Guardian (19 page)

We pulled up to the school and Rafael was immediately out of the car and opening my door for me. I ignored his offered hand and hopped down to the ground myself. I was about to head for the school when Rafael caught my arm and swung me back around, pressing a piece of paper into my hand. I looked down to see a note asking the school to please, excuse my lateness due to a dentist appointment. It was a perfect forgery of my mother’s handwriting, right down to the way her hand always seemed to get tired midway through scrawling ‘Elizabeth’ and the letters were all bunched together at the end.

I looked up to scowl at Rafael. “How did you… you know what? Never mind. I don’t even want to know. Bye.”

Rafael only zoomed around to stand in front of me, catching me with his arms so I didn’t run into him. “I’ll be here after school to pick all of you up.”

“Whatever you say,” I sniffed. I was peeved that my daring adventure had been cut short. So much for experiencing the wild side of life. I had forgotten how irritatingly responsible Rafael could be at the most inconvenient of times.

I headed for the school building and had just passed through the doors when I felt my phone buzz. I checked the hallway for any adults before pulling it out to check my text. It was from Rafael.

I hope you have a great day :]

Smiling a little bit to myself, I headed to the office with my note.

As promised, Rafael was there waiting for us directly after school. Colton and Grace, overjoyed to see Rafael was back, hopped immediately up to the car window, practically screaming in excitement and asking him all sorts of questions about where he had been.

I realized with a start that this was the first time they had seen him since he had come back. I had been so distracted by everything he had told me that I had forgotten to tell them he had returned from his trip. I walked up to the car, grinning at him.

“Did you miss us?” I asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the chaos.

Rafael held my gaze steadily. “Yes,” he said simply. “I did.”

All I could do was beam at him until Grace’s tugging on my jumper made me look down.

“Door, please,” she said politely.

Within minutes we were all loaded into the car and driving off. I was so distracted by the normalcy of it, where I was back to the good life and Rafael was with me, that I didn’t immediately realize we weren’t headed for home.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we passed my neighborhood and turned onto Broad Street.

“Shopping,” Rafael said by way of explanation.

“Shopping?” I asked, bewildered. “For what?”

“For you.” He rolled his eyes. “And Colton and Grace. Who else?”

“But, I don’t need new clothes,” I said in honest surprise. It was true. Going to a private school was almost a blessing. I had my uniform to wear to school, and usually I was dealing with all my class meetings and events right after school, in my uniform. Some sweatpants and a hoodie for my evenings at home with my textbooks, and my trusty jeans and a couple t-shirts for my weekends. My wardrobe was compiled mainly of Natalie’s castoffs, but they were sufficient. I didn’t even care about clothes. They were material. Expendable.

But when I tried to explain all this to Rafael, he only looked at me, bright green eyes blazing. “Lyla?” he cut in, his voice making me stop mid-sentence.

I looked over at him, a little nervous at his tone. It was
that
tone, the one he had used the day he bought the cell phones for all of us.

“Don’t argue with me,” Rafael said flatly.

I decided to let this argument go. Thinking of the day when Rafael bought my phone sent me diving for my backpack. Rafael had deleted his number before he left, and I only just realized it had popped up again when I had received his text. While it was still in my phone, I would memorize it. I would remember it forever. He wasn’t going to leave me stranded again. I ignored a text from Natalie and went straight to my contacts, stopping short when I saw Rafael’s name as the very first one.

“I put it in yesterday at the park.”

I looked over at him, completely serious myself, for once. “Don’t ever erase it again.”

Rafael found my hand and squeezed it quickly before letting go. I was always shocked when he touched me. I could count the number of times he had done so on one hand. Grinning to myself, I turned back to my phone. The number of text messages from Natalie had multiplied.

Where are you?
the first one read, followed by,
Um, French Club starts today? Elections!
There was even one from Austin,
Yo, where’s my running mate?

“Oh,
crap
,” I groaned, slapping a hand to my forehead.

“What? What’s wrong?” Rafael asked, alarmed.

“I was supposed to go to French Club today,” I muttered.

“We could turn around and drop you off,” Rafael offered.

