Can't Run From You

Chapter 2

After I had spent about an hour or two at Will's house I decided it was about time I head home. As soon as I stepped through the front door I wished that I had just stayed at Will's. My mom and dad were having their weekly bible study, I forgot it was Thursday. I looked down at my spandex and tank top and immediately felt more naked than I already was. Across the room my mother gave me a look referencing how short my shorts were. A couple members of the group were about my age, and all of them just said hi or hello to me. I just waved awkwardly and made a B-line for the kitchen. As I grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and opened the cap I saw my mother round the corner into the kitchen.

"How was practice?" she asked sweetly.

"It was fine."

"Thea, I thought we talked about the shorts. Especially when the group is here." she gave me a disappointed look and closed the fridge door.

"Sorry I forgot it was Thursday." I just sat at the kitchen table and pulled out my phone.

"Well why don't you put some pants on and join us?" she asked while she took a seat at the table with me.

"That's a hard pass." I was trying not to be a smart ass but it wasn't working.

"Fine well we still have about two more chapters to cover. If you're going to be down here please put some clothes on." She got up from the table and walked back to the goody goodies. That's what I called them at least.

My parents were both die hard Christians. They had been my whole life. When I was younger I went to all the youth group meetings, all the weekly sessions, did the whole thing. After a while though, it just seemed to be routine, like it was just something I did and I got tired of it. Eventually I stopped going all together. It killed my parents but I guess they understood. I still went to church on the big days, like Easter or Christmas sometimes. Whenever I did go though everyone there always made it seem like it was such a big deal. They would all come and hug me and give me the sad little smile followed by "We've missed you" or "Can't wait to see you come again". It was annoying, but at least every time I went Will was there to keep me from running the hell out of there. Will went to the same church as us, but he went every week. He was a better Christian than I was, and that's why my parents loved him. That's also why we have never actually had sex. For as long as we've been together you'd think it would have happened already but it hasn't. Will is determined to be a virgin until he gets married. I don't know if I actually am ready to do it with him. I've never really felt like it was the right moment or even like I wanted to do it. I don't know.

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The next day, Friday morning, I was sitting in class trying to focus on my algebra assignment. As I tried to find x I kept twirling my pencil through my fingers. As it went through every finger I started to zone out and think about what I was going to do later with Will. After practice of course. As I kept twirling I suddenly heard the door open behind and the pencil flew out of my hand towards the girl who was walking in. Shit. I got up quickly and knelt down to grab my pencil. As I grabbed my pencil I realized there were a pair of white Converse in front of me. Attached to the converse was a girl with dark brown hair that faded into a sort of blonde. She was about my height and had light brown eyes. After a while I realized I was staring.

"You good?" she asked. The way she asked it was sweet and sincere. It was really weird.

"Uhh yeah." With that she just smiled and walked up to Mrs. Davis. After papers were exchanged and they talked for a little bit Mrs. Davis stood up to address the class.

"Okay everyone we have a new student today. This is Elizabeth." At this she turned to Elizabeth and said

"Why don't you tell the class a little about yourself." After she said that she sat back down at her desk and looked at the girl expectantly. Elizabeth's cheeks started to turn jus the slightest shade of red.

"Uh hi I'm Elizabeth I just moved here from Oklahoma. Umm it's nice to meet you guys." She waved at the last part and then looked around the room for an empty seat. I grabbed my backpack off of the desk that was next to me and waved her down.

"There's one right here." I put my backpack on the ground and dug through it for my air pods. After I found them I put them in and went back to my algebra homework. As I started in on the problem I felt a tap on my shoulder. I took out my ear bud and looked at the new girl.

"Thanks for the seat." She said giving me a shy little smile as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Your welcome Elizabeth." I don't know why but I felt the need to say her name. To let her know I was listening when she was introducing herself.

"Eli." She said pulling a pencil out of her backpack.

"What?" I asked still watching her.

"You can call me Eli. I hate when people use my full name." she laughed ignoring the fact that I was staring at her brown eyes again. After a second or two I registered what she had just said and said

"Oh okay. Well its nice to meet you, I'm Thea." I extended my hand for her to shake. I turned my attention back to the paper and tried to do the problem I had started on. I did and redid it about three times. After I gave up I just pulled out my phone and started texting will to see what he was doing. The conversation we had was short and unimportant. I was too distracted, by what I don't know. I just couldn't focus.