Free Emily and the Priest by Selena Kitt

 
    Whenever it was Father Mark’s day in the confessional, the line of girls stretched around the corner and into the vestibule. Most of them would wait all day to see him if they had to, and Emily thought it was amusing that Father Mark probably didn’t know he was the one many of the girls were talking about when they confessed to “lustful thoughts.”
    Emily knew she just as guilty, and she would have to admit her thoughts in the confessional on Saturday , but she unable to stop herself, even when he was wearing his cassock and collar . Emily wondered if Jenny , her disgruntled roommate sitting rigidly be side her , was having the same problem. The two of them sat across from Eve and Alexis , Father Mark closing their semi-circle . Alexis was crying, and she wouldn’t look at anyone, even her own roommate, Eve, sitting on her right .
    “ Sometimes things that cause us heartbreak at first are really blessings in disguise.” Father Mark handed Alexis a Kleenex and looked at Emily. She felt her heart lurch in her chest wh en she met his dark green eyes and he smiled at her bemused look. “How are you feeling about all of this , Emily ?”
    “Oh… uh…” She stammered, looking around at the girls’ faces, now all focused on her. “To tell you the truth? I don’t mind so much .” She glanced over a t the blonde sitting beside her, the girl who had made fun of her since the beginning of the year, from the very first day Emily had put her “unfashionable” bedspread on her bed, the one her grandmother had crocheted. From the start, Emily had been judged and labeled too awkward and a little too chubby to keep up with her tall, athletic roommate.
    She couldn’t prove it, of course, but she suspected that it was her roommate who had been pestering her since the beginning of the year , resetting her alarm clock so she was late for classes, gluing her bottle of shampoo closed, putting baby powder in her blow dryer, and replacing her toothpaste with O rajel. Her mouth had been numb all morning from that little stunt. The truth was, the news that Jenny wanted a new roommate hadn’t been a shock—it had been a welcome surprise.
    “See, Alexis ,” Eve piped up. She was a leggy blonde as well—she and Jenny could have been born twins—and she liked to show it off, her uniform skirts always looking far shorter on her long, slender legs, especially when she crossed them, like she was doing now. “Emily doesn’t mind. I don’t see what you’re crying about.”
    Emily spoke up, talking to Alexis , but she looked directly at Eve. “Just because someone doesn’t want to hang out with you, doesn’t make you a bad person. I think it says more about them than it does about you, to be honest.”
    “Eve a nd I just get along better, that’s all. ” Jenny snorted and rolled her eyes as Alexis burst into new sobs, covering her face with her hands. “We have way more in common, you know? We’re just more the same type of girl. It’s that simple .”
    “Yes, you are.” Emily agreed, and Eve sighed, shaking her head and making a face at Jenny . Father Mark caught the look, frowning, but didn’t say anything. Emily traced the li nes on her plaid uniform skirt. “I think you guys would make perfect roommates.”
    “That’s very generous of you, Emily.” Father Mark reached for another Kleenex and handed it to Alexis , who hid her ruddy cheeks and nose behind it. They were almost as red as her frizzy , crimson hair. “And it’s okay to be sad about it, Alexis . Change can be difficult.”
    “Honestly, I think…” Emily took a deep breath and just said it. “I think it could be fun.”
    “Fun?” Alexis looked up from her tissue, surprised. “Rejection is fun for you?”
    “Well, no.” Emily wasn’t about to tell her how used to rejection she’d become since starting her freshman year of college . “But why would I hang around where I’m not wanted? And from what I know of you, I think you’re pret