(no subject)
My Novella So Far
Named "When In Rome"
© 2005
By Jessica Jolene Burns
Chapter
1
When In Rome
"Dude! I have to pull over! The sound is not getting any quieter! It is just getting worse!" exclaimed Jason Jacobs, as he steered his clanking cavalier towards the shoulder. Jason was a blonde haired, skinny, Caucasian boy. It was his last year of high school and he was afraid that his car was going to break down.
"Alright man! That is fine. Pull over. Just as long as we get to Drake's house to pick up that weed!" exclaimed Jerimiah. Just then he turned to me and whispered, “Amber, are you ok? You aren’t nervous are you?” I just gave him an uneasy giggle and shrugged my shoulders. Jerimiah and I met in Rome, Italy on June 16th.
We had gone to there with a Catholic school church choir from Plymouth, Michigan. My little brother, Jon, and I, were supposed to sing in the choir, but it ended up that only he got to sing. Jerimiah's little sister, Christine, was also in the choir which is why he had to go on the trip. I was very upset , not only because I ended up not being able to sing, but truth be told, I didn't even want to go in the first place. I wanted to stay home with my friend, Mark, (who was at the time, my boyfriend). My parents decided that it would be better if I went. They figured it would be an opportunity that I might not have had again. So unwillingly, I joined them to fly over the ocean and tour the country.
I'll never, ever forget the first day I saw Jerimiah. I just couldn't help but look at him. He had dark, curly brown hair, that slightly covered the tops of his almond-shaped eyes, and a shy but cute smile that would show his braces slightly. He looked adorable while wearing his dress pants that he had to wear to his school everyday, (he went to a private Catholic school, named U of D Jesuit, in Detroit). I was wearing my long, blue skirt that had the print of a city on the bottom edges. My green t-shirt was covered in the drenching rain.
I was dancing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Rain was flying in from all directions. My face was cold and wet with the drenching mist. I didn't care. I was just enjoying the fact that I was dancing in Italy, which was a totally different country than my own.
I kept a close eye on Jerimiah, and I noticed that he would glance over at me every once in awhile. When we finally made eye contact, I revealed a huge smile. He smiled back slightly and nodded. I experienced butterflies welling up inside my stomach and I felt as if I were a young child, jumping up and down on a fluffy bed.
Finally, he came out from underneath the stone overhang and into the rain to begin talking with me. We talked for hours! We shared words about our favorite music and found that we had quite a few things in common. However, we also found that we were quite different.
Jeremiah told me what he did in his free time, when he was back at home in the States. I don’t think that I liked what I had heard. He said that he and his friends like to smoke marijuana and cigarettes. He liked to drink alcohol as well, which was very apparent; because he drank everyday during the time we were in Italy (there is no legal drinking age there).
I am a Christian, and my moral values were quite different than his. I became a Christian on October 26th during my ninth grade year, and since then I have seen the world quite differently. Before I devoted myself to God, I used to want to smoke and get high. I was always afraid of doing it, for the risk of getting caught and arrested seemed too extreme. I didn’t want to take the chance. Nevertheless, I still thought about it.
Since becoming a Christian, I have decided that that road is not the one for me to take. We experienced some differences in opinion when speaking of “Religion”. He knew that he had some idea that there was a god, he just wasn’t sure that “Jesus Christ” was the right one to follow. We would get into little arguments on who was right and who was wrong. I couldn’t seem to persuade him, or sway his outlook. Maybe he was just too drunk to care.
During the lengthy bus rides from the hotel to the random tourist places, Jerimiah and I became very close, despite our differences. We would sit next to each other everyday, and we would fall asleep on each others shoulders. I remember one morning, when we were traveling to Assisi, I awoke with his hand in mine. The butterflies came back, and I tried to push them away because I had already had a boyfriend. I felt the cold feeling of confusion and I didn't like it. I kept thinking about what Mark would do if he found out. I became scared and decided that I would just forget that anything had happened that morning.
CHAPTER
2
We Meet Again
The rest of the time in Italy flew by, and pretty soon I was on my way back to the great ole U.S. of A. I didn't see Jerimiah at the airport, because he came and left on a different flight. I was sort of heart broken, simply because I thought that I wouldn’t see him ever again.