I woke up to the sun rays hitting my eyes. I squinted my eyes to try and block out some of the sunlight. When I slowly attempted to lift my body off the bed, my head was pounding intensely. I slowly laid back down carefully not to make any drastic head movements because I didn't want my head to start pounding from my odious hangover.

     I feel back asleep for I don't know how long, until I heard my alarm start going off. Suddenly I remembered I had my first class today. Shit! I jumped out of bed to only stop when I realized there was a girl, naked on top of the covers. And that's when I realized I wasn't at my dorm. Where the hell was I? I looked around the room it was a mess. The headboard was broken, the lamp from the nightstand was broken, and the pillows were ripped. What in the fuck happened and why can't I remember? I went to the mirror directly in front of the bed and turned to see my back red with whelps on it. I looked at my watch it read 7:45, I had to be at class at 8:00. I looked on the pile of clothes on the floor to find, not surprisingly, my clothes in shreds. All I had on were my Calvin Klein underwear. Well just because I have no clothes on, isn't going to stop me.

     I ran out of the room to see a bar. It suddenly dawned on me I was at a strip club last night. I was greeted by a female bartender with pink hair and a pixie cut.

      "Well you look like shit," She said snickering. "My name's Opal. Don't ask me why my mom named me that." She said chuckling. "Look Opal, what the hell happened last night? Do you know? And uh do you have any clothes I could borrow?" I said feeling quite violated because I wasn't wearing anything but underwear.

     "No sorry. I don't work here at night. I only work morning through after noon. During those times it's an actual bar. And seems your out of luck today 'cause we have no extra clothes." She gave a sympathetic smile.

     "Well thanks for nothing." I turned on my heel about to walk out of bar before Opal shouted, "Hey are you really going to walk on the street with nothing on?" I turned and gave her a smirk before rebelliously walking out with as she put it "nothing on."

       I broke into a run it was now 7:50 I had to be in class at 8:00 I got this. I got some odd stares because I was basically naked and I was drunk and stumbling and shit. Today is not the day. I finally made it out of the sketchy ass neighborhood and onto the main roads. I waved down a Taxi cab because I finally realized that I couldn't run all the way to the university.

     I got in, completely out of breath. The driver gave me this crazy look. "I know what your thinking." I said staring right at him. "Words cannot fathom, my child, what I'm thinking about you right now." He said looking at my the whole time, with his convicting blue eyes.  "What's that supposed to mean?" He gave me a sad look in his eyes. "You will know soon. Sadly, my boy, only great tragedy will be in your future. Because that's the only thing that can save you."

     "Wait what. I'm so confused. How can tragedy save me?" By the time I asked my question we were, miraculously, already at the school. "Here," said the old man. "Put on these clothes, looks like you need it."

     "Thank you." I said, putting my clothes in hurriedly in the Taxi cab. After I got my dingy looking clothes on, I got out of the cab about to tell him I didn't have any money but he was gone. That was weird, he was here like five seconds ago. Oh well I've got to book it. It's already 7:57.

    I rushed inside the building to the main office, the secretary gave me my schedule. I looked on the schedule to see my first class Religious Studies. You've got to be kidding me. I leaned against the office door to drown in my self pity for a minute. Luckily though the class wasn't to far down from the office, according to the secretary. I walked down the hall, slowly with much dread to room 202. I got to the door but not before taking a breath and muttering "Let the games begin".

      I walked into the, notably small lecture hall. Out of about two hundred seats, only about thirty were occupied. Everyone turned my way when I walked to take a seat. The professor just kept on talking not taking notice in my entrance.

       "Hello I am Professor Locke. I will be teaching you Religious Studies. As you can see many people aren't taking this class because I'm a hard teacher, I'm not easy. I don't have many and I like it that way. It's more personal for me therefore I can stay on you guys and make sure none of you at all are slacking. This isn't going to be an easy journey but we will get through this together. In the words of Mahatma Ghandi, "When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator." "We will be learning about multiple religions, this isn't high school we are going to go into depth with each religion. It might get uncomfortable but In this class we are a family. We are going to go through this together. The first religion we will be studying about is Christianity. Now before I continue, any questions?" Professor looked around the class until a little blonde petite girl raised her hand.

