CHAPTER ELEVEN: ROOFTOP SAFETY AND CITY COMFORT
I got to the penthouse the next day. The woman from social services was supposed to come with me, but I told her I'd go on my own. I left the Thomases without saying goodbye. I took all my clothes and books and CDs and all in my duffel. I seriously considered leaving Huck Finn back at the Thomases, to spite Angel, but Alexa would probably burn it and it was something that I loved too much to leave in a hellhole where the only upside was an easy way out. Sure, it could be replaced, but there was something about it that made me not want to give it up. Not just yet, anyway.
When I got up to the penthouse I met Laura Ralston, my new foster parent. She was about forty, and she had dark brown hair and pale skin. She was dressed in businesslike clothes, and was very well made up. She showed me around, and was nice, but my mind was elsewhere. That is, until, we went further into the penthouse.
Laura showed me to my bedroom. She opened the door at the end of the hall, and I stepped inside first. I put my stuff down on the floor first, and looked around. It was the nicest bedroom I'd ever been in.
The room was painted a dark purple, like, the darkest purple ever. It was an awesome color. The room was really big, with four windows, two on one wall, two on the other. They were long windows, open-able, with dark purple curtains over them. I looked out the window, and saw that I had been blessed with a fire escape once more. Cha-ching! I stepped away, and looked at more of the room. There was a huge, big, comfy-looking bed in the corner on the same side of the wall as the door, which was in the other corner. It had a white duvet and all these different colored pillows on it. There were two nightstands on either side of it, one with a cool dark blue lamp. On one of the walls with two windows, not the one with the fire escape, the other one, there was a mahogany dresser. In the corner in between these walls, there was a little table with a CD rack on it. On the wall opposite the fire escape wall, there was a walk-in closet, and a door to my own bathroom. Near the door to the hallway, there was another door.
"What's in here?" I asked Laura.
"Go on in and see," She told me, smiling. I kind of liked her by now. I opened the door, and stepped inside.
It was a whole other room. Bigger than my bedroom. Huge. This one had navy-blue walls, and all these band movie posters and shit that were from some of the best movies ever. It had a gigantic stereo on one wall, and also on this wall was a big built-in desk with a sweet computer, and all these drawers and cabinets with locks and keys that were perfect for hiding weapons. On another wall there was a big-screen TV with a DVD player and everything, and a big, navy blue couch opposite it. Hanging from the ceiling was this sweet punching bag, perfect for training. There was also a CD rack and a whole stack of DVDs that I loved. How the hell did she know one of my fave movies was Heathers? There was even this little kitchen on the other side of the punching bag wall. It had a little fridge and freezer and cabinets and stuff. Then, this whole one wall, was a built in bookshelf filled with these awesome books that I'd read and loved, or that I desperately wanted to read. I looked over some of the titles and stopped when I came to this one shelf that had all these old books. That had to do with magic and supernatural stuff. I turned to Laura.
"Do you believe in this stuff?" I asked her.
"Avarielle, I am a witch. I am a witch who does magic and used to coordinate with the Watchers Council of England. Part of the reason I was so eager to take you on as my foster child is because you are are the slayer." She smiled at me. I took this in, and then another thought crossed my mind.
"Can I try spells and stuff?" I asked her. I was getting excited, and I made up my mind about one thing: I WAS NEVER GOING TO LEAVE.
"My dear, you will try as many spells as you like. Train as much as you like. Go out and come in whenever you want."
"What's the catch?" There was always a catch.
"You have to stay."
"Why do you care so much?"
"I always wanted a daughter. To teach her spells, my business ethics, everything. And just to have company. Someone headstrong, not afraid to be herself. You are that perfect daughter I dreamed up many years ago, Avarielle."
"Ari. Call me Ari. Avarielle's too long."
"I agree."
"I'll stay, Laura. I'll stay as long as I can."
~*~
Laura told me about my new school, Jefferson, and then let me do whatever the hell I wanted. She told me to get rest, and to unpack my stuff and all, which I did. Then I turned on the TV. She had satellite. Sweetness. I turned on Comedy Central and SNL was on. I watched TV for like, three hours, which made me feel like a junkie.
