Free On My Own by Melody Carlson Page B

doing something harmful or stupid, don't you want to tell them?”
    “And what if I think going to church is harmful or stupid for you?”
    “Well, I guess I'd be interested to hear your opinions–if we were friends, that is.”
    She seemed to be considering all this, and I thought perhaps progress had actually been made.
    “Sooo.” She looked at me with a little spark in her eye. “What if I said I wanted us to be friends and then invited you to go out with me for a few drinks?”
    “I'd have to ask what kind of drinks.”
    “You know what I mean. A brewsky or two. Would you do it?”
    “First of all, I'm only eighteen–”
    “I can get you a fake ID.”
    “That's not the point. Besides being legally underage, I have absolutely no desire to drink alcohol.”
    “How would you even know, Goody Two-Shoes?”
    “Because I tried it. Like you said about drugs, I tried drinking in high school and discovered that I felt totally rotten afterward. It doesn't do anything for me. I'd rather get high on God.”
    She laughed in that hard way. “So if we were friends, what exactly would we do together? Have little tea parties? Bake cookies? Play Parcheesi?”
    Now I laughed. “I suppose we'd just hang out and talk, and hopefully be there for each other. Don't you know what friends do?”
    Her eyes flashed now, and I knew I'd gone one step too far. She stood up. “My friends know how to have a good time. They know how to party and enjoy life.”
    “And so do mine. We just do it in such a way that we still feel great when the party's over.”
    Well, that made her really mad, and she stormed out, slamming the door behind her. Still, I think progress was made tonight.

EIGHT
Sunday, October 27 (a brief repriere)
    At last, I can honestly say I had a really good weekend here at school. The day after Liz and I had our big “friendship” talk (which was really getting to me, especially considering that I don't exactly have a plethora of friends here at college), Kim invited me to join her and some others for the homecoming festivities this weekend. And it was really fun! I got to know Kim and her roommate Lindsey better, as well as a bunch of other kids from the fellowship group. It makes me look forward to not having a night class next semester.
    Anyway, we went to the game and the dance and just had a good time hanging out as a group. Amazingly, there hasn't been much pairing off yet, although I did notice Stephen around Lindsey a lot. But I really like that these guys seem happy to just hang out as a group.And they're planning all sorts of fun stuff for this year–things to look forward to.
    I felt a little bad about Liz this weekend because she seemed really bummed and lonely. I even invited her to join our group for the homecoming events. Of course, she just laughed that one off. “Yeah, sure, and maybe I'll bring along a Bible to the football game too,” she sniped as I bundled up.
    “Are you going to do anything?” I asked with my hand on the door.
    “Don't worry.” She rolled her eyes. “I think this will be my weekend to finally hit the books.”
    I tried not to look too surprised. “Well, happy studying then.” Fortunately I missed most of her last derogatory comment as I slipped out the door. Poor Liz.
    Unfortunately for her, the weekend only got worse. I had already suspected that Rachel and Jordan were seeing each other again since I noticed them together outside the dorm last week. But I wasn't sure if Liz knew, or if she did, maybe she just didn't care. I did know this, however: I didn't plan on being the one to spill the beans to her. As it turned out, I didn't need to. And this is where the story gets really good (or bad, depending on how you look at it).
    This afternoon after I'd been to church then out for burgers with Kim and some of the other girls, we walked into the dorm lobby just in time to see Liz and Rachel really getting into it. Apparently Liz had gone up to Rachel's room to borrow a CD but