CHAPTER 8

I was in the car with Richard. I was staring out the passenger's window at the traffic.

"Would you just tell me where we're going?" I sounded frustrated.

"Calm down, I am not telling you anything." He was chuckling an evil chuckle that made me want to slap him across the face.

I sighed in annoyance and crossed my arms. It was a nice day. Richard dropped me off at my hotel room so I could change.

"So if that was your step father's mansion…then where was he?" I asked a little skeptical.

"He was working in his office. He hardly comes out of it." He explained to me.

I was a little annoyed not knowing where we were going, so I tried to turn on the radio to ease my anxiety. I surfed the stations until I found I song I didn't know but I liked the beat. I listened closely to the lyrics. It reminded me of an old poem I had written…

You know she's there…

You know but don't really care…

You see her in the school halls…

You hear her laughing with her friends…

But what you don't know, see, or hear is…

Every night she cries herself to sleep…

I had written that late one night when I was thinking how I was treated differently because I was different. I know, it's not like it cam to me as a surprise that people were treating me differently because that's what people do. Angels aren't that much different than human except our culture and we have wings. I sometimes feel stupid because of the way I acted and cried night after night because of the way others acted towards me…it's just, I had this sliver of hope. After that, I now look at hope as a curse…it's what keeps you going and gets your hope up and then when it all goes wrong, you die inside. Hope is probably the reason why I'm grim and not so optimistic.

"We're almost there." Richard announced.

I looked out the window. We were on a narrow road. There were a lot of trees, tall trees. I could see sunlight trying to find a way through the trees' leaves and branches.

"Since we are almost there, tell me where we are going?" I pushed.

"Nope."

I snorted. I tilted my head back and closed me eyes.

My life as an angel was crap. The only time anyone but my sister and mother paid any attention to me was when I met George. He had fallen while playing tag and busted his lip and screwed up his leg. I had felt bad for an add reason and I had used my healing ability to fix it all up. And then we became friends, and then in high school…girlfriend and boyfriend. Actually, there were more then Sarah, Mom, and George who paid attention to me. There were the monks. They taught me how to meditate, or control my feelings. They taught us to ignore those who hated me, which was everyone. They were our teachers up until 8th grade. Then we went to high school. From half of 5th grade to 8th grade, they taught us self-defense and how to use our powers. I enjoyed going to the temple with Sarah. The temple gave me a sense of peace, and sanctuary.

"Okay, we're here." Richard proclaimed.

"Finally!" I groaned. I sat up and looked out at the scenery.

"You took me to a beach?" I asked rather shocked.

"You don't want to be here?" He sounded a little offended.

"No, no! Not at all!" I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

He parked the car. Richard got out and waited for me to exit before looking the car.

"I use to come here when I was growing up and angry about some of my issues…" Richard was walking beside me.

"Issue?" I questioned as we made our way to the sand.

"Yeah…bad memories."

We kept walking towards the shore. The sound of the waves crashing was calming.

"I wouldn't want you to go back to that particular moment that gives you bad memories…" I wasn't being sarcastic. I meant it; I know how it feels to remember a bad memory. I looked up at Richard. He had a look of thanks and understanding.

We reached the water's edge. I stopped and looked out over the ocean. I could feel the ocean's spray against my face. My hair whipped about. I brushed it away from my eyes. I looked up. Richard was staring at me.

"What? Why are you staring at me?" I inquire.

"What…uh…er…" He was looking a bit sheepish.

I frowned.

"Whatever. So why did you like to come here? To the beach?" I asked sitting down on the damp sand. Richard followed my move and sat down with his legs out and leaning back on his elbow.

"I don't know, I never was a big fan of the library, there were to many people at the park, and I never really had friends to go to their houses…" He explained.

"Isn't it a long ride for you to go every time you got…mad?"

"Well, I would ride my bike here and then camp out here for a night, and by then, Bruce would have found me…I skipped school a lot and ran away to spend the day here."

I just listened, relating to the feeling of going someplace safe.

"I know how you feel…" I trailed off.

"Oh shit!" I moaned as I realized that the water had reached us. My jeans up to my knee were soaked. "Damn that's cold!"

