Heaven Is A Place For Angels

She woke up suddenly. Unfortunately she had had nightmares all night, and most of them were about the event last night. The memories didn't want to fade away. She put her hand on the forehead and closed her eyes tightly; maybe she could squeeze out all of the pictures in her head. It didn't work. She opened them again and told herself to get out of the bed.

"Shopping, shopping, shopping." she mumbled, as she tried to think about something else. She forced herself to stand up, to get out of the bed immediately. As she searched for a clean sweater, and successfully found one, she took a peek on herself in the mirror. Now she could see the bruise on the cheek, and it didn't exactly make her feel any better. She dragged the sweater over her head and made a ponytail with her hair. She heard a knock on her door and rolled her eyes. It was probably Andrew, she imagined.

"Whatever." she yelled and sat down on the bed again.

The door slowly opened as Theo's sister stepped into the room, and you could see that she hadn't got much sleep that night, and her eyes showed signs of crying. When she saw Angela's face she couldn't do anything but sob, and put her face in her hands. Angela reacted and went to the woman, and led her to the bed, making her sit down beside her.

"I... should not have... taken you with me." she started. "This... is my... entire fau... " her voice faded away. Angela tried to comfort her. She knew that it wasn't easy for her to hear about what had happened. After all, she was the one that dragged Angela with her to that club. But Angela didn't want her to have a guilty conscience, she already felt bad enough.

"Now there, don't be like that." Angela said in her most consoled voice. "I'm still alive, right? Why can't we just leave all this behind us?"
The woman looked at Angela.

"I probably can, but it is you that I am concerned about. You will not be able to leave it behind you, will you?" she said, like she had read Angela's mind, because she was all right; Angela wouldn't probably forget it in a while. She just shook her head and smiled.

"I know, but I'll deal with it. After all, I've got all of you that are supporting me, huh?" she said and smiled nervously, she might as well put up a face now as it were. The woman glanced at Angela, and tried to find some kind of sign that she didn't really mean that, and that she really would try to make it on her own and fail. Unfortunately Angela had been playing theatre for a number of years, so she really couldn't find anything strange in her face. She smiled at Angela and swallowed.

"Let us see what we can do about that bruise." she said easily. Angela couldn't be happier to hear that. The woman helped Angela to cover up the bruise fairly good, you couldn't almost see it, or only if you were standing really close. Angela looked at herself one last time in the mirror before the two of them walked out in the corridor.

"Thanks once again." she said to the young woman.

"You are welcome, Ángel." she replied and gave her a warm hug, just the thing Angela needed. They walked down the corridor, and into the kitchen, where Stephen was sitting, reading a newspaper, but not a Spanish one. He looked up, and saw his daughter.

"Good morning, angel," he said, "come here."
Angela walked over to him, and he started scanning her face.

"It's looking good, almost invisible, and that's good."

"Tell me about it." she said and rolled her eyes. "Let me get something to eat now, will you?"

"Coming up." he said and rushed over to the teapot, and grabbed a cup to pore some tea into it. Angela smiled and rested her chin on her right hand. It seemed to be a beautiful morning, just like all the other ones, and it kind of helped Angela to feel a little bit better. She realized soon that her tea was ready and stood in front her, and she gladly took a sip of it. She also came to notice that her father was making her toasts, something he wouldn't usually do. At home he was always like "do it yourselves", but she figured out that it probably had to do with something about the event. She didn't bother, but took another sip, and tried to enjoy the pleasant temperature in the house. The clock was almost twelve, and she couldn't help to feel like she hadn't managed to do something special. Her mind suddenly went to one of the last things Billie Joe had said that night.

"Let's go shopping." she mumbled to herself. "Yeah, let's", she continued and then went silent. When she tried to drink her tea again she saw that she hadn't got anything left. These cups were too small for her, she thought. Whatever, it was nothing she could do about it. Her breakfast was finished, and she felt full. Her father hadn't stopped reading his newspaper, and Theo's sister seemed to be reading a newspaper she as well, but she had actually a Spanish one. Angela once again rested her chin on her hand, but the left one this time. Her eyes looked out of the window, toward the blazing sun. She kind of needed some therapy again, and poked the young woman on her shoulder.

"Yes?" she said and looked up quickly from the newspaper, and then down again.

"Can I use your stereo?" Angela asked with an innocent look upon her face, and she twisted a lock of hair around her fingers.

"You know where to find it." she replied and continued her reading. Angela clapped her hands and rushed to her room, to find what she intended to use. Deep down in her shoulder bag she found it; the CD with the white cover and a girl, with a flower on her t-shirt and a gun in her hand. With the green letters she read the name of the CD; Kerplunk. A smile spread across her face. Now all she needed to do was to turn on the stereo and start playing the best feel-good-songs. Her steps moved toward the living room, and there were no problems with finding the stereo equipment. She put in the CD and turned it up to 11 (which were kind of loud). When the music started playing, she just leaned back on the couch and moved her head in sync with the chords that came out of the loudspeakers. When a voice started singing she sang along.

