Khia

Church was so amazing this morning and I got a little emotional during the sermon but I'm okay now. Looking at tiago greeting and talking to his youth leader, he looked so fine in his 3 piece suit. Although he wasn't a perfect saint, he sure was a fine sexy sinner. He called me over cause I'm guessing the pastor wanted to speak to both of us.

"My condolences Ms. Khia. Santiago was just telling me about your dad's passing. No wonder I haven't seen you guys",the pastor said.

"That's one reason and thank you. Just keep us in your prayers pastor."

"I definitely will."

"I was just telling her the other day that God probably forgot our names cause we haven't been here in a decade",Santiago said causing us all to laugh.

"No no he hasn't forgotten. God never forgets about his children. He knows each of you by name."

"We'll do our best to starting coming to church again."

"As you should son. As you should, we sure do miss you around here",he said looking at the youth.

The pastor made eye contact with Tiago and wanted to see him in his office. I stayed behind and made myself comfortable in the pew because I knew this was probably gonna take a minute.

Santiago

Sitting in the pastor's office chair, my heart was kinda sorta beating but not ready cause I had a feeling that I knew what he was gonna talk to me about. I just wasn't prepared to give him a godly answer.

"Tell me son. What's been troubling you?",he started.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"I don't need the right answers right now Santiago. You've been under my ministry for too long for me not to know when your lying to me."

I swallowed real hard braces myself .

"You are in jail, you are killing folks, you realize these are sins right?"

"Yes sir. How did you know?"

"Streets are talkin son. When did you begin this path of darkness? And why didn't you seek help?"

"I didn't need help. I had it under control."

"Oh did you have it under control when you got put behind bars? Did you still have it under control then?"

"Everything was taken care of...I had to do something",I said defending myself.

"Now I just heard the basics. I don't know full details unless you'd like to tell me. The floor is yours and I've got time",he said taking his vest off and putting it behind his chair.

"She was getting raped",I mumbled.

"She who?"

"Khia. Her dad molests her."

"Son why didn't you let the law enforcements handle it? There's other options."

"We did that. They didn't protect her. They wasn't doing nothin about it so I had."

"You don't have to but I'll let you go on."

"I dropped her home and I was about to go to work but I had a feeling somethin bad was about to happen to her cause I'd seen a black car parked out front her house but I didn't think nothing of it. So I made a u turn just to make sure she was actually good. When I got there, the door was wide open and I found her on the floor striped of everything and dude had a knife under her neck. If I called the police, they'd take too long so I had to take care of it myself. I got a gun and I shot him."

"Okay. I hear you. Khia was in need of help and at the time of the scene you was there. But where'd you get the gun to do that?"

"I've always had one. Cause I had a license to carry."

"Was it already loaded?"

"Yeah."

"So you know you was gonna use it."

"In case of emergency, yes."

"So now what does she think of you? Does she resent you because you killed her father?"

"No not that I know of."

"Have you asked her?"

"No we don't talk about it."

"Okay. Ima leave that alone for now. What about the clubbing? What's that about?"

"I opened a club in the restaurant I own."

"For pleasure or for money."

"Both."

"Thank you for the honesty son. Now here's what ima tell you as a pastor, do you know the word?"

"Yes",I said.

"Do you know what your doing is a sin?"

"Yes I'm aware."

"So why are you still doing it."

"I don't know. It's life, I just roll with it."

"How can you lead your girlfriend to God if you don't know how to get to him yourself?"

"I haven't been leading her anywhere."

"Son her soul, is your responsibility. You brought her here to this church for a reason. What happened to that reason? What happened to that man who was like David in the Bible on fire for God and loved God? What happened to him?"

"He's still here."

"Oh really? Because I don't see him. Get it together Santiago. And as your counselor, I used to be into that killing stuff. It ain't safe. Because you killed her father, how you know they won't come for you and your family? You gotta put the gun down son. I'm telling you this because I love you. Your supposed to be leading my youth, being a disciple for the young men, that's what your supposed to be doing but instead your here doing this. I could care less about outsiders pointing fingers at my church because they see your mugshot. That doesn't bother me. But what bothers me is the fact that instead of spiritually growing,

your spiritually decreasing. That is what saddens me. Pick up the pieces, and come back to your first love for Christ. Be a leader, make smarter decisions son",he lectured. I heard him out and I could feel a slight headache coming along. He prayed with me and set me on my way. There was second service tonight and after what he told me, I think I might come because my relationship with God was on the rocks and he was right about everything. I couldn't deny it.

Searching for Khia, she was leaning next to my car on the phone. I looked at her while she talked on the phone and I really did wonder if she resent me for killing her father. I opened the door for her and held the door open for her. After she got off the phone, she said, "my mom says hi."

"Tell her I said wasup",I said while driving to the nearest Olive Garden.

"That was like 6 hours. What was y'all talking about?",she asked.

"He just chewed me out for not coming to church anymore. You know how pastors are,"I said not giving her the complete truth.

"Oh okay. Where are we going? I thought we have dinner with your parents today."

"We gone have to postpone that. I don't need my headache to get worse dealing with that",I said pulling into the parking lot full of cars.

When we got inside, it was a 15 minute wait but I didn't mind. Khia changed into her flats and tied her hair up. Meanwhile, I took my tie off and vest and threw it in the back seat of the car. When it was our turn to get seated, we looked at the menu and everything looked good right about now. Khia got some fancy pasta and I ordered the same thing. Within 10 minutes of us being there, they served us rolls and butter on table and boy they was hitting.

"You resent me babe?",I asked Khia.

"For?"

"Your father."

"No why?"

"I never asked. Just wanted to know the truth...you love me less or more or the same?"

"Where is this coming from? Someone told you I don't love you?",she said laughing.

"Answer the question babe."

"I love you the same well even more now. I can't imagine being with another man."

"Ight. I'm going to church tonight, you wanna come?"

"Yeah I'll go with you."

"Ight cool",I said as the waitress came with our food. We prayed over our food and began eating.

"I love you so much babe. Thank you for listening to me and putting the gun away",she said catching me off guard.

"Your welcome babe. You deserve the best part of me."

"You don't have a bad part of you baby."

I smiled and appreciated her in every way possible.