I felt kind of shameful just from the thought of that guy. I mean, I was so used to the suit and tie males at church that when something other than that showed up randomly I felt, unholy.
Call me a nun all you want but the conversation of sex was only brought up one time. And it was my dad stating that if I don't stay pure till marriage - I was going to hell for it.
As a Christian, hell was a very dark side of the world, and I wanted to avoid that at all cost.
I had cleaned up after dropping Jordan off and walked down the remainder stairs for dinner. We always had dinners together, it was apart of unity.
Once again, as my dad always says.
"So I was thinking-" my dad begin taking a seat beside my mom as I sat across from the two, "Wednesday we can have a little play for the preschoolers, make it fun for them."
My mother quickly agreed. I don't know what was with her and always making sure he was right and no one else could ever come through that.
"Charlotte could help, she can dedicated her hours after community service at the library." My mom suggest. I almost shot her a warning look before stopping myself realizing that it wasn't polite.
"Actually-"
"It's a good idea." He added in. I didn't protest, Lord knows what that would even get me. So I just forced a tight smile and continued to eat my food.
When the table grew to a silence I almost thanked God. He knew I needed a break from these two, but he obviously didn't think I deserved it.
"I got a call from Jordans mother today." He spoke up. I stared down at my plate slowly looking up, "Asked if James was at service today, I told her no but as I was leaving I saw him in the parking lot-"
Oh boy.
"-with his evil ridden associates." He stopped not even wanting to think of what James and his friends could've been doing in the church parking lot, "Next time you see something like that, I need you to tell them to leave. Not ask, leave or I'm calling the police."
"the police?" I asked raising an eyebrow, "Daddy I don't think that they should get involved."
"I also don't think a 18 year old kid should be smoking marijuana in the church's parking lot when his mother asked him to go to service." He had a point there.
If there was anything James was, it was a liar. When I was starting freshman year he practically tortured me with the myth of 'freshman Friday'. After three weeks spent walking around with the schools police every Friday I realized that it was indeed just a myth.
But it gave him a kick out of it.
"Just, give them warnings and then say what you need to say." My mom added reassuring me that I didn't have to use force unless necessary.
My dad nodded his head, "I don't ever want to see you hanging around those kids. All those Brookhaven kids are heading down a path of destructive behavior."
The way the town was set up was many of the kids went to a special private school fifteen minutes from the church. We dressed head to toe in our uniforms, had political and religious debates, won best school of the US in 2013, and of course hold 2,000 of Oakland's best students.
But not everyone got into a West Reunion, and the ones who did obviously didn't make the cut after a semester and got kicked out, or their behavior was out of the way. Any rejected student was sent to Brookhaven public school, or a school known for every Oakland drop out.
I don't know anything from that school except James and I didn't want to know anyone. Anyone from Brookhaven was going down a dark path to nowhere.
"I need that school to be moved 30 miles away from Oakland." He exaggerated, "Charlotte, just promise me you'd stay away from those people."
Oh I had already promised myself years ago.
"I promise."
