You Fill My Sails With Your Wasted Breath

I walked into my living room after Nathanael and smiled when I saw Katie and Joshua. Only to have my smile fly away when I saw Zach sitting on my couch.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Zach, my arms crossed over my chest. I knew there was no way in hell Zach could make it through the story without showing up sooner or later. His attention wasn't on me though. It was on Nathanael.

"I'm sure he knows why." I looked at Nathanael, who glanced at me. He moved towards Zach and turned to us before bowing.

"It was an honor to be with you." I looked at Zach frantically.

"You can't take him away!" Zach sighed a little.

"I have to, Ariella."

"Don't say my name." I ordered. "Nathanael has nothing but obedient to his job. He's helped me more than you can even think. Let him stay." Zach sighed a little and looked at Nathanael.

"Brother," he said with a sigh.

"I was doing my job, Zachariel. I did my duty." Zach nodded and stared at the boy.

"He wants to see you."

"He hasn't been home in ages, Zachariel. I don't believe you." Zach shook his head slowly and started forward, as if he had something to say. Instead, he took Nathanael by the shoulder and before I could even move to stop him, they were gone.

"Damn it," I muttered almost ready to hit the wall.

"Ariella," my mother said from the kitchen. "Did you get anything from the mall?" I looked at the doorway and sighed. This was great. Angels and demons fighting over my soul, angels fighting with each other, my mom oblivious to everything, the guy I've liked since middle school leading me on; it was just a great big pile of "Screw with Ariella's life". I walked to my couch, which thankfully wasn't too far away, and plopped down while resting my head against the back of it.

"Ariella," Katie said as she sat next to me. "You'll be ok."

"Yeah," said Joshua from the couch across from me. "We'll be here to help you out no matter what."

"I'm not sure I even want help," I muttered. "I'm not sure if all this is even worth it. Maybe I'll change my name and move to a new city. Think they'll find me if I dye my hair?" I asked with a small smile. They chuckled and I moved my hand to look at them. "Want to move in together guys? It'll be like those harem animes where the guy is surrounded by beautiful girls."

"Please," Joshua muttered. "Like you two could pass for girls. You two are more like guys than anything else."

"What?" Katie demanded, crossing her arms. "I am 100 percent female!"

"Yeah and those small boobs totally say it all." Katie's face dropped and I suddenly started to laugh.

"Joshua, that's….inappropriate." I said, smothering my laughs with my hand.

"It's also hateful!"

"It's the truth. It's not hateful if it's the truth." Joshua defended. I shook my head slowly with a smile.

"Stay for dinner. Both of you."

"Alright, but if I have to sit next to Joshua I will hit him." I smiled a little and shook my head.

"You wont have to sit next to him. I will."

"Good, someone with attractive qualities." I started to laugh, and blush, while Katie screeched in anger and attacked him. I started to crack up and for the first time in what felt like ages, I felt normal again.

Joshua, Katie and I ate dinner with my parents in peace and after that, we sat in my backyard, staring up at the sky for the last time that summer.

"You're going to be a senior," said Katie to Joshua.

"It’s not that big a deal." He said, shrugging off his discomfort.

"Come on," I said, laying back in my lush green grass. "You're going to go to college next year and you'll be leaving the nest and all that you know?" I suddenly found my heart beating faster and faster. He was going to be leaving. No more nights where he'd call until we fell asleep on each other, no more afternoons making up TV shows to a blank screen because nothing was one, no more making fun of the fat people at ice cream shops…

No more hugs that made me think he liked me.

That was all going away…to a big building in some obscure town half way across the country.

"I'm not going to college right away, at least I don't think. I need to get money. I don't have anything. I'll have to work more and get loans and stuff."

"Aren't you working now?" Katie asked.

"I'll need a lot more than two fifty at the end of the week to get me to college."

"Well," I said, looking at him. "You can always be a life guard for the rest of your life." Joshua snorted from the hammock on our trees and swung in peace. Katie was sitting on the lounge swing we had, playing with the roof that didn't need to be up since it was night time.

"Come on," Katie said. "You don't want to work with big busted women? Aren't they all over the place like that woman with the Hoff?"

"You mean Pamela Anderson? Yeah, no one's like that."

"What's with you two and boobs tonight? Can we just not bring those up?" I asked, trying to contain my laughs of discomfort.

"Ariella," my dad called out to me. "Time for bed. You've got school tomorrow." I groaned and turned over to rub my cheek against the grass.

