In Love With An Angel (a. butler)

Nineteen

Analise was easy to find, I was surprised to discover that she was quite popular at her new school despite everything prior. Her name had been spread across sports articles for her performance in volleyball and scholarly academics. Seeing her pictures I began to realize how pretty she was, her smile was large and her skin glowed.

Austin clearly had a type. She fit perfectly within the lines of Marina and probably the other girls I'm sure he's talked to. The only difference were her scars, Analise's scars captured your attention. As much as she tried to hide them with her hair, there was no denying. I thought about my shoulder, it had been healed up much better now. The red rash had faded and it was now purplish yellow.

I took a chance traveling on the bus back down to the gas station where she worked considering it was the weekend and I didn't know if she was working today. Technically I'm not supposed to leave the house but I didn't care. I needed to know what happened. I was determined to ask her. She stood behind the register and glass window handing a customer a black bag and smiling. They grabbed it and walked out the door towards their car, I peeked through checking if anyone from school was inside. I didn't want to run into them and have to explain myself.

I walked through the door, she didn't notice me as she stared at her cellphone sitting back onto the large stool behind the counter. I walked down aisle two grabbing a bag of gummy worms, it was best if I actually browsed for an item rather than coming all this way just to interrogate her like I was intending to do. I slowly walked to the counter and placed the gummy worms up top. She stood still gazing at her phone until she glanced up noticing the worms.

"Gummy worms again, huh" she said taking the bag and scanning them over the machine.

"Hey" I smiled. She returned the greeting and leaned on the counter punching in the price, I reached in my pocket grabbing my wallet. "I haven't seen you since the mall a while ago, sorry about what happened"

She shrugged. "I'm used to that. Sabrina's been snotty since I first met her"

"I don't mean too pry but what went down between you two?" I attempted to ask. She paused and placed the gummy worms into a black bag.

"Well..I'm really not supposed to talk about it" She said softly. I had to figure out a way to convince her, I knew it was weird to just show up and start asking a million questions. But I needed to know. I wanted to know.

I reached up grabbing the black bag and placed my wallet back into my pocket. "You can trust me" I said, I then decided to show her the bruise on my shoulder similar to her scars. Her eyes widened, she glanced around the station noticing a few people were still inside. She quickly stepped through the small door behind the counter and grabbed my arm pulling me to the back.

"Greg, I'm on break!" she yelled insisting that he take over her spot at the register.

"What-" I tried but she continued to pull until we reached a storage room filled with supplies and junk for the main aisles. She closed the door shut and seated me on top of a large old paint bucket.

"When did you get that? What happened?" she asked frantically.

"I-Uh-about a week or so ago"

"Was it Austin?" she whispered even though there wasn't anyone else inside and the hum from the deep freezer towards the back masked majority of her voice.

"N-No..it was.." I paused. "Wait, did Austin really cause your scars?"

"I thought I told you to stay away. You shouldn't have gotten too close to him"

Stay away? There it was again, another warning. I thought back on our past encounters, I couldn't recall whether or not she did. I only saw her at the mall and in the station. I blinked my eyes trying to search my memories when it hit me. I'd gotten an anonymous message through facebook the following night of the station. Stay away if you know what's good for you.