Chad woke up the next morning just like any other Sunday morning. Rebecca dragged him out of bed and forced him to get ready for church. They swiftly ate some breakfast, got in the car and left. Since the day he was born, she had ingrained the routine of going to church in his schedule. It was essentially second nature to him at this point so he didn’t mind it at all. He wasn’t necessarily all that into the whole religion thing, but he very much admired the structure and order to it. Everyone going to a building at the same time every week, holding a service for a specified period of time and then everyone leaving and going back to their homes. The monotonous timing and scheduling of church always brought a smile to his face.

When the Nosmiths had moved to Manha, Rebecca chose a small local church to resume their routine. It was about a ten minute drive to the other side of town. Chad was pretty sure there were closer churches, but he didn’t question her choice. The building was quite small and services were quite packed. Luckily most people kept to themselves, saving him from idle talk before and after services. Well, except for idle chat with Yuna Cori.

Like children at school, even when not assigned seats, adults have a tendency to sit in the same spots over and over again. They often become disgruntled when someone “takes” their spot, disrupting their habitual pattern. This small niche in human nature always gave Chad comfort. He wasn’t weird or different, he was quite normal. This pattern was also how the Nosmiths met Yuna. On the first week they went to this church, he and Rebecca just so happened to sit in the seats adjacent to where Yuna usually sat. At first they would only say a general greeting to each other and maybe have surface level conversations. Eventually, Rebecca and Yuna started to really hit it off becoming friends. This is how he got his job at the library. Even Chad had to admit that Networking could be quite a useful thing.

Instead of going directly to their seats in the chapel, Rebecca and Chad now waited in the entrance for Yuna. Small clusters of people idly chatted just outside of the chapel. It created a nice white noise keeping any awkward silences to a minimum.

“I’m glad we wore jackets, it was a bit chilly this morning.”

Rebecca had just walked back to him after hanging up their coats. She wore a rustic orange sweater that matched the leaves on the trees outside. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail with her black jeans complimenting her black outlined glasses. Neither her nor Chad were dressed all that fancily. This church didn’t have any stigmas with not dressing up. His mother would still have him put a little effort into his appearance, often forcing him to put gel in his hair.

“Oh by the way Chad, did you decide to join the student council? You went to bed so early that I didn’t get the chance to ask you,” Rebecca smiled, “I think Jesus would say yes to that kind girl's offer.”

Chad rolled his eyes at his mother’s comment, “No I haven’t ye-”

Wait!

He had decided to keep the fact that he joined the student council a secret from his mother, but they were currently waiting for someone. Someone that not only knew that he joined, but specifically pushed for him to join.

Shit. How am I supposed to keep her mouth shut? She’s like best friends with mom.

“You don’t have to make your decision until tomorrow, right? Joining the student council would be such a selfless thing to do. Committing your precious time for the benefit of your peers. Do you know who else would act so selflessly?” she gestured to a cross hanging on one of the walls in the room.

Stop using religion to guilt me into this! Even though I already committed to joining, it’s still bad class.

“How are my two favorite Nosmiths doing this lovely morning?”

Yuna Cori walked up behind him while he was conversing with his mother.

She wore a tight black dress that accentuated her attractive figure. Most churches would start spritzing her with holy water at the sight of it, asking her to repent for her sins. As noted earlier, this church was more progressive when it came to church attire so nobody seemed to mind.

“I’m pretty sure we’re the only two Nosmiths you know.” Chad retorted.

“There you go, being upbeat and positive as always.”

She attempted to put her arm around his shoulders, but due to their height discrepancies she struggled. This led to her relying on a small jump to achieve this. It ended less in a friendly gesture and more in a headlock from the side with Chad being forced to lean forward from her borderline attack.

“What the hell!”

“Hey, don’t swear in church.”

She ruffled his hair before releasing him from the hold. The friendly gesture led to Chad’s gelled hair being ruined. He didn’t care too much about that, he just felt like being assaulted at church was a bit much.

“Good morning Yuna,” Rebecca said, “I heard you gave Chad some of your lunch yesterday. Thank you for always taking such good care of him.”

Good care my ass.

“I couldn’t just let him sit with no food and watch me eat mine. He just looked so pathetic, especially after that girl-”

“The sermon is about to start!” Chad interrupted, “Let's go get our seats before they’re taken.”

He grabbed his mother’s arm and started dragging her into the chapel. Yuna was left behind, mid sentence.

“C-Chad what’s the rush?” Rebecca said, being pulled along.

“I just really don’t want someone taking our seats.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She rolled her eyes at her overtly routine obsessed son.

Yuna followed behind them a few paces back. He looked back at her and carefully mouthed the words, “Don’t tell her.” After a few seconds of pondering, she nodded, seeming to understand the situation.

Good, seems like she got the message.

After finding their usual seats, Yuna and Rebecca resumed talking to each other. Yuna avoided the topic of Rose recruiting him at the library yesterday. He thanked both God and Yuna for this. The topics they did discuss was general church gossip that he wasn’t all that interested in. Since she and Rebecca were both single women at a small church, there were plenty of fun stories they could share with each other about getting hit on by fellow church goers.

“I’m pretty sure he has a wife. How gross of him.”