Then, South Park came on and I wasn't laughing. This made me think of last night, which got me feeling sick. I also just wasn't in the mood for silly humor. You know how when you get sick of something, because you're not in the mood, and you just want to be alone, and not indoors? Well, that's what I felt just then. I needed to get out. Anywhere. Then something struck me: the roof! I left the TV on and went back into my bedroom. I opened up the window and stepped onto the fire escape. I climbed up to the roof of the building.
It was nighttime, the sun had set. I was on the huge roof of my building. So this was how big the whole penthouse was. I looked out at the skyline, but the view didn't comfort me like it usually did. I tried running around on the roof, to burn energy, but it didn't work either. I considered going back in my room and punching the punching bag a little, but I didn't feel like it. I just felt like sitting up there, doing nothing. So I sat, leaning against the little wall that went around the roof. I saw a half-full beer bottle further down the wall. It looked good, and I was getting thirsty, so I drank it all pretty fast. I choked, coughed, but then sat back down. Man, that stuff was nasty.
I closed my eyes and sat there for I don't know how long, not thinking, not sleeping, not daydreaming. It was nice, the wind blowing through my hair, chilling me, making goose bumps run up and down my arms. Then I saw a snowflake. At first I thought it was a hallucination: there really isn't much snow in November, but then another. Before I knew it it was snowing like crazy, and it was insanely cold. I was getting wet, because the snow melted when it hit my bare skin (don't ask me why I went out there in a tank top and scrubs) but I didn't care. I liked just sitting up here on the roof, watching the snow fall. I tipped my face up so that the snow would fall on my freckled cheeks and closed eyes. But I was getting tired, and didn't want to leave, because the rain was so great, and so I curled up on the roof, with the snow still pouring down, not stopping, and I was getting so cold, but I didn't care and I started to sleep. I don't know how long I was up there, a few hours, maybe, but I woke up pretty randomly. It was still dark.
"Huh..." I mumbled, and went back to sleep.
Later, I was woken up again by someone shaking my shoulder hard, calling my name.
"Ari! Wake up." I opened my eyes, just in time to catch another drop of water right in my eye. When I opened them again Angel was sitting next to me. I thought I was having a weird dream for a minute there, but Angel was really there. Kinda spinning around. Everything was. Dizziness. Yuck. Wait, but how the hell did he know where I lived? I'd moved. And why did he care, anyway? Why did I care about what he cared or didn't care? I was really cold, shivering, wet, and not feeling too good.
"Why were you up here?" He asked me.
"South Park was on... there was some beer..."
"Okay, let's get you inside." He stood, motioned for me to get up, too, but I didn't. I didn't want to get up. I wanted to stay out there, sleeping in the rain. It was nice and cool and wet, and I felt so warm and so cool at the same time... an interesting feeling I'd never experienced. Everything was still spinning, and the snow was still falling, more than at first, making me shiver out of pure delight and chill.
"Ari, come on. Get up."
"Don't wanna," I mumbled, and turned over to face the wall side of the roof. I wanted to give up. To just sit there all night, all my life, until I died. It would be a great way to die. Sitting there, happy and cold and wet, as opposed to blood, and heat and fighting and rage. Angel wouldn't let me, though. He went over to me, and picked me right up, without any struggle at all, and took me over to the fire escape. He went down it, to my room, and stepped through the open window. How did he know which was mine? He did, somehow, and he got me inside, still shivering and wet. He put me on the bed and felt my forehead.
"How long were you up there, Ari?" I shrugged.
"South Park started at seven thirty..."
"It's four in the morning. Did you go up there when it started?" Did I? Yeah, I think so. I nodded. "How long was it raining?"
"Long time. I went to sleep... then I woke up, and then I went back to sleep, and then woke up again..."
"Stay here, don't move." He went right into my bathroom, and came back with a thermometer. I didn't even know there was a thermometer in there. "Open your mouth, stick this under your tongue." I did. After a while, I was getting tired, and started to fall asleep, but he pulled out the thermometer, which woke me up. Everything was starting to spin around a little, it got sorta fuzzy.
"Ari, you have a temperature of a hundred and four."