"Oh come on! It only water." Richard joked. "Now that we are all ready wet, you want to go for a walk in the water?" He asked. I looked at him as though he was crazy.

"Do you remember the last time you got me wet?" I queried.

He got up brushing the sand from his butt. He helped me up and started to walk towards the water.

"I'm not going in!" I yelled struggling to stay on my feet as he pulled at me and I pulled away from him.

"Come on! It'll be like last time!" He was laughing.

"Richard! I will kick your ass!" He stopped pulling and let go of my wrist.

"Fine. Don't be fun. I'll go in myself." He laughed as he walked into the water waist deep. His jeans were definitely soaked now if they weren't before! I watched him turn back to look at me, smile, wink, then walk a little more into the salt water. I rolled my eyes and shifted my stance to my right side.

"Sure you don't want to come in?" He yelled back to me.

"Pretty damn sure!" I answered.

He shrugged and dove into the water, a few seconds later he came back up.

"Whooo! That feels good!" He screamed. He turned his body to face me. I could barley hear him because he was so far out when he called to me, "Lat chance to come in!"

"I'm fine right here!" I could see him coming back to shore. I waited there with my hands in my sweater's pouch. He was almost out of the water. His shirt was clinging to his body, showing off his muscles. His ounce spiky black hair was now flattened dew to the water. 'There you go again Rachelle! Stop looking at Richard! Damn you!' I looked away and down at my feet.

"Since you're not going in the water and I don't want to drag you in…" He had a mischievous look on is face.

"What are you going to do, Grayson?" I asked a little nervous. I couldn't help but smile just a little because Richard looked funny dripping wet and looking at me with a demon's child face. Wait that's my face…a demon's child. Well, that killed the moment.

"Nothing. I'm not doing anything…" He grinned as he slowly walked towards me. "I just thought since your being a part pooper and not getting in the water, I'd just have to get you wet without bringing you in the water with me." He smiled then shrugged and broke into a run. I turned as fast as I could laughing and running away from him.

"I don't want to become soaked Richard!" I could barley talk because I was laughing to hard. 'Why am I laughing?' Richard was right behind me. Despite the fact he was soaking wet, he was running faster than me and soon caught up. He reached out and grabbed my waist, pulling me back. I screamed. But it wasn't a scream of horror, but I screamed because…well…I was having fun? I wasn't sure. 'Why am I all screwed up with my feelings?' Richard put his arms around me and squeezed me.

"Yep, now I'm wet!" I laughed.

He was still hugging me and I couldn't break free.

"Well, then in that case…" Richard picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and started to run for the ocean.

"Let me go!" I yelled pounding on his back.

And then I felt us plunge into the cold water. He pulled me back over his shoulder and carried me out into deeper water, and then when we got deep enough, he dove into the water. He didn't let go of me as we went under, but then again, I didn't try to break free. He broke the surface and we both drew in breaths.

"Damn you!" I yelled still in shock from the cold water. I think Richard was trying to say something but he couldn't stop laughing to say whatever it was. "Not again!" I moaned as he let my feet fall but still held me with his other arm. I stared into his eyes. He was smiling from ear to ear and he was still laughing.

"It's not that funny." I said quietly.

"Yeah it is!" He laughed even harder.

I sighed and ducked under his arm that was holding me to him. I started to walk back to shore.

"Where are you going, Rachelle?" Richard asked following me.

"Where does it look like?" I sneered.

He grinned his famous cocky grin and walked beside me all the way to shore where we laid down on the sand.

"I can't believe you did that again! Now I'm cold…again!" I complained.

"Here…" Richard started to take off his shirt.

"No, no! That's okay! I'm fine, no need to do that!" I pleaded.

"What? I was just giving you warmth…again." He chuckled.

"Isn't there some other way?" I asked with a frown.

Richard seemed to ponder the thought then scooted closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. And you know what? I didn't do anything! I ALLOWED HIMTO HOLD ME! 'I cannot believe I'm not smacking him or cussing at him. I cannot believe I'm falling for a guy. I'm falling for Richard Grayson!'