Between the Two [COMPLETE]

5~Daphne

Apparently, my mother had told the entire church congress that I’d been off in Europe at an elite boarding school in France. And when they asked me to speak some French, I smiled, saying, “Bonjour, ma mère est une grande menteuse et une chienne.” Translation: My mom is a big liar and a b***h. They all smiled obliviously, telling me I’m well accomplished and Lady Melissa is so lucky to have a daughter like me. A piece of me wished it were true, that my mother was lucky to have a daughter like me. That I could be lucky enough to have a mother that would worry about my bruised cheek.

In the middle seats, I could see Asher looking over at me, laughing at my French words. I looked down, embarrassed that he might have translated that.

The sermon began at nine on the dot, the room filling up with people. Most of them were older but some were around my age, some in uniforms of white and navy. Hazel told me the school that I’d be attending, Hawthorn Peaks Academy, was known for it being a semi-boarding school, so they had more teenagers from the school who’d come on their own accord. Anything to get off campus for the weekend.

Silence washed over the crowd when Pastor Ezra went on stage, mom taking a seat on stage in a luxurious throne of a chair. With the slightest gesture of his arms, everyone stood while he greeted the audience before we sat down. Hazel sat by my side, waving to her family on the other side with a smile, then hums to the hymn sung by the choir.

Looking over my shoulder, I watched Asher in the back. He was sitting with a few of the uniformed students in the back, chatting quietly. His eyes met mine when I turned, granting me a smile which I looked away from, suddenly feeling bashful.

Ezra’s sermon was first gentle, his voice like the waves of the ocean brushing against the beach. He spoke of Adam and Eve, something even I knew, him focusing on the moral to always obey God or you will be cast aside. He was mesmerizing while he spoke, his voice thunderous and eloquent, many of the younger ladies sighing at the sound of him. The crashing wave of his voice growing stronger the further he recited the sermon, like a storm brewing in the room. When he spoke of Eve realizing she was naked after taking a bite of the forbidden fruit, I felt his grey eyes pierce into me--and only me. It made me squirm in my seat, crossing my legs as I felt a passionate warmth spread across my body. No wonder this place was packed, having more women than men, every eye trained on him handsome features.

When the sermon was over, he announced that there’d be another sermon in ten minutes. I took this time to step out with Hazel who wanted to head to the cafe for a muffin before heading back inside.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I told her, leaving her at the coffee stand. “I’ll meet you back inside.”

Heading down the hall to the bathroom, I caught Asher by the boys' bathroom, laughing with a guy in uniform. He looked so gentle when he spoke with others. Too bad it was a facade. Keep my head down, I quickly entered the bathroom and finished my business. Once done, I exited the room only to see Asher waiting for me outside the door.

Not this again.

I hurried passed him and was quickly surprised that he let me go without trying to block me. Behind me, he said, “My friends and I are sneaking out if you want to join us--for fun, that is.” Flinging my hair over my shoulder, I swirled around to look at him questioningly. “Or you can stick around with straitlaced Hazel for another sermon and later, braid each other's hair.”

I winced at the hair braiding. “I’m gonna stick around here. Plus ‘sneaking’ doesn’t sound like we’re allowed to be leaving.” Plus, although I wasn’t focused on each and every word Ezra shouted from the pulpit, his voice was luscious in my ears.

Asher rocked on the balls of his feet. “Because we’re not allowed but we won’t get caught. We do this all the time.”

I crossed my arms. “They’re going to notice your gone.”

He shook his head, grinning. “Brad at the coffee shop has us covered. We just need to stay for one sermon, then we hang out in the cafe and watch on the screen, or so we tell them.” He winked at me and a piece of me want to step out for a moment, be free to roam. Back at Nani’s, she didn’t have strict rules, it was my own self-discipline than kept me in line. However, being limited by family rules and threatened with punishment once again made my body quiver. With apprehension? Anger? Adrenaline? I think he noticed my curiosity, becking me on. “Come on. You’ll have fun instead of sitting around hear listening about your inevitable damnation.”

