Selena Kitt - Emily and the Priest

“The world is so beautiful.” He whispered his words against the top of her head. “You remind me how much I love the world, and everything in it.”

“Even the sad things?” she mused, her fingers playing over the hair on his chest. “Like little Samantha losing her mother? Or your father not talking to you?”

“Pain just reminds us how sweet love really is.” His arms tightened around her. “I think heaven in right here, Angel. Right here on Earth. In your arms. And I think God wants us to know that.”

She closed her eyes and listened to the strong beat of his heart against her ear, still not quite believing that all of this was real. The thought of it ending, of waking from this dream, made her tremble with fear. Her pranksters were going to do everything they could to cause her pain, and ruining Father Mark and their love would be the ultimate hurt.

“I have to tell you something,” she whispered, not quite sure how to proceed. Should she warn him of Jenny and Eve’s plans?

“Hmm?”

She glanced up at St. Lucy, her sightless eyes dark, blood like tears on her cheeks, watching over them both. They said justice was blind, and she thought maybe the church was blind too-blind to love, wherever and however it showed up in the world, whether it was between a woman and a man of the cloth, or between two women or two men, for that matter. She had to believe that God wasn’t as blind as His followers, and decided in that moment to trust Him. Whatever was meant to be, in the end, would happen. This felt so good, so right, it couldn’t possibly be wrong. And if God felt it was, well… maybe he would punish them after all. But until then…

“I love you,” she murmured, kissing his neck, feeling the reassurance of his answering squeeze and hearing his soft, affectionate whisper, before they both drifted off together.

* * * *

“How are we going to get it to my room without the General seeing us?” Jenny whispered as Emily led her down the hallway. The General was Sister Francine, their “dorm mother.” She had a room down at Jenny and Eve’s end of the hall, across from them, and was known as “the General” because she ran the place like a military outfit. Of course, that was when she was awake. Sister Francine slept like the dead. She’d missed waking up for all three of the fire drills they’d had so far that year, and had thankfully also slept through Emily sneaking out to meet Father Mark.

“It’s in a box.” Emily stopped at her dorm room door, getting out her key and trying to hide the fact that her hands were trembling as she fumbled to put it into the lock. It was late, almost midnight, and thankfully the General was fast asleep, as were most of the girls. There were no open dorm room doors around them. “Now you swear, you won’t say anything to anyone if we give you this right? It’s over after this?”

Jenny smirked. “Of course.”

Emily knew better, but she didn’t say anything as she turned the knob, knowing exactly what she was going to find on the other side of the door. But it was far worse than anything she and Alexis had talked about, or even that she had imagined.

“Eve!?” Jenny called out her roommate and lover’s name, as if she didn’t quite recognize her, but there was no mistaking her long, tawny limbs and the blonde, tumbled mass of hair in Alexis’s bed. She was draped over Alexis’s sleeping form, and both girls were stark naked, belly to belly. Emily saw two empty vodka bottles on her desk, but she could already tell from the smell that they were very drunk.

“Hmmm?” Eve lifted her head, rolling groggily to the side, giving them a full view of their bodies, Eve’s long and slender torso and tiny breasts, Alexis’s more full and voluptuous form. Eve blinked, not registering where she was or what she’d been doing for a moment, clearly still in an alcohol haze. Emily saw her realization happen, like a light bulb had gone off over Eve’s head. “Oh. Ohhh god. Jenny. Oh. I…”

“Eve, what are you doing!?” Jenny screeched. “What in the fuck are you doing with her?!”

Alexis groaned softly, opening her eyes. She gave Emily a dreamy half-smile, and then looked at Jenny. Alexis’s words were slurred, but her message was clear. “Sorry, Jenny, but Eve doesn’t want to be your roommate anymore.”

“That’s fine with me, you stupid cow!” Jenny hissed, narrowing her eyes at all of them. She snarled at Eve and Alexis. “You’re both disgusting perverts. You deserve each other.”

Alexis had pulled the blanket up around them and Eve huddled with her underneath it as they hid from Jenny’s seething anger.

Then Jenny turned her attention to Emily, standing at the doorway, just a foot or so away. “You are going to pay for this. I’m telling everyone your little secret now, believe me. The whole school is going to know what you did.”

“You can’t tell,” Alexis piped up. “Because then we’ll tell them about you.”

“What about me?” Jenny sneered, turning to go.

“That you like girls.”

That stopped her, and she turned, surveying them coldly. “Who’s going to believe you? What proof do you have?”

“Well… what proof do you have about Emily and… and…?” Alexis couldn’t even say his name.

“Camera, hello!” Jenny pulled out her iPhone, waving it around. Then she did something none of them had expected. She snapped a photo of Eve and Jenny wrapped in each other’s arms. “There. Now I have proof that you’re both disgusting perverts. Wait until Bishop Avery sees this!”

“Get the phone!” Eve cried and Emily lunged for it, but she missed. Jenny side-stepped her easily and skipped out the door. “Go! Get it! Get it!”

Emily tried, but Jenny’s years of soccer gave her a distinct advantage, and she was in her room, with the door locked, before Emily had made it halfway down the hall. Back in her room, Eve and Alexis were up and getting dressed, pulling on panties and t-shirts.

“She’s got pictures,” Emily said miserably, sinking down onto her own bed. Eve had warned her, of course, but she hadn’t quite believed it was true until she’d glimpsed a picture on Jenny’s iPhone-a heated embrace she remembered quite well in front of the chapel. “She’s going to tell.”

“Maybe she won’t.” Eve sat on Alexis’s bed, pulling a sheet over her bare legs. “She’s pretty afraid of her mom and dad finding out she’s gay.”

“I feel kind of bad for her.” Alexis sat next to Eve, who nudged her angrily with her hip. “I said kind of!”

“Think they’ll let us all stay in this room for the year?” Alexis slid back under the covers, putting her head down on her pillow.

“Don’t worry, you two will make great roommates.” Emily sighed. “I won’t be here much longer to be roommates with anybody. They’re going to expel me.”

“Don’t be so fatalistic.” Eve yawned, slipping back into bed with Alexis. “I still have a key to Jenny’s room, remember?”

Emily had a brief, fleeting moment of hope as she watched Alexis and Eve fall back asleep. They were both obviously still pretty intoxicated, and they were probably going to regret their high level of alcohol consumption in the morning. Although, looking at the way they twined together, she doubted they would regret whatever else had happened tonight.

She got dressed for bed and turned out the light, listening for Jenny, sure she would come storming back down the hall with Sister Francine, ready to take names and start expelling students, but the dorm remained eerily quiet. Maybe it’s an omen, she told herself, as she started to drift off to sleep.

Maybe there was a small chance it would be okay after all.

* * * *

“Wow, deja vu.” Emily squeezed Father Mark’s hand as they stepped into the chapel’s side door.