Read These Are the Moments for Free Online

last pond painting. She could paint anything she wanted to, any and all memories, but she would not repeat another painting. She wouldn’t repeat anything at all.

Chapter 10
    Then
    The youth group met in a small, donated house just a block away from church. Out front, there was a large sculpture in the shape of a cross, placed in a patch of overgrown weeds. The bedrooms were now prayer rooms, the living room a meeting space filled with bean bags. And in this house, there was music, laughing and pizza. Always pizza.
    It was Wendy’s third meeting, and they all went something like this: prayer time followed by a speaker followed by discussion followed by music. The same kind of music she’d heard the night of the retreat. But it felt different now. A little less, somehow. Like she was here and God was there, and she was beginning to understand the term “retreat high.”
    Simon was her ride. It began by accident, one night when Mom got stuck at a parents’ night for Claudia.
    “I can take you,” he’d said, from across the basketball court.
    Her reaction had been something along the lines of, “Oh, uhh, sure, yeah, cool.”
    That first night, when she climbed into his leather passenger seat, she felt her face go red as they drove away. Blondie, otherwise known as Sarah, pointedly waved them goodbye, big and brazen, like she was dragging a sparkler over her head.
    “Cold?” Simon had asked, his hand on the dial.
    “No, I’m fine,” she’d said. “Turn left.”
    He drove recklessly, laid back but keeping control, like he was daring the world to wreck him. “Serious question time.”
    “Okay, you first,” she’d said, clutching her hand to the sides of the seat.
    “Biggest fears?” he’d asked.
    “Besides your driving?”
    “Hilarious.”
    “Okay, fine,” she said. “Scary movies. Knives. Dolls. Roller coasters.”
    “Roller coasters? That’s not a fear.”
    “Umm, haven’t you ever watched the news? They malfunction or the attendant doesn’t check the lap bar and people fall out. That’s a legitimate fear.”
    “Have you ever been on one?”
    She shrugged. “This one at the fair….”
    “That doesn’t count. The one they put up in the kids’ section?”
    “It’s called the Blaze. I feel like that counts.”
    “That’s it. I’m bringing you on a roller coaster. A real one.”
    They pulled into the driveway. “Good luck with that.”
    The next meeting, Mom dropped her off out front. “Let me know when it’s wrapping up, and I’ll come get you.”
    Slightly disappointed, Wendy said, “Okay.”
    But Simon was waiting at the front door, his keys twirling in his fingers. “That’s your mom?”
    “Yeah,” Wendy said. “Thank you again, for last week.”
    “You know,” he said, slowly opening the front door. “I don’t mind dropping you off. It’s not out of my way or anything. Tell your mom to save herself the trip.”
    “Oh you don’t have to—”
    “Wendy,” Simon stopped her. “This is what friends do. Now, text your mother.”
    And so, Simon became her permanent ride. Whenever he was ready to leave, he’d step into whatever conversation she was having and say, “Ready when you are.” She’d nod and say goodbye to her friends, walking out to his car with a little zest to her step.
    It was the first time she’d ever ridden in a car with a boy. She felt grown up sitting beside him, as he made his way over the roads. And they talked. They talked more than any two people should ever talk. About life and God and meaningful truths. And she found that she loved talking to Simon, just being around him, even. They were friends. Good friends. Best friends.
    “What’s your plan?” she asked him. “For your life?”
    “Oh, I’ve got a whole outline of goals. It’s much too expansive for one car ride.”
    She laughed. “Okay, what’s your main plan?”
    “I want to start my own company one day,” he said. “I’ll have to work my way up to that point, of course, so