On my walk home, I heard a car stop. I turned and saw Annette's van, and I was shoved in the van as Annette recited a prayer from the Bible. I finally got out of the vehicle, "You're performing an exorcism on me?"
"We've got to get the evil out of you." Annette said as she held her place in the Bible.
Jes quickly added, "It's God's will."
"God's will?" I questioned.
"Christ died for you sins!" Jes replied, holding a picture of Jesus.
"Everyone just calm down," Natalie said with a breath.
"You're not accepting our intervention?" Annette questioned.
"You mean: kidnap?" I scoffed, "And no, I'm not."
"You've been backsliding into the flames of Hell," Annette replied.
Natalie interrupted, "You have become a magnet for sin. We've all witnessed it."
"Sure, Natalie," I laughed in disbelief, "Now you're acting innocent; what about last Spring Break, huh?"
"You're making accusations as we're trying to save your soul?" Annette said, pushing me. "Turn away from Satan, Mari. Jesus loves you."
"You don't know the first thing about love." I turned and began to walk away.
"I am filled with Christ's love," Annette yelled as she threw her Bible at me, "You're just jealous of my success in the Lord."
"This is not a weapon," I handed her the Bible, "You idiot." Even though I didn't like to run in public, I ran away and didn't care how foolish I looked. When I reached the next block, I began to walk. I felt so horrible, a dog was barking at me—was there evil on me that he could sense? I heard an engine of some sort of motorbike behind me. A few seconds later, Tony stopped in front of me. "What, did they send you to strap me on the back of your scooter?"
"Scooter? Mari, this is a Vespa. And I have no idea what you're talking about. Come on, I'll give you a ride."
No matter how cute he looked in his helmet, I refused, "No thanks, I'd rather walk."
"Suite yourself." he said with the cutest and most pitiful face that I couldn't say no to. I got on and explained what happened. "She actually tried to exorcise you? That was nice, I guess."
"The way things are going, I should have let her to do it."
"Hey Mari, I want you to know that I don't think Alex is sick or anything."
"Yeah, okay..."
"No, really." He went a bit fast, so I held on to him. "I mean, Mercy House only exists for the people who do the sending, more than it does for the people that get sent there."
I frowned and asked, "Then why were you at Annette's when she had the prayer circle?"
"Honestly?" I nodded my head on his back in answer that I wanted to hear. "I thought you'd be there."
We arrived at my house, "Thanks, Tony."
He nodded. I walked up my driveway as he said my name. I turned around. "Do you want to go out sometimes?"
"What, are you gonna take me out on your scooter?" I said, sarcastically.
"Come on. I'm, like, totally adorable," he said. And I agreed in my thoughts. "Beside, it'll drive Annette crazy."
Even though I wanted to, I shook my head, "I'm, uh, not dating right now." He made the cute, pitiful look and asked about the next day. Sadly, I refused and went inside my house, "Night, Tony."
The Thursday before Christmas vacation, everyone handed out presents and prayed. Annette, as usual had something to preach about, and this time it wasn't for DC; but for me. "We need to take a moment and," DC threw a balled-up paper at her head. Annette took a moment to calm then continued, "Take a moment and think about those who aren't as fortunate to have the body of Christ in their heart and life right now. So, let's pray for Mari." She looked at me, as well as the other students did.
"Alright, class. Let's read the—"
Lucky for me, at our school, teen pregnancy was about as common as the flesh-eating virus. No one really seemed to catch on. Except for DC.
"Mari," DC whispered. She had her hand in a circle and moved her pen up and down. I rolled my eyes at her. I kind felt sick, so I asked to go to the restroom. When I exited the stall to wash my hands and face, DC was sitting on the counter, smoking. "Is the smoke bugging you?" she leaped onto the floor, "I heard it's so bad for the baby."
"What? …I'm not pregnant."
"Right," she poked my stomach, "So, what's the plan? It's too late for the big A." she then tugged my over-sized sweater, "You look like a smuggler. I know somewhere you could sell it."
"I'm not going to sell my—" I paused, "My sweater."
She put out the cigarette, gave me a paper-towel, and said, "It's Alex's, isn't?" I gave in and nodded. "You can't do this on your own."
"Yeah, I can."
"No, you can't."
"I thought I was helping him. I thought it was what Jesus wanted me to do." I held all this in, that now it was said I started to cry, "It's stupid, I know."
DC looked at me, "It's not stupid." I disagreed. "It's not stupid." She gave me a hug. I forgot how good it felt to have a hug; to have a friend. I was naive to judge someone because they were different. DC was in fact a good person. She broke away from the hug, looked at me, and said, "You need to get out of here."
"Are we ditching?" Turns out that we were in fact ditching.
I got an E.D. for myself, and got in DC's car. Justin was in the driver's seat, "Should you be driving?"