My alarm blares its usual god-awful tune at too-early-o'clock in the morning.
My eyes force themselves open, even with the greatest of discomfort.
They are dry, and my throat feels sore with each swallow. I've never been this tired in my entire life, and that's only a slight exaggeration.
The last few days have all gone by in a bit of a blur. Days only consisting of waking up early, driving Lucy to school, and then practicing M's new ability long into the evening, followed by restless nights of worrying on my part.
Although clearly, I'm not the only one tired if the heavy angel on top of me is anything to go by. M groans as he rolls off of me. Pushing me with a grumbly demand to shut it off. I get smacked with his white-feathered wing in the process.
With a groan of my own, I move over M to shut it off. When the blissful silence overtakes my room once more, I flop down next to M again. He wraps his arm around my waist, hand warm. His breath is ghosting the back of my neck as he mumbles, words incohesive.
I close my eyes, ready to enjoy the warmth of M for the next 15 minutes before we have to get up and ready. But before I even manage to doze off, my phone starts ringing.
"Make it stop," M whines, pulling his pillow over his head to drown out the noise.
I reach for my phone to see a screen glowing with an unanswered call. Brows furrowing, I can see M peek out from under the pillow, bedhead gone wild.
"Who is it?" M asks. His voice is muffled because of the bedding. "Tina?"
"No," I manage to reply, cringing. "It's the school reminding me of the consequences of my absurdly high absence." I wish it would have been Tina instead. She's gone silent on me for the past few days, only leaving me with short messages about her time with this mystery guy of hers.
"You should probably go," He groggily says. "To school, I mean."
"And leave you here alone for what? For the beasts to come and pick you off if they somehow find you, meaning I will never see you again or be there to help," I voice my initial fear, "That's not gonna happen."
M must be able to hear the worry in my voice because he sits up, pushing the sheets off of himself, wings folding out behind him.
"When will you be done putting your life on hold just because of me," He says. "This can't go on for much longer Caleb, and I can defend myself now."
I bite my lip.
"I know," I reply. "And it won't."
"We will eventually see the end of this, maybe much sooner than what you're hoping for," M then says, catching my eyes in his. His brown eyes are soft, probably from the early morning sun streaming in from my bedroom window and maybe something else too. "We can't avoid confrontation forever. I don't want to either."
"Well, let's at least avoid it for today, " I joke, jumping up from bed to put on some fresh clothes. "We have to drive Lucy to school soon."
I throw some pants in M's direction, which lands on his lap. "Now, get ready."
Everything goes exactly according to routine. A freshly-faced Lucy is already up and ready, followed by a quick breakfast. One where Lucy and M go crazy with the cereal right before we end up in the car heading for school.
The drive is as trouble-free as can be. I only hit the curb once and a pot-hole twice. When we finally reach the school's parking lot, the car rattles before it slows to a stop in front of the school, and with one horrible cough, the engine goes silent.
Lucy waves goodbye as she walks up the stairs to the school entrance, blending in with all the other students hurrying to class.
The car is silent for a second. I catch M glance over at me for the tenth time in the span of a minute.
"What?" I ask, setting the car into gear and backing out.
I have the feeling our conversation from earlier isn't completely finished.
"There's something I need to tell you," M starts. He bites at his bottom lip as he glances over at me. I force my eyes off of his mouth and back to the road.
"Shoot."
"I have not been entirely honest with you for the last couple of days. I might have a good idea why the beasts are after me. I don't remember much, so I wanted to wait until I remembered more," M pauses, stops for a second to gather words, probably. "Their master, a man, he's after me, wants me dead."
The car jumps and rattles as I miss spotting another pot-hole on the road. I grab the steering wheel tighter, knuckles turning white. M winces next to me.
"I mean, I kinda figured the last part considering the night they tried to tear us apart," I say.
"He does not only want to kill me but angels like me. He seems to think I know where they are holed up."
"Well, do you?" I ask.
"Not that I remember. I might have, but not anymore."
"So, from what I can understand," I start. "There's an evil villain guy with flesh-hungry pets out to get you and the entire angel race, and you're the key to finding the others, wherever they are."
"I think so," M says.