"Woopdee fucking doo." I didn't care. I rolled over on the bed, still wet, still dizzy, boots still on, and I was still shivering. I tried to sleep, but he wouldn't let me. He turned me back to him.
"Ari, what is wrong with you?"
"I don't care..."
"Yes, you do. You have to care. Come on, you're being stupid."
"I am stupid..."
"No you're not. You're acting stupid, that's different than being stupid. Now go to your foster parent and have her find out for herself that you're sick."
"Sleep is better than foster parents... not home... don't think..." I didn't know where the hell she was, and I had no intention to find out.
"No. Get up." He shook my shoulder. That bugged me.
"Don't touch me," I whined.
"All right, that's it." He picked me up again.
"Nooo."
"I'm taking you to the hospital. A hundred and four is too high a temperature for you to be sitting around..." I don't remember anything else he said as he took me out of my room and jumped off the fire escape. I held onto him when he jumped down, and he landed on his feet, I remember that. But everything was fading away... the rain, him, me, the stars, the city, the lights...
~*~
When I woke up, my head was pounding with a migraine, I was cold and still felt warm, I was dizzy, and I was in a hospital. Goody. I sat up and was nearly scared to death by Laura sitting in a chair next to my bedside. She was smiling, though.
"When I said you could do anything you wanted, I didn't mean go up on the rooftop, get poured on and get sick." She said.
"Sorry. What time is it?"
"Five o clock."
"In the morning?"
"No. The afternoon." Jeez, I'd slept almost twelve hours since Angel found me on the roof.
"You've been in my care for less than twenty four hours and already you're getting sick on the roof. What made you do it? Alcohol? Drugs? Sheer depression?"
"South Park was on."
"Well, I can see why you went up on the roof, then." Laura smiled.
"I don't like it anymore. It pisses me off."
"I don't blame ya. It's a good thing that someone went up there and found you."
"Hmm?" Oh, right. Angel.
"Nice young man, too. Said he just found you up there and took you down here. Considerate. Nice to know that not everybody in this day and age is corrupt."
"He is corrupt. We all are."
"That's one way of looking at the world."
"Can I be alone, Laura?" I asked her. I really was sick of talking.
"Sure, honey." She got up and left. I sat up, and saw something on the nightstand. Huck Finn. Not mine, though. An ordinary, newer, paperback copy that someone must have dropped off or left or something. I picked it up, and felt its coarse, conformed pages. It was the same book, though. Just not as special. I started to read it, from the beginning. I was only on about chapter three when my door opened again. It was Angel. I did not want to see him. He was about the last person I wanted to see, and the person I had to thank.
"Can I come in?" He inquired.
"Yeah." I put down the book. I'd remember where I was, I knew that book like I knew myself: a little too well.
"How are you feeling?"
"Not so good."
"Can you talk to me?" Angel asked, concerned.
"Can you talk? I just want to listen." I settled back into my bed, resting my head on the pillow, but still looking at him.
"Okay. Where do you want me to start?"
"Wherever."
"All right. I lied." This was the last thing I expected to hear, and the thing I expected to hear the most at the same time.
"'Bout what?"
"About you. About me. I was wrong."
"Thought so."
"Look, I didn't mean to say what I did. It didn't come out how it should have," I didn't say anything. I just looked at him with my most expressionless face (I'm really good at those. They get people to do whatever the hell you want and scare them silly). He saw this, and continued. I could see that he was freaked. "Anyway, I'm sorry. Especially if it got you to-" Holy shit. He didn't think that's why I went on the roof, did he?
"Angel. That's not why I went up there."
"It's not?"
"No."
"What then? What prompted you to do this to yourself?"
"I like the snow. It's frozen rain, and I think that's pretty cool. And I like rooftops, especially when it's raining. And our roof has a great view of the city... I just wanted to go up there. Be alone. Think. I'm not exactly a people person. I need alone time, and that's just when I chose to have some. So it got me sick, who gives?"
"I do."
"You shouldn't. You were wrong about being wrong." That came out funny, huh? "We can't be together. No matter how influential and seductive the mutual attraction between us is. We need to just fight together, and leave it at that. I was just being stupid and immature the other night, that's all. But the roof and the rain... I figure everything out when I'm alone outside and it's raining. Besides, I wasn't in the mood to see Kenny die again." All this was true. But then why did I still see nothing when I looked at Angel? It was driving me halfway past the brink of insanity.
