The conversation is still hot in my brain, my mind still circling around it, though I try my hardest to push it away. I huff out a sigh and a misty cloud of my breath floats into the air. I stop walking to stare at the fluffy snow on the cold ground. Andy and I were blushing and playing in the snow only a few hours ago. I see us lying on the ground and me smashing a snowball in his face. I see him pulling a branch, which makes all the snow fall on my head, but I'm not angry. It just makes me happier. And then I see us having our kiss.

My first kiss. I can't help but wonder if it was his first too. What if it was just one of many wonderful kisses he'd had before? Was it as special to Andy as it was to me? And then I remember what Meg told me.

You do know demons are incapable of feeling romantic emotions, right?

Maybe he has kissed other girls before. If he didn't really feel a romantic connection with anyone he must just think of them as pawns. He must think of me as just another one of those pawns. Was what I thought he felt for me fake? I shake my head, hot tears streaming down my face.

I have been crying way too much lately.

I should have known none of it was real. No one could ever love me. I want to grasp onto the idea that Meg wasn't telling the truth and Andy felt something for me and hold it close to my heart. But it couldn't be true.

"Are you okay?"

I turn around to see Gerard wearing a black winter jacket that makes his bright red hair stand out.

"I'm fine," I lie quietly, wiping the wetness away from my cheeks hastily. "Stop pretending you care, Gerard. I'm not afraid to fight you."

Today is full of lies.

"Is that so? Ease down, tiger, I'm not here to fight you," he says, walking to my side. I flinch slightly. "That Andy's an asshole, isn't he?" he laughs. "I would say 'I told you so' but I'm not sure it'd help too much. Walk with me, would ya?"

We walk in silence, but I keep my guard up. He casually puts his hands in his pockets. I swear if there's some kind of weapon in there...

He doesn't make any move though.

"Why are you walking with me anyways? Don't you have a girl to seduce or something?"

He laughs again. "I have much better things to do."

I shove my hands into my pockets as well and tug Andy's too-big jacket around my small frame. Why does he have to be so tall? "Like what, continue to stalk me and turn me into a fallen angel?" I scoff. His face becomes serious yet playful at the same time. He's teasing me. "But you've always wanted wings ... haven't you ... Blue --"

I turn on my heel swiftly and slap him across the face. "Don't ever call me that."

Before I have time to feel any satisfaction, metal is pushed roughly against my head. My eyes widen and everything freezes.

It's a gun.

"You make one move and I blow your brains out," a cold female voice warns quietly. "and don't think I'm bluffing." Gerard sets his jaw, an angry red handprint visible from where I struck him. "Don't hurt her, Ivy," he reprimands.

Ivy. The girl who pushed me, hit me with a volleyball, the girl Andy told me about. The girl with a gun pressed to my skull. "And don't make a noise without my approval either." I remain silent. "Both hands on the back of your neck. Now."

As I comply she circles around me predatorily, a shark and her helpless prey. "You will come with me," Ivy says, pointing a long finger dangerously close to my face. She says "you" as if it's an offensive curse word. Gerard stands by, observing. Of course he had a few tricks up his sleeve. I hadn't considered the idea that he'd have an ally with him.

Where is Andy when I need him? No, I can handle this on my own.

Ivy orders me to walk to the school building and I slowly put one foot in front of the other, again and again. I have to think of a way out of this. I dont want to end up dead or a fallen angel. I don't know what they're trying to get me to do, but I can only assume it's obviously not good.

  She leads me into the elevator and jams the button for the roof. The roof? Gerard files along beside me. No student seems to notice the gun pressed to my head and me being taken against my will. Am I really that invisible?

The doors close and we're all alone together once again. Watching the light up numbers ascend, I shuffle my feet from side to side awkwardly. Gerard brushes his fingers against mine and I'm not sure whether it was for comfort or to freak me out even more. Either way I wanted to slap him again. Maybe it was just accidental.

But I highly doubt the latter.

The doors reopen. I'd actually never been here before. Even though I've been at this school so long I was always worried about making it to my next class and following rules so this are was unknown to me. It's also off-limits. The only kids who come up here are the delinquents who use the space for smoking and drinking.

They, of course, were there and staring at me. I'm not sure if they could even see the other two.

"Just know now," Ivy says calmly. "if you try to escape after I lift away the gun you won't get far and I can always catch you."

I nod slowly so she won't think I'm trying to move away.  She steps toward me with the same predator stance as earlier. "Today's the day you finally fly, darling angel."

Ivy starts toward the edge and I only assume I should follow. Abruptly, she stops. In between her shoulder blades long wings begin to sprout. Long black wings lined through with gold. They grow to full length and beat once with a feathery fwump, sounding the same as how a duvet whips into the air while you're making your bed.

"Ivy, I'm not sure this is a great idea," her partner urges.

"Shut it," she growls, showing her teeth like a dog defending its territory.

I should've stayed home. I shouldn't have gotten so angry with Meg. If I hadn't then I wouldn't have gotten so irrational and I would be safe right now.

"It's easy," Ivy says. "Just jump and trust yourself that you'll fly. No room for self-doubt or else you'll fall to your death."

She made it sound like we were going to play a friendly game of ping pong or something. Except I'd somehow die at the end. "Get on the edge," she says, smiling and nudging, though it's far from friendly.

Have I mentioned that I have a fear of heights? My legs feel like jelly as I climb onto the ledge. The wind whips my hair around and I can hardly see straight. Everything starts to feel queasy and I can barely make out the fallen angel's words but I can tell they're somewhere along the lines of chanting "JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!"

I can do it.
No, you can't.
How come? I do have powers don't I?
Who said you had wings?

I take a deep breath. I look over to the delinquent kids to see their reaction to all this but I still don't think they can see Ivy or Gerard, though one of them has wings sprouted from her back. They just goggle at me and raise a bottle in my direction and bend down their heads as if praying, but I know they're not religious or anything.

They think I'm committing suicide.

I guess that's what it must look like to the human eye.

"Oh enough already!"

That's when I'm shoved off the roof.

***

My eyes are closed but I can still hear screaming.

My screaming. All the wind rushes at me and my lungs fill with air. Then it all stops.

I reluctantly open both my eyes and look to see Gerard's face. He caught me. Oh.

He reaches the ground and I'm still holding onto him so tight I'm probably leaving fingernail marks. With a cloud of lavender dust, Alara appears. Andy follows. He narrows his eyes when he sees him holding me and me clutching on so tightly. "You can put me down," I say quietly. He does as I say and I rush to hug Andy. Andy doesn't hold on to me for long because he storms up to Gerard. "Don't you touch her again, you hear me?" he says angrily, poking a finger into his sternum.

"Wait! Wait."

I push myself in between them. "I can explain what happened."

Gerard stands tall and straight and I notice his wings for the first time. They're absolutely beautiful. The wings are the color of an oil slick: black threaded through with a rainbow of dizzying colors.

"Let's settle that later. For now I have to make sure you're okay."

Alara sighs and sweeps us away in a flash of purple.

A/N waddup waddup fam. Hope you guys liked this chapter. Forgive me for slow updates. I've been really sad and depressed these past couple of weeks
:(( but anyways please leave a comment or two i really enjoy reading comments ^-^ that's it for now!
Chapter published: June 9, 2017