Fly Me Away

Chapter 31

I woke up in what felt like a pile of billowy clouds. The comforting smell of lilies told me that I was safe and sound in my bedroom. My eyes opened easily enough, like I’d had a decent night’s sleep, but my throat was scratchy dry, a dead giveaway of the night before.

Jackson was there, as promised, facing away from me in front of my balcony; his favorite spot. What an enigma he was. The blinds were open slightly, and a dim strip of light seeped through and shone against the opposite wall.

I blinked hard but kept very still, trying to put things into perspective for a second. I was probably extremely hung-over, and the second I lifted my head from my pillow I would be in agony. Remembering something, I wiggled my fingers under the covers; my right hand felt stiff beneath the sturdy band-aid but there was no pain. I glanced down under the covers, wondering why I was so comfortable….. An over-sized Barbie t-shirt, mismatched with a pair of florescent green short shorts. Wait….that wasn’t what I was wearing last night….

My eyes shot to Jackson, but he was looking away. He wouldn’t have….

I shrugged it off, rubbing my eyes and letting it slide for a moment. He would explain himself in time, but right now I needed to thank him.

The inevitable, I groggily lifted my head. Significant throbbing, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I had a bad taste in my dry mouth, and was delighted to see a tall glass of water sitting on my bedside table. On closer inspection, two stray aspirin lay beside it, calling my name. Jackson was thinking ahead.

I leaned over and devoured the pain killers, following it up with a decent amount of water.

“Glad you’re awake,” Jackson spoke. His low velvety voice was a pain killer in itself.

I took a deep breath in and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, “you’re perfect, you know that?”

Jackson laughed quietly – sarcastically – but didn’t turn around.

“….is Mom downstairs?”

“She left not long ago. She's taking a class today.”

“Oh,” I stretched my arms above my head, “it’s Sunday isn’t it?”

He shrugged, “she was on call.”

“You know more about her than I do,” I joked lightly, flicking my hair until it settled behind me. I wanted him to turn around. Grrr.

Beginning to get very impatient, I guzzled down the rest of my water and slipped out of bed. The soft carpet felt good against my aching feet, but the rest of my body creaked like an unoiled machine as I made my way over to the balcony window. It was strange standing there as still as Jackson was, staring at the closed blinds pointlessly.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, eyes still fixed on the velvet curtains.

“You.”

Sure enough, when I automatically raced to check, I was met with his pearly green eyes, sparkling in that strip of sunlight. He didn’t look traumatized by last night like I was expecting…. he was smirking at me. It was too mischievous, and it didn’t take me long to realize what was making him do it. “OH!” My hands slapped over my mouth in shock, “you pervert!”

He raised an eyebrow and held his hands up, pleading his innocence, yet not exactly knowing what I was accusing him of.

Don’t play dumb.

I wrapped my arms around my torso and tried to change my expression of one of outrage, “You changed my clothes didn’t you?? YOU TOOK OFF MY CLOTHES!!”

He stood there for a good second, looking confused, before he started laughing. And not that annoying sarcastic laugh he did, but a real, genuine laugh.

I pouted, stepped back and slammed my hands on my hips, oozing attitude, “Why are you laughing!?”

He didn’t answer, just laughed.

“You think this is funny?!?”

“It was your Mother Maggie, not me,” he paused for another loud bout of laughter, “but…but I can see how the mistake was made. And I swear I turned around while she did it. Interesting choice though…”

My mouth dropped open and I spun on my heels, throwing myself face down on the crumpled sheets of my bed with a huff. I was grateful the aspirin had taken effect, or it wouldn’t have gone down that smoothly.

After his laughter had died down, which was unnaturally quickly, he gave me a minute to let my minor tantrum finish. I heard him open the curtains and felt the sunlight heating up the room.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I felt the weight shift on my bed. He was on the end, near my feet, most likely still looking out that darn balcony window. I shrugged into the covers; he hadn’t upset me, I was just being childish. I was big enough to admit that. “I’m not upset at all,” I mumbled into the bed, “I’m actually in a much better mood then I thought I would be.”

“That’s good. I was worried…. I think you expelled all that Nymph energy last night.”

Oh. I had almost forgotten about that. Wow, I really did have a lot to drink.

I got up begrudgingly and settled myself back up against the headboard of my bed. “Those darn Nymphs. They got me into that mess.”

“…how so?”

“I was so confident, among other things. Which brings me to ask, what exactly is it that Nymphs do, besides get you high?”

