Arousing Love, a teen novel (7 page)

“God will make a way, Zach. You’ll see.”

I smiled. “I read some of the Bible last
night. The Gospel of Matthew.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I wanted to read about Jesus.”

“That makes me so happy. I’ve been praying
God would help you find the truth. Now I know everything’s going to
work out for us.”

“I’m not gonna become a Christian, even if it
was the truth.”

“Why not?”

“I’d hate to be one of them. Ya know, most
Christians don’t even live by Jesus’ teachings. They’re more like
the Pharisees.”

“Christians are just people who believe in
Jesus. It’s not what you
do
that makes you a Christian, it’s
who you believe in.”

“It should be what you do as well, if you
really believe in it. I see them living the opposite of what Jesus
taught. They think they’re Christians, but they’re fake. It’s meant
to be all or nothing. They’re supposed to give up everything for
God.”

“But how can you judge them, Zach? Have you
ever tried living by Jesus’ teachings? No one can live up to that
standard. I think most Christians feel guilty about that because we
know we’re not fully living like we’re supposed to.”

“From what I’ve seen, most of them aren’t
even trying to live by Jesus’ teachings. They’re completely
ignoring everything he said and stood for. Jesus was radical—he
didn’t preach conservative values. He preached love and complete
giving of your life away. His whole message is so different. It’s
like radical versus conservative. They’re opposites.”

Joanna sighed. “Maybe you’re right. My dad
always talks about the church needing a revival because it’s become
so lukewarm and not pleasing to God.”

“A revival?”

“It’s when God wakes up his church and makes
it righteous and spiritual again. You should talk to my dad about
it some time. Hey, you wanna go swimming?”

“Okay.” I was glad to end this
conversation.

She went to pull off her t-shirt but stopped.
“Oh, I can’t. I’m not wearing my swimsuit. You wanna walk back to
the tent with me?”

“Have you ever swum naked before?”

She laughed. “I’m not going skinny-dipping in
the middle of the day on a public beach!”

I grinned. “What about at night?”

“Come on.”

We went back to her tent, and I waited
outside while she changed. While I was standing there, her parents
came back.

“You waiting here for Joanna?” Her father
frowned at me.

“Yeah, she’s just getting changed.”

Joanna came out of the tent in her bikini,
holding a couple of towels. “Is it okay if we go swimming,
Dad?”

“Where are your friends?”

“They left us on the beach ‘cause we were
talking about abortion and stuff. I don’t think they wanna hang
with us anymore.”

“Well, I guess we could all go down there.”
He turned to his wife. “How ‘bout a picnic on the beach?”

A picnic sounded great to me. I suddenly
realized how hungry I was.

Joanna’s mother packed a picnic hamper, and
we set off down to the beach together. Joanna and I went for a swim
while her parents spread a blanket and set out the food. I was
careful not to touch Joanna while her parents were there watching
us. We just splashed around, and I tried to show her how to body
surf.

When we got too hungry, we came in and sat
down with her parents. Her mom had made us some sandwiches, and I
quickly devoured mine. As I finished the last mouthful, I noticed
they were all staring at me.

“You were hungry, weren’t you Zach?” Joanna’s
mother smiled, and I felt embarrassed. Joanna laughed.

“Are you gonna come to the talent contest
tonight, Zach?” Joanna’s father asked.

“No? I didn’t even know about it.”

“We’ve been trying to persuade Joanna to
enter it.”

“Daaad!”

“You should! You could sing that song you
played for me
. . . .
” I
stopped in mid-sentence, realizing I was giving them too much
information.

“That’s too personal to sing in public. It
would be like you doing a painting while everyone was watching
you.”

“You paint, Zach?” Her mother asked.

“Zach’s really talented. He does amazing
portraits.” Joanna answered for me.

“Really? I’d love to see them.” Joanna’s
mother smiled. I somehow didn’t think she’d appreciate seeing the
last portrait I’d done.

“I think Joanna just managed to change the
subject. What were we talking about again? Oh, that’s right, her
entering the talent contest.” Joanna’s father ruffled her hair.

