Popularity Contests
Stan figured he had a lot of friends. He was part of a big group of guys who had fast cars, and liked to race them up and down the Turnpike on Saturday nights. They’d gather in the McDonald’s parking lot to eye one another’s cars and girlfriends, and then speed off down the road, cops on their tails. Stan finally felt like he belonged somewhere.
Leigh was Stan’s girlfriend, and she found herself drawn ever closer into his circle. She had no friends of her own anymore; all of the people she hung around with, like Jill, she knew through Stan. Danielle hadn’t spoken to her in months, and she never saw Heather anymore. No one saw Heather.
Danielle and Heather had one another. Heather sometimes talked with Mark. Danielle didn’t really like him, and avoided him whenever he came over. She went to school, and Heather worked in the shop downstairs. When people asked, Danielle lied and said yeah, of course she was still living at home. Why wouldn’t she be?
Joy took solace in the fact that her friends had problems. Betty had kicked her daughter out, and Troy’s stepdaughter ran wild. Her children were perfect, she told herself. She was important in this town. People looked up to her.
Kat hung with the popular girls, though they didn’t really hang with her. She tried out for cheerleading, and though she didn’t make it, she still practiced the moves in front of the mirror at home. If I try hard enough, she reasoned, people will forget all about what a loser Kitty was. Maybe they’d forgive her for being related to Mark.
Mark had no one except for Brian and Heather. He felt like Heather understood him, and that Brian might if he gave him a chance. Brian liked to talk about God, and Mark was content to let him.
Brian was good friends with Jeff and Kevin, and he knew lots of other people liked him. Sometimes he found himself drawn into long conversations with Mark about all kinds of subjects. Mark wasn’t a Christian, though, so Brian held back. That mattered to Brian.
Jess had Brian, but only on the occasions that he remembered she was there. She otherwise floated above the high school and the church and the town of Hartsville, observing but not really part of any of those places. Just give me Brian, she thought, and I’ll be happy. Please, God. Let me have Brian.
God had everyone and everything, Jess believed, but in His heart she suspected He was just as lonely as she was. He would understand.