"Can I sleep outside?" I whined.

"No," said my mother. "You've got to come in and shower and pick out your clothes." I sighed and got off the grass, turning around to look at the two friends who were getting up slowly.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." I said regrettably.

"No worries," said Katie. "We'll walk home like we always do." Joshua nodded and when Katie started away, Joshua called to her that he'd be right there. I looked at him and frowned.

"Something wrong?" He shook his head and stared at me for a moment that dragged on into eternity.

"Goodnight, Ariella." He said softly, petting my head before starting away.

"Joshua," I said, staring at the ground.

"Yeah?" he asked, not looking back.

"You're such a jerk." I muttered, my cheeks a bright pink.

"I know," he muttered, walking away. I waked into my house, cursing the day I ever met Joshua. His pretty boy act was getting old and I couldn't stand the fact that I was head over heels for the guy. I knew nothing would come of it but you can't hate a girl for wishing a cute guy liked her. I indeed took my shower, grabbed new clothes for the first day of school, got my bag ready and laid in my bed staring up at the ceiling. The familiar sound of piano keys made my eyes close and my breath grow slow.

"We met in a bar…out on Chesapeake bay. With her white patent boots and her blouse red lame. A table top dancer, she would smile on cue. Those lips of an angel….angel in blue." Ah, J. Geils Band sure knew how to make me feel better in the wee hours of the night.

Then again, when the wee hours of the morning came, two different people for two different reasons came to wake me up at two completely inappropriate times. The first was none other than Zach. He tapped on my window with his timid finger, making me jerk awake, my yawn not so lady like. I groped my soft yellow blanket in search of the end so I could get out of my bed. When I found the window, my eyes were finding their way through the dark. I opened it and stared at the boy I hated to see.

"What?" I whispered, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You look comfortable." I blinked and looked down at my duck shorts and teddy bear tank top. I shrugged and ran my hand through my hair to make sure the embarrassing moments stopped. "I came to tell you that Nathanael is alright."

"You couldn't tell me this tomorrow?"

"You would have gotten angry at me if I didn't tell you right away." I sneered, knowing he was right.

"Is that all?" I demanded.

"And, I came to clear a few things up. Nathanael wasn't telling you everything."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because believe it or not, I don't want to hurt you. I'm an Archangel, not a monster."

"You're a monster if you play this stupid game. If you willingly choose to go around the world, searching for good souls and take them to your lair of doom, that's not cool. You're the enemy and I should call the cops. Well, my parents at least."

"You've got it wrong Ariella. This game isn't arbitrary. The souls that we have to save or kill are on a list. The reaper's list."

"Reapers like…the grim reapers? The crazy people in capes and use scythes or sickles?"

"To put it bluntly, yes. Those reapers. The people we "hunt", if you want to call it that, aren't innocent. They're lined up to die. My job is to keep order while the demon's is to keep the soul in question alive passed their expiration date. If I can either kill you before or on that day, I get your soul and you go to Heaven."

"I'm going to die?" I demanded. "When? Why? How?"

"I don’t know how you die just that you die at the end of this week."

"WHAT!?" I shouted, waking my house.

"Ariella?" my dad asked, coming down the hall. I looked at the door then back at Zach, but he was gone.

"It's nothing, Dad. I thought I saw something but it went away. I guess I'm just tired." My dad entered my room and I swallowed. I was going to die?

"What are you even doing up?"

"I was going to the bathroom when my eye caught something in the tree out there. I guess it's gone now." Dad stared at me for a moment before nodding and walking out of his room, me following after him to go to the bathroom. I didn’t have to go but it made for good show. I sat on the toilet, my hands engulfing my face.

I was going to die….in five days….

"I'm sorry, Ariella." Zach whispered.

"Youassnoyou'renot." I mumbled into my hands.

"I am," he tried to plead. "It's never easy taking someone's life."

"Where is this list?" I asked him quietly after moving my hands from my face. "Who chooses who dies? Why do I have to die? I haven't even done the major things in life! I've never kissed a guy, never been in love, never learned how to drive, never drank--not that I want to-- never got to read the last book of the Blue Bloods series. I never got to buy my own coffee, never had a job…..It's not fair. Why me?"

"I don't know, Ariella. I really don't know. The others were older. They were ready to die. You….you're different."

"Can’t you just let the demon win? I mean, other people have lived when they were supposed to die." I begged. "Please. I want to live to graduate. I want to be able to get a diploma and make a difference." Zach shook his head.

