A/N: I'm sooo sorry for the very late update, but I've just been so busy with everything else that's going on…I HATE HISTORY DAY!!!! Sorry had to get that out of my system. The next update should be soon since I'm almost done with the next chapter hope you like this one I know I had fun writing it…now on with the show!

Disclaimer: I own all so no stealie!!!!!

Chapter 2 Story Time

Laurie soon found her prey in the arts class that was on the other side of campus. Figures, she thought as she walked into the room silently deciding to scare him.

He was sitting by the window, sunlight reflecting off of his gold hair. His aquamarine colored eyes were concentrated on a canvas. His deft hands were mixing colors and Laurie could see that he was working on a blood red color.

Her purpose forgotten for the moment she crept closer to him, her curiosity piqued. When she got close enough she peered at Adrian's painting and gasped. The painting was…well let's just say that words could not describe the impact it had on the human spirit. To put it simply the painting was exquisite. It was of a moonlit forest glade and a small pond was painted in the middle of it. The pond reflected a crescent moon and the star strewn sky. Not only the scenery stunned Laurie but also the girl he had painted.

She was beautiful! She had raven colored tresses that elegantly spilled to her waist, with stars woven into her hair. Her face was tilted up to gaze at the night sky, and her piercing black eyes reflected the light of the moon. Her beauty was not from her looks, it was from an inner glow that seemed to radiate off of her body. A peace that no one except an angel or someone touched by one can have seemed to radiate off of her, even though she was just a painting. The dress she wore went to her ankles and was pure white with tiny stars scattered across the surface of the dress. Her legs dangled in the water causing a slight ripple, and soaking her dress at the same time.

Though those things could've been enough to capture a person's attention that's not what caught Laurie's. The girl's wings caught her attention. One wing was fully intact, and attached to the girl's body, a pure white color…the other lay ripped and torn, with flecks of blood staining the once white feathers. Where the wing was supposed to be the dress was ripped open showing a scar that looked long healed. A testimony to a wrong that was done to her…What that wrong was Laurie did not know…yet.

"The name of the painting is Fallen Angel." Laurie started at the sound of Adrian's voice. "Why are you here? I would've expected you to be out spending daddy's money," he said condescendingly.

So the kitty has claws does he? Let's see what happens when he messes with a tiger. She thought her anger rising at the insult. "You know I was going to get you an I-pod for your Christmas gift, seeing as you're my Secret Santa, but I'll just get you nothing."

Adrian stopped mixing his paints and looked directly into her eyes.

She flinched at the intense emotions that she saw. They seemed to burn her soul and she resisted the urge to squirm in her spot. His next sentence, however, made her forget everything and shocked her to the core.

"There is nothing in this world that you can buy that could ever replace the gift I lost." There's so much pain in his eyes. I feel like I'm drowning! And what does he mean I can't buy him anything, I have more money than most people can possibly dream of what is there that I can't buy? she thought. Adrian's eyes suddenly turned away from her eyes and back to his painting, releasing her from the hold she had been under.

Laurie exhaled the breath, she had been unconsciously holding, in a shaky sigh. She could've sworn she heard him mutter something, but what she didn't know.

He mixed his brush in the paint and carefully applied it onto the canvas.

She watched as the blood red drops of paint slowly dripped down onto the white wing, staining it permanently. Her curiosity got the better of her again and she asked him a question. "Why aren't you like other people who paint happy and pure things? This painting is so sad, and seems to show the darker side of a person, the side no one wants to see. You could've easily painted that girl whole and pure. So why didn't you?" (A/N: to any artists out there sorry if those statements are wrong…it just tied so well into the story! Sorry!!!)

Adrian stared at Laurie for a couple of seconds, and then continued to paint. Instead of using red though he was now repainting the wing white so that it looked whole. It looked beautiful, but seeing it like this seemed wrong. Almost like a mask hiding something much bigger that completed the picture…it seemed so fake. Laurie knew this was his way of giving her a message without having to tell her anything. Then the message hit her. A mask can only hide so much. Especially once you've seen the real thing.