     "Professor Locke, is there any place worst than Hell?" Before the professor could answer Mr. Know-it-all James butted it. "What kind of question is that Hailey there isn't any place worst then a Hell." James said acting like he knew it all. I couldn't take this. I stood up. "Actually the word Hell originated from Valley of Ben-Hinnom. It's a place were children were set on fire and sacrificed because their parents thought by doing this they were pleasing their God. One of the first kings to do this was King Ahaz. He burned his children in the Valley and engaged in detestable practiced of the nations the Lord has driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense in high places. So some would question you James. Some may think the Valley of Ben-Hinnom is worse than Hell. So before you call someone or their question stupid read your bible a little so you know things. Oh and since you didn't know about any of that the scripture is 2 Chronicles 28:1-4. So look that up when you go to your bible study." I said mockingly before sitting back in my seat with a smirk.

     "Hailey. I think your question is answered. And Mr. Bieber, please see me after class." Professor said before turning to the smart board. He started teaching like nothing happened. Hopefully he wasn't pissed about what I said or I'm in deep shit.

  
     Before I knew it, class was over and everyone was packing up their things. I hesitantly walked up to the professor's desk. "You wished to see me." He looked up and took his glasses off and touched the bridge of his nose. "For the past two years I have had James in my class. Every year he makes straight A's. He passes with flying colors, but he never goes in depth into any of the religions, not even Christianity. He's not all there. Everyone thinks he's the smartest and never questions what he says and today you did that. And I can say that I'm already impressed. I love debates. I love it when people don't take other people's word for granted they look and search and wonder. That's something special and you have it. I'm proud. Keep up the good work, Justin." Smiling he patted me on the back picked up his briefcase and walked out. Well I wasn't expecting that.

      I walked out of the lecture hall and made my way down to my dormitory. I opened the door to find Za with his head in his hands. "Man you alright?" I asked sitting in his bed next to him. "No. I made a mistake last night. A really bad one." I fidgeted in the bed. I hated when people needed advice or a shoulder to cry on 'cause I'm not the person for that. When it comes to comforting people I'm that awkward friend that gives you a blunt and tells you to smoke it to you feel better. And I'm about to do just that. "Do you want to roll a blunt? It's will make you feel better." I said smiling. This is legit the reason why I smile is to get high. Most people have some poetic reason that they smoke. I just do it cause everything is fucking funny when I'm high, and I love the feeling.

      "Sure man." He said laughing. "You suck ass at comforting people." Rolling on his side he grabbed his lighter. "What do I look like to you Za? Your fucking therapist. I'm your turn up friend and only your turn up friend." I said rolling the blunt. I grabbed Za's lighter and lit the blunt. I watched as the smoke came out of my mouth and I had this warm fuzzy feeling. Za grabbed my blunt and took a long smoke. "Man I fucking cheated on my girlfriend again. I feel so bad. She's such a great girl, man. She's so innocent and sweet. She's never cheated on me. She's been fully committed but all I do is cheat. I feel bad as hell man. I've cheated on her countless times man, I need to stop. Every time I try though I always go back maybe it's my addiction, I don't know." I lied down beside him. "Just smoke it out. Maybe she will forgive you. I don't think it's your addiction, I just think you don't want to settle down but you know she's the one but your not ready for her yet. You want and need her but your not ready like she is. She's ready to settle down your not. Instead of letting her go, through, you want to kept her for yourself so when you are ready you have her. Sadly bro that's no how it works. You either have to be all in or all out. You can't be half assin' shit." He turned his head facing me with evident tears in his eyes. "I love her man. And I think I'm ready to change for her. What if she doesn't forgive me though?" I looked him in the eyes. "It's a risk your going to have to take man. You can't live your life on a lie. You don't want that. What's her name?"

     "Her name's Promise." Za said getting up and grabbing a picture from his nightstand. Oh fuck!

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What do you think?

How do you feel about Promise now?

How do you feel about Justin's religious class and what he said to James?

Do you feel Heavens going to come back in the story?

Any more questions/comments.

Thank you for reading. ❤️