Chapter Text
It happened over dinner.
They’d just finished saying grace when her parents joined hands and looked at her.
“Gracie,” Her mom started, a big smile across her face, “Your father and I have something we’d like to talk to you about.”
Her mother always opened the conversation when something like this happened. Secretly, Grace thought it was so she actually had the opportunity to speak. She knew her father would immediately take over, her mother not having much opportunity to contribute further.
“Thank you, Mother,” Her father smiled and Grace kept a practiced soft smile on her face. “Gracie, you’re eighteen now. That means that you’re an adult. Now, being an adult comes with certain… expectations. Your mother and I-”
(Grace knew that was code for her father. After all, her mother’s role was to be the silent support behind him).
“-have been talking with Gabriel’s parents about a potential marriage.”
Grace had to take a moment to understand the words. “Marriage?! But, dad, I’m only eighteen!!”
Her father’s face adopted a firm expression she recognised well. “We know that, Grace. It wouldn’t be an immediate marriage. You could start with sitting next to each other at church and praying together.”
Grace spluttered “Sitting next to each other at church? Praying together?! Dad, gross!”
“We know-” Her mom started, silencing herself when her father’s hand rested on hers.
“Grace, please be an adult about this. He is a good and godly boy. The longer you remain uncourted and unmarried as an adult, the more chance there is for… impure thoughts to taint you.”
Grace thinks back to abstinence camp, to the way Gabe constantly and consistently hit on her. How he started by pretending to be her devout friend, and when that didn’t work he started to become more brazen.
“C’mon Grace, let's just bang it out! No one else needs to know!”
“All you’d have to do is lay there.”
“I just need to get this nut out, then I’ll be able to move onto someone else!”
She shuddered at the memories. She took a second to recall how violated and dirty she felt. The way the showers never helped, the way she felt bare and impure even in her swimsuit.
Her body was wrong. It was a temptation that would lead to sin if she wasn’t strong enough to stop it.
No.
She wouldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t.
“But, dad, the Bible condemns adultery! And, and, you know Matthew 5:27!”
Her father’s eyes narrowed. Her mother leaned forward, “Grace, what are you saying?”
“Mother, let me handle this.” And for a split second Grace saw the frustration in her mother’s face. God, please, forgive me, she prayed silently, I do not want to be chained by the holy vows of marriage to a man who silences me.
“Grace, you are right that the Bible condemns adultery. But I do not see its relevance, unless you’re secretly being courted by another boy?”
And, well, Grace could work with that. After all, Max had offered to carry her books for her earlier that day. Then he called her a dirty girl and she was not thinking about that any further, thank you!
“W-well, um, Max Jägerman carried my books for me today!”
Her mother gasped and her father took a moment to process.
“Jägerman? The football star?” He asked.
“Grace he carried your books?" Her mother sounded so scandalized, and Grace took a moment to mentally apologize.
“Well, Mother, we were the same age when I started carrying your books,” Her father chided gently. Grace suppressed the instinctual disgust at hearing about her parents being so intimate.
Her parents took another moment to process, before her mother asked The Question.
“We haven’t seen him at church before. Is he… not religious?”
“Well, they just have football practice on Sunday mornings! Otherwise he would!”
And, that was actually true. Or, at least, it’s what Jason always said when she started to pester him about attending church on more than just holidays.
“Big game’s coming up! Go Nighthawks!” Her father’s cheer was practically reflexive. The appropriate Hatchetfield response to the football team being mentioned.
“Go Nighthawks,” She dutifully chanted in unison with her mother.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Gracie. For now he can continue to court you,” Grace started internally cheering. “But! Once the big game is over, I insist that he misses a practice to accompany us to church so we can decide if he is a good and godly man.”
“Thank you, daddy!” She smiled.
“Don’t thank me yet, pumpkin,” Her father shook out his newspaper, “If we don’t think he’s the right kind of boy for you, we will be continuing the arrangements with Gabriel’s parents.”
Grace let out a deep breath. Now she just had to get Max Jägerman on board.
---
She approached Max with the same brash determination and self-assurance that she approached everything with.
“Can I talk to you. Alone.” Her words aren’t a question, and she places special emphasis on the end of her sentence. She watches as Kyle and Jason give him shocked looks. Kyle looks like he’s about to say something when Max glares him into silence.
“Hey, Chastity,” He drawls, brushing his hair back in what appears to be an attempt to look attractive. “Couldn’t stay away, huh?”
She only barely stops herself from rolling her eyes. Appearance is everything here.
“C’mon Maxie, I wanna talk to just you.” She uses her most saccharine voice, gesturing for him to follow her.
She pretends to not notice the quiet uproar behind her as Jason hi-fives Max and Kyle gesticulates wildly. After his moment of dorky celebration, Max catches up to her.
“So, dirty girl, where are we sneaking off to?” She resists the urge to tell him to never call her that again for the sake of her purity.
“Somewhere… Private. Where we can talk.”
“Talk, huh? Is that what we're calling it?”
“Max. You can hit on me after we find a place to talk. Like, actually talk. With our mouths.” She realizes her mistake the second the words leave her.