"Well, if that's what you think is best," he said, standing. "See you when you're back on your feet." He left then, without another word. I should have felt good about confirming Angel's doubts, but I didn't, and I had no idea why. I just felt worse. As I was sitting there, feeling worse, Dexter came in, suit and all, with some books in his hands. Old ones, probably having to do with demons and junk. His glasses were askew, and he saw me awake and brightened up.
"Ari. Thank god you're all right!" Huh. Didn't expect that from Mr. I-am-superglued-to-my-copy-of-the-watchers-handbook.
"Yo Dex." He hated it when I called him Dex, but he put up with it anyway. The things people do for you when you're sick.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like I was up on a cold, snowy rooftop for hours getting a fever, you?"
"Very funny. Now, I asked Laura, and she says that the doctors will let you out of here around tomorrow afternoon, and when they do, you are to come straight to the shop-"
"De-ex!" I whined. Training was the last thing on my to-do list.
"You are to come straight to the shop and we will train." He repeated firmly.
"Fine." I had pretended to give up, but there was no way I was going over to Dex's bookstore to train once I'd gotten outta the hellhole called a hospital.
"Now, on the subject of reading, I have brought you some volumes-" He plopped them on the bed. They were huge, leather bound, very old, very dull looking, demon-y volumes. Great.
"Look, Dex. I did the summer reading list, now piss off."
"Ari, you will start with this one."
"Why?"
"Because I am your watcher and you will do as I say."
"What if I don't wanna? I'm the one with super strength."
"Yes, but I am not the one who is hospitalized now can you please read this watcher's diary?"
"Ooh, a watcher diary? Does it have a lotta dirt and stuff?"
"Yes, now read it by tomorrow and bring it by the book store." He left without a goodbye.
"Nice to see you too, Dex!" I called after him. Being courteous to the sick my ass.
~*~
I was walking through a pretty big graveyard the night after I'd gotten out of the hospital. I was prepared with holy water, crosses, my stake, and a dagger. I was holding the stake in my left hand, (I'm ambi) and everything else was stowed in my jacket pockets where they were easily accessible. I was looking around for vamps everywhere. I was getting a little impatient. It was only midnight and I'd only gotten three. I was desperate for a fight. I heard a footstep behind me. I swiveled, stake at the ready, but I put my arm down and rolled my eyes. I kept moving. It was Angel, and I was not in the mood to talk to him again. Maybe I could kick his ass until there was another one to kick.
"Ari."
"What." I asked him, not turning. It came out more a statement than a question, really.
"You need any help?"
"Not unless you can point me in the right direction for where I might find some real vampires." Ooh. I burned him like he was on a stove.
"Can I tag along?"
"Not if you're going to get in my way."
"I won't."
"Fine." He walked next to me. I could feel him looking at me, prompting me to say something. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of saying I was wrong about him being wrong about being wrong. Guilt might get to him, but it wouldn't get to me.
"Do you see any around?" I asked him.
"No."
"Great. It's midnight and I've only gotten three."
"You got three? When did you come out here?"
"Around ten-thirty."
"You've gotten three in an hour and a half? That's not so-"
"Shh." I heard something, and it wasn't just Angel trying to flatter me. It was more like a vampire crawling out of his grave. I walked towards the noise, stake held tightly, ready to strike. Sure as sugar's sweet, out of a grave came a vampire. He stood, and turned around just in time for me to sucker punch him in the nose. He staggered back, and I jumped onto his tombstone, and jumped off it with a flying kick that sent him straight into a tree thirty yards away. I threw my stake like Dex threw knives at me for training, like a perfect dart, which hit him with perfect precision in the heart. He was dust. I went over to the tree, and picked up my stake lying on the ground. I brushed off some of that vampire's dust, and walked back to Angel.
"Nice job."
"I gotta go. New school tomorrow, don't want to be falling asleep."
I left then. I didn't want to be around him anymore. He was too damn annoying and too damn sweet, and I loved him too damn much.
