Angel In Progress

3. Of Childhood Enemies and Breakups

So yes. This was the boy I was supposed to "look after" for the next however many days. The lovely Ethan Walsh. I'd rather sock myself in the eye than converse with him... but at the same time, I don't want him to get violently injured. Nobody deserves to get hurt. And if it's apparently in my hands to keep someone from pain, I think it's my moral duty to do all I can to keep them from harm. Even if the person happens to be a cocky asshole.

Anyway, there I stood, outside Ryan Hailing's sprawling mansion. Like Maddie had mentioned before, he was having a party at his place. Ryan Hailing was definitely not one of my favorite people on this planet- he cheated on Maddie's best friend Stacie, but she took him back anyway. Oh, and he's always had this insanely huge crush on me that is flattering, but also sort of annoying at the same time.

The girls around me were dressed like they had just robbed Bloomingdales, while I stood in my varsity jacket and jeans, clearly very underdressed. There were so many teenagers here, that I knew it would be quite a task to find Ethan Walsh among this mess.

I had no clue what I'd say to him when I spotted him- hey, I'm your guardian angel so you better stay in my sight all the time? The worst part of this semi-intact situation was that Ethan and I, um, felt intense or passionate dislike for each other. So no, this would not be easy at all.

I pushed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans as I walked into the mansion, very apprehensively. Like any typical high school party, Rihanna and Drake were being blasted out the speakers and everyone held a red solo cup of what I guessed contained alcohol in their hands. Tempted to roll my eyes at the pretentiousness of the entire situation, I decided to keep my head down and just find Ethan Walsh. Felix had mentioned something about how I didn't have to babysit Ethan for everything, but how I had to try to keep an eye on him so he didn't do anything stupid. Um, but the problem was, Ethan always did stupid shit. He went out looking for trouble. No wonder he had a guardian angel looking after him, because he would've been dead with all the stupid shit he pulled.

I pushed past a couple of half drunken teenagers, feeling swarmed by the number of people here. I knew that Caleb and Maddie were already here at this party, and one of them would probably know where Ethan was (thanks to Caleb's friendship with him and Maddie's gigantic crush on him). I decided to text them, to make my job simpler, where in the world Ethan Walsh happened to be. 

The first response I received was from my very own twin brother, who seemed rather delighted to find out that I was present at this party.

Caleb: wtf are you doing here

I rolled my eyes at his reply. Of course they were going to overreact and over dramatize the fact that I, Grace O'Hara was actually at a high school party. Of course they would make a huge deal out of the actuality that I was doing something social for once. Ha ha ha. They were hilarious. Not.

just tell me where ethan walsh is, I texted back, leaning against the wall of the kitchen. Hopefully Ethan happened to be somewhere quieter because this music was so loud, it was making my head ache. Another reason why I hated parties- music wasn't music when it was this loud. As I waited for Caleb's response, I slinked back against the wall, hoping to blend in, when suddenly somebody shoved into me.

I recognized the girl immediately, as a junior from school, a petite and pretty blonde. "Sorry," she apologized half heartedly but I was too taken aback to see her face, which was stained with mascara by the tears running down her cheeks. She spun around, like she was calling to someone and yelled, "You're nothing but an asshole!"