Jariel wondered why Dawn had rushed out in such a hurry. Something was obviously wrong, that much he already knew. It didn’t take a genius to know something was wrong when someone bursts out of the room in a hurry, without bothering to explain anything. He hoped that everything was okay as he sat back down, the phone close by, ready to call the police if necessary.
He turned the television on and watched some Criminal Minds episodes. He had to admit, although he didn’t like the violence too much, he enjoyed this show. The people on the show were hilarious, especially Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia. He watched the show and when an hour passed, he began to grow a little bit worried. She said to wait an hour or so, but he couldn’t help but think something was wrong. He was about to call the police when the apartment door burst open and Dawn came running in with Annette.
“Are you okay?” he asked, rushing over to them. “What’s going on?”
“I’m fine. “Dawn said, mostly out of breath. “And Annette just had a stumble with her boyfriend, Derek.”
“Ex-boyfriend.” Annette said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough not to listen to you.”
“It’s fine Annette.” Dawn said, yawning. “I probably would have done the same thing.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Annette looked over at Dawn with an I-don’t-believe-you look plastered on her face. Jariel just laughed watching them bicker back and forth. He was happy to see Dawn happy for once. Ever since Annette had stormed out that day, Dawn had been sulking around the house, most likely worried about Annette, if there was something wrong with her herself, or something else because that was just how Dawn was. Dawn cared about other people, something that Jariel thought to be impossible. When he first arrived on this hell hole, he thought that all of humanity was the same. Selfish, greedy, slobs who wasted away on this earth, only caring about what was good for themselves. Well, Dawn had proved him wrong. Dawn had shown Jariel that there were a few people on this planet that would lend a helping hand. That not all human beings, scum, were selfish, greedy, slobs. It made him feel a little bit better about humanity. Only a little bit though.
Dawn smiled again and left the kitchen with Annette to go help her unpack her clothes from her overnight bag. Jariel loved it when Dawn smiled. Her smile lit up her face and Jariel always found himself to smile along, it was as though Dawn’s smile was contagious. He had to admit, he was growing a little bit soft, especially when it came to Dawn. She just made him happy. After all, she had been the only one who had helped him through a rough spot.
“Sorry I left in a hurry without an explanation.” Dawn said, snapping Jariel out of his thoughts.
“It’s okay. I’m sure there was a good reason.” Jariel shrugged, as if it was no big deal.
“Derek is just a…a bit of a problem.” Dawn said, playing with the sleeves of her hoodie. “He’s an abusive drunkard. He was never good for Annette, but no matter how hard I told her she wouldn’t leave him. “She let out a sigh. “I guess she had to learn it the hard way.”
“She just didn’t want to hear the truth. Sometimes, the truth stings, and people do just need to learn life’s hard lessons that way. It’s not necessarily what we want, but it’s what happens. That’s life.” He answered, looking up from the floor to meet her face. She smiled at him as she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.
“Yeah, I guess that is life.” She agreed. “Well, I’m gunna head to bed. See you tomorrow.” With that she waved goodnight and left Jariel’s sight.
Jariel smiled shyly and lay back down, happy to finally be able to try and get some sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about Dawn though. How much she cared for other people. How much she tried to please everybody else, and yet she was suffering herself. He knew that Dawn inspired to become a world famous artist. She would get her big break soon enough, Jariel just had a feeling. She was a great artist.
Jariel rolled over on his side and closed his eyes. He just wanted to get to sleep, but he couldn’t. Haunting memories of his dream, of his nightmare, plagued his mind and refused him to get any sleep. He didn’t want to dream about Elise or about what had happened right now. He just wanted to have a nice, peaceful, dreamless sleep for once. He still couldn’t figure out what that dream meant. On top of worrying about the dream, he just couldn’t stop thinking about Dawn.
Could it be, was it possible at all, that he was falling for her?
* * * *
Dawn was more than happy to have Annette back home and safe. Thankfully her rescue mission had gone well and they were able to get away from that place without Derek stopping, or even knowing about, it at all. Mission accomplished, she thought to herself, smiling. She was surprised when Jariel had rushed to the door and made sure that everything was alright. She was also surprised when Annette apologized, something she never does because she is just way too prideful. Dawn wasn’t holding anything against her and understood why she had acted so harshly. Okay, so maybe she could have at least told her what was going on instead of flat out ignoring her but hey, that was in the past and she was looking forward now. She wasn’t going to dwell on the past and what had happened because what use was it to her? If all the past brought was pain and heartache, then she could do without. She just wanted to focus on the future now, as well as her paintings.
She wrapped her purple comforter around her and grabbed her sketch book, continuing where she had last left off before Annette had called her. She was mostly done drawing Jariel, for the most part. She still had one more thing to add though, wings. His soft, pure white, angel wings. She stared at the picture and it just didn’t look right without them. Whenever she looked at Jariel now, she expected to see him with his wings, and she was a bit disappointed when she remembered that he had to keep his wings hidden, especially with Annette in the house again. She wished that he didn’t have to; they made him look more natural, well, to her at least. However, that was just the way things were and she had to live with it.
She sketched the outlines of the wings carefully, making sure not to mess up or she would have to redo the entire picture again. She had the wings envelop his body, as though he was shielding himself from the world. Jariel had walls built up around his heart, and Dawn just guessed that it was because he had been hurt. She didn’t really know what he didn’t like humans though. She just couldn’t comprehend it. Sure, there were some scum bags in this world, but society wasn’t all like that. There were some people that were better than that. She just couldn’t understand why he would hate a whole species and not even really know them.
Dawn yawned again. She wanted to go to sleep, but she was having a bit of trouble. She got up and left her room to see if Jariel was up and what he was doing. Sure enough, he was lying on the couch watching some sort of paid programming.
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, looking over at her.
“Can’t sleep.” She answered, yawning again.
“Join the club.” He laughed, sitting up and patting the spot next to him.
“There’s not much on at one in the morning.” She said, smiling and taking a seat next to him.
“No kidding. I’m just hoping something will bore me to sleep.” He laughed. They talked for about an hour or so, before Jariel actually managed to fall asleep. Dawn stayed up and watched some more television, well paid programming about a purse that you could find basically anything in. She just thought that it was the ugliest thing on this planet, plus who would want a purse like that? Her purse wasn’t like that and yet she managed to keep in organized.
Dawn continued to stay up and watch paid programming, kind of wishing that she was asleep right now. She was just so stressed out that she couldn’t manage to close her eyes. She was stressed about her painting. She was stressed about her job. Hell, she seemed to be stressed about almost everything in her life lately. She really need a vacation, and fast. She really just wanted to go someplace and loose all this stress that had been surrounding her lately. She wanted to smile again, and not just an any day smile, but a genuine happy smile. She painted a smile on her face everyday to make sure that everyone else around her was happy. So that they wouldn’t see through her lie. That she wasn’t fine, not in the least bit. She was terrified of never becoming an artist, of having to work in that shop forever. She missed her sister more than words could tell. She wanted her sister back here and in her arms. She wanted to apologize for all the horrible things she said to her. She wanted to take back what she told her that night. No matter how badly she wanted that though, it couldn’t happen. Dawn soon found herself drifting to sleep on the couch too, sitting up and leaning against Jariel, who was sleeping soundly in the dark room.