Unloved

Eighteen

R A C H E L

After Rachel had left, I knew I had to apologise to Mum for the way I had behaved earlier. So I headed towards Mum's bedroom to speak to her. I knocked on the bedroom door and waited. When I didn't get any response, I entered the room. I noticed that Mum was holding what looked like a paper. She quickly hid it when she saw me. Mum had a track record of hiding things from me, but one way or the other, I always found out what she was hiding.

"Megan, what are you doing here?" Mum asked me.

"I came to apologise to you. I'm sorry for the way I behaved towards you the other time", I said sheepishly.

"Oh, that... Oh, Megan, I forgive you", Mum told me and pulled me into a hug.

After that was done, I went to my bedroom. I felt better now that I had apologised to Mum. I knew she was hiding something from me, but I didn't know what. Why would Mum hide anything from me? I just hoped it wasn't anything serious. I sighed and prayed that everything would work out well.

I was woken up by Mum the next morning. I helped her get dressed and prepare for work. After that, I did my morning things and helped Steven do the same. I spent most of the day reading, browsing on the Internet, watching television and playing with Steven. I wanted to go over to Rachel's house to find out how she was doing but decided against it. I didn't know if I wanted to take Steven with me. I felt a bit guilty for wanting to spend so much time with Rachel. I felt like I was betraying Jayda. But wasn't Jayda the same person who never returned my calls or text messages? I had given up trying to get in contact with her. And wasn't Rachel the same person who always looked down on me? But that was a thing of the past. I had forgiven Rachel for what she had done to me. Why was I remembering it? I concluded that there was nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with Rachel. I deserved a good friendship plus Rachel and I had solved all our differences. And that was that. We were now friends, I guess.

Just as I was thinking all these things, I heard a knock on the door. I wondered who was knocking on the door. I got up lazily to answer the door. To my utmost surprise, standing in front of the door was no other person was Rachel! I was s overjoyed to see her that I gave her an awkward hug.

"Megan! You're behaving as if you've not seen me in years!", Rachel said, laughing.

"I was contemplating whether or not to come to your house or not and miraculously , you're here!" I explained.

Rachel laughed again and shook her head at me.

Finally! Someone I could talk. After chatting about some random topics, I asked Rachel about how her prayer session went.

"So, how did the prayer go?" I asked Rachel.

"It was okay. I just prayed to Gd asking him to help me get along with my mum and to help your dad get better soon", Rachel told me.

"That's all good but you could also try this", I said, grabbing a paper and writing these words on it:

A - Adoration

C - Confession

T - Thanksgiving

S - Supplication

"What does all this mean?" Rachel asked me curiously.

"Let's take it one by one. Adoration is worshiping God and showing reverence to him. The next one is Confession. That is, acknowledging one's sins to God. The next one is Thanksgiving, that is, showing gratitude to God for everything he's done for you. The last one is Supplication which is letting your requests be made known unto God", I lectured.

"So, like, I'm supposed to follow this pattern?" Rachel asked me.

"Well, yeah, I guess. Because all of this is contained in the Lord's Prayer", I answered.

"The Lord's Prayer?' Rachel asked, obviously confused.

"It's a prayer Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray", I explained.

"How do you know all this?"

"I just study the Bible a lot. Speaking of which, did you have your quiet time this morning?"

"No".

I gave Rachel a stern look. Okay, I know she's a baby Christian and everything. I reminded myself that I didn't have to be so hard on her.

But still.

"But I promise to have my quiet time this evening".

After chatting for some time, Rachel suggested that we go to the shopping mall.

"I'm bored. You know what? Let's go shopping", Rachel suggested.

"I don't have any money. And what abut Steven?" I said, making up silly excuses. I was determined not to give in to Rachel's demands.

"That's not a problem and Steven can go with us", Rachel insisted.

Okay, Rachel had won. I got Steven ready and called Mum to tell her where I was going. After locking the doors, we were good to go! To be honest,

I do not remember the last time I went to the shopping mall. Rachel, Steven and I went into almost every shop in the mall. Rachel bought clothes for me, herself and Steven. Steven had tons of fun playing in the playground located on the shopping mall's premises. There were slides, swings, bouncy castles, monkey bars, merry - go - rounds, see - saws and many others. Steven went on all f them. He had a lot of energy for a four - year old boy. Rachel and I even had manicures and pedicures.

All too soon, it was getting late and we had to leave. I actually had a lot of home but I somehow dreaded going back home. Home just reminded me of all the problems I had. Soon, we arrived home. Mum had still not closed from work. Rachel, Steven and I spent about twenty minutes getting all the shopping bags out of the car. They were so many! Steven looked tired so I took him to his bedroom. I plopped down on the couch and sat next to Rachel.

"I never knew shopping could be so much fun! I actually hate shopping. Don't judge", I said, remembering all the weird clothes Rachel and I had put on and the pictures we had taken together.

"Shopping's fun, especially when you're doing it with a friend. Now, I'm going to be totally honest with you. You are bad at matching clothes. Megan, there's nothing wrong with being fashionable. Okay, match these clothes", Rachel told me.

I looked at Rachel questioningly. Where was she going with this? I took an orange camisole and matched it with neon green shorts. Rachel looked at the outfit disapprovingly.

"No! You can't match orange with green. They're both bright colours. Here, let me show you", Rachel said.

After a couple of lessons from Rachel, I finally got the hang of it.

"Okay. Now, let's move on to make-up. Oh, no! I think I forgot to buy make - up! Oh, well, we can do that later", Rachel said.

We spent the rest of the time chatting while sorting out the clothes we had bought. who would have thought that Rachel and I would be chatting normally, like we had known each other for years! I know that I wouldn't. God's ways are definitely higher than our ways. I couldn't wait to see how our friendship would grow over time.