Emily and the Priest Read Online Free PDF Page B

the woods, the giggling of two girls bent on making trouble wherever they went. Emily caught something out of the corner of her eye as they parted and remarked on it, and Father Mark scanned the woods as they walked, but there was nothing except the wind in the trees and the distant sound of the carnival to keep them company as they made their way back.
    * * * *
    “Someone slipped that under the door for you.” Alexis pointed to Emily’s desk as she came into the room. Alexis was stretched out on her bed, reading something on her Kindle, and she turned her attention back to it almost immediately.
    Emily eyed the envelope, her stomach sinking to her knees. She recognized the handwriting. It was her ex-roommate Jenny ’s. She slipped a fingernail under the edge, slowly prying it open. It was just a plain envelope, a plain piece of lined notebook paper, but the words written on it would ruin not only her life, but Father Mark’s as well.
    “So what is it?” Alexis interrupted Emily’s fatalistic thoughts.
    Emily crumpled the letter, shoving it into her jeans pocket. “Nothing.”
    “Liar.” Alexis sat up, tossing her Kindle beside her on the bed. “I saw Eve hanging around at this end of the hall. Is it from them? Is it another prank?”
    “ Maybe . ” Emily reluctantly handed the note over to her friend, hanging her head, letting her thick, brown hair fall and cover her face as her roommate read it.
    “Oh my god!” Alexis exclaimed. “They’re going to get in so much trouble! Accusing Father Mark of something like this? It’s like… black mail ! You should take this to Bishop Avery! ”
    Emily covered her face with her hands—her hair wasn’t doing a good enough job—her voice muffled. “I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    She dropped her hands, looking at her roommate and new friend, red-faced. “Because it’s true.”
    “You and… you and Father Mark?” Alexis whispered. Her jaw dropped.
    “I love him,” Emily said quickly, defiantly. Adding, “ And he loves me.”
    “Oh my G od.” Alexis crossed herself withou t even thinking, like any good c atholic girl, even as she took the Lord’s name in vain.
    Emily burst into tears. She couldn’t help it.
    “Oh no, Emily, no, don’t cry!” Alexis went over to Emily’s bed, sitting and putting an arm around her shoulders. “Listen, I don’t care. If they want my stupid TV, they can have it. That’s all they’re asking for, right? So we give it to them. No big deal.”
    Emily sobbed harder, really giving into it, letting go of the tension , the secrets she’d been keeping, from Jenny and Eve’s horrible pranks to her love for Father Mark.
    “You don’t understand.” Emily accepted Alexis ’s offered Kleenex, loudly blowing her nose. “They just want to torment me. That’s all they’ve ever wanted. So we give them your TV. What are they going to ask for next? They’re not just going to stop.”
    Alexis sighed, giving her friend another Kleenex. “I talked to Eve last night in the commons.”
    “You did?”
    “She was drunk. She said she’d been fighting with Jenny . I don’t think it’s Eve who keeps doing this to you. Or, at least, I think she’s really being influenced by Jenny . Do you know what she said?”
    “What?”
    “She said she wished she’d never traded rooms.”
    Emily met her new friend’s eyes, realization dawning. “She wants you back.”
    Alexis nodded. “But now she feels stuck.”
    “Poor Eve.” Emily chewed her knuckle, thinking. She turned to her roommate, clutching her arm. “ Alexis , I have an idea that may fix everything.”
    “Everything?”
    “Well maybe not hunger and world peace. But at least everything for us.”
    Alexis sat forward, cross-legged and eager. “Tell me.”
    She did.
    * * * *
    She worried all night about how she was going to manage it—they had a midnight curfew but she slipped out without incident, leaving Alexis snoring face down on her bed, and her entire dorm sleeping in