“Yeah, you have to enter it.” I nudged her.
“You have an amazing talent that you shouldn’t hide.”

“Stop it, Zach. I don’t want to.”

“Just think of all the people who’d get to
hear your song, though.”

“I’d be too scared.”

“You’re the least fearful person I’ve ever
met.”

“Yeah, when I’m with you.”

“I’ll be there.”

“You’d be on stage with me?”

“No, but I’ll be there watching.”

“I’ll do it if you go on stage with me.”

I laughed. “What would I do? Just stand there
next to you?”

“You could play your guitar.”

“I hardly know three chords.”

“That’s good enough. I’ll teach you the
rest.”

“Okay then, let’s do it.”

“We need another guitar though, I don’t have
mine here with me.”

“I’m sure we can borrow one from somewhere,”
Joanna’s father said.

“I’ll go get my guitar and meet you back at
your campsite.”

“Is it okay if we practice at the campsite,
Dad?”

“Yes that’s fine. Just behave yourselves,
alright?”

“We will,” we said in unison.

I took a shortcut back to the shack. I was a
little nervous about playing the guitar in front of lots of people,
but I wanted to do this for Joanna. I was excited for her, she was
so good, she was going to blow everyone away.

I grabbed my guitar and went back to their
campsite, finding Joanna already there strumming another
guitar.

“Great, you found one.”

“Yeah, but this one’s so different to the one
I’m used to. My guitar is more like yours.”

“Here, you play mine and I’ll play that
one.”

“I’m having second thoughts about doing this,
though, Zach. I don’t wanna sing my song in front of all those
people. Maybe I could do it if we did a different song
instead.”

“Come on, you have to sing your song. It’ll
be so great. The way you sing it is amazing. I’ll be surprised if
you don’t win.”

“I’m scared though.” She pressed her lips
together.

“I’ll be right there with you, probably
making a complete fool of myself, but you’ll be great. You just
need some courage and you’ll amaze everyone.”

She looked at the ground for a moment, then
she looked up at me and smiled an insecure little smile.

“You’ll be fine. Stop worrying about it.”

“Alright.” She smiled with a little more
enthusiasm. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

We practiced together all afternoon. Joanna
taught me two new chords, and showed me when to change chords
during the song. Eventually we got it sounding all right, though I
was sure it would’ve sounded better without me and my mistakes. But
I knew I wasn’t there to make the song sound better, I was there to
give her confidence.

Her parents came back from the beach, and I
noticed they’d given us a lot of time alone together. I wondered if
they were easing up on their restrictions now they knew me better,
or if it was just ‘cause of this talent contest. I knew they wanted
her to sing in it as much as I did.

We played Joanna’s song through for them, and
they were full of praise, saying it was just perfect.

Joanna’s mother fixed us some dinner, then
Joanna went to her tent to change into something for the show. She
came out in a light yellow summer dress.

“You’re wearing that? You’re gonna win just
by looking so good.”

She beamed, and her mom raised her eyebrows
at me.

Seeing what she was wearing, I realized how
under-dressed I was.

“I should go change too.”

Joanna looked me over in my shorts and
t-shirt. “Okay, but hurry up. It starts in half an hour.”

I jogged back to the shack and put on some
pants and a long-sleeved shirt, then looked at myself in the
mirror.
Hmm
. I put on a pair of sunglasses and grinned at my
reflection.
Now that looks like a musician.

Taking a deep breath, I headed out the door.
This is gonna be interesting.

When I got back to their campsite, Joanna and
her mom had already left, but her father was there waiting for me.
He looked me over and smiled.

“Come on, I’ll show you the way.”

He led me through the campground. “You know,
Zach, you seem to be a good influence on my daughter. She wouldn’t
have entered this contest without your encouragement.”

I just smiled.

“I appreciate you doing this for her. It’s a
big thing to get up in front of all these people. She has so much
talent, I just want to see her doing what she loves without any
fear holding her back. This might be just what she needs to give
her that confidence boost. I hope she does well tonight.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she will.”