I weighed my options. A part of me wanted to step out, still getting used to spending the majority of the day sitting and listening and having to pretend. While I didn’t want to get in trouble with my mom. She’d be watching, wouldn’t she? I took a step back. “I can’t.”

Asher held out his hand for me to grasp, his eyes now placid hazel green that had my heart thumping. “Come. If you don’t like it, I’ll bring you back and we’ll both listen to the sermon.”

“You won’t try anything like this morning, will you?” I asked.

He pointed at the bruise on his cheek, now a pinkish red. “Believe me, I won’t be trying that anytime soon.” With a seductive look, he said softly, “Unless you want me to, lacy Lilah.”

A scoff escaped, feeling my face heat at the nickname, adjusting my dress. I slapped his hand away. “Just making sure. You take me back here if I don’t like it, understand?”

He nodded. Following him to the side doorway, the fresh air hitting my skin with warmth. “It’s just this way.” He led me outside the church gates and through the packed car lot. Through the trees was the downtown area and we walked for a while to a brick building. Guitar strings vibrated in my ear as we approached, walking down a slender alleyway.

In the back of the building were a group of people ranging from uniformed teenagers to young adults, dancing, chatting, and skating on rollerblades along the empty square. The guitarist spotted Asher and I approaching first, pausing his strumming to shout, “Look who made it!” The guy looked older than us with a goatee, the leather jacket making his lanky body look muscular. His black hair swooped at the side over his forehead, emphasizing his hazel brown underneath the sunlight. “And you brought Daphne!”

Daphne? Asher corrected him with a chuckle. “No, this is Lilah, my new step-sis. I thought that too but without the blue hair. Lilah, this is Vincent.”

He presented a fist bump I attempted hesitantly, amusing him. “Who’s Daphne?” I asked.

Vincent eyed me as though I should have known who she was. “Only the baddest chick around. She should be here soon. You should meet her; the similarity between you two is so uncanny.”

As though on command, a girl with electric blue hair swinging as she walked around the corner with a lollipop in her mouth. She wore the white and navy blue uniform of Hawthorn Academy, except her shirt was cut, showing off her thin waist and beneath her skirt, she wore ripped leggings with boots. Walking closer, I noticed her eyes were the same tint of blue as her hair and she had a beauty mark over her plump lips.

She skipped next to Vincent, hip-bumping him to the side. “Heard someone say my name,” she smirked, licking her lollipop. “Thought a fight was gonna start.”

Asher placed his hand on my shoulders. “Daphne Shaw, meet your identical twin, Lilah,” he greeted.

She snorted immodestly, taking the lollipop out and peering at me with humorous eyes. “You’re kidding, right? She looks nothing like me. You both need glasses.”

I examined her as well, trying to pick out what didn’t fit. She had a slender nose, I was more curvaceous than her with a rounder ass, and her hair was shorter than mine, stopping at her shoulders. “Yeah, thick glasses,” I added, glancing at both of them. She chuckled again, nodding in agreement.

“You new here?” she asked me, Vincent starting up his guitar again. Asher walked over to his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulder playfully.

“Yeah, just moved back in with my mom and her...new family.”

Her eyes flickered with remorse before vanishing. “Back? Who’s your mom?”

Dramatically, I groaned, “Lady Melissa Reinhart...or well, Graham now.”

She scowled at the name which made me smile. “I know her. I skated near her car in the parking lot one time and I swear she tried to run me over. Then she said I scratched her car when I wasn’t even that close, her acting all innocent. No offense but I haven’t liked her since then. Plus, she always glares at me like she wants to strangle me or something.”

I think I just met my soulmate! Someone who saw through my mother's fraudulence when no one else did. And I needed that right now, especially in a place that seemed to praise the pastor's wife as though she were a saint. “We are going to get along nicely,” I smiled.

She locked her arm through mine, walking us over to Vincent and Asher. “I like the sound of that.”