Jennifer Murgia: Angel Star

I’m employing you as my chauffeur.”

“Worse than putting up with Brynn and her posse?”

“Hmmm. A close second.”

About a block before school, I pulled down the built-in mirror underneath the sun visor above my head. I noted the transparent purple circles surfacing beneath my eyes from lack of sleep and made a mental note to experiment with concealer.

I decided to change the subject and tell Claire about the other night, about the dreams and the wings. Claire was my best friend, the obvious choice to hear all my concerns, but as much as I loved her, she was such a jokester and I didn’t know how she would react. I dove in before I could change my mind.

“Um, the night before last I heard some really strange noises.”

“What kind of noises?”

“Well, sort of like an animal or a bird flying around my room. I’ve been having these weird dreams about wings and…Well, I felt a draft.”

My tone was serious but I instantly regretted sharing my unnerving evening. How could I expect the ever-joking Claire to sympathize with this one?

“You read too many vampire books.”

She was right. My fictional track record left me wide open for that one. I felt like the boy who cried wolf.

“Or…” she continued. “Maybe Batman was coming to save you!”

Claire was cracking herself up, flapping her arms above her head while we were stopped at the traffic light. I shook my head and stared out the window. The looming shadow of Carver High School suddenly couldn’t be close enough. And then it happened. My stomach lurched into a series of somersaults when I recognized Garreth’s Jeep as we pulled into the school’s parking lot.

By the time Claire parked, my insides had tied themselves into a gigantic knot. An incredible rush of excitement, eagerness, and panic swept through me all at once, like the first day of high school all over again. I could scarcely will my feet to swing out of Claire’s car.

I scanned the campus for any sign of Garreth, my eyes raking over the fellow students I was forced to be herded with day in and day out, but he was nowhere in sight.

Trembling, I walked to homeroom alone.

The morning dragged on endlessly, though it was only just past second period. Anticipation bled into a twisted combination with all-too-familiar disappointment as I fumbled with my locker, and I decided to take on a more reasonable way of looking at the obvious.

Maybe I was a crutch to get him through his first day?

No, no. He seemed so sincere.

Could someone that gorgeous really be that nice?

Why am I such a moron?

My thoughts turned to panic as I mentally jumped from one scenario to the next. I made it down the hall to third period. I was feeling claustrophobic with all the possibilities and nonpossibilities jumbling themselves in my head, and still he was nowhere in sight.

The bell rang. Fourth period.

I felt jittery. English class passed by in a blur thanks to my elaborate doodling of wings in the margins of my notebook. It was sheer luck I was never called on.

Bell.

I forced myself not to look for him. Claire and Ryan appeared to be lost in some tender adolescent huddle at her locker. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

At lunch, I sat brooding, picking at my sandwich and a measly bag of chips, which Claire happily ate for me when she noticed my nonexistent appetite.

I felt bruised. Dejected.

The end of the day had finally come and I gathered my books from my desk. As I walked slowly to my locker, I reached the inevitable and unwanted conclusion that my mind had played some serious tricks on me yesterday and today I was obviously and understandably being avoided.

My hopes were crashing when…

“Hi, Teagan.”

Instantly, my heart tripped at the sound of his voice. So much for being rational. I slowly turned to find myself face to face with a set of blue eyes, and all my worries melted down through my sneakers into the tile floor beneath me.

“Hey.”

“I’m sorry about lunch. I never realized a meeting with a guidance counselor could last an eternity.”

“Let me guess. Transcripts with Mr. Dean?”

Garreth nodded, sincerity gleaming in his eyes as he rolled them. Mr. Dean was notorious for dragging on and on in his especially annoying, especially nasal monotone voice.

“That’s okay. I knew you were here. I saw your car.”

It had taken only seconds for me to open my mouth and sound like a total idiot. Bravo. I quickly tried to blink away the love-sick gleam I felt clouding my eyes. Yet here he was, speaking to me as if I were the only girl in the school, and my world felt surprisingly complete.

He leaned casually against the row of lockers, appearing as if he had just come from a modeling shoot. The sleeves of his tan button-down shirt were rolled up just past his elbows and I tried not to stare at the fabric straining against his well-defined arms.

Beneath the shirt was a black T-shirt, untucked, over slightly worn jeans, frayed at the hems, that wisped over smooth brown Timberlands. He had the look all girls dreamed their boyfriends could achieve, one that brought on immediate breathlessness. He swept his sandy hair out of his eyes as he leaned in closer to speak to me and I swore he could hear my pulse bouncing into the metal interior of my open locker, echoing out into the crowded hallway for all to hear.

“Let me make it up to you,” he offered. “Spend the afternoon with me?”

He smiled so sweetly, but I didn’t know what to say.

Today was early dismissal and I knew I would either end up being bored or doing homework. Still, in all truth, Garreth was a stranger to me. I could almost hear Claire whispering in my ear, “If you get to know him better, he won’t be a stranger, now will he?”

I chewed my bottom lip and looked around. Through the window opposite my locker I could see the buses at the curb, the lines of poor defenseless kids lining up to be driven home. Across the parking lot were the other kids, the smiling ones, the laughing ones, the thank-God-it’s-Friday ones. Brynn was rolling down her windows as her friends piled in, all laughing and free for the weekend.

I looked at Garreth and something close to trustworthiness gleamed back at me. Something felt right.

“Sure,” I answered. “But I can’t stay out too long.”

I glanced at the battery level on my cell phone and then grabbed my books for the weekend and shoved them into my bag before closing my locker. I tried to ignore the surprised looks aimed in our direction as he took my hand. His long, warm fingers entwined with my own and I felt my knees buckle slightly as we walked out into the brilliant sunlight that warmed the parking lot.

As he led me to his car, it dawned on me that I had forgotten about Claire, who I assumed was growing very impatient by now. My thoughts briefly switched to my mother and her rules but they faded quickly into oblivion as Garreth Adams opened the passenger door for me and I slid inside.

Butterflies in the pit of my stomach were swarming at an impossible rate, so I took a deep breath. My sense of better judgment told me I should be feeling slightly wary of the situation I had allowed myself to fall into, but I wasn’t nervous to be seated where I was, in the unfamiliar car of a boy I had met only yesterday. Quite the contrary, I was overtaken by an astonishing feeling of relief to finally have him to myself.

Because of this, I found myself suddenly scrutinized for my actions by the student body, like a bug under a microscope. I could feel their stares penetrating the glass window that separated us, and I knew if I turned my head to peer out I would surely meet dozens of curious eyes. I knew what they were all thinking because in my own paranoid, self-conscious state I was asking myself the same question.