Healing Rain (12 page)

I sucked in a breath, trying to ignore the stab of pain in my chest from his words.
People that aren't part of it usually don't really get it.
Of course he had no idea I was ever a Christian – my actions in no way suggested that I used to be one of those people on the inside.

I decided to tell him that. “You know, Aiden, back in St. Louis, I was really involved in church. I led Bible studies and prayer circles at school, even. So I get it.”

“Oh yeah? That's great, Rain…”

I cut him off before he could go any further. “But it's not really part of my life anymore. It's hard to explain, but just some stuff that happened…I kinda got away from it.”

He nodded, frowning. “I get it. I don't know what kind of ‘stuff' you're talking about, but I know how things in your life can get in the way of it all.”

I nodded. I had nothing to say to that, especially not here in the middle of the hallway.

When we were in front of our classrooms, he stopped and turned toward me. “Well, you know, just because you ‘got away from it,' it doesn't mean you lost it. I mean, I'm new at this whole Christian thing, but from what I'm learning, you don't lose God no matter what you do. If you ever want to try to find it again, you're more than welcome to come to church with me and Steve. And that's all I will say about it, because I don't want to be one of those pushy people who shove it in everyone's faces all the time. But just know that the invitation stands, if you ever decide you're interested.”

I smiled. “Okay. Have a good weekend. I'll see you Monday.”

“You too,” he said before he turned around. I watched him walk away before I turned and walked slowly into my own classroom. Somewhere in that look he had given me, I thought I caught a glimpse of sadness.

 

 

The school day went surprisingly fast, considering how excited I was for the football game. Before I knew it, the last bell of the day rang and I walked to my locker to find Ethan waiting for me. It was amazing how I still got excited to see him standing up against my locker, as if I hadn't seen him there every day for the last two weeks. I gave him a big smile as I reached into my locker and put my homework in my backpack. “You ready for the game?”

“Of course I'm ready,” he said. “Actually, Coach wants us to be back here earlier than usual. He said to get a bite to eat and be back by four o'clock so that we could have a talk. I think he's nervous about tonight's game.”

“Well, that doesn't leave you much time. You want me to make you a really fast dinner? I mean, since those are pretty much the only kinds of dinners I know how to make?” I asked him, grinning.

“That sounds excellent,” he said. “You're the best cook I know.”

“Liar,” I said, shutting my locker and taking his hand.

We walked out to his SUV, where he opened my door to let me in and shut it behind me. He ran around to the driver's side and hopped in, started the car and turned up the music. “You ready for another jam session?” he asked with a grin.

“Sure,” I said, bobbing my head with the music. I was getting used to all his hip-hop. We danced while Ethan attempted to rap as we rode to the elementary school.

Tyler came bouncing into the car, as usual. We had to turn down the music to hear his voice as he chattered about the upcoming game for the rest of the ride home. He had turned into NCHS's number one fan – or more specifically, Ethan Collins' number one fan. His new favorite activity was going to the football games and then re-enacting them when he got home. He knew all of the players by name. Ethan and I had helped him make his own Pacers shirt; he painted “Collins #3” on the back of it. It was his favorite shirt.

Once we got inside, Ethan went with Tyler into his room to get him ready for the game. I went straight into the kitchen and started making dinner so that Ethan would have time to eat before he had to get back to school. I looked through our refrigerator and decided to go with grilled cheese sandwiches and chips – one of my specialties. As I spread the butter on the bread, my mind suddenly wondered to my earlier conversation with Aiden. Now that I thought about it, I
had
noticed a change in him the last couple of weeks. I mean, he was always the happy-go-lucky type from the first day I met him, but lately there was something different about him. He seemed cheerful and…peaceful, I realized. I knew exactly where that peace surrounding him came from; I used to have it, too. It seemed like an entirely different lifetime ago. As I thought about his invitation, I remembered my mom's wish for us to find a church family. Should I tell her about my conversation with Aiden?

As I considered this, Ethan came into the kitchen with Tyler the Super Fan. He was dressed in his Collins shirt, along with jeans and tennis shoes and a red and black bandana tied around his head. I laughed when I saw him and shook my head at Ethan. “What have you done to my baby brother?” I asked him.

“I made him look cool, right, buddy?” he said, turning to bump fists with Tyler.

“Yeah!” Tyler shouted.

“Okay, cool guys, come eat,” I said, putting the sandwiches on the table.

