The Ladies' Room

They sat around in a circle. Alec had just finished telling a scary story, the fifth scary story that had been told that night. Now, at one in the morning, the weary youth group decided that they had evaded their bedtime for long enough. Soon the chaperons would come looking for them. Tay and Beth shared a look. Elizabeth Keeler and Taylor Lynn were really good friends, though Tay was originally friends with Beth's younger sister Phoebe. Phoebe hadn't come with them on this mission trip because she had gone with her boyfriend and the rest of their high school orchestra to Rome for the week.

Tay's boyfriend, Chris, looked over at the two girls eyeing each other. The rest of the youth group began to get up, leaving the room. When the last person left, Tay finally spoke. "I'm scared. That last story really scared me."

Beth nodded her head. "I feel like someone's watching me." She reached up to scratch her back where the tickling feeling was coming from.

Chris looked at both girls and laughed. "It's not that bad. Come on. Let's go to bed."

The three walked shoulder to shoulder out of the darkened gathering hall into the even darker hallway. Upon reaching the ladies' room, Tay stopped them.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Beth looked at her.

"I'll go with you." Chris rolled his eyes and decided to wait outside.

It wasn't even five minutes before a frantic knock came to the door. "Guys, can I come in?" Chris' voice came through.

"Why?" Beth asked, a little bit more paranoid from Chris' knocking than she had been previously when the bright lights of the women's bathroom had finally calmed her down.

"Because that hallway is just way too creepy to stand in by yourself."

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine," Beth said, opening the door for him. Beth and Tay had been standing around talking in the restroom anyway.

No one really knows what lead to it, but the three of them ended up sitting on the floor near the door chatting about everything and anything. They talked about Beth's boyfriend, the ever annoying Brad. Tay knew the minute that Brad came up that he wouldn't be lasting long. The pull between Beth and Gary was strong. The only thing keeping them apart on this trip was the fact that Gary was dating Emily and Beth was with Brad.

"I really don't know what you see in Brad. Honestly. You should probably just dump him now. If he's causing this much grief," Tay was saying.

"You know why I am still with him? Because I keep thinking it's going to work. I make these plans. He's just not fitting with the plans anymore. I get the feeling he's trying to play with my brain."

"Knowing him, he probably is," Chris chipped in, giving the girls some male perspective. However, it was at that moment, at three in the morning, that the door swung open and one of the female chaperones stepped into the ladies' room.

"What are you three doing here?" she asked, decidedly ignoring the fact that Chris was a male in a women's bathroom.

"We heard a few creepy stories before bed and couldn't sleep," Beth pitched in.

"Well you should get to sleep soon. We have a long day tomorrow," the chaperone said before leaving them to use the loo.

Of course, through out the entirety of the trip, this would not be the last time the ladies room was used as an escape. Beth, Gary, Chris, Tay, and Peter would end up using the space again in a desperate attempt to escape the other youth group that was there. Later, after being found by Sarah from the other group, they would end up using space behind a serving counter in the kitchen, fitting it with sleeping bags on a couple of occasions.

The fact of the matter was, that trip confirmed something for Beth. She spent a lot of time squashed between Gary and Peter discussing life. Though Beth and Gary had dated, Beth would realize then and there on that mission trip that she would be in love with Gary for a long time. Possibly for the rest of her life. But that would be okay. She would go on with life, live it for what it was worth, and if her and Gary were meant to be, it would be in it's own time.