Hi! It’s me! Lily!
So… today was unexpected.
I said very little to Sabby today as well. She seemed to want to talk but I didn’t. Was I right to run out of the room laughing like I did? No, of course not. It was rude and disrespectful. I know that. But it was also not something I could help. Jack was real instigator. Sorry, Jack. But it’s true. He didn’t have to say that. It was really funny, obviously it was, but he didn’t have to say that, and honestly, he shouldn’t have. Or at least he should have waited.
I still love him but he deserved his grounding.
But that’s not the interesting thing that happened today.
The pastor stopped by, around dinnertime.
Sabby seemed a bit flustered – she wasn’t expecting him, and the house is a little bit cluttered. He didn’t seem to care about all that, though. He wanted to talk to me and Sabby.
I was a little nervous. I was afraid he was going to scold me.
He didn’t, though.
He told Sabby he hoped she wasn’t too mad at me.
I was, honestly, surprised. Sabby seemed a little annoyed, but after all, it’s the pastor… she at least heard him out.
He said that church is supposed to be our family, not a place where everyone takes everything seriously and can’t have any fun. He said he wished that I had chosen a slightly different time to get the giggles, but that it gave him a chance to finally tell that priest and rabbi joke, and it was the most exciting Easter he ever had.
Sabby countered that I was very disrespectful and that I embarrassed her a great deal, and that Jack’s comment was completely inappropriate.
The pastor didn’t actually know what Jack said. So Sabby told him.
He snickered just a bit, and that just annoyed Sabby further.
“I understand, Sabrina”, he said – he always uses her full name for some reason. “But maybe you could stand to have your pride punctured a bit.”
Sabby looked like she was going to blow up… then deflated.
“Don’t do that again,” she said to me.
“I wasn’t planning on doing it the first time,” I retorted.
“Be yourself”, the pastor said to me. “If that means I have to come up with a joke on Easter Sunday… well… I guess I’ll manage. Don’t do it on purpose, though. Alright?”
I nodded.
“We’re family,” he said. “Sometimes with family, you take the bad along with the good.” He patted me on the shoulder and ruffled my hair a little bit. Then he stood up and took his leave.
After the door closed, Sabby looked at me, an unreadable expression on her face.
“I was a little hard on you.”
“You were.”
“You deserved it.”
“Maybe a little. Not that much.”
She sighed. “Maybe not that much.”
She moved over to me and gave me a big hug.
“If Jack does that again you won’t be allowed to see him until you’re thirty.”
“If Jack does that again, that’s a very real possibility.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. He’s a boy.”
I sighed. “He is. But he knows what’s important to me. He should know better.”
“Boys sometimes do things even though they know better.”
“I guess”, I said, a little dejected. I hadn’t talked to much to Jack today. I know he got in big trouble and I didn’t want to make it worse. Truth is, his parents have been very tolerant of our being together, much moreso than most parents would, and Jack really messed that up. I don’t know whether I want to pile on, or just let his mother have the final word. Maybe we should talk about it a little, anyway.
I’m not really angry with him or anything. But… Sabby was right. His mother was right too. That was disrespectful. I’m not really religious, and I know Jack isn’t either. But most people in that room were, and… and we should respect that.
Sabby went back to making dinner, and I… I just kind of sat in my room and thought for a while. I love Jack. I still want to marry him someday. But… but that’s the first time I’d ever seen him actually be immature. And I don’t really like it.