Chapter 2
As people shoulder straight through Jack, he seems unmoved by their barge, walking side by side with me. Crowds of people are herding either towards school or work, the whole sidewalk is ram-packed.
"Okay, time for a game changer, Natalie. What I am planning to do is to rebuild you, saying that, I will have to destroy you first; all in a hypothetical sense." Jack reasons, fingering his septum above his upper-lip.
I stop in my track and share a glare of unease to his witty grin. He turns and stands right in front of me.
"What did I tell you? I asked you to trust me, it won't hurt one bit, well not physically." He chuckles as he re-turns and begins walking again. I really do not fancy answering him within this swarm of walkers; I don't think I could handle the weird looks, laughs and points of their normal ways.
I jog up to his pace and take out my Galaxy S4 Mini phone and hold it to my ear.
"Jack, what do you have planned? You have a look in your eyes that's not really settling well within me."
He halts and looks over someone's shoulder as they are reading text messages; the young ladies life Jack scopes into has a smile cut right across her face, the message must be a good one perhaps from a new love. He claps his hands together.
"I've got it and we can do it before school, Nat. Onwards and upwards!" Jack pinches my cheeks with so much excitement which emulates from his facial expression. He grabs my hand and tugs me down the street, all the by-passers look on to me being dragged by an invisible force.
"Jack, if you don't stop pulling me I will be forced to call you an Archangel." Jack stops in his track but I keep staggering and hurtle straight into his back.
"Hey, Guardian Angels are the poor men in heaven and those Ass-Angels are the movie stars. I am nothing like those douche bags and I sleep better knowing that." He affirms with a cocky tone. "We're at your first task anyway." He pecks me on the cheek. My affinity for this man, slash angel is growing on me.
"Task? What task? I thought you were sent here to help me." He creeps up to me and throws his arm around me. "I am but the help cannot only come from me, think of me as a coach who hypes you up before the big game but it is inevitably you who will be doing all the running and scoring."
"Great, Self-help, Jack I could have done this myself." I exhale gently.
"Sort of self-help but you will have to help yourself to my advice. I don't lie, Nat."
I give in with my hands wiping my old life away within my nervous sweat.
"Now, do you see in Jacks-Snack-Bar to our left; there is a guy named Steven Jackson, he is the one wearing a leather jacket." I glance through the window and see the most rough-looking, chiseled jawed guy I have ever seen, sat with five other loud-ass dudes. "Nat, look at me. What I need from you in our first task is I want to walk in there and tell that guy that he is the most luscious and sexiest guy you have ever laid eyes on and all you want to do is lick his bare chest. Then walk back out before he gets the chance to reply."
Only thinking about doing this deed freezes my every limb and chases my heartbeat.
"I don't think I can Jack. That's way too much for me to handle first off."
He puts his hands on my face and holds my head within his palms, looking at me right in the eyes, right into my soul.
"Natalie, you are a new you. You have a new look and a new lease of life. I would never have asked this of you if I myself did not think you were ready for it, I wouldn't have asked it from you. You are, trust me." I lighten up. "Now get that ass in there."
Step towards complete demise from the social structure. I enter through the door with a ding and silently I strategize all that I must say while trying to keep it all together. The laugh from the gang in the corner bellows through-out the Snack-bar; all other sitters are unnerved and scared to ask for them to settle.
I walk over panicky but with a mission to keep me marching.
"Hi-Hiiii Steve." The whole room stops and stares at me about to make a fool of myself. "I would... Like to say-y-y-y... You are the sexiest of all men and I would lick to like you... I mean like to lick you." I quickly close my eyes, turn, open and march straight out of the door.
"I mess up, Jack." I almost wail.
"No you didn't. What you did was stand up to everything that was telling you not to and you took a step into the beyond of your normal state. First step complete, tick it from the list. C'mon let's get to school."
--
We cut through Jenkins Park, which is a wooded area but if cuts the time to walk to school by at least twenty minutes which in theory means an extra twenty minutes in bed. Jack is hopping over logs.
"What's it like being an angel, Jack?" I probe into his life to get to know about this mystery that has chained himself to me.
"Boring at times, all you do is watch; we all really watch the intimacy side of life, that's kind of our movies. That one spark between two people that flourishes into a forest fire, it's an F'in treat which goes great with popcorn." He reports without ever making eye-contact, still hopping over branches.
"The Devil was an angel, right? So is he still downstairs?" Jack cocks his head and burst out laughing.
"Okay, let me clear the whole Lucifer story up, for your ears only. Lucifer was the most beautiful of angels, females wanted to be with him and the males would have carved off their right wing just to be him for a day. So one day he and our all mighty father had a major falling out, which got him kicked out our house. That's the part of the book that all you guys have read, but like it is in heaven it shall be on Earth. My dad forgave and let him back in ages ago, he messed up, paid the price and now he is the golden boy again; a vain ass-bag but still a daddy's boy at the end of the day. Why do you think whenever there's a movie made about him, all of the people say there is a curse on the movie set. I would be pissed too to have people think for a millennium that I was actually evil. He's back at home, think as hell as a rehab centre for angels. He's bringing his autobiography out on scroll in a few months, I have pre-order my copy along with the audio version of his story in hell, narrated by Elvis. We're not that different, baby."
--
A ruckus of male laughter and shouts comes echoing from through the weaves of the trees and leaf's. Me and Jack pass deer in the headlight stares at one another.
"Jack! What could that be?" I hush over to him.
"I don't know.... Werewolves, maybe?" He chucks, undeterred by the hollers as he stares into my deep blues.
From the bushes behind us comes Steve Jackson, clicking his knuckles.
"There you are my sweet thing, I didn't get the chance to reply to your compliment earlier, you ran away so fast, so me and my boys..." All Stevens's boys come out from the shadows of the woods and stand behind Steve. "...Drove around looking for you, to thank you in our special way for making our day; I hope you like it."
I start to back up with the trembles of fear shivering me. Their evil deeds show in their eyes as they step forward and try and flank me from the sides. Jack steps in front of me.
"Natalie, slowly start to back up, I will deal with this. Nobody and I mean nobody gets in the way of my work." Jack bows his head with his eyes closed, focusing within himself. Without any effort his flutters into the air; the forest turns dark. The shadows of gigantic wings attach and open from Jacks back. Within one flap of his almost invisible wings and ferocious winds tears through the forest, ripping up logs and sending the spiraling through the air, brush that laid still distorts the entire forest; along with the roar of wind help pick up the hooligans and somersaults them through the woodland until they are out of sight.
Everything soon settles and begins to rest on mayhem. Jack comes back to the throws of gravity. He turns with a smile.
"Shall we get to school, then?" He bubbles like nothing has happened.
I nod incessantly in shock as he brushes by me with a wink.
--
What have I gotten myself into? Who is this guy? Why me? I guess by the time this week is up I will find out, won't I?