We arrived at a natural amphitheatre. A stage
was set up at the bottom of the bowl-shaped valley, and quite a few
people were already there finding a place to sit on the grass
slopes.

I saw Joanna and her mom near the stage, and
made my way towards them. Joanna saw me and gave me an exaggerated
grin to show how nervous and excited she was.

“It’s starting soon. We’re third up.” She was
so antsy she couldn’t stay still.

The amphitheatre was filling fast, and there
was a real buzz around the place—especially near the stage
area.

I was sweating. I had so much to remember—all
those chord changes.
I wish we could’ve practiced one more
time.

They announced the beginning of the show, and
the first contestant, a drummer doing a solo, went up to perform.
He was pretty good.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this. I’m so
nervous. Are you nervous? I’m really nervous.” She was talking
fast.

“Calm down, just breathe.” I laughed. “I’m
nervous too, but it’s not a big deal if we make a few mistakes,
right?”

“What if I freeze up there and can’t
sing?”

“You won’t. Just look at me if you feel
nervous. I’ll keep you from freezing.”

“How’ll you do that?”

“I don’t know, I’ll dance around and make
funny faces or something.”

She laughed. “Oh, my mouth feels so dry.”

“I’ll get you some water.”

“No, Zach, we’re up next.”

Sure enough they were announcing: “Up next,
Joanna and accompanist.”

“Accompanist?” I looked at Joanna. She just
stood there not moving, so I grabbed her arm and started leading
her up the stairs and onto the stage.

We looked out at the audience, and I couldn’t
even remember what chord I was supposed to start on. Joanna started
playing, so I hurried to play a chord. She looked over at me and
smiled, then she began to sing.

The whole world seemed to fade away as I
watched this beautiful young girl sing from her heart with simple,
angelic purity. I don’t even remember playing, I was so
mesmerized.

Joanna performed her song, and the next thing
I knew we were walking off the stage to a cheering audience.

I was dazed and elated. As soon as we were
down the stairs, Joanna jumped on me, giving me a huge hug—guitar
and all.

“That was so amazing! I feel like
. . .
I can’t even describe it. I
can’t believe we did it!”

I laughed. “You were amazing, it was the best
I’ve ever heard you.”

“I know! I made a few mistakes on the guitar
though. You didn’t notice?”

I shook my head. “It sounded perfect to
me.”

She laughed. “I can’t watch the rest of this.
Let’s go somewhere.”

“But you’ll probably win.”

“I don’t wanna find out. Come on.” She
grabbed my hand.

We left our guitars beneath the stage with a
pile of other stuff, and started down a path towards the beach. It
was already getting dark, and hard to see where we were going, but
an almost full moon helped light our way.

“Thank you so much, Zach.”

“For what?”

“For everything! For making me do it. I
couldn’t even go up those stairs without you. You’re so amazing. I
can’t believe you got up there and played in front of all those
people just for me, and you hardly know how to play the guitar.
You’re so brave.”

I started laughing. “I don’t think I changed
chords the whole time I was up there.”

“What?” She started laughing too, and then we
both couldn’t stop.

“I was playing
. . .
the same chord
. . .
the whole time.” I gasped out the
words, as we laughed uncontrollably. I had tears in my eyes.

“You’re so bad. Oh my goodness.”

“Hope I didn’t cost you the contest.”

“I don’t care about that. It was getting up
there and doing it that was so amazing. I’m just glad I did it. It
was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my whole life.
Everything’s been so exciting since I met you.”

“Yeah, my life’s definitely been more
exciting since I met you, too. I never know what’s going to happen
next.”

“This.” She came up close and pressed her
lips to mine. I pulled her into my arms and we kissed passionately,
my hands caressing down her back. She took my hand from behind her
and placed it on her breast, and I gently squeezed its ample
softness through the thin fabric of her dress.

I was breathing harder, desire was rising up
in me. I wanted all of her. Somehow, I found enough self-control to
pry my lips from hers.