AN: Cheesy ending. Fuck off.
I got to the penthouse the next day. The woman from social services was supposed to come with me, but I told her I'd go on my own. I left the Thomases without saying goodbye. I took all my clothes and books and CDs and all in my duffel. I seriously considered leaving Huck Finn back at the Thomases, to spite Angel, but Alexa would probably burn it and it was something that I loved too much to leave in a hellhole where the only upside was an easy way out. Sure, it could be replaced, but there was something about it that made me not want to give it up. Not just yet, anyway.
When I got up to the penthouse I met Laura Ralston, my new foster parent. She was about forty, and she had dark brown hair and pale skin. She was dressed in businesslike clothes, and was very well made up. She showed me around, and was nice, but my mind was elsewhere. That is, until, we went further into the penthouse.
Laura showed me to my bedroom. She opened the door at the end of the hall, and I stepped inside first. I put my stuff down on the floor first, and looked around. It was the nicest bedroom I'd ever been in.
The room was painted a dark purple, like, the darkest purple ever. It was an awesome color. The room was really big, with four windows, two on one wall, two on the other. They were long windows, open-able, with dark purple curtains over them. I looked out the window, and saw that I had been blessed with a fire escape once more. Cha-ching! I stepped away, and looked at more of the room. There was a huge, big, comfy-looking bed in the corner on the same side of the wall as the door, which was in the other corner. It had a white duvet and all these different colored pillows on it. There were two nightstands on either side of it, one with a cool dark blue lamp. On one of the walls with two windows, not the one with the fire escape, the other one, there was a mahogany dresser. In the corner in between these walls, there was a little table with a CD rack on it. On the wall opposite the fire escape wall, there was a walk-in closet, and a door to my own bathroom. Near the door to the hallway, there was another door.
"What's in here?" I asked Laura.
"Go on in and see," She told me, smiling. I kind of liked her by now. I opened the door, and stepped inside.
It was a whole other room. Bigger than my bedroom. Huge. This one had navy-blue walls, and all these band movie posters and shit that were from some of the best movies ever. It had a gigantic stereo on one wall, and also on this wall was a big built-in desk with a sweet computer, and all these drawers and cabinets with locks and keys that were perfect for hiding weapons. On another wall there was a big-screen TV with a DVD player and everything, and a big, navy blue couch opposite it. Hanging from the ceiling was this sweet punching bag, perfect for training. There was also a CD rack and a whole stack of DVDs that I loved. How the hell did she know one of my fave movies was Heathers? There was even this little kitchen on the other side of the punching bag wall. It had a little fridge and freezer and cabinets and stuff. Then, this whole one wall, was a built in bookshelf filled with these awesome books that I'd read and loved, or that I desperately wanted to read. I looked over some of the titles and stopped when I came to this one shelf that had all these old books. That had to do with magic and supernatural stuff. I turned to Laura.
"Do you believe in this stuff?" I asked her.
"Avarielle, I am a witch. I am a witch who does magic and used to coordinate with the Watchers Council of England. Part of the reason I was so eager to take you on as my foster child is because you are are the slayer." She smiled at me. I took this in, and then another thought crossed my mind.
"Can I try spells and stuff?" I asked her. I was getting excited, and I made up my mind about one thing: I WAS NEVER GOING TO LEAVE.
"My dear, you will try as many spells as you like. Train as much as you like. Go out and come in whenever you want."
"What's the catch?" There was always a catch.
"You have to stay."
"Why do you care so much?"
"I always wanted a daughter. To teach her spells, my business ethics, everything. And just to have company. Someone headstrong, not afraid to be herself. You are that perfect daughter I dreamed up many years ago, Avarielle."
"Ari. Call me Ari. Avarielle's too long."
"I agree."
"I'll stay, Laura. I'll stay as long as I can."
~*~
Laura told me about my new school, Jefferson, and then let me do whatever the hell I wanted. She told me to get rest, and to unpack my stuff and all, which I did. Then I turned on the TV. She had satellite. Sweetness. I turned on Comedy Central and SNL was on. I watched TV for like, three hours, which made me feel like a junkie.
