Some Kind of Normal

I’d barely managed to process that when there was a hard knock on the back door and Link walked into the house. He worked part-time for a landscaper, and by the looks of him, he’d been mowing a lot of grass. My mom was gonna have a fit when she saw the amount of clippings he’d just tracked onto the floor.

“Dude, watch where you’re walking,” Taylor said.

“Sorry.” Link’s eyes were on me. “Have you talked to Everly today?”

“No,” I said sharply and maybe a little defensively.

“So you don’t know.”

My head whipped up so fast I was surprised I didn’t get whiplash.

“Don’t know what?” That was Taylor.

Link rolled back on his feet, and I could tell it was not good. “Man, the church was vandalized, like bad, and uh, Hales is over there with her.”

He paused for one second, but I was already on my feet. I had to do something. Anything to make up for my epic fail as a boyfriend. Or whatever we’d been to each other.

“Hey, wait up,” Taylor said as she ran to the stove and turned the burner off. “I’m coming too.”

We hopped into Link’s truck, and about ten minutes later, we pulled over in front of the church.

“Shit,” I muttered, because really, there wasn’t anything else to say.

The three of us stared up at the white clapboard building. The church had been there for as long as I could remember, but it had never looked like this. Words had been spray-painted across the front doors. On either side of the main windows. I could see stuff written down the one side.

They were words meant to hurt.

Faggot

Kill the gay

Sinner

Gays burn in hell

“Who would do something like that?” Taylor asked.

I didn’t even care. Not really. I mean, the guys that did this? Bunch of lowlife dickheads with nothing better to do than spread their own small-minded kind of hate. All I cared about was Everly.

I hopped out of the truck and jogged up the steps, Taylor and Link following behind me. I pushed open the front doors, and for a moment I couldn’t see shit. It was dark, and my eyes were still blinking out the sunlight.

When my eyes adjusted, I almost wished they hadn’t, because it was more of the same in here. Awful stuff spray-painted everywhere, and a couple of the pews looked like someone took a sledgehammer to them.

I saw Hailey and a group of girls up near the pulpit. She looked up when we walked in. Even from here, I could tell she’d been crying. I spied the sheriff talking with Pastor Jenkins to the right. I saw Mrs. Henney and a few other ladies I recognized gathered in a small group, speaking quietly.

But I didn’t see Everly.

“Thanks for coming, guys,” Hailey said when she reached us.

“Where is she?” I asked. “It’s just so…so… I don’t even have a word for it.”

“I know. It’s awful.” She exhaled and glanced behind me. “Did you get the stuff?”

I didn’t care about stuff or anything else. All I cared about was Everly.

“Where is she?” I asked again, stepping forward and nearly tripping over the paint cans that Link brought.

“Out back. She needed some air, and I told her not to go out front because, well…”