As I grabbed a couple of bags of chips and some drinks, Ethan came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Why do you take such good care of me? Slaving away over the stove so that I can get a good home-cooked meal before my game,” he whispered teasingly into my ear.

“Oh, ew, don't start the yucky lovey-dovey stuff!” Tyler complained, as he usually did if Ethan showed any signs of affection towards me.

Ethan just laughed and joined him at the table, scarfing down three grilled cheeses before he had to hurry back to school. “Thanks for dinner. I'll look for you in the stands,” he told me with a grin as he rushed out the door. And I knew that he would. Before each game we had been to so far, he always looked into the crowd until he found me and Tyler so that he could wave to us.

“We'll be there,” I said, squeezing his hand before he ran off. “Good luck.”

Cleaning up the mess from dinner didn't take long. I had just enough time before the game to freshen up my makeup a little, and I threw my hair back into a ponytail since the weather was still pretty hot. Tyler was practically pulling me out the door to leave – he liked to get there early and get a good seat – so we took off back to the school.

Ethan had a fantastic game. He made such a great quarterback, and I could see why he was the team captain. There was no doubt he was a natural-born leader. I always felt sorry for the quarterback, because I felt like they got so much more pressure than the rest of the team. Even if the whole team played horribly, somehow, the loss would be blamed on the quarterback alone. But Ethan accepted the responsibility and seemed to thrive under the intense stress. NCHS was undefeated so far, and Ethan never faltered. He was unstoppable. Tonight was no exception as we won the game 21-7.

When I wasn't watching Ethan and thinking about how good he looked in his uniform, I was watching the cheerleaders. Alexis hadn't been lying when she told me they really were good. Their lifts and jumps were flawless, and their tumbling was amazing. I couldn't ignore the ache in my stomach that hit me every time I watched them. Every ounce of me wanted to be out there, cheering along with them. I was still struggling with whether or not I wanted to get back into cheerleading; I just wanted to make sure I was making the decision for myself, and not because it was expected out of me or because my friends were doing it. But at that moment, as I watched the girls smiling while they threw Alexis and two other girls high into the air in their basket tosses, I could tell from the feeling in my stomach that it was something I did want, purely for myself. I had really enjoyed cheering, and I belonged out there.

That moment was when I decided I did want to try out for basketball season. It wouldn't be easy to get back in shape. I knew I was going to have to work for it, because as Alexis had so nicely pointed out, it would be difficult to make the squad. But I knew I would regret it if I didn't at least try. I made a mental note to talk to Anna to see if she would work with me to get ready for tryouts.

After the game, Tyler and I waited around for Ethan. As we sat in the bleachers, Anna, Melissa, and Brooke came running up to us, with Alexis walking up slowly behind them, looking bored. “So,” Anna asked, “you're coming out with us tonight, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Ethan's gonna take us home first so I can drop Tyler off, but then I'm coming.”

I saw Alexis roll her eyes as she stood with one hand on her hip, pretending to study her fingernails on the other hand. “Okay, so let's go,” she said, looking at the other three girls but not at me.

I decided to try to be the better person, even though she was obviously trying to leave me out of the conversation on purpose. “You guys looked great out there. Alexis, your toe-touch in that basket toss was amazing.”

She brought her gaze to me slowly, raising her eyebrows. “Yeah, thanks. I told you we were really competitive. You still thinking about trying out for basketball season?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I actually just decided tonight that I'm trying out for sure. I haven't done it in a few months, though, so I need to work on my tumbling and jumps and stuff.”

She snorted. “Yeah, you definitely better do that if you think you're going to stand a chance.”

Melissa elbowed her as the other two girls glared at her. “What?” she said. “Someone needs to be honest. It's going to be hard to beat one of the girls who is already on the squad. No offense to you, Rain,” she said, turning toward me with her famous innocent expression.

“None taken,” I said, returning her blameless look with a fake smile of my own. “I guess I better start preparing for the challenge.”

Anna jumped in with, “Ooh, I'll help you! I mean, if you want help, anyway.”

I watched Alexis turn to her with a glare, but she didn't seem to notice. She was looking at me with an excited expression as she waited for me to respond. I smiled back at her. “That would be great, Anna. I was actually thinking tonight that I was going to see if you could help me, but I'm glad you volunteered. Now I won't have to hold you hostage at my house and force you to help me get back in shape.”

Anna giggled. “It will be fun! Oh, I can't wait! I can go ahead and teach you some of our basketball cheers so you'll be ahead of the game…”

Alexis quickly interrupted. “Um, you can't do that. That's not fair. It's against the rules.”