Then, South Park came on and I wasn't laughing. This made me think of last night, which got me feeling sick. I also just wasn't in the mood for silly humor. You know how when you get sick of something, because you're not in the mood, and you just want to be alone, and not indoors? Well, that's what I felt just then. I needed to get out. Anywhere. Then something struck me: the roof! I left the TV on and went back into my bedroom. I opened up the window and stepped onto the fire escape. I climbed up to the roof of the building.
It was nighttime, the sun had set. I was on the huge roof of my building. So this was how big the whole penthouse was. I looked out at the skyline, but the view didn't comfort me like it usually did. I tried running around on the roof, to burn energy, but it didn't work either. I considered going back in my room and punching the punching bag a little, but I didn't feel like it. I just felt like sitting up there, doing nothing. So I sat, leaning against the little wall that went around the roof. I saw a half-full beer bottle further down the wall. It looked good, and I was getting thirsty, so I drank it all pretty fast. I choked, coughed, but then sat back down. Man, that stuff was nasty.
I closed my eyes and sat there for I don't know how long, not thinking, not sleeping, not daydreaming. It was nice, the wind blowing through my hair, chilling me, making goose bumps run up and down my arms. Then I saw a snowflake. At first I thought it was a hallucination: there really isn't much snow in November, but then another. Before I knew it it was snowing like crazy, and it was insanely cold. I was getting wet, because the snow melted when it hit my bare skin (don't ask me why I went out there in a tank top and scrubs) but I didn't care. I liked just sitting up here on the roof, watching the snow fall. I tipped my face up so that the snow would fall on my freckled cheeks and closed eyes. But I was getting tired, and didn't want to leave, because the rain was so great, and so I curled up on the roof, with the snow still pouring down, not stopping, and I was getting so cold, but I didn't care and I started to sleep. I don't know how long I was up there, a few hours, maybe, but I woke up pretty randomly. It was still dark.
"Huh..." I mumbled, and went back to sleep.
Later, I was woken up again by someone shaking my shoulder hard, calling my name.
"Ari! Wake up." I opened my eyes, just in time to catch another drop of water right in my eye. When I opened them again Angel was sitting next to me. I thought I was having a weird dream for a minute there, but Angel was really there. Kinda spinning around. Everything was. Dizziness. Yuck. Wait, but how the hell did he know where I lived? I'd moved. And why did he care, anyway? Why did I care about what he cared or didn't care? I was really cold, shivering, wet, and not feeling too good.
"Why were you up here?" He asked me.
"South Park was on... there was some beer..."
"Okay, let's get you inside." He stood, motioned for me to get up, too, but I didn't. I didn't want to get up. I wanted to stay out there, sleeping in the rain. It was nice and cool and wet, and I felt so warm and so cool at the same time... an interesting feeling I'd never experienced. Everything was still spinning, and the snow was still falling, more than at first, making me shiver out of pure delight and chill.
"Ari, come on. Get up."
"Don't wanna," I mumbled, and turned over to face the wall side of the roof. I wanted to give up. To just sit there all night, all my life, until I died. It would be a great way to die. Sitting there, happy and cold and wet, as opposed to blood, and heat and fighting and rage. Angel wouldn't let me, though. He went over to me, and picked me right up, without any struggle at all, and took me over to the fire escape. He went down it, to my room, and stepped through the open window. How did he know which was mine? He did, somehow, and he got me inside, still shivering and wet. He put me on the bed and felt my forehead.
"How long were you up there, Ari?" I shrugged.
"South Park started at seven thirty..."
"It's four in the morning. Did you go up there when it started?" Did I? Yeah, I think so. I nodded. "How long was it raining?"
"Long time. I went to sleep... then I woke up, and then I went back to sleep, and then woke up again..."
"Stay here, don't move." He went right into my bathroom, and came back with a thermometer. I didn't even know there was a thermometer in there. "Open your mouth, stick this under your tongue." I did. After a while, I was getting tired, and started to fall asleep, but he pulled out the thermometer, which woke me up. Everything was starting to spin around a little, it got sorta fuzzy.
"Ari, you have a temperature of a hundred and four."
