Church Girl Gone Wild by Ni’chelle Genovese Page A

I tensed up as flashes of my choosing and then Ava’s dinner flashed across my mind. It’s a damn shame we can’t delete memories. If there was a way to get a sorbet spoon and just dig those memories out I would.
    Momma Rose went on, “Deac has decided to keep Leslie for himself. I’m not sure when he plans to have her ceremony but his mind is all but made up.” Her voice cracked.
    I clenched my hands into fists so tight my knuckles cracked. Heat rushed up my neck flooding my cheeks and exploding behind my eyelids in bright red flashes of pain and hatred.
    â€œDon’t do it Eva,” Momma Rose whispered her warning. “He controls too many people who will turn their eyes and call you a runaway if he decides to put you back in that box. Just do what me and your momma didn’t. Go to school and be smart enough to know when you should and shouldn’t fight. Leslie will be fine.”
    Quinn had started walking toward us. His face was just as stormy if not more so than mine. It didn’t take Momma Rose but a half a glance in Deacon’s direction before she dropped her eyes to the ground and bustled over to patch up his ego.
    All the air deflated from my chest as I leaned back against Quinn’s car.
    â€œYou over here lookin’ like someone just robbed you of your favorite puppy,” Quinn said with a smile before leaning on the car beside me. He nodded in Deacon’s direction. “So, I got that nigga to see things my way. He knows not to lay a hand on you or I’ll come for him when it’s nice and dark and he can’t identify me to the cops.”
    A weak smile was the best I could do. It wasn’t me that Deacon wanted to put his hands on. It was Leslie.
    â€œOh and I don’t think he liked hearing how I was the volunteer EMT who rode with your mother from the jail to the asylum after her sentencing. Before she was sedated, she kept saying, Deacons and demons run my life, three lost father’s three lost daughters, over and over.”
    My head was about to explode from T.M.I., too much information overload. Why did everything have to revolve around this Deacon and the invisible chain he’d managed to wrap around my life? It didn’t surprise me at all, knowing he just used Ava. His finger pulled the trigger in the bathroom all those years ago. If he didn’t care about the baby Ava was carrying when he shot her, I know he wouldn’t give a damn about Leslie even if she end up being his third wife.
    Quinn put his arm around my shoulders. I leaned into his side, wishing I could absorb some of his heat and strength.
    â€œIt’ll be fine. You sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” Quinn asked.
    I slowly shook my head to keep my brain from banging around and making things hurt even more.
    â€œWe’ll figure this out and in the mean time you’ve got me. By the way, I teach a course on campus, sign up for it and I’ll make sure you’re good. And call me Que.”

Chapter 4
    Like Sugar for Candy
    May
    Â 
    A storm was coming. Battleship-gray clouds churned into a dark unified wall outside the office window. Nothing about spring or summer rains appealed to me, not the damp muddy smell in the air or the way the clouds hovered over the buildings like a scene right out of Ghostbusters . The few pigeons flying around that were brave or too stupid to find cover fought against the wind like tiny black kites. It brought back memories from the day Ava dragged us into her insanity. From my experience storms never brought in anything good.
    â€œEva?”
    I jerked my attention away from the window back to Mrs. Porter, the assistant dean, who was busy studying me through the haze of her hazel contacts.
    So much for keeping my head out of the clouds. The only time someone got called into the assistant dean’s office was for an award or an accusation and I wasn’t too thrilled about finding out which one I