stood with her head bowed and arms folded. One of the things that intrigued him the most about Stephanie was her sincere passion for God. In this same hall he'd seen a number of people whispering to one another. Some were even busy outside while prayer was going on. But Stephanie had always been different, right from the services back at Church, her hunger was always evident. And whenever they were together, she always found a way to talk about God and the things she'd been learning from her personal Bible study. The drastic transformation the Holy Spirit was working in Stephanie was mind blowing and now whenever he looked at her, he found it difficult, if not impossible to remember her past. That seemed like a fragment of time that God had bottled up and was deleting from his memory.

Williams cringed as the pain in his head seemed to increase. Almost immediately, the prayers ended and the people were instructed to head to the games arena for the morning exercise. While people rushed out in excitement, Williams fixed his gaze on Stephanie, not wanting to lose sight of her amidst the large throng of people. Grateful for his height which helped, his gaze followed a smiling Stephanie as she chatted with Vanessa while headed for the door. Once they were close enough to where he stood, he called her name.

"Williams!"  She grinned when she recognized him, but frowned almost immediately. "Are you okay?" She asked as they walked out the door.

"You look..." Vanessa studied his face as he spoke. "You look stressed."

"Yeah." Stephanie nodded. "Plus your eyes are a little red, and your smile looks tired."

"What sort of analysis are you guys making?" He chuckled gently in a bid to prevent the pounding in his head from increasing.

"We're just concerned." Vanessa laughed.

Stephanie smiled and nodded.

"Okay." He sighed. "I didn't get any sleep last night."

"Why?""Why?"Both girls seemed genuinely concerned.

"Was doing some work for a client. He needs it ready by Thursday."

"Oh." Stephanie nodded in understanding. "Sorry." Her expression was one of empathy. "Don't you thing you should go back and rest?"
This was one of the things that drew him to Stephanie. Her heart. The way she genuinely cared about everyone as though they were her family. She wasn't just pretty on the surface, she had substance inside and Williams treasured her for that.
"Yeah. You should get some rest." Vanessa nodded. "This exercise session is going to last for an hour. You could get some sleep now and come back for breakfast by 7"