"Woopdee fucking doo." I didn't care. I rolled over on the bed, still wet, still dizzy, boots still on, and I was still shivering. I tried to sleep, but he wouldn't let me. He turned me back to him.
"Ari, what is wrong with you?"
"I don't care..."
"Yes, you do. You have to care. Come on, you're being stupid."
"I am stupid..."
"No you're not. You're acting stupid, that's different than being stupid. Now go to your foster parent and have her find out for herself that you're sick."
"Sleep is better than foster parents... not home... don't think..." I didn't know where the hell she was, and I had no intention to find out.
"No. Get up." He shook my shoulder. That bugged me.
"Don't touch me," I whined.
"All right, that's it." He picked me up again.
"Nooo."
"I'm taking you to the hospital. A hundred and four is too high a temperature for you to be sitting around..." I don't remember anything else he said as he took me out of my room and jumped off the fire escape. I held onto him when he jumped down, and he landed on his feet, I remember that. But everything was fading away... the rain, him, me, the stars, the city, the lights...
~*~
When I woke up, my head was pounding with a migraine, I was cold and still felt warm, I was dizzy, and I was in a hospital. Goody. I sat up and was nearly scared to death by Laura sitting in a chair next to my bedside. She was smiling, though.
"When I said you could do anything you wanted, I didn't mean go up on the rooftop, get poured on and get sick." She said.
"Sorry. What time is it?"
"Five o clock."
"In the morning?"
"No. The afternoon." Jeez, I'd slept almost twelve hours since Angel found me on the roof.
"You've been in my care for less than twenty four hours and already you're getting sick on the roof. What made you do it? Alcohol? Drugs? Sheer depression?"
"South Park was on."
"Well, I can see why you went up on the roof, then." Laura smiled.
"I don't like it anymore. It pisses me off."
"I don't blame ya. It's a good thing that someone went up there and found you."
"Hmm?" Oh, right. Angel.
"Nice young man, too. Said he just found you up there and took you down here. Considerate. Nice to know that not everybody in this day and age is corrupt."
"He is corrupt. We all are."
"That's one way of looking at the world."
"Can I be alone, Laura?" I asked her. I really was sick of talking.
"Sure, honey." She got up and left. I sat up, and saw something on the nightstand. Huck Finn. Not mine, though. An ordinary, newer, paperback copy that someone must have dropped off or left or something. I picked it up, and felt its coarse, conformed pages. It was the same book, though. Just not as special. I started to read it, from the beginning. I was only on about chapter three when my door opened again. It was Angel. I did not want to see him. He was about the last person I wanted to see, and the person I had to thank.
"Can I come in?" He inquired.
"Yeah." I put down the book. I'd remember where I was, I knew that book like I knew myself: a little too well.
"How are you feeling?"
"Not so good."
"Can you talk to me?" Angel asked, concerned.
"Can you talk? I just want to listen." I settled back into my bed, resting my head on the pillow, but still looking at him.
"Okay. Where do you want me to start?"
"Wherever."
"All right. I lied." This was the last thing I expected to hear, and the thing I expected to hear the most at the same time.
"'Bout what?"
"About you. About me. I was wrong."
"Thought so."
"Look, I didn't mean to say what I did. It didn't come out how it should have," I didn't say anything. I just looked at him with my most expressionless face (I'm really good at those. They get people to do whatever the hell you want and scare them silly). He saw this, and continued. I could see that he was freaked. "Anyway, I'm sorry. Especially if it got you to-" Holy shit. He didn't think that's why I went on the roof, did he?
"Angel. That's not why I went up there."
"It's not?"
"No."
"What then? What prompted you to do this to yourself?"
"I like the snow. It's frozen rain, and I think that's pretty cool. And I like rooftops, especially when it's raining. And our roof has a great view of the city... I just wanted to go up there. Be alone. Think. I'm not exactly a people person. I need alone time, and that's just when I chose to have some. So it got me sick, who gives?"
"I do."
"You shouldn't. You were wrong about being wrong." That came out funny, huh? "We can't be together. No matter how influential and seductive the mutual attraction between us is. We need to just fight together, and leave it at that. I was just being stupid and immature the other night, that's all. But the roof and the rain... I figure everything out when I'm alone outside and it's raining. Besides, I wasn't in the mood to see Kenny die again." All this was true. But then why did I still see nothing when I looked at Angel? It was driving me halfway past the brink of insanity.
