Grace Alive (A Christian Romance)

Part 7

Chapter 6

I walked into the church around seven o’clock. I was not early at all for this event, and I didn’t care one lick about that. I headed into the kids’ area with this feeling of dread, hearing ‘80s Christian music blaring. Oh gosh. Shoot me now. I stepped inside the room. There was a spinning colored light thing, a fog machine in another corner, and a lava lamp on a table. I saw a small group of young adults and gave my best attempt at a smile.

There was Jacob. Yippee Skipee. There were the two girls who never moved. I think this was going to turn out like the last mixer Pastor Mike organized that I’d been to. Pastor Mike saw me and ran across the room with open arms. He wrapped me up in this bone-crushing hug that took the air from my lungs.

“Zoe Grace! Welcome to our shindig! We are going to have one Godly awesome par—tay!” He lifted his hands up and brought them down in a fist pump. There were a few singles that’d probably gotten tricked into being here, looking like they wanted to run for the hills. I headed toward them. One girl had mid-length red hair, that looked like it had been dyed one too many times, and really heavy eyeliner. She had this look on her face like, I’ve been duped, and I’m pretty sure she wanted to punch somebody for tricking her.

A couple skinny guys were standing next to her and whispering to each other. I think they were trying to figure out who would go and ask her out. Or that’s what I gathered. Pastor Mike was trying to get a few of the young adults to play Chutes and Ladders. I decided that the girl who looked annoyed was better company than playing that game, so I inched toward her. She saw me and looked kind of relieved that another girl, besides the ones who acted mummified, was there.

“Hi, I’m Zoe,” I introduced myself with my hand extended. She weakly shook it and gave me an attempt at a smile.

“I’m Dana. I thought this was a young adults’ mixer? Where are all the young adults?” She eyed Pastor Mike like he was a rotten piece of meat.

“Well…” I drew out, not really knowing how to put this to her.

“We do have young adults; just none of them come to this. Where do you work, Dana?” I asked her as I ushered her toward a corner away from the weird boys, who kept staring at both of us.

“I work at PetSmart. I shampoo all the dogs and stuff. I’m going to kill my brother. He told me these mixers had tons of single guys.” Her eyes darted around the room. She fidgeted with her cell phone in her lap.

“Yeah, I got guilted into coming to this. I usually skip it.”

“That guy isn’t half bad, and he keeps looking over here at us. I might go talk to him.” She stood to her feet and brushed off the front of her navy blue shirt. “Does my makeup look okay? It tends to smear,” she asked me with wide eyes.

“It looks great. Go get him.” She could have Jacob all she wanted. Dana started heading toward him, and Jacob started walking toward her. She turned around and grinned at me, until he totally ignored her and came straight toward me. Shoot. I tried to act like I’d had one too many pops and headed toward the ladies restroom, but Jacob grabbed my arm on the way.

“Hey, Zoe, do you want to talk for a bit?”

“About?” I asked and looked at Dana. She looked heartbroken and kind of mad at me. I gave her a helpless look.

“I think that girl over there wanted to talk to you, Jacob.”

“Oh, Dana? Yeah I know her. She’s Isaac’s sister. She’s weird.” He dismissed the girl as easy as a crumb on his shoulder. Ouch.

“You shouldn’t judge people from their outside, Jacob. You should talk to her,” I encouraged him. I really, really wanted him to just let me be. I needed to find a nice corner and just wait this mixer out. I never said how long I’d stay anyways. I was going to get out of there at eight sharp.