Until Then (Cornerstone Book 2) (11 page)

“Did he tell you why?”

Simon’s eyes were on her, and she swallowed hard. “Personal reasons,” she managed, throwing in a shrug to make it seem like she didn’t know anything more.

Simon shook his head. “Yeah, that’s what he told me, too. Must be something serious. Why else would he leave and give up his scholarship?”

She shrugged again, relieved that Sean had not confessed to his roommates. There was no way she was telling Simon the real reason. She didn’t want him to ever know she had been intimate with Sean or any other guy for that matter.

Simon suddenly wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be sad. You still have me.” He squeezed her to him and kissed the top of her head.

“Yes, I do.” She smiled up at him. “Hey, what is going on with you and Emma?”

“What do you mean?” He made a face, then tried to act casual about it.

She stopped walking. “Come on, Simon. Spill.”

He lowered his arm and closed his eyes, his nose wrinkled up, and he cringed. “She won’t let me kiss her.” He peeked out from behind one eye then the other, awaiting her reaction.

“What is that face for?”

“I thought you might punch me.”

“Why would I punch you?” She laughed at his crazy behavior.

“Because I don’t think I can be in a relationship with someone like that, and it makes me sound like a terrible person when I say that out loud.”

“You
are
terrible,” she replied. “Emma is the sweetest.”

He groaned. “I know she is, but she doesn’t wanna kiss
anyone
. Not until her wedding day.”

“Really?” Michelle had never heard of such a thing. “That’s so nice. Saving all of herself for her future husband. I like her even more now.”

“Thanks a lot.”

She laughed again.

“I can’t help it.” He leaned in close, his lips inches from hers. “I like to kiss.”

She raised an eyebrow and pushed him away, knowing he was just joking around. “You really are a jerk, Simon.”

“I know.”

On the way to lunch, Michelle and her roommates ran into Janice on the sidewalk outside the dorm. They made small talk about Thanksgiving, then Janice turned to Michelle.

“I was hoping to run into you, Michelle. I’ve got a couple books for you, and I wondered if you’d like to get together and have a Bible study with me.”

Michelle could not contain her smile. “That sounds great. Thank you so much, Janice.”

“No problem. Stop by my room later, and we’ll make a plan.”

“Awesome. I will.”

Janice waved as she walked on. “Have a great day, ladies.”

Emma and Maggie gave Michelle strange looks as they started walking again.

“What was that all about?” Maggie asked.

Better now than never.
“Oh, I got saved on Friday,” she replied nonchalantly.

“What?” Emma screeched. “Are you serious?”

A huge smile spread across Michelle’s face.

Maggie embraced her. “Why didn’t you tell us last night?”

“I don’t know.” She couldn’t tell Maggie that all her talk of Ben was the reason she hadn’t felt up to sharing. “It just didn’t feel like the right time.”

“Oh my goodness.” Emma grabbed hold of them, her eyes brimming with tears. “There’s never a wrong time for news like this. I’m so happy for you, Michelle.”

The warmth and support from her roommates surprised her. This was the sort of reaction she wished Simon had given her. The girls were both overjoyed that she had come to know Christ, especially Emma, who admitted she had been afraid for Michelle’s soul.

Shortly after midnight, there was a loud commotion in the hallway outside their room.

“Candlelight!” Someone knocked loudly on their door. “Candlelight!” The cries and knocking moved to the next door, then the next, and so on to the end of the hall.

Emma clapped her hands together. “Our first candlelight.”

Maggie looked excited.

Michelle felt indifferent.

Candlelights were a long-standing and beloved tradition at Cornerstone, a unique way for couples to announce their recent engagement to the rest of the students on campus.

The girls filtered out of their room and made their way to the lounge, where everyone was seated in a circle waiting to learn the identity of the bride-to-be. Janice emerged from her room carrying a long, tapered candle with a ribbon tied around it, and the song “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams started playing on the boom box in the corner. Janice handed the candle to one of the girls in the circle, who admired the sparkling engagement ring that was hanging from the ribbon before passing it on around the circle. As the candle moved from girl to girl, the anticipation grew. Who would blow out the candle? Who was the bride-to-be?

When it reached Darcy, she pretended to blow it out, then passed it on to Jill, which made everyone laugh.

