Yeah… Missions trips …
He continues after a swig of ice water. “Even when you’re around a bunch of believers, there’s tons of temptations driven by hormones and the devil and everything.” He takes a deep breath and eyes me seriously. “I know, for me anyway, the rules help me make safe choices while I figure out who I want to be.”
“You mentioned that your parents don’t like the worship team’s music?” I question as I shift in my seat.
I don’t think Jonah feels like he’s under anyone’s thumb. He seems like he doesn’t trust himself, though. My initial reaction is that his feeling of uncertainty comes from the rules themselves, but I’m not so sure now. He seems so normal.
“Yeah, they’re not a huge fan of rock music. At my dad’s church—”
“He’s a pastor?”
Jonah nods.
Figures.
“At my dad’s church, they just do piano or organ,” he continues without offering anything more about said church. But I guess it’s kind of normal around here. “They think rock music muddles the Message.”
“No way,” I say with more passion than anything else I’ve said since arriving on campus. “I think it’s the opposite.”
“Me too!” Jonah is equally animated and soft-spoken. “When you feel the music, I think it’s easier to hear the Message, you know?”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Oddly enough, Jonah, I do. I just started listening to that kind of music over the summer and it’s brought me to tears more than eighteen years of hymns and organs ever did.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “You cried a lot today.”
My eyes shoot down as I fight the overexposed feeling.
“Sorry,” he says empathetically. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I think it’s powerful what God’s word can do. From bringing people to tears to saving lives.”
“Saving lives,” I repeat in a near whisper.
“Don’t you believe that? That the Word can save lives?” Jonah leans forward and his voice takes on the intense tenor of a door-to-door evangelical.
Holy Rollers, my stepdad calls them.
I picture a drunk and strung-out twenty-five-year-old Roland Abbot staring at his choices: another drink in one hand and a Bible in the other. Then, I see my mother a few years earlier. Twenty-one years old, working full time, and going to school part time while juggling an infant daughter. No husband.
Where was her Savior? Where was her Jesus when she had to fight for food stamps? Was he too busy preparing the multi-million dollar way of my birth father?
I look at Jonah and set down my fork, having lost my appetite for the second time today. His eyes are intense. Filled with belief.
Unfaltering, one hundred percent belief.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I just…don’t know.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
We Are the Body
My first day of classes was largely uneventful. English and US history were standard; my biology class—and its creationist slant—wasn’t a surprise. You know: God created absolutely everything under the sun and evolution is too slippery a slope and seems to contradict that. I’m not sure it does, but we’ll see if we get there this semester. Even my Old Testament class was fine. I just looked at it as another history class, though it felt like I was in Sunday school, honestly.
“There are just so many names,” I remark to Bridgette as we trudge back to our room. She’s in three of my classes and is super excited to have a built in study group.
In fact, lots of my floormates are in my classes, leaving me to wonder if CU designs it that way to make study groups easier. Smart, really.
Bridgette shrugs. “At least we know the stories already. That helps a lot. I find that if I can place someone in the correct story, the details figure themselves out.”
“Right,” I respond noncommittally.
Walking up the stairs, Bridgette takes a breath as though she’s about to say something but she stops herself. When she does it a second time, I interject.
“What?” I ask while adjusting the straps of my backpack on my shoulders.
She shakes her head. “It…it’s nothing.”
With a shy smile, she pulls her room key from her backpack and unlocks our door. Eden has returned from her classes and is already positioned at her desk, pouring over various syllabi.
“It’s something,” I press, setting my bag on my desk.
Eden looks up from her papers. “What’s something?”
I point at Bridgette, who seems to be growing more flustered by the minute. Her cheeks are pink and she’s making piles of the paper on her desk.
“This one. She was going to say something as we were walking in here, but she keeps stopping herself.”
Eden’s eyes widen for a second, returning to normal as she looks at Bridgette. Bridgette looks back at her, extending her hands and asking, “What? I didn’t say anything.”
The atmosphere shifts to uncomfortable rather quickly. It becomes clear they’re silently discussing their other roommate.
Jesus Freaks: Sins of the Father
Andrea Randall's books
- Sacred Sins
- Sins and Scarlet Lace
- Sins of a Ruthless Rogue
- Bed of Roses
- Son Of The Morning
- Cover Of Night
- Affairs of State
- A Profiler's Case for Seduction
- Because of Rebecca
- Conflict of Interest
- Eclipse of the Heart
- Flames of Attraction
- Illusions of Love
- Keeper of the Moon
- Keeper of the Shadows
- Legacy of Love
- Love Proof (Laws of Attraction)
- Miles of Pleasure
- Of One Heart
- Off Limits
- Off Sides
- Out of the Dark (The Brethren Series)
- Out of the Depths
- Pool of Crimson
- Prince of Wolves
- Rules of Entanglement
- Shadow of My Heart
- Something of a Kind
- Son of a Preacher Man
- Taste of Desire
- Taste of Love
- Translation of Love
- Web of Deception
- Words of Love
- The Lady of Bolton Hill
- The Scars of Us(Scars Series)
- Dreams of Lilacs
- House of Ivy & Sorrow
- A Question of Honor
- The Owner of His Heart
- The Heir of the Castle
- Tower of Glass
- The Last Prince of Dahaar
- Terms of Engagement
- Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage
- David Lord of Honor
- Return of the Prodigal Gilvry
- Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)
- Starting Over(Hart of Seattle)
- The Resurrection of Aubrey Mill
- OFF SIDES
- Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom
- Stolen: Warriors of Hir, Book 3
- The CEO Buys in (Wager of Hearts #1)
- The Law of Moses
- A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)
- Arouse: A Spiral of Bliss Novel (Book One)
- Awaken: A Spiral of Bliss Novel (Book Three)
- The Art of French Kissing
- Leo (A Sign of Love Novel)
- Echoes of Scotland Street
- Stinger (A Sign of Love Novel)
- Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)
- The Song of David
- The House of the Stone
- Ashes of Honor: An October Daye Novel
- The Weight of Feathers
- Blood Brothers
- Face the Fire
- Holding the Dream
- The Hollow
- The way Home
- A Father's Name
- All the Right Moves
- After the Fall
- And Then She Fell
- A Mother's Homecoming
- All They Need
- Behind the Courtesan
- Breathe for Me
- Breaking the Rules
- Bluffing the Devil
- Chasing the Sunset
- Feel the Heat (Hot In the Kitchen)
- For the Girls' Sake
- Guarding the Princess
- Happy Mother's Day!
- Meant-To-Be Mother
- In the Market for Love
- In the Rancher's Arms
- Leather and Lace
- Northern Rebel Daring in the Dark
- Seduced The Unexpected Virgin
- Southern Beauty
- St Matthew's Passion
- Straddling the Line
- Taming the Lone Wolff
- Taming the Tycoon
- Tempting the Best Man