Laurie sucked in a breath at her revelation and before he could paint anymore she stopped him. "Don't. It was beautiful the way it was and I'm sorry you had to waste paint just to show me a point."

Adrian nodded and once more started to spill red coloring onto the wing. "Would you like to hear the story behind this painting," he said casually.

Laurie knew it was not a question, but an order so she nodded her head…and this is the story.

Once upon a time an angel was sent to Earth as a gift from God. She masqueraded as a human bringing joy to everyone who met her. But the angel felt nothing that was her curse; she was not meant to feel, only to give. Her wings were the house of her emotions…and the only way she could get back to heaven. But she had no wings, and she could not feel. The only time she would be allowed to feel was when she found her true love in a human and he returned it either by agreement or a true showing of emotions. Then she would be given her wings and all of her emotions. (A/N: that may not have made sense to some people. If so send me your comments and I'll explain anything in this chapter as best as I can ok? Right moving on)

Time passed and no one was able to stir her sleeping heart. Three centuries passed and one day she was given a chance. A ruthless prince visited the town she was living in and for some reason the angel fell madly in love with him. This was her true love. Every time she saw him her heart melted a little and her wings slowly grew. One day her wings were fully regenerated and she knew she would soon be able to go back home. All she needed was for her love to be returned. She visited the prince and showed him her true form explaining that if he returned her love she would be able to make him an angel like her. He would be immortal and a protector of the Earth like all the other angels in heaven.

The prince wanted the eternal life, but not the angel or the other duties, so he agreed to love her in exchange for immortality. She was blinded by her love for him, so she was not able to see what would soon happen. She grasped his hand and soon both stood before the gates of heaven. All they needed to do was walk through the gates and they would be bound to each other forever.

He asked if he could go in first and she agreed, but as soon as he crossed the threshold and gained his immortality he turned on the angel. He ripped off her wings and threw her back down to Earth. An angel is given one pair of wings, and once it's gone there is no way of gaining it back. She would never be able to return to heaven, but oddly enough she did not mind. The last words she whispered to him as she was thrown back to Earth were I love you. The prince felt nothing at these words or the sight of the angel falling. He just continued to walk into heaven, but as he walked the impact of what he had done opened his own heart and he felt great pain and sorrow. The walk into heaven shows a person their sins in life and the impact of those sins. As he walked his pain and sorrow grew until he dragged himself back to the gates, but he found them closed. A group of angels surrounded him and told him things he would never forget.

"She gave you her love freely, as well as her protection. You are now one of us, and you are not allowed out until she who loved you returns."

"But she cannot come back. Once an angel loses its wings it can not find the way back home!" he cried as they started to disappear.

"Then you will stay here forever without her."

The prince cried for his lost love and his past wrongs…but God is not without mercy. He gave the prince the job of guarding the gate, but he was not allowed to leave his post for any reason. This job allowed him to gaze down at Earth and see his beloved, as well as talk to her once every three hundred years. "I'm sorry," he would always whisper down to her hoping that by some miracle she could hear him. He knew that she had forgiven him, but he would never be able to forgive himself until he found a way to be with her and apologize to her not as an angel…but as a human, like when she first saw him.

On Earth the angel regained one of her lost wings because of her pure love, but the other did not grow back. It symbolized a half of what was once a whole that could never be again. A forbidden love. Both halves doomed to yearn for what was lost. One with no regrets, the other with too many.

"That is the story the world tried to hide…and the one I experienced," Adrian whispered, his painting forgotten.

Laurie looked at Adrian's face and saw his eyes shining with tears. She felt pity for him. If his story is anything to go on he's a lost soul looking for the chance to apologize to his fallen angel, she thought.

"What's your story Adrian? Not the one the world created. What happened to you that would cause you to isolate yourself like this?"