"Juliet's (any surprise that Angela sang her own name?)trying to find out what she wants, but she don't know,
Experience has got her down.
Look this direction, I know it's not perfection, it's just me...
I want to bring you up again now"

The song kept going, and Angela was silent. She tried to analyze the text, but it wasn't a success. She didn't know what she wanted, and because of that experience from last night, the whole world was fucked up. And she didn't know who wanted to bring her up again. Probably everyone, but that wasn't good enough. Nothing was good enough for her anymore. All of them could just fuck off and die, they didn't understand. She grabbed her head and shook it slightly. She was going paranoid. How could she think something like that? She figured out that that song didn't really help her that much after all. She needed something else. She needed to hear about true love, and she knew exactly what song she was looking for. The room was once again filled with sweet music, and Angela hummed along with the tune. She closed he eyes and relaxed. She knew that if somebody came into the room and tried to scare her, she would probably have a heart-attack, but she took the risk. The volume was too loud for Angela to hear the footsteps coming into the room, and because of her shut eyes she couldn't see the person that watched her.

"I know this song." someone said over the tune. Angela opened her eyes and stared at the dark-haired man with green eyes, who stared back at her. Why wouldn't he know it, he was after all the person that had wrote it. Just as a woman with dreads walked into the room, the man sang along with the text.

"80 please keep taking me away"

The woman giggled, and twisted a dread around her finger.
"Oh, William, you sissy. You're flattering me." she laughed and punched him on the shoulder, but not to hard to hurt him badly. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her to him, wrapping her into a hug. Angela rolled her eyes, usually she would watch them like she was watching her favourite TV-program on the television, but she couldn't now. She realized that she was forgotten again. She stood up, tried to avoid the couple and went to the stereo. She stopped the music and put the disk in its cover again. She glanced furtively over her shoulder to take a peek on them, and they were still busy with whispering loving words to each other. When her eyes went back to the CD the man looked at her, making a nervous expression. She shook her head and sighed, as she started to walk toward her room.

"Angela, wait." she heard someone shout behind her, but she ignored it. Seconds later that someone grabbed her shoulder and forced her to turn around. She was now face to face with Billie Joe, but she looked down on the floor, refusing to have eye contact.

"What is it?" he asked her, and waited for a quick answer. She met his eyes for like a second, but then looked away again, and not giving him one. The look she had given him was a mix of nervousness, anxiety, fear, awkwardness but not least; not knowing what to do. He snapped up a few of those feelings and stared at her. She took away his hand from her shoulder and turned around; she didn't want to deal with it. Once again he forced her to look at him by grabbing her wrist, not in the way he had grabbed his wife's, but in a more determinate way.

"Get away from me." she mumbled, and tried to get out of his grip. He remained steady.

"No." he said easily, and with a soft voice. Angela started to feel irritated.

"Get... the... fuck... away... from... me." she said in a threatening voice, trying even harder to get out of his firm grip.

"Didn't you hear me? I said 'no'. You can't deal with this on your own. You need someone to help you." he said convincing, and the woman behind him couldn't agree with him more.

"I'll be fine, god damn it, just... let me be." she said as she felt tears starting to fall down on her sweater. All that time she had been struggling with getting her wrist free from his hand, but the man was strong for his size. She drew deep breaths, and tried not to yell at him. Finally her wrist was free, and she started to walk really fast toward her room, just wanting to get away from everything. Someone, probably Billie, came after her, grabbing her around her stomach, and pulling her back. Now, she got really annoyed, did he want to make her feel upset? She just couldn't see what he wanted to do; draw everything out.

"Go back to fucking California! Leave me alone. I hate you, hate you, hate you!" she screamed as he forced her backwards. He turned her around and faced her exhausted and tear-filled face. She started crying into his shoulder, as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm just so tired of crying, so tired of it. There's too much, and I can't control it. Just let everything end, will you? Let everything end, and go back to normal. Too much, too much." she cried out. He drew her down on the floor, so they sat down, and she was still crying on his shoulder. Adrienne, who had watched it all, came down and sat beside her husband and the girl. She stroked the crying girl's hair, and gave her husband a supporting look, and he gladly accepted it. They sat there for about twenty minutes, not saying a word, and letting Angela cry her heart out. Finally she drew some deep breaths and dared to look the man in the eyes.

"I hoped you'd come back to earth soon." he said and smiled. "How're you feeling?"

"Better than I ever thought I could feel?" she said with insecurity.

"I knew it. You just needed a shoulder to cry out on, and we'll deal with the rest later." he said and nodded his head proudly. Adrienne shook hers and sighed, still stroking Angela's hair.

"What will happen next?" Angela asked. A smiled spread across the small mans face.

"Let's go shopping."