Before long, I was on Jaylan’s page, scrolling through various video titles, amazed at the topics from timely politics (“Bathroom Laws”) to racy (“Orgasms 101”) to hilarious (“The Five Worst Blind Dates Possible”). Didn’t realize an hour had passed until a light snore caught my attention. Shianne had dozed off, her tablet slipping to the mattress. I, on the other hand, was surprisingly amped after falling down a YouTube hole. Jaylan Knows had given me an idea. One that might impress Kiera.

Gathering my things, I shook Shi’s socked foot, rousing her.

“Huh?” She plucked her earbuds out.

“I’m gone. We can have another study session later this week.”

Groggy-grunting, she mumbled, “Okay. Sorry about things getting tense earlier.”

“Tense? What you talking about?” I tried to not hold grudges. Not with Shi.

“If you’re into Kiera, be real with her. It shouldn’t be so hard. Stop that faking church BS. Nothing’s worth all that.”

I didn’t see how she was qualified to give relationship advice. All things considered. “Go back to sleep, Shi. I’ll see you later.”

I told the Griffiths family goodnight on my way out. From my car, I sent a text.

Me: Hey, I got an idea. Wanna show you tomorrow. Can we meet like 20 minutes before service in the Pledge room?

Jameer: I’ll be there.

Kiera: See you in the morning.

The next morning I drove myself to church, beating the earliest early birds. Jameer and Kiera arrived together and found me in the Purity Pledge classroom, where I already had my laptop on and ready. Jameer sat next to me, Kiera sat on his other side (even though there was an empty seat next to me, and closer to the computer, though I tried not to think about that too much). I cued up some of the shorter—milder—Jaylan Knows videos. One video was on sexually transmitted diseases and was way better than anything MJ showed us in Healthy Living.

Another video was called “First Date Tips,” and was exactly that. Fun, humorous, with Jaylan and her friends role-playing dos (DO ask for that end-of-the-evening kiss, and be okay with it if the answer is no) and don’ts (DON’T expect anything more than pleasant company and conversation).

Jameer stopped the video midway, began scrolling through Jaylan’s other offerings as I did. A full catalog of titles from “Mini-Rant: Stare in Her Eyes, Not at Her Boobs or Your Phone” to recorded multi-guest panels called “State of Your Virginity: Keep or Lose.”

“These are great,” he said, his voice airy with awe. “We gotta show the group.”

“No,” Kiera said. “Y’all know I’m not too comfortable with this Q and A situation you got going on. We definitely shouldn’t be watching these videos here.”

“I understand why you feel that way,” I said, ready for this. “But I think this is where we get our purity presentation.”

“How?”

Jameer seemed genuinely perplexed, too. “Yeah, Del, you lost me.”

“We go to this Jaylan lady’s event, see what it is she’s talking about. Then we flip it. Do an opposite event. It’s kind of like a skit, mixed with a panel. We know what we’re going to talk about—purity—but we present it like we’re experts schooling the congregation.”