When I was 15, my best friend, Emily, offered to bring me to her Catholic church
Just to see, she said. You might like it. I was profoundly in love with her. She was beautiful and funny, and we were inseparable. She had a chin dimple and soft skin, and she used to hook her arm in mine when we would walk down the street. I think she thought it was a joke. We only ever fought about two things: abortion and gay rights. I was in favor of both. She thought I was a heathen who was (in her unspoken opinion) definitely going to hell. We used to drive around in my Ford Explorer and go horseback riding and spend Friday nights watching made-for-TV movies. I would wipe sweaty tendrils of hair away from her...