“Nothing. That’s all they can do, make you happy, or make you sad. Completely harmless, that’s why I let them near you.”

So….it wasn’t the nymph….that…made me….

I could have sworn those feelings for Jackson came out of thin air last night. It was like some kind of Magic, something that I had blamed on that nymph.

I felt myself blush. Time for a shower. I desperately needed to get dressed anyway.

“I’m gunna get cleaned up,” I mumbled, trudging off the bed and grabbing some clothes out of my draw.

As I bee-lined towards the door, Jackson stopped me. I raised an eyebrow at him, but all question disappeared when I saw his face. That face. I was putty in his hands whenever he looked at me, even the feel of his palm subtly on my forearm made me heat up.

“Did…you want to do something with me today Maggie? If you’re feeling up to it that is.”

My heart exploded through my chest and into his hands.

Did he really need to ask?

-------------------

My shower was brief, and I was elated when we finally walked out the door. Jackson had changed into more weather friendly clothes, and he suggested we walk Minotaur. I agreed, again, far too enthusiastically. I could use some serious fresh air and it would give me time to catch up on my unasked questions. The trail near my house was more stunning than ever with my well behaved Papillion and a handsome man by my side.

“Hey Jackson,” I tweeted merrily. The combination of pain killers, sunshine and my situation made me surprisingly happy.

“Hmm?” he responded casually with his hands hanging in his jean pockets.

“I wanted to ask you about that other angel.”

“Alright.”

“Are they all like that? He wasn’t what I was expecting.”

My feet scuffed along the flat ground as I remembered back. Neil was such a strange little man/angel. He barely said anything, and didn’t look special. In fact, I found him very unmemorable – so much so that I was having trouble recalling him at all.

Jackson scoffed and grinned at me, “and what were you expecting?”

“Well, I thought that, if I ever saw another angel, it would be a tall, thin woman with a perfect face and a pleasing manor. Some kind of equivalent to you I guess.”

Jackson raised an eyebrow down at me, glancing through a thick piece of gold hair. I shrugged and laughed, kicking up leaves on the ground as I walked. It made sense though, Jackson and his beautiful, stereotypical angel girl.

Minotaur trotted along in front of us like a tiny little harness horse. The long fur on his ears swayed as he snapped his head from left to right. He was so cute when he was behaving.

“….may confide in you?”

Jackson surprised me with that one. I nodded; I was always a good listener, if nothing else. “Of course you can.”

When I looked at him, I felt a little dimmer. The initial excitement that came with him ‘confiding’ in me was numbed by the look on his face; sadness and…something else. He was trying to look stern, but I knew him better. His mood swings never ceased to amaze me.

“I’m not like the other angels. The Nymphs were right; I can’t stand to be around them. I’ve always preferred to distance myself, try to do something productive with my prolonged life.”

Oh…kay….so what did that mean? They were all clustered in this little group while Jackson ran around trying to avoid them?

He continued, “Their heads….they’re so empty. All angels are connected Maggie, we can see each other’s thoughts from long distances, that’s how I found….Neil.” He grimaced as he said the second Angels name, “He could have told those Nymphs my every thought, but he couldn’t have cared less about it; he had no opinion on the situation. Most Angels prefer to simply stay out of the way, hidden in the shadows, just like him,” He paused, glaring up at the tree tops, then laughed, “I’m sorry, I’m just prattling now…”

“No no! I get it. Neil didn’t seem like the brightest egg in the carton. I would feel the same way, I think.”

He smiled, still gazing at the tree tops and miraculously not tripping over any stray roots protruding from the ground, like I was. “Good to get that off my chest,” he added. He looked lighter now, like he had indeed, dropped some kind of heavy burden.

I chuckled, liking the easy atmosphere. “Angels are so complex,” I joked, trying to sound more puzzled than I actually was.

“Need I remind you that your angel is immoderately dysfunctional?”

“Need I remind you, that I like you that way,” I chirped, twirling around in a circle, then resuming my slow walking “I like that.…I feel like I can talk to you. I’ll confide in you too.”

He nodded.

“I….are….you….really my angel? I like that too…. You being mine.” I bit my lip, I’d made it tense again. Idiot. I let out at loud laugh and added, “I feel so lucky!”

I peeped at him from the corner of my eye and was delighted to see a shy smile creep into his face. “You can call me yours. I’m nobody else’s.”

