Bread For The Body

Slice seven.

“I’ll be back soon, bye!”

Mom spoke up above the noise of our family, “Hang on!” she said in a distressed tone. “Just where are you going? When will you be back? Who are you going with?”

I rolled my eyes, subtly, if that’s even possible. “Going to church, be back in about half an hour,… and…” Saying ‘alone’ would be just the thing my mother would pounce on. “Who am I going with… um,.. oh, I know. God.”

I smiled triumphantly. There! What could she say about that? But I should’ve known – mothers always find something to nag about.

“That’s all good and well but I want someone else to go with you. What’s Tay and Ike doing? Or even Jess, I mean, she’s better than no one.”

I actually had no idea, nonetheless I said, “They’re all busy.”

At that moment, Jessica walked into the room. My mother gave me an all-knowing look. “There. Jess are you busy right now?”

She frowned back. “That’s not fair, I cleaned the dishes, yesterday!”

Mom chuckled, “Nooo, I don’t want you to clean the dishes. If you’re not busy, go with Zac.”

“Where’s he going?”

“He’s goi-“

I interrupted my Mom, “Excuse me! I can speak for myself thankyouverymuch!” I turned to Jess. “I’m going to church for a bit.”

“Aww, chu-urch!!? I don’t wanna go there!”

“I never asked you to come. Mom did.”

“Stop it you two.” Mom shut us up. “Jess, just go with him. You have nothing better to do.”

My sister thought for a second. “Ah,” She said in a bit of depression. “Yeah actually you hit the nail on its head Ma. It’s quite sad, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just went to get her shoes on.

Great, thanks Mom, now my sister’s gonna follow my every move. There’s nothing wrong with my sister, no, but I just want to be alone. Heh heh well not alone, with God, remember?

“Jess,” I called out. “Why are you walking so fast?” I rolled my eyes. “It’s not cool to walk fast,” I said under my breath.

“Zac!” She called back. “Why are you walking so slow?”

Then I heard another voice call “Zac!” In fear, I checked whom the voice was coming from. But really, I could have just guessed.

The mean guy, his girl and a few of his mates were walking to me. I had two choices, run or stay frozen. Running would mean a loss of dignity – not according to them because I lost my dignity with them ages ago. But, in Jess’s mind, I would have no dignity left.

So I just stayed put, my heart beating like my eight-hit sequence on the snare.

As they came closer to me, I did an unintentional double take at the cute girl. Woah… that is one heck of a revealing outfit. That is some major cleavage! I did a silent wolf whistle, if that’s even possible.

Oh great, Zac - I thought sickly. This guy is gonna bash you up and you’ve got a crush on his girl! I groaned at myself.

“Zac.” The guy said again. “Hi.” And he grinned a grin, which made me feel more than slightly uncomfortable. Him and his friends then started circling me. It was like they were sharks or something, and I was fresh meat.

In the back of my mind, I could see Jess, 100 meters away – watching and not knowing what to do.

There were about five of them. Most of them were snickering away while one was just outright laughing. Cackling, like a crazy man!

Then the mean guy flicked my ear and said “Bye Zac.” He walked away and the others followed.

At first I didn’t even have the spirit to look up from the ground, not even to check out the cute girl’s ass. So when I did finally look up, they were gone leaving only me and Jess. And Jess, well she had the saddest, most confused look, plastered all over her. Not only her eyes, not only her face – it seemed her whole body was crying out in sadness and utter confusion.

I would have made those jerks do it to me one hundred times over, if only Jess never had to see it.

The two of us didn’t have the heart to go onto the church. Some may argue, that it would’ve been the best time to go there – when we were so distressed. But still we didn’t. We went back home, Jess walking with me all the way.

Slice eight…

Stories