“I forgot to find someone to watch Colton and Grace,” I explained. I felt guilty. Not only had I let both Natalie and Austin down, I was surprised to find that I didn’t even want to go back to school. I didn’t
want
run for vice president of French Club. I wanted to spend time with Rafael. For the first time, I wanted to just throw school to the wind and have that devil-may-care attitude that I so secretly admired in Rafael.

College applications, I reminded myself. Resumes. Colton and Grace. I had more responsibilities than just Rafael. I had people
depending
on me. If I was all alone and independent, and an angel, I could forget things like French Club and student council. But with Rafael around, it was hard to focus on my droll future. My best friend, my crush, was an angel. A fallen angel. Didn’t that change
my
future just a little bit?

“What do I look like to you?” Rafael asked, grinning as he pulled an illegal U-turn and we all grabbed our door handles. “I’ll watch them. Natalie will skin you alive if you were to miss today. Aren’t they holding elections? Austin will never forgive you if his vice president doesn’t show up.”

I shook my head, wondering if I should even feel any surprise at the fact that he knew. As I had just reminded myself, he
was
an angel. So instead, I settled back in my seat with a prim, “To school, Jeeves,” and mentally rehearsed my speech.

“All right student rulers of French Club!” Austin raised both his hands, and Natalie and I high-fived him as we left the classroom.

“Rulers?” I asked, shaking my head. “I believe this is a democracy. We ran in an election!”
“We are going to make French Club insane this year,” Natalie promised as we pushed through the school doors. “No more boring meetings where we sit around. Bowling! Potlucks! I’m so ready for it.”

The three of us squinted in the bright sunlight, and both Natalie and Austin pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slid them on. Maybe, I thought to myself, I would ask Rafael to buy me a pair when we were at the mall. They were actually quite practical, weren’t they? When I was driving, they would especially come in handy. The sun could cause an accident if it blinded me.

“So, want to come over and brainstorm some ideas for the next meeting?” Natalie asked, but my eyes had already zeroed in on the Hummer waiting for me across the pavement of the front entrance.

“Helloo! Earth to Lyla!” It took an elbow to my side before I realized both Natalie and Austin were staring at me.

“Sorry, guys,” I said quickly. I was seriously losing it. “I’m just so out of it, I can’t believe I forgot elections were today. What were you saying, Natalie?”

“Brainstorm. French Club. My place. Right now,” Natalie abbreviated.

“Oh,” I said, biting my lip and halting. Headed for the direction of the student parking lot, Natalie and Austin stopped too and turned around. “I sort of already have plans for tonight.”

“Plans?” Natalie asked with a small giggle. “With who? You haven’t done anything for ages and then all of the sudden, on today of all days, you have
plans
?”

For a second we only looked at each other, and then I glanced away, a little stung by Natalie’s words. She followed my gaze and caught sight of the Hummer.

“Oh,” she said, a world of hurt, understanding, and angry bitterness in her voice. “
He’s
back.”

I knew she was trying to bait me, get me to argue with her so she could voice her frustrations, but I knew better. “Yes, he is,” I said calmly. “And he invited me to go to the mall with him today. Since he watched Colton and Grace for me, I think it’s the least I can do.”

Both Austin and Natalie gaped at me.

“You trusted him alone with Colton and Grace?” Austin asked, dumbfounded.

“Well, yeah,” I said, feeling a little uncomfortable. Why did they look so shocked? “Why? It was a last minute thing. There was no one else, and if he didn’t I wouldn’t have been able to come to French Club.”

“You actually trust him with them?” Natalie asked. “Lyla, you’ve known this guy for two months, tops. You wouldn’t bring Colton and Grace to my house for my mom to watch them for
years
. And you left them in a car with this, this crazy church stalker guy!”

There was no way I could explain it to them. How could I tell my two best friends that an angel was babysitting my siblings, so I knew I had absolutely no reason to be afraid? I couldn’t. They wouldn’t believe me, for starters, and it wasn’t my secret to tell.