After several trips around the circle, Joanna, one of the girls from the other hallway, puffed it out, and the room erupted with applause and congratulations. She took a seat in the center, and spent some time answering questions about how she and her fiancé met, how long they had been together, and how they got engaged. Then her roommate prayed for her and their future marriage.

Michelle wasn’t one to get mushy over sentimental things, but after experiencing the candlelight ceremony, she thought it was a lovely tradition.

The girls of the dorm then lined up outside to form a human tunnel. Joanna ran through and on toward the pole at the center of campus, where her fiancé was waiting at the end of a tunnel of guys. They embraced and shared a tender kiss, after which, he climbed the pole and rang the bell at the top, proclaiming their engagement to the entire campus and anyone else within earshot.

Once he slid down the pole, the crowd of guys grabbed hold and hoisted him above their heads. They carried him across the yard and hurled him into the slimy pond. He climbed out not-so-gracefully and planted another kiss on Joanna’s lips.

It seemed to Michelle that the groom got the short end of the stick in all of this.

“That was so romantic.” Emma swooned as they walked back to the dorm.

“I don’t know,” Michelle said. “Why would anyone wanna get married at our age?”

“They’re in love,” Maggie replied. “They wanna start their life together.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if I ever wanna get married.” Part of that comment was influenced by her parents’ broken marriage, the other part by the fact that, although she knew God had forgiven her for her past, she still felt like she had nothing left to give. “And I sure wouldn’t want my fiancé thrown into the pond with all the goose crap. Who would wanna kiss him after that?”

They all laughed.

Michelle wasn’t sure when the bench next to Quincer had become theirs, but when Sean called the next day and asked her to meet him at the bench, she knew exactly which one he was talking about.

“How did it go?” She sat next to him and greeted him with a hug.

He seemed calm, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “Awkward. Uncomfortable. About what I expected under the circumstances.”

“Are you OK?”

“I am. I really am.”

Sean relayed the events of the meeting beginning with the dean, who commended him for coming forward to admit his wrongdoing and for voluntarily stepping away from the team and the college. The most difficult part was facing his basketball coach.

“Coach got real quiet for a long time. At least it seemed like a long time. That room was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop in there.”

“Oh, man. That must have been intense.”

Sean nodded. “He was pretty disappointed, because he said I was such a great asset to the team. But he said the most important thing is that I admitted what I did and apologized and asked God’s forgiveness for it. And he told me he was proud of me for doing the right thing.”

Michelle reached over and took his hand. “I’m proud of you, too.”

He smiled at her.

“Even though I got you into this whole mess.” She frowned.

His eyes narrowed. “Hey, I told you about that.”

She scoffed at his comment.

“Besides, that doesn’t matter any more. That was before. That was the old you.”

“You’re right.” She smiled from ear to ear.

He gazed at her. “You have the most beautiful smile.”

The color rushed to her cheeks. “Um … thanks. So do you.”

He smiled back at her, and they both laughed nervously.

“So, then what happened?” Michelle asked.

He looked at her with concern. “They asked me if it was with another student.”

She got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “So I guess I’m out, too, then.”
Grandpa and Grandma are gonna kill me.

“I told them no.”

Michelle wasn’t sure whether to hit him or hug him. “You shouldn’t have lied for me, Sean. I should be kicked out of here for what I did to you.”

“Look at all the good this place has done for you already. I wasn’t gonna take that away from you. You need to be here right now.”

Sean relayed the rest of the conversation, including the final words the coach had left him with. “No matter what your past looks like, God promises His children a future, and I know He has an amazing one planned for you.”

She thought it was incredibly fitting, not just in Sean’s situation, but in her own life as well.

6

As Michelle approached the dorm after dinner one chilly evening, she heard Maggie’s voice, only high-pitched and much louder than usual.

“You’re a complete jerk flaunting your date in front of her.” Maggie stood near the front door, arms crossed over her chest, not wearing her winter coat.

Simon and Andi, a girl from the other hallway in their dorm, stood across the sidewalk from her.

“Maybe I should go.” Andi started to walk away.

“How ‘bout I meet you at the Skillet when I’m done with … this.” He gave Maggie the evil eye, and Andi nodded and walked on.

“You totally broke Emma’s heart, Simon,” Maggie cried, her breath visible in the cold air. Soft, fluffy snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

“Hey!” He held his hands up in defense. “We were never exclusive. She can go out with whoever she wants to.”