Adrian sadly looked out of the window. "My story is painful to recall. It all happened one year ago. I was the prince of my school. Popular, good looks, girls loved me, and I was a spoiled kid that wanted more.

There was a girl…new to the school…her name was Liana. She was the sweetest and most beautiful girl anyone had ever seen, the girl in my painting…that's her. Anyways all the boys loved her and the girls all wanted to be friends with her. She soon became as popular as me, but instead of wanting the popularity, she tried to distance herself away from everyone. She was the new life of our school…loved by everyone."

"I observed all this and greedily decided I would date her just to gain more popularity. What I didn't know was that she truly loved me. When I asked her to be my girlfriend she said yes, not knowing what a cruel bastard I would be to her.

We were together for a month and we were both happy. She got the person she loved…while I…well I got the boost to my popularity that I had wanted.

Everyone, but me, noticed that I was subtly being changed by her proximity and for some reason they didn't want that. They wanted to keep their cold king, and they would do anything to keep him.

Do you want to know what they did? Do you know what I did? Well I'll tell you.

They started to ignore Liana just so I would dump her, and instead they started to dote on another girl. Stupid, selfish me falls into their trap.

I dumped her…I remember it so clearly. It was Christmas Eve and I asked Liana to meet me in front of our secret glade in the forest…it looks exactly like the one in my painting. When she got there I was already there with the other girl.

I told Liana I was dumping her and going out with the other girl…I told her that she was…ugly and stupid and the only reason I had dated her was because she had been popular.

She took my insults with a small smile and a bowed head. When I finished she nodded and turned to leave. Before she left though she said something that changed me forever. A tainted thing is what every person in the world is. We were born into a cruel world and as we grow we become tainted by it. We fight and do many cruel things to survive, but that's what makes this our world. I saw you. You had a tainted soul, but it was also pure at the same time. Both were fighting each other and I treasured both…I loved you and your ways, and I always will. People act pure only as a mask, because that is what we all want. A pure soul that's not tainted. But how long will that act stay in place before some one with enough skill comes along and rips off the mask…then what? We'll be left to pick up our tattered dreams and move on. Remember that you are who you are, don't forget that.

She left after she said that, and for some reason I felt something go with her…a part of my tainted and pure soul as she called it.

The next day came and the teacher told us that a car had hit Liana and she was in the hospital. I remember running out of the classroom not caring what people thought. The only thing I could think about was getting to the hospital and seeing Liana.

When I saw her I was shocked. She was in a coma and the only thing keeping her alive was life support. I tried my best to wake her up…but…she wouldn't wake up. And in those moments when I tried to wake her up I realized that I loved her. Like the man in the story. I had, had the love of an angel and only after I had ripped off her wings did I realize what I had done and what I had lost. She was wrong. I didn't have any semblance of a pure soul. I was tainted and dirty from the beginning and only she was able to rip off my mask. A huge rift now separates us. I'm on Earth and she's somewhere where I can't reach her. That's my story…"

For a few moments the room they were in was totally silent. The impact of his story had hit Laurie like a ton of bricks and she was feeling slightly dazed. "Does that mean that she's dead now?"

Adrian looked up into Laurie's eyes for the first time since the story had started and she saw the trails of silver tears that glistened on his cheeks.

"No. She's still in a coma, but her parent's don't have enough money to keep her on life support. She has till Christmas to wake up…"

A/N: How I love cliffies it just keeps you hanging in there get it! Sorry I just had sugar intake massive sugar intake. Anyways please review and I'll see you next time in my next chapter. Here's a preview since I feel so bad for keeping you waiting for so long.

Laurie stared at the hospital standing in front of her. This is it. She had been shocked after Adrian finished his story. When she asked what hospital Liana was in, she was shocked once again to know it was the hospital right down the road.

Flashback

"Until Christmas! That's only five days from today!"

Adrian dejectedly nodded his head. "I've given up hope. I've decided to join my angel the day she truly dies…"

End Flashback

'Idiot!