Ashton drove the car out of the parking lot. They just had breakfast and were back on the road. Ashton felt bad that they couldn’t take a plane, but he had to save money for rent for at least another nine months.
There was something about this girl that interested Ashton. She was so innocent. Ashton wondered why she was stuck in the middle of this. She seemed normal enough.
“Ashton, can I ask you something,” Alison asked him all of a sudden.
“Didn’t give me a choice there did ya sweetheart,” he said attempting to make her smile.
Ashton heard her chuckle. “Okay, can I ask you two more questions?” she asked.
Ashton laughed, “Let’s see, um… NO!”
“Ash,” Alison whined dragging out the ‘sh’ sound.
“Ali,” Ashton mimicked dragging out the ‘ee’ sound.
“I like that! I’m going to call you Ash from now on.”
Ashton liked it too, “No one called me Ash before, it’s always just been Ashton. But if you call me Ash, I’m going to call you Ali.”
She paused, thinking for a minute, “How about Sonny, my friends call me Sonny and you can too.”
That hurt Ashton. He didn’t like the sound of being just friends. “Well I was hoping I’m not your friend,” he said before he could stop himself.
“Oh right,” Ali said, sounding a bit sad, “you’re just a stranger, claiming to be my guardian angel!”
That hurt Ashton more! “You still didn’t ask your question yet,” he told her trying to change the topic.
“Oh, um… I was going to say that you didn’t tell me anything about your father. What was he like?”
Ashton let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Then he sucked a breath, when he realised what she asked. “There’s nothing to tell,” he said coldly. Ashton’s father was horrible.
The next four hours went by in silence, and for that Ashton was grateful. Then Ali spoke again, “Ash, can we stop somewhere, I um… got use the washroom, so…”
Ashton saw Ali’s face turning red. He chuckled, “Yes, of course. Then we can grab you some food and clothes too.”
After grabbing the food and picking out a few outfits, they were back in the car. Ashton saw that Ali was eating a chocolate bar like she hadn’t eaten in days.
“Why don’t Angels eat, sleep, or um… use the bathroom? Don’t you need to fuel your body too?” Ali asked after she had eaten six of her fifteen chocolate bars.
“No. We don’t have real bodies to fuel,” Ashton told her.
“But I can touch you, and you can drive and open doors and, well all that stuff,” she said confused.
“Yes, but I can also go invisible, and walk through walls,” he argued.
“So you have superpowers then?” she asked.
“Well, I guess you can say that.”
“Are you like super strong in church and super weak in like graveyards or something?” Ali asked curiously, “that would be so cool, except for the weak part! Oh, can you read minds?”
Ashton chuckled, “We are stronger in places of worship, yes. We are not weaker in grave yards though. But Ali, promise me something, if you are ever, and I mean ever, in trouble, run to the closest place of worship.”
“Are the bad guys weaker there? Or is it just because your stronger?” she questioned.
“Both, promise me!” Ashton demanded.
“Okay, okay, I promise!” she told him.
Ash relaxed, “good! Now get ready to meet my family.”
“Okay, I’m ready, who are we meeting first?” Ali questioned.
“All of them,” he told her, “Its Parker’s birthday remember!”
They drove for another ten minutes before they pulled up to an average two story house. Ashton turned to Ali, “You definitely don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
“But I do want to, and I’m going to. Let’s do this!” she said getting out of the car.