Read Online Taking Flight by Siera Maley - Free Book Online Page B

If you stay here, I have to stay back with you.”
    “Why? I don’t need a babysitter,” I protested, but I knew what her response would be before she even spoke. Admittedly, it had crossed my mind to use the phone tomorrow if they all left without me. I just needed to hear a familiar voice.
    “We don’t leave people here alone,” she told me. “So you don’t believe in God at all? In anything?”
    “No,” I said shortly. I tried to go back to listening to my music, but she didn’t let me.
    “How?”
    I stared at her. “What do you mean, ‘how?’ I just don’t. Can you explain why you believe there is a God?”
    “Well…” she trailed off for a moment, “I guess it’s just a feeling I get sometimes. Like someone’s watching over me and out for me. Keeping me safe. You don’t feel that?”
    I shook my head, not looking at her as I scrolled through my music library using my thumb. “No, never. I guess it must be nice to believe someone cares about you, though.”
    She was silent for a while after that. When I finally looked over at her, she was back to reading her Bible, but her mouth was set in a small frown, and her eyebrows were furrowed. I got an explanation for that when she eventually spoke up again. “Do you really think that no one cares about you?”
    “Of course they do,” I responded instinctively, thinking mostly of Caitlyn, and, more notably, not at all of my dad. “I guess it’d just be easier to feel it on the inside, is all.”
    There was another long silence. Cammie turned a page of her Bible, and then cleared her throat. “I’ve never met an Atheist before,” she admitted.
    I glanced at her briefly, hiding a smile. “I’ve never met a girl named Cameron before.”
     
    *   *   *
     
    I stuck to my guns about church. Wendy, I could tell, was disappointed, but David stayed true to his word and simply had Cammie stay behind while he drove Wendy and Scott to church with him.
    It didn’t take me long to realize there wasn’t much to do at the Marshall’s farm, given that I wasn’t allowed internet access other than for homework and that cable television meant only fifty or so channels, some of which were geared only toward Southerners. I slept in after the whole ordeal of turning down church, and once I’d woken up again, I entertained myself by watching a few really uncomfortable local commercials before Cammie plopped down next to me on the living room couch and asked, “Is there anything in particular you wanted to do today?”
    I was surprised by her hospitality. Cammie wasn’t the type who was happy to get out of reading the Bible or going to church. It was very obvious that she liked being religious, and she liked going to church. I imagined she was pretty disappointed in having to miss out, so her asking me about my own preferences was out of left field for me.
    She’d been nice to me so far, so I tried being nice to her. “Um, I don’t know… is there anything you like to do?”
    She considered my question. “Well, we have to drive about a half an hour if we want to get anywhere close to the sort of area you can kill a day exploring, but there are some cool places around town. Local restaurants and stuff. And we don’t have a movie theater, but there is a place for drive-ins nearby. That can only be done at night, though, of course. Other than that… maybe the park?”
    “You have a car?” I questioned, arching an eyebrow.
    She grinned. “No. But I know where Scott keeps his keys.”
    “Wait, we can do that?”
    “I don’t see why not. It’s just a trip into town, right?” I raised an eyebrow at her, and she added, hastily, “Maybe we should just try to beat my family back here, is all. Just in case.”
    And just like that, we were on our way into town, Scott’s mud-covered pickup truck rolling over bumpy roads as trees passed by outside my open window.
    For a moment, I tilted my head back, closed my eyes, and forgot about where I was, and even