Angel In Progress

1. Of Locked Car Doors and Guardian Angels

Maddie sighed heavily. "Caleb's at the party too. And pretentious? Just because you don't have a social life and have like two friends, it doesn't give you the right to put my friends down. And it's Ryan Hailing's birthday- you know Ryan, right? Stacie's boyfriend?"

"Uh," I said, processing all the information my sister was rambling into my ear. "Your best friend's really annoying boyfriend? Isn't he the one who threw up all over me at Stacie's birthday party?"

Maddie paused, before letting out a small sigh. "That was like eight years ago, Ella, you really need to let that go. Besides, Ryan thinks you're cool, he even invited you to the party. Anyway, get your ass home quick, before I'm unfashionably late."

She hung up on me and with an overdramatic sigh, I pressed my hands against the steering wheel. There went my 'personal time'. I knew exactly what was waiting for me as soon as I got home- an eight year old and four year old with a never ending need for bandaids. Don't get me wrong, I loved my younger siblings with the entirety of my heart and all, but something about constantly making PB&J sandwiches for them on a Friday night wasn't all that appealing.

Of course, my very own wonderful twin brother Caleb could have babysat them too, but he managed to escape it all the time. He got away from babysitting by batting his extra long eyelashes at Mom (who always favored Caleb. She'll never admit it but it's blatantly obvious) and by making a long speech on how much he adored our baby siblings but how he had to head over to his girlfriend's house (who changed every month because Caleb was indecisive as hell) to study for some science or math test they had on Monday. Oh please.
And of course, Mom fell for it every single time.

But in all honesty, I really can't complain. It wasn't like I had other plans for tonight, anyway. While Caleb and Maddie had plans for the night, my only plans were to binge watch a show.

I drove the car out of the parking lot slowly (yes, I'm one of those careful drivers, unlike Maddie who likes to paint her nails while she steered the wheel with her toes on the highway), and onto the road. School was only about ten minutes away from home, so I didn't cross 40 on the speed limit.

So now, to go back to how it all started: there I was, an innocent seventeen year old girl, driving home from school just like any other ordinary teenager would be doing. I don't know how or why my life took such an unexpected turn that evening, and I don't know what it was all for.

But as I was carefully driving home on the empty road (surprisingly, there were no other cars on the road), there was a sudden, bright golden flash that streaked right down into the front of my vehicle. A loud, ear shattering bang followed, and my car shook for a millisecond before I slammed my foot down on the break, bringing the car to a violent halt. I hadn't realized that a loud scream had followed (my own scream) and my fingers went white from gripping the wheel so hard. My heart was pounding in my chest, as it took me a few seconds to process what had just happened. What the hell was that weird flash? Had I actually hit something or someone?

I climbed out of my car in a dazed state, and confusion pooled into the pit of my stomach as I stared at the spot where the golden light had been just a few moments ago. There was nothing wrong in the scene, there was no golden light nor was there a dent on the hood of my car from where the light had hit. Had I really hallucinated it? The road was quite empty for six o'clock on a Friday evening and I stood there on the empty road, just blinking for a few seconds.

I was pretty sure I had crashed into something.

"What the heck," I muttered to myself as I ran my fingers through the knots of my hair, trying to calm myself down. Maybe it had been a deer or something. I don't know, but it was definitely something.