Ryder's Angel

Chapter Seven: New Place: Danny

Chapter Seven: New Place: Danny

Two weeks passed smoothly, but at the end of the first week, we felt like we could do anything.

Kendall woke up to find his sister stroking his warming skin, in a room in a tree house two hundred feet in the air. Jess said he was in perfect condition, just very tired and weak. Just like that, he was awake. Just like that, life was as normal as it could be for us.

We finally celebrated. Penelope and Jason stole a cake, and we enjoyed life. Kendall let Angeline baby him for days, and even let her cry on his shoulder.

But her sudden ever-changing emotions were hard to keep track of. One minute she was laughing with her brother, the next she was sobbing. She barely left his side, for he had nothing better to do but sit – we had to find a new wheelchair – and when she wasn’t with him, she was with me. We mostly sat in our room and talked. Life was good again.

Three days after Kendall’s spell broke Angeline asked me, “Do you hate me?”

Taken aback, I glanced at her, with her head on my chest, facing me with a sad expression. “Of course not,” I answered softly. I feared for her, but my love was stronger. Even now, just looking at her, my heart beat faster. “Why would you think that?”

Ang’s eyes filled with tears. Quickly, I sat her up in my lap and wrapped my arms around her. Angeline buried her face in my chest, but didn’t cry. “I just thought you would be mad at me because I – because I made you – do the thing I asked you to.” She didn’t want to call it by its real name.

I couldn’t blame her. I was just as upset as she was, but I couldn’t stay mad at her. I stroked her hair and rested my chin on her head, staring out a hole in the leaves in our Room at the sun barely in the sky. “I’m not mad,” I told her gently. “It’s over and done with. We should just forget about it.”

“But we can’t forget about it!” Angeline cried, keeping her head to my chest but staring at me with her watery, bright green eyes. “We can’t. I did that because I thought Kendall was dead and now that he’s not… It was all for nothing.”

I adjusted her in my lap so she was facing me. It was like she was a toddler, and I was her father, trying to comfort her, to tell her everything was alright. I took Ang’s face in my hands and made her look at me. “Angeline,” I told her sternly, “it’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about, right? Come on, give me a smile.”

She weakly tried to pry my Rough, bruised fingers, but failed. “Let me go,” she whispered, but it was useless – she was starting to smile.

“Come on,” I purred in a teasing voice, “you know you want to.” Then I brought her face closer and kissed her – for a long, long time.

Her lips, though chapped, were soft. They smelled sweet, like cherries. They molded around mine perfectly, as if we were meant to be together. Kissing her, it was so…so nice. It – her – soothed me, it made me think of good things, it made me feel like we were the last people on earth – just me and her forever. Of course, we could be together forever, for eternity, because we were immortal. Our bodies molded together, my fingers tangled in her hair, her hands on my chest. Oh, God, I love her!

“It’s going to be alright, Ang,” I whispered softly when she pulled away for a second. We kissed more until we were breathless.

We would’ve kept going. The knock on the door shattered our perfect world.

Ang untangled herself from me, composed herself, blew back her messy, dark red hair, and padded to the door. I just lay on the bed, adrenaline pumping through my veins, with my hands behind my head. I couldn’t stop smiling. That was a good moment – very good. It got rid of my worries, if not for a few minutes. Our true first kiss.

I heard her and someone talking, then heard Angeline shut the door with a click. She sat next to me and pushed back her side bangs with her hand. She sighed, “Kendall wants to see me, so I’ll go over there. I think I’ll eat lunch with him today. Is that alright?”

“I don’t care what you do,” I answered. “But we need to get him going again.”

“Agreed, but wheelchairs aren’t easy to come by. They aren’t food – we can’t just swoop by and steal one.”

A strange image of Jason speeding by, grabbing a wheelchair out from some old lady in the city passed by in my mind, and I felt like laughing. But I didn’t want to upset Angeline. “I’m happy he’s back.”

“Yeah, I’m glad he’s okay. I’m glad you’re okay,” she added.

I kissed her neck, the only part of her I could reach. Angeline smiled.

“We’ll ask everyone at dinner,” she said as she stood up. Angeline went to the mirror, grabbed a rubber band from her wrist, and put her hair in a ponytail.

Ang practically skipped over to me and went to kiss my cheek, but I turned and she ended up kissing me full on the mouth. We both laughed, but she punched my arm. “Don’t do that again, you scared me,” she warned, but her voice was playful. Then she left, keeping the door open.

I took up my round, checking on everyone. I counted as I went: fourteen, fifteen – then me and Ang – that was seventeen. We were all here and well off. The problem now was what was I going to do now? I didn’t do much because I didn’t have anything to do. Everyone else did their own thing, their hobbies or the jobs they do best: Zo liked to set the table and clean up, Kayla played dolls with Penelope, Angeline had Kendall, and Jess was busy with her healing. Me, I had nothing. I didn’t like television, I didn’t play dolls…

All I had was fighting. It was all my life consisted of, ever since I was three. But in the end, I decided to go to the workout room.

It felt good to gradually work my muscles. And it was a break from locking lips with Angeline. My shoulder cracked and I fell on my chest.

Angeline…

And so after those two weeks, another came and went, and yet another, of boredom and lying around.

Kayla was the one who noticed the tree was dying. She was on watch when she felt herself tilt. Everywhere the ever-fresh green leaves on the walls were browning, the wooden floorboards below our feet were rotting. And when it was my watch, I saw that the entrance wasn’t so high in the air anymore.

The tree was wilting.

 We needed to find a new place to stay, and fast.

We were eating dinner when suddenly, I had a brilliant idea. I slammed down my fork and interrupted everyone’s conversations. They all stared at me. “I’ve got it,” I told them with a big grin. “I know where we can stay and where we can get Kendall a wheelchair.”

“Where?” asked Ang beside me excitedly.

Everyone’s eyes lit up when I said, “The orphanage.”