Page 77 of The Confidant
Would he stay pure before marriage? Or had all of those standards disappeared with his testimony?
I didn’t know. I hadn’t thought to ask him any of those questions.
* * *
I rodethe train back home after dinner, still thinking through the events of the day. I didn’t typically get upset by the sermons. I was usually cheering whenever they talked on the more hard-hitting topics since being a member of The Fold wasn’t supposed to be easy. With this life being a testing ground for the next one, we needed to prove we deserved the blessings the Lord wanted to give us.
But the way Elder Radley had singled out the Blackwells bothered me. Sure, I got that they had been led astray and could become dangerous if they tried to spread the lies they’d read among the members of the congregation. But Hunter was also my friend—estranged or not—and I didn’t want to just stand by and watch his family’s reputation being smeared by a person whom many people looked up to.
Elder Radley was a powerful man with a lot of influence. The words he said held a lot of weight with the members of the church.
When I walked into the common room around seven, it was full of students sitting at tables, catching up on this weekend’s homework or watching a scary movie on the big TV.
Usually, Hunter and I played card games at a table in the corner or joined in on the Sunday movie night since they usually picked fun movies that I hadn’t seen before. But I would probably be on my own tonight.
I was thinking about heading to my room to write in my journal when I spotted Hunter out of the corner of my eye, sitting alone at a table with a stack of cards.
Had he been waiting for me?
Was this my chance to try and clear the air with him?
To tell him that while I still couldn’t see things working out romantically in the future, it would be nice to get back to being best friends again?
I drew in a deep breath, gearing up to walk over there, but then Addison headed straight for Hunter’s table with two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands. And when Hunter smiled as she approached, my chest fell.
He was waiting for her… not me.
He held out his hands for one of the mugs, and when she sat down, they started playing a game of slap jack.
So it was just like every other Sunday night to Hunter. The only thing different was the person he played his card games with.
“Want me to make room for you on the couch?” Evan’s voice sounded through the fog that had suddenly filled my head.
I turned around. Evan was sitting on the nearby couch, watching me with a worried expression. Like he knew I was seething with jealousy right now and worried I might make a scene.
Should I pretend like I was fine? That I didn’t care that Hunter had decided to move on without me?
Because like it or not, I was probably going to have to get used to this. I couldn’t expect Hunter to stay single forever. Not when he was mega-hot and smart and amazing.
I pushed those thoughts away.
“I actually think I’ll just hang out in my room tonight,” I told Evan instead, hoping I sounded somewhat believable.
“Okay, cool.” And when his gaze went over to Addison and Hunter, I couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like he was clenching his jaw. As if he, too, was upset that they were sitting together.
But that wouldn’t make any sense, would it? For him to be jealous of his stepsister hanging out with Hunter?
Maybe I was just seeing things because I didn’t want to be the only person seething with jealousy tonight.
“Have a good night, Evan,” I said before I could imagine any other weird things.
“You, too.”
I headed up the stairs to the girls’ dorm and checked in with our house mom, Heather, so she’d know I made it back from my weekend away.
Once I was in my room and changed into my pajamas, I pulled out my journal to write out my jumble of thoughts. But when I saw my entry from a few weeks before where I’d complained about how much timeDear Eliza’s column was taking from me, I had an idea enter my head.
I seemed to be at a loss for what to do with Hunter. Maybe I should contact someone who always seemed to know what to do.