"Well, if that's what you think is best," he said, standing. "See you when you're back on your feet." He left then, without another word. I should have felt good about confirming Angel's doubts, but I didn't, and I had no idea why. I just felt worse. As I was sitting there, feeling worse, Dexter came in, suit and all, with some books in his hands. Old ones, probably having to do with demons and junk. His glasses were askew, and he saw me awake and brightened up.
"Ari. Thank god you're all right!" Huh. Didn't expect that from Mr. I-am-superglued-to-my-copy-of-the-watchers-handbook.
"Yo Dex." He hated it when I called him Dex, but he put up with it anyway. The things people do for you when you're sick.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like I was up on a cold, snowy rooftop for hours getting a fever, you?"
"Very funny. Now, I asked Laura, and she says that the doctors will let you out of here around tomorrow afternoon, and when they do, you are to come straight to the shop-"
"De-ex!" I whined. Training was the last thing on my to-do list.
"You are to come straight to the shop and we will train." He repeated firmly.
"Fine." I had pretended to give up, but there was no way I was going over to Dex's bookstore to train once I'd gotten outta the hellhole called a hospital.
"Now, on the subject of reading, I have brought you some volumes-" He plopped them on the bed. They were huge, leather bound, very old, very dull looking, demon-y volumes. Great.
"Look, Dex. I did the summer reading list, now piss off."
"Ari, you will start with this one."
"Why?"
"Because I am your watcher and you will do as I say."
"What if I don't wanna? I'm the one with super strength."
"Yes, but I am not the one who is hospitalized now can you please read this watcher's diary?"
"Ooh, a watcher diary? Does it have a lotta dirt and stuff?"
"Yes, now read it by tomorrow and bring it by the book store." He left without a goodbye.
"Nice to see you too, Dex!" I called after him. Being courteous to the sick my ass.
~*~
I was walking through a pretty big graveyard the night after I'd gotten out of the hospital. I was prepared with holy water, crosses, my stake, and a dagger. I was holding the stake in my left hand, (I'm ambi) and everything else was stowed in my jacket pockets where they were easily accessible. I was looking around for vamps everywhere. I was getting a little impatient. It was only midnight and I'd only gotten three. I was desperate for a fight. I heard a footstep behind me. I swiveled, stake at the ready, but I put my arm down and rolled my eyes. I kept moving. It was Angel, and I was not in the mood to talk to him again. Maybe I could kick his ass until there was another one to kick.
"Ari."
"What." I asked him, not turning. It came out more a statement than a question, really.
"You need any help?"
"Not unless you can point me in the right direction for where I might find some real vampires." Ooh. I burned him like he was on a stove.
"Can I tag along?"
"Not if you're going to get in my way."
"I won't."
"Fine." He walked next to me. I could feel him looking at me, prompting me to say something. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of saying I was wrong about him being wrong about being wrong. Guilt might get to him, but it wouldn't get to me.
"Do you see any around?" I asked him.
"No."
"Great. It's midnight and I've only gotten three."
"You got three? When did you come out here?"
"Around ten-thirty."
"You've gotten three in an hour and a half? That's not so-"
"Shh." I heard something, and it wasn't just Angel trying to flatter me. It was more like a vampire crawling out of his grave. I walked towards the noise, stake held tightly, ready to strike. Sure as sugar's sweet, out of a grave came a vampire. He stood, and turned around just in time for me to sucker punch him in the nose. He staggered back, and I jumped onto his tombstone, and jumped off it with a flying kick that sent him straight into a tree thirty yards away. I threw my stake like Dex threw knives at me for training, like a perfect dart, which hit him with perfect precision in the heart. He was dust. I went over to the tree, and picked up my stake lying on the ground. I brushed off some of that vampire's dust, and walked back to Angel.
"Nice job."
"I gotta go. New school tomorrow, don't want to be falling asleep."
I left then. I didn't want to be around him anymore. He was too damn annoying and too damn sweet, and I loved him too damn much.
AN: Cheesy ending. Fuck off.