Short Story, based off my Unitarian Religion. I OWN. Review, please. Flames are ignored.

My Sanctuary

Where was he?

He was three minutes and forty seconds late and I hadn’t seen him in almost a week! My mom had found out about us. After having a three hour fit, she cut off our phone lines, hid my laptop, and would only let me come to our Church’s youth meeting after almost two hours of promising that he, Adam, was not coming tonight.

And now, I was forced through more torture, more time, without him. I stood outside the teen room, in the cold night air, the breeze slightly blowing, waiting for him. It took all my control not to spring at him the second he walked up from the parking lot.

He walked casually towards me, acting against the urge I saw in his eyes to run to me. When he was a few feet away I couldn’t stand it and leapt at him. He caught me and I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling close to him. He wrapped his arms tight around me, whispering, “Well, hello there.” He smiled and kissed my head, running his hands soothingly along my back. I was on the verge of tears. He looked concerned. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I missed you,” I said, the words barely English as my sobbing subdued my ability to speak properly. “Do you still love me?”

He laughed, a sort of sorrow chuckle. “At the moment, I’m more infatuated with you then I’ve ever been. I missed you too, honey. What happened this week?”

“My mom found out about us,” I sighed, “She won’t let me see you.” At that point, like a stupid idiot, I broke down in tears again.

“Ari, I do not plan to ever, ever leave you. Your mother will not stop us from being together, you here?” he said, in a slightly more serious air.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Maybe we should go inside.”

“That would probably be best,” he nodded, setting me back on my feet, but still pulling his arm tight around me, holding me close to him. We entered the room, and found all of group rushing back to their chairs.

“We were not, under any circumstances, looking out that window, watching you,” Ella, one of the younger teens said. “No way.”

“Everything alright?” Claire, one of the advisers, asked. I smiled. I was finally here, with my real family. My youth group was my sanctuary. There were the three advisers, Claire, a twenty-something writer, who was more of a kid then me sometimes, then there was Bill, who was almost sixty and very cool might I add, and last, Beth, whom was the one that helped me realize, despite my freakishly Christian family, that I was gay, and it was okay. I liked her best of all.

And of course there were the other youth. Ella, who took much joy in watching Adam and I take part in all things gay and her sister, Chris, who had to be dragged away from her books, tonight’s looked like one from the Harry Potter series. There was Rale, who was the constantly-talking-annoy-the-heck-out-of-you-but-you-love-him-anyway type of guy, and finally, there was Sienna, who was Beth’s daughter, and always has the nicest soothing smile.

So when you add my baby and I in, that makes nine of us. One big happy family.

“Everything is fine, now,” I said, nudging Adam in the ribs. He grinned and sat down, pulling me onto his lap. Are church (Which I haven’t told you yet, is a Unitarian church, and now I’m not explaining what it is) had a rather strict policy on what couples were and were not allowed to do, but since the group knew this was our one time a week, they relaxed the rules and pretty much let us be as special as we wanted.

“So, let’s have check-in,” Beth said, “Want to start, Ari?”

“Ari had a crappy week,” I said, referring to myself, naturally. “But now that Adam is here, he’s okay.” Adam smiled sweetly. His smile made everything okay, he made it okay. He kept me safe, and happy.

“Alright,” Beth said, catching onto the fact that I didn’t want to really chat about my boyfriend-less week. “Adam?”

“Ari’s mother cut off our communication this week,” Adam said, starring straight at me, “So my week was bad, but following the trend, seems to be better now.” He tightened his arm around me.

After that, as bad as I felt about it, I zoned out everything that everyone said, drawing all my attention onto Adam. His hand ran softly up my shirt and along my back, my skin tingling at his touch. His other hand played idly with my hair. I was so, so happy near him. Happiest I’d been in a while. I tried to come up with some way to deal with my mom, make her see I loved him, but I gave up, and decided to at least enjoy that night.

“Ari?” Beth asked, pulling me out of my trance. “The room next door is unlocked; do you and Adam want to go talk some?”

“Yeah,” I said, “That’d be good.” We both stood up and quietly walked into the next room. The second the door was shut, he’d pulled me tight and pressed his lips firmly to mine, holding me against him for what seemed like forever. I wanted it to never end. Finally, reluctantly he pulled back.

“I’ll talk to your mother tonight,” he murmured.

“No!” I protested, “She’ll say something mean; she’ll scare you away-”

“Nothing, nothing, not ever would scare me away from you,” he promised, “I need you too much, understand?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “I love you, baby.”

“Hun, you have no idea,” he kissed me again, this one gentler then the other.

“How can we see each other?” I asked, determined to come up with something.

“You’ll be eighteen four months from now,” he said, “I’m already eighteen. Once you are, you can come and live with me, and my sister.”

“She won’t mind?” I asked, “I mean, I know Jamie’s cool with us, but she won’t care about me moving in? I have lots of stuff, lots of movies and jeans and-”

He laughed. “You’re so adorable.”

“I’m being serious!” I whined, “I have books too, lots of them.”

“Look at me,” he demanded, “Everything will be okay. You trust me, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“No, no buts. Just look at me,” he whispered, “Just think of me. I’m always here.” He pulled out his cell phone and handed it to me. “Call me on this.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

He laughed again, “Positive. You know my home, just call; I’ll be there to answer.” Then he pulled me close and we stayed like that, standing close, for what seemed like hours, and apparently was, because soon enough, too soon really, Ella was knocking on the door telling us parents were arriving. We stood quietly outside, hiding in the shadows (so my mom wouldn’t see us when she got there). He kept his arm around me, keeping me warm.

“Any time you want out, call me and I’ll come pick you up, promise?” he said.

“Yeah,” I replied, pressing my face into his chest.

“I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night or what,” he said, “Call and I’ll be there.”

My mom’s car pulled up in front of the church and honked. I groaned, “I don’t want to leave you. I don’t ever want to.”

He nodded, “I’ll come tonight. Midnight. I’ll be there, and you’ll come home with me.”

“What about my mother?” I asked.

“Leave my number, when she finds it and calls it, we’ll have a chat.”

My mother honked again.

“I love you,” I said. “More then somebody can love another person.”

He shook his head, “I beg to differ.” He kissed me, for a really long time.

“Okay, you win,” I smiled, and finally, left him, reluctant as ever, and got in the car.

“Finally!” my mother growled, “God, what took you so long?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. Her constant complaining the whole way home about how she hated waiting was zoned out by me after about three seconds. I watched as we drove away from my church, my sanctuary.

Then I realized something. He was my sanctuary, really.