I sighed as quietly as I possibly could. It was one of those ‘oh Jackson, you make me swoon’ sighs. Embarrassing but unavoidable.

“I would do anything you asked,” he said softly, “surely you can see that by now.”

It made my heart beat faster; I could see it. He went out of his way all too often to do what I asked, no matter how out of line I was.

I opened my mouth to speak, unsure of exactly what it was I was going to say, but was interrupted by Minotaur. He started yapping loudly from up just ahead. He was on a tree stump overlooking the town, his ears perked up and his tail wagging happily.

Ah, the top of the trail. Such a bitter sweet place for me.

I found myself heading towards the largest tree stump absentmindedly – it was just what I did every time I was there. Minotaur leapt off and scrambled away somewhere, most likely back to Jackson. I placed myself on it and stared lazily across the town.

“Could you fly me away Jackson? Over those hills there maybe.” I pointed out into the clearing. Far in the distance was a wall of staggering mountains, easy to see due to the absence of clouds that day.

“…..is that what you want?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know. I don’t know what I want these days….”

My quiet laughing chimed along with the birdsongs as I struggled to keep the mood light. I wasn’t in my right mind to make big decisions. “I think I spewed on the ground over here somewhere,” I joked, peering over the other side of the tree stump.

I waited for him to laugh, or maybe say something smart back to me, but he was quiet. I sighed as I looked up at him, just standing there, his hands still in his pockets.

Jackson squinted his eyes as he overlooked the town, “what dark times.”

He was making this difficult for me.

“Just like the party last night,” I changed the subject, desperately not wanting to talk about the last time we were here. That horrifying/remarkable night.

I glanced down at the large white bandage on my hand, and noticed how trivial it looked now. Just a cut. “Dark time…. Do you know what happened to my hand?”

“You weren’t in a fight at all, I heard that much. It may have just been an accident,” he answered automatically. It was obvious he had been thinking about it for a while, “you cut your hand on a piece of broken glass.”

“Oh, that’s no fun…” I pouted.

Jackson finally broke his gaze on the town and looked at me, frowning, “Maggie….”

I laughed and brushed him off, twisting back towards the view. I saw Jackson finally move from his spot and saunter over from the corner of my eye. He sat down on the tree stump about a meter from mine, minotaur quickly scampered over and plonked himself down beside Jackson's feet.

“So,” I pondered, “how are things with the demons? “

He answered fast again, as if it was a pre-thought up response, “nothing I can’t cope with. Not having to hide myself from you all the time makes it easier.”

“But I never see you warding off any demons. Ever. You know, sometimes I forget that that’s what you’re doing all the time.”

He smiled a brilliant smile that reached his eyes and showcased his perfect set of teeth. Even from profile view, it was glorious. “Good. That’s exactly how I want it.”

What a lovely smile. I wonder…

“…hey Jackson.”

“Yes?”

“Have….have you been married before?”

I regretted it the moment I asked. Jackson sat upright, his smile vanishing before my eyes. He frowned, staring out at the town again, but not seeing anything. He was thinking.

“Married….” He mulled, “to another Angel?”

I nodded.

“Angels do not marry Maggie. They don’t have emotions, so there would be no reason.”

He had emotions.

“A human then. You said you’ve been living a human life, have you married a human before? I just thought….since that sometimes happens in life….”

His face smoothed out as the majority of what I said clicked in his head. “No. Never.”

Oh don’t be dense Maggie! He couldn’t Marry a human because he didn’t age! How the heck would that work?

Well what about just a partner then? A fling or something? Somebody he wouldn’t have to stick with forever?

My questions started answering themselves in my head before I could get them out. How could he be so close to somebody, when he couldn’t tell them what he was? She would want to meet his parents at some point, it wouldn’t be easy lying so constantly; a relationship that was completely built on lies.

But….he would need somebody right? Somebody to take the edge off the loneliness.

“You’ve never been in love…?”

I dared to look at him while I said it. The seconds ticked by as I watched him think; He was looking for the right answer, something that would test me. He knew where I was going. He knew the real reason why I was asking. I wasn’t just wondering, I needed to know.

“Have you ever been in love Maggie?” he asked softly, his eyes meeting mine with the gentlest of looks.

He looked like an angel then. Somebody who was not effected by childish emotions at all; somebody who was so much wiser than I was. In contrast to his angelic composure, my blood was pumping and my mind swirled into a big blob of words. I felt small under his stare, despite the harmlessness of it.

“Not before you, no.”
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