Meg and I haven’t had a chance to talk since I told her about the reporter when I stopped in briefly on my break.

“I think so. I’m still being cautious, and I didn’t guarantee them anything. I need to talk with my family first.”

“What do you think they’ll say?”

I release my breath slowly. “Good question. My mom and Brian might not like it. They want it all to disappear. Or at least they did. But since I talked to my mom a few weeks ago, she’s seemed softer? Lately? She might understand better where I’m coming from now. So maybe she’ll realize this is something I need to do for myself.”

“It’s incredibly brave.”

“You think?” I grunt. “Maybe I don’t want to do it, then.”

She smacks my arm. “I just mean that you’re facing down the masses. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable to strangers to get the truth out there. That takes courage.”

“Yeah. Definitely don’t want to do that,” I joke.

“Want me to do it with you?”

I stare at her. “You’d do that?”

“I’m with you, Micah. Whatever comes.”

“What if this goes to hell again and people start judging me on the internet?”

“They probably will. It’s inevitable. Anytime someone is vulnerable, they open themselves up to strangers purposely misunderstanding them for their own devices.”

“That’s very…”

“Cynical?”

“I was going to say accurate.”

She points at me. “Now that is cynical. But yeah. Last year, Luke wrote this love song about Vada. Like totally anonymously in the privacy of his bedroom. But his brother overheard it and thought it was good. And it was! Like super amazing and swoony. So anyway, Cullen thinks he’s doing Luke a solid and releases the song on their podcast. But it goes viral. Like overnight. Like gangbusters, and all of a sudden, there are a gazillion strangers on the internet commenting and criticizing Luke’s song.”

“That sounds awful.”

“Sort of. I mean, it definitely was at the time. But also, it ended up bringing Luke and Vada together. Eventually. And Luke’s songs ended up saving the bar where they work, which helped Vada get this incredible internship at Rolling Stone.”

“Really?”

Meg waves me off. “Yeah. So, while it’s true that it was terrible, a lot of amazing things came out of it. Which I think could be the case here. Like, sure, there is a good chance that you are opening yourself up to speculation. But what if there are others like you? Scratch that.” She shakes her head. “There are absolutely others like you. Think of all the garbage the church is going through these days! How many pastors’ kids are struggling with trying to find their place? Stuck between their obligations to their families and the expectations of their parents’ congregations? And that’s not even the kids dealing with corruption.”