“Yea, I can’t believe he would try to pull something like that.”

He rolled his eyes at the gossip of two fully grown women. Although he wasn’t sure if he could count Yuna as fully grown with the way she had been acting as of late.

After a few minutes the service started. A small band composed of local church goers performed three worship songs. It wasn’t high quality music of course, but Chad was pretty sure the quality of the music wasn’t the point. He still thought they could’ve used a bit more practice.

The pastor then came up and gave a sermon. His voice was mellow yet firm. Like giving a presentation at school, he laid out each of the topics he would be discussing and then dove into the information. Everything about this church was so organized and systematic. Who wouldn’t love going?

The service finished and Rebecca and Chad walked back out into the lobby. They fetched their jackets from the coatrack and started heading to the exit. They turned back to say their usual farewell to Yuna.

“See you Yuna.”

“Have a good week! Try not to get too lonely at the library. Chad will be back next week to give you some company.”

The interaction was just a formality. He couldn’t think of why they had to say the same thing each week with just slightly different words. Manners such as these baffled him but he still followed them.

Of course we want her to have a good week. Why would we not?

“Hold up a second, Becca.” Yuna called from behind.

What is this? An irregularity?

He and his mother turned around from the exit and faced her. The crowd of exiting church goers moved around her as if they were purposefully highlighting her. She seemed to be quite happy. She wore a nice smile that complimented her attractive face.

“Becca, I was just wondering if you had any prayer requests for me. Like if you or Chad had any big decisions coming up this week.”

Oh no. That smile… It wasn’t happiness…

“As a matter of fact, Chad was recently offered a position on the student council directly from their president. She was quite a lovely girl.”

That smile…

“Oh really? That sounds like a great opportunity.”

Isn’t the smile of someone who is happy.

“Yes, that’s what I was telling him. The president, Rose was her name, came to our house Friday night and offered him the position. She was so kind and Chad repaid that kindness by being quite rude. I sure hope she doesn’t retract the offer from him.”

It’s the smile a predator makes…

“Oh I don’t think you need to worry about that at all…”

When its prey is trapped…

“Chad actually talked to her before work yesterday morning.”

And hopeless to escape…

“Really? At the library?”

From the jaws of death.

“Yes! Apparently she was waiting for him outside of the library well before we opened. They had quite the lengthy conversation and she happily skipped away afterwards. I was wondering if she was his girlfriend. You two had great chemistry and she was very pretty. You two have to be dating.”

Don’t act dumb!

Chad clenched his fist. She had done him in. He put his trust in her. He thought she understood his message to her.

No, that’s wrong.

Yuna understood his message all too well. She had just waited for the right time to perform the finishing move. She had not only brought the topic up, but did so in a way where Chad would have to tell his mom with his own words. Even though she knew, she played the conversation in a way where he had to directly admit his failure to his mother.

I’ll never forgive you for this Yuna!

Rebecca turned to him with fury in her eyes.

“Rose took time out of her weekend to find you at the library and you still didn’t say yes! I thought I raised you better than that!”

“No, that's wrong.”

He decided to come clean to his mother, telling her everything that happened before yesterday. He told her about initially pushing off the decision but then Yuna forcing him to say yes. He also told his mother the reason why he kept the fact he joined secret. Chad specifically emphasized the part that Yuna had already known he joined and played dumb just now, purposely egging him on. If he was going to sink in the ocean, he was going to drag her down with him.

You’ll have to pay for your little acting job Yuna!

After he finished telling her all that happened yesterday regarding him joining the student council, there was a moment of silence. Rebecca just stood there looking at her son.

“Pfft, you didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to admit defeat?” she began to laugh at her son.

Yuna began to laugh along with her, “You’re such a child Chad.”

“Shut up Yuna! You acted like you didn’t know just to torture me more. You’re just as childish as me and you’re twice my age.”

A fire was set ablaze in her eyes.

“I am not twice your age you little brat! You don’t even know how to talk to a woman properly-”

“Alright, that's enough you two.”

In a way only a mother could, Rebecca stopped the bickering between the two siblings. Well, they weren’t siblings but they were sure acting as such.

She took hold of the clash that was drawing some unwanted attention from the fellow church goers. The Nosmiths then said their usual farewell to Yuna and left church.

The car ride back from church was quiet, too quiet. Chad thought for sure that his mother would rub it in his face that he had lost. That she had pushed her will over his own and forced him to join. His expectations were flipped. She didn’t bring up the topic again for the rest of the day. He spent the rest of his Sunday doing as he would usually do. After church he and his mother would go back home, change clothes and then go volunteer at the local homeless shelter. This revelation was unexpected but quite welcomed. He needed this consistency after the hectic end to his week.

Later that day, Chad was back in his bedroom. The day was coming to an end, the sun slowly sank below the horizon outside of the window. He had called in another early night seeing that he had nothing else to do for the rest of the night.

After a while of laying in his bed with no success towards falling asleep, his phone vibrated and lit up the room. He quickly turned on his shoulder and looked at what caused this. A notification showed on his lock screen.

Notification from Email.

He opened it with anticipation. It was what he expected it to be, his adjusted schedule for this upcoming week and the rest of the semester.