“With our mouths, huh? Wow, dirty girl, you really are living up to your name,” He smirked at her, winking when her eyes met his.
“Seriously, Max. This is important.”
Some of his normal jock facade falls away as he checks her over.
“We could talk in my car?” He offers, finally taking her seriously. She shoots him a small smile.
“Yeah, that works.”
---
Ten minutes later they’re comfortably in Max’s beat up car. Or at least, she is. Max is looking at her like she’s speaking in tongues.
“I’m sorry, what?!”
She admits, she didn’t give the greatest explanation. This was the kind of plan that sounded better if she did one of her little ‘Scheme Spin’s beforehand. Curse the lack of space in this car.
“I need you to pretend to court me so that my parents don’t arrange for me to marry Gabe.” She says it like it’s a simple concept, because honestly it really is. She had no idea where he was getting confused.
“Sorry, just. What do you mean by ‘court’ you?” Apparently that’s where he was getting confused.
You’re too far in this to give up, Grace. You have to commit to this plan.
“It’s like. You showing interest in me, and beginning the process that would eventuate in us being married with kids,” Her cheeks burn as the words rush out of her.
“Hold up, hold up. You’re talking about dating. You’re asking me to fake date you?” Max had an unreadable expression on his face. She steeled herself.
“I know it’s a lot, I’m sorry. I just really don’t wanna date this guy. He’s… gross.” Understatement of the year.
“Who is he? Did you say he’s called Gabe? I don’t think I know of him?” His brow scrunched up in the cute (NO) way it did when he was really thinking about something.
“He goes to Sycamore, you probably don’t know him.” Because who on earth would want to hang out with a Sycamore kid?
“Ew, Sycamore. Those losers are nearly as bad as Clivesdale.”
“Frick Clivesdale!” He snorted softly at her censorship.
“Okay, Gracie, what does fake-dating you include?”
“Well. Um. My parents want you to come to church with us. But I know you have football practices on Sundays! They’ve said it can be after the big game!” He frowned at her.
“...We don’t have practises on Sundays though?”
Jason! That ungodly heathen!
“It means we have more time to prepare you to be all godly and a suitable partner!”
Max blinked as he processed that.
“Sorry, does that mean if I don’t pass some ‘god test’, your parents are gonna make you marry this guy anyway?” She nodded sheepishly. “That’s… really fucked up, Grace.”
“No! My parents just love and care about me! They want me to be safely married so that I can’t be enticed by sin!” She took a calming breath, “Look, the longer I’m untethered to a man, the more opportunity there is for me to become tainted and impure. I need to stay safe from the Devil.”
Max took his own deep breath, rubbing his face. “Even if I don’t get into how fucked up that all is, how does fake-dating me keep you pure or whatever?”
“Oh, easy. My parents think I’m susceptible to the Devil’s temptation, but I’m not!I know how much the Lord has done for us. It’s only by the grace of God that I exist, and in return I have to devote myself to Him.” The words come easily, well-practiced and familiar.
He turns to her fully, concern clear on his face. “Gracie, are you… okay?”
She blinked. What?
“What?”
“It’s just. That sounds like you’ve got some, like, guilt? Going on?”
“I’m not guilty, Max,” She says it like the idea is ridiculous. “I know how much my parents sacrificed to have me, yeah, but I don’t need to be guilty when I can make it up to them by being their perfect daughter.”
Which, obviously.
“Anyway, that’s all irrelevant. What matters is whether or not you’re in to do this fake-dating thing. I am prepared to negotiate if you have anything you want in return.” This was safer territory. She felt herself relax.
“Negotiate?” Max takes his time to think, “You’re pretty weird, Chastity. But I like it!” The last words were rushed out, he didn’t want to offend her.
“So,” She prompted. “What do you want in return?”
She thought knew what he’d ask. What he’d alluded to with all his ‘dirty girl’s and everything he’d said to her the day before.
“Two things,” He held up two fingers symbolically. How had no one figured out what a dork he is? “I want a date, and I want a kiss.”
Her cheeks heated up and she looked out the window to avoid eye contact. Instead, she locked eyes with Stephanie Lauter, who was looking at her incredulously. She quickly looked back at Max instead.
“Wha- now?!” She squeaked out. He looked her over.
“I’d happily kiss you anytime, Grace. I want you to want me to kiss you.”
Something about those words made her feel even more flushed. She thought back to the brutish way Gabe had hit on her, the way he ignored what she wanted.
Without thinking, she tapped a finger against her cheek. Max saw the opportunity for what it was. He leaned in slowly, gently placing his hand on her chin to adjust her face to the side. Oh Lord, she could feel her heart beating rapidly, she could feel the blood racing through her she could feel-
His lips were soft, slightly chapped and so gentle. He let her go, his own cheeks red.
“I’d still like to kiss you properly sometime, but only if it’s something you’d want.” He said the words softly. She knew he’d never speak or act like this in front of his friends, lest it damage his reputation. Something about that fact made her feel special.
“So,” She cleared her throat, ignoring Steph’s wide-eyed expression, ignoring Peter next to Steph looking like his blood sugar had dropped suddenly, ignoring everything else. “When do you wanna go on that date?”