I park the car out in front of the garage. Staring over at M with wide eyes. "And you couldn't have told me this sooner?"
"I didn't know how to tell you, or I did, but things kept happening, interrupting," He says, following me out of the car and up the porch. I lock us in. Getting out of my dirty mud-clad shoes. M tails behind.
My silence makes M gape like a fish out of water. Trying to come up with words, but instead, he gets interrupted by none other than my phone. I might have it in me to put it on buzz soon if this keeps happening.
I look down at the screen to see the caller-id of Tina. I accept it before another beat from the ringtone can reach our ears. "Hey, shouldn't you be in class?" I greet her.
I can see M clamp his mouth shut in front of me, going past me and towards the fridge, probably for a second serving of frosted-cereal.
"I should ask you the same," She replies. "I haven't seen you this entire week."
"Yeah, I'm on a little break, you know, with M," I lie. "But none of that, how are you? You've been kinda unreachable for the last couple of days."
"I'm good," She replies. I take it her date went well, her mind now hopefully off of Kyle. "Actually, I'm going out with Luke this evening, shopping."
"The date?" I guess. She never did mention a name on the mysterious guy who swept her off of her feet in like two seconds at the party.
"Yes, we had a blast this Sunday. He took me to the park, and we talked for hours. We've been inseparable ever since," There's a pause before Tina's voice comes back on the line. "I'm sorry I didn't text or call you. I've just been busy."
"No, don't worry about that," I say. Which is the entire truth. If Tina has to ghost me for almost a week to be happy, as much as that sucks, then so be it. "I'm just glad you're having fun."
I lean over the counter, near where M is on his second serving of cereal as I had predicted. Spoon clanging the ceramic bowl every time he goes for a piece. There's even a bit of milk running down his chin in his hurry.
"Oh, that reminds me," Tina peaks up from over the phone. "I've talked a bit about you and M, and Luke really wants to meet you guys." The stain on M's skin annoys me, and I go to remove it with my thumb. M looks a bit surprised as I go to dry it off. I zone back to the conversation when Tina mentions something with a double-date.
"A what?" I find myself asking.
"A double-date," She repeats. "You, me, Luke, and M. This Friday?"
Friday, which is in two days. I don't know if it's such a good idea, at least not considering our situation. "I will have to ask M first. I can text you after."
"That's fine, but Caleb, I really hope you can come. It could be so much fun," Tina expresses. "Anyway, I have to go now. Luke will be here soon."
"Okay, bye," I say, but Tina has already ended the call.
"So," M asks, mouth full. "Who was it?"
"Tina," I sit down next to M. "She invited us to a double-date here on Friday."
"A double-date?" M asks, pushing the now empty bowl away along the counter.
"Yeah, like two couples who go out and eat and have fun," I answer, already shaking my head at M so he won't get any good ideas.
"I think we should go," He still says. "I'm tired of hiding. This could also be an opportunity to make them show themselves. So we can finish this once and for all."
"I don't think that's very smart. The beasts would have the advantage," Going out again, they could come from literally anywhere and jump us. At least when we're here, we're behind locked doors. Not that it's gonna do much anyway if they come beating them down.
"Nothing is safe, Caleb. But hiding in your house, letting Lucy fear anything happening to us, you not going to school, is not solving anything," M huffs a breath. "We can't keep tip-toeing around this, not when I finally have something to fight back with."
"You will be a target everywhere we go," I almost whisper.
M takes my face in his hands, leading my eyes up to his. "That's the point. I want them to come. I can fight them, well I can try."
I shrug my shoulders, grabbing M's wrists in my hands and squeezing them tightly to keep him close. "All of this just feels wrong, things are going so fast, too fast. I don't want this to end badly."
"I'm right there with you," M says, giving my lips a little peck. before rubbing his thumbs across my cheek. "We'll figure it out together. You always say that, so don't forget it now."
"Yeah," I give in, taking out my phone and finding Tina in my contacts.
"Here's to hoping I'm right."
I shoot off a short text, pocketing my phone right after. I need a way to get my mind off of what can only be a promise of a night filled with worrying and peeking at each dark shadow that passes by in the night.
What I wouldn't give to just have M be a 'normal' guy for once, but then again, I might never have met him, to begin with then.