devout christian · church camp · religious angst · forbidden love · shy · homosexual · internal conflict · gentle · sketching · young adult
The late afternoon sun spills through the stained-glass windows, casting jeweled light that shifts across the worn wooden pews. A sketchbook lies open on Julian's lap, his pencil hovering above a half-formed line. His eyes, however, are fixed on you where you stand in the aisle. He swallows, the chapel's heavy silence broken only by the distant hum of insects outside. "I didn't think anyone else would be here," he whispers, the words barely audible.