"Those people who lived cost someone else their life. Death is not lenient. If someone evades death, it takes someone else. Someone who is just like them."

"What?"

"Say you managed to fight death. Someone who is as old as you, as pure as you will die. Someone else who has the same opportunities as you will loose out. Are you going to let someone die in your place and rob them of their chance to make a difference?" I stared at him, then at the ground, then at my hands. I knew I couldn't do that. It wasn't me. I couldn't let someone take responsibility for something that should be mine. I swallowed hard and sniffed, the thought of death overwhelming.

"How do I stop it?"

"I don't know how you stop death."

"I wasn't talking about death. I was talking about you and demon-butt. I don’t want to die like a pansy."

"Why would I help you?" I stood, staring down at him as he sat on the edge of my bathtub.

"Because you're an angel. You're supposed to help out humans. Now tell me your damn weak spots or I'll just have to poke around and kick your ass with major reinforcements." Zach shook his head. "There was a reason you picked me, Zach. I know it, you know it and I'm sure as hell going to make sure everyone else knows it. I'm not going out without a fight and I swear to Allah that you're going to regret picking me for an opponent."

"You're not the opponent, Ariella."

"I might not have been at the beginning of this but now I am. Now, I'm going to be where ever you and William are. Where ever you two are going to battle or whatever, I'll be there. I guarantee it." Zach sighed and looked at me before standing. He and I were close--too close for me-- and his eyes locked on mine while he bent his head down to whisper in my ear.

"On a battlefield of stone and flesh, we will engage battle before two worlds are accidentally meshed. Where the sun meets the Earth and the sea meets the sky, we will commence battle one, when the sun is nigh. Time is no object, for neither demon nor angel, be weary of signs and please--" he sighed a little, making my skin dance with goose bumps. "Be careful…" I looked at him and his big blue eyes were too close-- too human.

"What the heck does that mean?" He shrugged and smiled before he disappeared like spit in the rain. I groaned and slumped against the sink. It was too early in the damn morning to be dealing with this kind of stuff. I walked out of the bathroom into the warm air of the hall before retreating to my cool room and onto my bed, cuddled with my yellow blanket for safety. I wasn't afraid of the dark--normally. But there was an angel and a demon after me….that might be cause for a little caution.

Not like a yellow blanket I got with my duck shorts could really protect me….

♦----------------------------------♦

I groaned loudly as the morning was cut by the shrill sound of my alarm clock. I cursed the thing while slamming my hand on the snooze button. The only thing worse than an alarm clock was the second person to ruin my wee hours of the morning...

"ARIELLA!" Katie's voice took the prize for that one while she screamed and woke up my entire neighborhood. I buried myself under the yellow blanket, seeking solace, and snuggled into my pillow. A few more minutes wouldn’t kill her. "Ariella!" she called again, this time from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm up!" I shouted to her, my eyes still glued together by the gross morning gunk.

"Liar." She proclaimed, climbing my stairs. So what if I was? I was entitled to it. "You can't stay in bed, Ariel. We've got to get to school." I cursed at the infernal building and she entered my room with a chuckle. "So grumpy in the morning. How are you going to woo Joshy if you don't look pretty?" She moved through my room as if she were welcome while I breathed a long sigh.

"I don't want Joshua."

"Please," she snorted. "Every girl wants Joshua. You're just denying it because you know he likes you back and you two are just chicken. It's like all those dumb cliché movies."

"My life isn't cliché," I mumbled, making her groan.

"Ariella, are you going to wear this?" I peeled an eye open a little to glance at my jeans and t-shirt combo.

"It's a nice shirt at least."

"You're a moron. I'll get you dressed. Go take a shower."

"No thanks." I mumbled, sitting up in my bed, my hair a total mess, my limbs weak, my back aching. I was such an old woman.

"You smell like you were running a marathon. Go take a shower." I glanced down at myself and noticed I was sweating. It wasn't a warm sweat like you got from the beach or sitting out in the sun too long, it was a cold one. I didn't remember anything like nightmares or stuff that would make me sweat but apparently, I had. "Go. I'll get you the nice clothes. Go, go. Remember today is picture day too so make yourself look nice." I groaned and got out of bed, trudging in my pajamas to the bathroom. "Oh Ariella those pj's are so cute!" she exclaimed as I walked out. Sneering, I receded to the bathroom to take a quick, cool shower. Day one of my final five days--Awesome.