Till Death Do You Part

Chapter Thirteen ~ Closer than Friends

Feeling a bit more courageous, I ran my right hand over the feather on his left wing. My hand traveled up towards the bridge bone of the wing. I could feel him tremble under my touch. Instinctively, I pulled my hand away and let it fall to my side. He flapped his wings gently again making more feather flakes fly about.

"Sorry," He apologized before carefully turning around. His wings seemed to curl a bit, shrinking in length. "That tickles. Those bones are very sensitive."

"Oh," I paused, crossing my arms and standing patiently, not knowing what more to say. Honestly, my stomach was full of fluttering butterflies, no, bees, stinging to get out. I was so nervous and excited and flustered- God, my emotions were out of control. I commented with a smile, "They're beautiful."

For a minute or so we stood staring at one another, our gazes latched onto each other’s. I couldn't look away from him. I definitely am not myself when I'm around him.

Then he took a step towards me, getting really close to me. His gaze didn't leave mine. His hand touched my face. His fingers were cool and caressed my skin softly. As if in slow motion, Gabriel leaned towards me, his face, his lips, not even an inch away.

He leaned in even more.

And more.

More.

Closer and closer.

When his lips were about to press against mine I turned my head away, freaking out a bit, making them land on my cheek. Looking back at him, I smiled at how wide his eyes were, shocked by me turning away.  I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. A kiss on the cheek would suffice.

That’s when I heard a loud knock at the front door.

"Cara? Cara, you up?" Marisa shouted, her voice and knocks were getting louder.

Crap.

Looking up at Gabriel, I realized how calm and collected he was. As if it was nothing, he stared at me curiously.

"Shouldn't we answer the door?" He asked.

"Can she see your wings?" I asked him, keeping my voice low to a whisper. His eyes widened.

"Yes." He said, making his wings fold and disappear into his back. Just as Gabriel put on his shirt I saw Marisa climbing through the front window. She used to break into my house in middle school so she wouldn't have to ring the door and disturb my mom. I always told her not to, but she did anyways.

As soon as her head popped in, her eyes widened and she muttered. "Cara?" Like a klutz, she hit the top of her head on the window's edge, making her fall down. I heard a loud thump from outside.

"Marisa? Marisa, are you okay?" I asked, rushing over to the window and peering out.

She was lying on the floor.

"Gabriel," I peered back at him and he rushed over to my side, looking from the window to me before opening the window more and jumping out. "We’re going to the hospital."

~*~*~*~*~*

Three hours later, I'm sitting beside Marisa who was lying (conscious thankfully) on a hospital bed. We were able to get some x-rays done on her body to see if she'd broken anything. The doctor we had told us she suffered a minor concussion and would need to stay overnight. She kept giving me dirty looks every time he mentioned anything about windows and her having to stay overnight.

She fell asleep within the next hour. For a while, I sat by her bed, watching her. I kept on thinking about everything that happened that morning. As soon as Mason popped into my mind, I stood up and went searching for Gabriel.