Only Uni by Camy Tang Read Free Book Online

heart-attack-inducing daughter away from her. “She’s going to need quiet for the next few months. Someone with her to care for her.”
    “Your dad?”
    Trish looked away. “Dad refused to hire a nurse, said he’d take care of her himself. I was surprised.” She didn’t understand. It would seriously cramp his tomcatting around. Maybe he hadn’t wanted a nurse observing both Mom’s health and his behavior.
    Marnie popped open a can of soda. For some reason, she had a rather misty, faraway look in her large dark eyes that made Trish wonder if Marnie was coming down with something. “He must love her a lot.”
    Trish’s stomach clenched, and she pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t gag. She felt trapped — she couldn’t talk to her mom about his affair while she was recovering, but she didn’t want to talk to her father, either. For now there was nothing she could do. “I guess.”
    Slurping her soda, Marnie wandered into the TV area and peered at Trish’s lap. “Doing your church stuff?”
    She closed her glaringly blank notebook. What a great witness to her atheist roommate. “I just started. I’ll go to my room if you want to watch TV.”
    Marnie dropped into the couch almost before Trish vacated it and reached for the remote control on the coffee table. “Yeah, I don’t want to keep you from your Bible reading.”
    Trish gritted her teeth at Marnie’s pointed tone. Sure, she wasn’t the best Christian on the planet, but Marnie didn’t have to mock her. She padded into her bedroom and shut the door.
    Flopping onto her futon bed, she arranged her Bible and notebook in front of her. She bowed her head. Dear Lord. Um . . . well, I guess I haven’t been reading my Bible like I should. I’m sorry about that. But I could use some answers now. She felt a whining attack surge up, but she shoved it down. I feel kind of weird coming to you now. I know my behavior lately hasn’t been very Christian-like, and I’m sorry. I mean, I’m really sorry this time. A lot of bad things happened yesterday . . . Well, duh, you already knew that. So I guess I’m hoping this means you’re giving me a second chance to turn things around. Please help me. I don’t deserve it, but please give me some grace.
    Trish filled her lungs until her ribs felt tight and stretched. As she exhaled, peace like a slow, gentle wave washed over her heart, sweeping the jittery tension away. She flipped the Bible open, and it landed at the beginning of 1 Corinthians. She started reading.
    Her heart skipped a beat as she read chapter one: “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless . . .”
    Blameless. She’d like to be blameless and pure, instead of a mess. And did that verse mean Christ would keep her strong so she could stay blameless?
    Could she be blameless again? Could she regain what she’d lost? Well, not literally — she knew she couldn’t regain her virginity, which she’d carelessly lost several boyfriends ago, unknown to her cousins. But could she regain everything else? Her chastity, her cousins’ love and support, her ruined reputation?
    She’d always treated God kind of like a genie to save her when she needed Him. But now she wanted to be a better person. She wanted to make better choices. She wanted to be in a better place than the miserable dilemma she was in now, tempted by Kazuo’s presence and by Grandma’s approval of him.
    She wanted her chastity back. If she could do that, then everything would be the same as it was before.
    The Word spoke to her again in chapter seven: “I would like you to be free from concern . . . I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.”
    Trish almost popped off her bed. Undivided devotion to the Lord. That’s the spiritual place she needed to be. God wanted her to be devoted to Him. Undividedly.
    Undistractedly.
    Wait a minute. Undistracted? Guys distracted her