Melissa looked at her with a confused expression. “What rules?”

Alexis just shook her head. “Come on, guys, we better get going. Morgan's going to be wondering where we are.”

With that, Melissa, Brooke, and Anna seemed to forget about our conversation. “Yeah,” Brooke said, “I want to change first. We'll see you at Morgan's, okay, Rain?”

“Sure. We'll be there,” I said as I saw Ethan coming toward us out of the corner of my eye. Mike Morgan was one of the other football players, and he usually had people over to his house after the games. It was never like a full-out party, just a bunch of the football players and some of the cheerleaders and a few other people (like me) who just hung out with their group. There were usually around twenty or twenty-five people there, but it was pretty tame and we all usually just kind of sat around while some people played video games and other people talked. We had no idea where his parents were and to be honest, I wasn't sure if Mike even knew. I got the impression that his parents liked to spend most weekend nights out with their friends.

The girls walked away just as Ethan approached Tyler and me. “Another good game, football stud,” I said as he put his arm around my waist.

He laughed. “Thanks. I can't take all the credit, though. Matthews and Jordan were really on tonight.”
That was so like him
, I thought with adoration.
Always modest and giving the credit to his teammates
. I was seriously wondering if I was ever going to find that flaw I had been looking for.

“Well,” I said as I turned toward him and grabbed his other arm to put it around my waist, “I thought you were pretty on tonight too.”

“Oh yeah?” he said with a mischievous grin. “Wait till you see me in action later.” He got closer to my face as he talked and just as he was about to kiss me, Tyler pulled on his shirt, ruining the moment completely.

“Ethan, did you see me in the stands?” he asked. I had to laugh at his obvious admiration of Ethan. He looked up to him so much and was always looking for his approval.

Ethan turned from me to high-five him. “Of course I did, Tyler. We couldn't have done it without you. In fact, we were thinking that maybe for the next game, you could sit down closer to us and kind of be like our mascot. How would you like that?”

Tyler's mouth dropped. “Really? I can be the mascot?”

Ethan winked at me. “Sure. We need our biggest fan down there with us.”

“Rain! Did you hear that? I get to be the mascot!” Tyler squealed as he sprinted down the bleachers ahead of us.

“I did hear that, buddy!” I laughed and squeezed Ethan's hand. “I think you just made his day. No, his
year
,” I said with a smile.

Ethan shrugged and laughed. “I told the guys to look at his outfit today before the game. I was telling them what a huge fan he is, and they all agreed it would be fun to let him sit down there kind of by us and have fun. He's a good kid.”

“You're a pretty good kid, too,” I said as I pulled him closer to me.

He let go of my hand and squeezed my shoulder. We walked down the bleachers with our arms around each other as Tyler ran ahead of us, and at that moment, I forgot about everything else in the world but how happy I felt.

After we got Tyler home and the Simpsons were at our apartment, we headed to Morgan's. We were the last to arrive and I could hear everyone laughing and shouting in the living room as we approached the front door. Even though I had been around these people several times, I still got a little nervous right before we went in. No one other than Alexis had ever been anything less than accepting of me, but I still just felt slightly out of place as the new girl who was kind of dating the most popular guy in school. As if Ethan could sense my hesitation, he put his arm around me as we strolled through the front door.

The first person I saw was, of course, Alexis, who was sitting on the floor with two of the other guys I didn't really know that well. I knew their names were Jake and Seth and that they played football, but that was all I knew. She was laughing and hitting Jake flirtatiously as Seth hugged her from behind. She always seemed so confident and comfortable in any situation, and as much as I despised her, I felt a slight pang of envy combined with inadequacy. How could Ethan go from dating her to dating me? We were nothing alike.

I then saw Anna come bouncing out of the kitchen with a bowl of chips in her hand, laughing and talking to a guy named Bradley. Melissa and Ryan were sitting on the couch, cuddling as usual, talking to Scott and Brooke, who were sitting on the floor beside them. A couple of the guys were playing video games while some of the girls sat and watched. It was a pretty low-key party, and I relaxed a little as we walked into the living room.

After we had said our hellos to everyone, Ethan grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway. No one was around, so I wondered where he was taking me. He ducked into a dark empty room and pulled me in behind him before he shut the door.

“Ethan, what…” I began, but before I could ask what was going on I felt his hands on my face as he kissed me. I was only taken by surprise for a second before my mind went blank and I was totally focused on the kiss. Putting my arms around his waist, I allowed his kiss to become deeper.