“Look, I have to go,” I said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” I walked quickly away from them to the Hummer, fighting the urge to cry. I wasn’t sad, really. I was more annoyed with myself than anything. Of course Nat and Austin wouldn’t understand what was happening. I would be just as concerned if one of them was being as reckless as I appeared to be acting. But the problem was, I really couldn’t tell them what was going on.

“Hi,” I muttered to Rafael as I got in and fastened my seatbelt. In the back seat, Colton and Grace were giggling as they watched a movie on the built in headrest monitors. I stared straight ahead, waiting for the car to start moving. It wasn’t until Rafael’s large, warm hand covered mine that I looked over at him and realized we had yet to get going

“They are just worried about you,” he said gently.

“You heard all that?” I asked, bewildered. The windows of the car were open, but we had still been all the way across the front lawn of the school.

Rafael touched the side of his head with his other hand, grinning a little bit. “I can hear a lot of things. Congratulations on winning the elections.”

I shook my head. “Next thing I know you’ll be telling me you can read my thoughts,” I teased.

Rafael laughed as he started the car and I felt a rush of affection flow through me as I looked at him. For a minute, I was relieved he had no idea what I was thinking. I loved him, I was pretty sure; no, I
knew
that I did. But Rafael had no idea of my feelings for him, and for now, it seemed best to keep it that way. But maybe, I thought, looking down to where his hand still covered mine reassuringly, I would be able to tell him, and he would feel the same.

Someday.

“I don’t know about this,” I said, holding tightly to Grace’s hand as the burst of air from the mall doors hit us.

We pushed onward into the building and I looked around in wonder. Easton Town Center and Mall wasn’t
just
a mall. It was sensory overload as all the noises and smells and colors hit me. Sizzling Chinese food on a grill, sickly sweet sugar coated pretzels, and neon-lit store names all converged on me. Admittedly, it was only a Monday, so it wasn’t as crowded as it could have been, but I still felt claustrophobic. The fall shopping frenzy was just beginning.

“Don’t try and toss my generosity back in my face,” Rafael said as we paused. He held Colton’s hand, and leveled his gaze at me. “It’s the least I can do for leaving you without a word. Consider it my apology, Lyla.”

And when he put it like that, how could I refuse? We started at Abercrombie, and didn’t rest until we hit what felt like every store in the entire shopping center. It became clear that Rafael was in the mood to spend an exorbitant amount of money. Anything one of us looked at wistfully or picked up just to examine, he grabbed and added to the pile to try on. We didn’t spend hundreds of dollars that day; it was more like thousands. Every total that rang up was somewhere in the triple digits, and while I cringed and protested at his elbow, Rafael only whipped out his American Express without hesitation.

Designer jeans, tank tops, hoodies, jackets, sweaters, cardigans, leggings, skirts, dress pants, khaki pants, capris, flip flops, Pumas, Nike’s, Converse, flats, badly needed new winter coats, new school uniforms to replace my worn ones and Colton and Grace’s faded hand-me-downs. It was more clothes than I could wear in two lifetimes, I was sure. Rafael wouldn’t deny us anything. He didn’t stop at clothes, either. There were hair accessories, jewelry, nail polish, purses, and makeup for me, and brand new Gameboys with games and numerous other toys for my siblings. We had to make three extra trips out to the car to unload the bags we couldn’t carry between the four us, only to go back in and shop for another load.

It was ridiculous and material, totally unneeded, but seeing how happy and amazed Colton and Grace were eventually made me start biting my tongue. They deserved this. They needed to know people like Rafael existed, people who were generous to a fault and nice and good. And I couldn’t lie to myself – I was also having the time of my life.

“How do you have all of this money?” I finally asked, later that evening. We were sitting at a table in McDonalds, watching Colton and Grace play. “Where did it come from? I mean, I know all of you have been on earth for thousands of years but-”

“Not all of us,” Rafael interrupted.

“What?”

“Matthias and I are the oldest of our flock,” Rafael explained. “We saw our error very soon after the war. We, along with five others, were the first to leave. We were the first to be condemned to life on earth.” He shrugged. “We were the first. We
are
the
First
.”

“So, a whole huge group of you didn’t just all leave at once?” I asked, surprised. I hadn’t really thought about the technicalities of it all.