Finding an Angel Read online

  “Wow,” is all he says as he wraps his arms around me.

  “No wait,” my mother calls out. “Before you mess up the make-up, we want some pictures please.”

  After posing for so many pictures that I am still seeing spots in my eyes, our parents share a look. Looking up at Hunter with questioning eyes, he shrugs and kisses my forehead.

  “Now Hunter,” my father starts. “This is my little girl. My only little girl, my only child and normally I trust her with no one.” He pauses and looks at me, smiling lovingly. “But you are a great guy and the way you look at her and protect her, I know the only other man I could trust her with is you.”

  “The same can be said for you, my sweet Jessa,” Mr. Sandean says. “With you, I know that Hunter is the happiest he will ever be in that moment. Considering what we’ve lost, that’s saying a lot my dear.”

  “So, because of this,” my Mom starts. “We will have a surprise for you tonight.”

  “You’ll find it back in your special spot.” Mrs. Sandean says. “When you come home tonight, go back there and see it.”

  “Now, you two have a Prom to attend. You’re going to knock everyone’s socks off,” my father tries to say in a firmer voice, but he can’t push that slight tremble out of his tone.

  Hugging everyone goodbye, Hunter escorts me out to the awaiting limo and helps me into the back. Once he’s inside, we both sigh with relief at the same time. Laughing, he takes my hand in his and brings it to his lips.

  “You are stunning. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through tonight without making a scene, but I will because tonight is our night, Jess. We deserve this moment of romance. I love you and can’t thank you enough for going tonight.”

  “I’ll admit,” I swallow. “I’m scared, but I told myself that you’d never let anything happen to me. So whether it’s to your Prom or to a movie or whatever, it’s time that we do some ‘normal’ couple things, right?”

  Smiling down at me, he brushes his knuckles down my cheek. “Only if that’s what you want, Angel.”

  Nodding my head with a smile, I force the limited time we have left together out of my mind and kiss his cheek. “It is.”

  Before I know it, we are pulling up and Hunter has exited the car to open my door. Working hard, I try to quell my nerves, but it’s harder than I thought it’d be. I’m about to come face to face with the very people that have made life so hard for me over the last decade.

  The door opens and Hunter squats down and takes my face in his gentle, loving hands.

  “We can leave at any point you don’t feel comfortable. Even if we’re just here for five minutes, I don’t care. Okay? I love you and my Prom is wherever we are together and I can dance with you all night long.”

  His final words of reassurance are all I need. Smiling at him, I lean forward and kiss his lips lightly. “I’m ready.”

  Standing, his eyes are shining with love and pride. Holding out his hand, he helps me from the car, making sure my dress is in place. Walking through the door, Hunter has to give his name and a pass for me because I do not go to this school. We walk down a short hallway into an over decorated room.

  As we stand in line – Hunter says for pictures – someone behind us calls his name.

  Hunter turns around and immediately a hardened face takes over his relaxed one. My body tenses just by his reaction to the greasy haired, plump, short looking guy behind us.

  “So I see you finally decided to dump the retard and find someone normal and,” his eyes rake my body and a shiver of fear runs up my spine, “hot as hell. Please introduce us.”

  “Lyle,” Hunter grinds out in warning.

  Without realizing it, I start laughing. Looking up at Hunter, I can see confusion on his face. The laughter won’t stop. Hunter gently runs his hand on my back and the laughter slowly eases away.

  “This is Lyle? The one you beat the shit out of,” I let the curse word fly from my lips like it was normal for me to say it.

  A small smirk graces Hunter’s face as he nods his head. Another bout of laughter starts, but I cut it off to turn back to Lyle – who is now glaring at me. Straightening myself up to my full height, I step closer to Hunter.

  “Nice to see you again Lyle. Last time I saw you, you were lying on the ground bleeding and crying for your mommy.”

  “You can’t be serious!”

  “Yup, I’m the retard,” I grin.

  Hunter’s grip tightens on my waist and I know he didn’t like that I called myself that.

  “You know that saying that ‘beauty is how we are on the inside’? Well, let me tell you,” I make show of looking at him. “You are as ugly on the inside as you are on the outside. Maybe you should look in the mirror once in a while and clean up your own flaws before pointing and ridiculing others for theirs.”

  Turning my attention to the girl that was drooling over Hunter, I force a smile on my face.

  “Hi, my name is Jessa Rawlins.”

  After a moment longer of staring at Hunter, she turns her attention to me. “Stacy, but my mom always told me not to talk to trash. So do turn around would you.”

  “Hmmm, I’m not sure why someone would want to talk to trash, but if you have to be reminded of that…” I let my sentence trail off.

  Hunter starts laughing and pulls us forward in the line. “You were amazing right there. I can’t…” I put my finger to his lips.

  “Hold that that thought a second.” Leaning over so I can see Stacy again, “And I’d appreciate you quit staring at my boyfriend’s ass. I know it looks good, but it’s mine,” I say as I brazenly grip it in my hands, shocking the heck out of Hunter and myself really. I don’t know who this woman is that has possessed me tonight, but I hope she stays, I think laughing to myself.

  Stacy’s mouth falls open as she looks at Lyle then to Hunter. “You’re dating her,” she asks him in disbelief.

  “Yup. Officially for the past two years, but really I’ve been hers since we were seven.”

  “No way,” she huffs in disbelief.

  “Yes way. I loved her for a while before we finally admitted it to each other,” he smiles lovingly down at me and I can’t help but rise up on my toes and kiss his lips lightly.

  “I don’t believe this. You are like a celebrity here. You could have your pick of anyone or everyone, and you’re with a loser not even remotely worthy of you. She’s going to bring you down.”

  “First, watch how you talk about her. Second, she’s not a loser or a retard. Hell, she’s going on her second year of college already. Third, I don’t want anyone here. I’ve only ever wanted Jessa. And I don’t have to defend that to anyone.”

  We’re called for pictures and Hunter turns to acknowledge me and turns back to them and says, “Maybe if you focused on yourselves and your flaws and quit finding it in everything around you, you might be happier too. Now, excuse us, we came here to enjoy Prom.”

  With that, Hunter pulls me with him to stand in front of a cardboard cutout of what was supposed to be a castle. He stands behind me wrapping his arms around my waist and I rest my hands and arms on his and our heads are turned to look at the camera.

  Once pictures are finished, Hunter leads me down a staircase and toward a wide open area with tables surrounding it. Straight from the staircase there is a table that has several types of drinks.

  Feeling brave, I pull away from Hunter for only a moment to request a song from the DJ that is set up near the stage. Walking back to him, I smile.

  “What do you say we start to enjoy your Prom? Wanna dance with me?”

  Just then the strands of “Every Time I Close My Eyes” by Babyface ft. Mariah Carey. He slowly turns me into his arms and we start to sway to the song. His eyes look at me with so much passion and love that I can’t seem to look away.

  “Believe it,” he says on a whisper. “I’m all yours from now and until… I love you.”

  Leaning down, he kisses me the way I’ve been dying for him to kiss me
since he came to pick me up. The world falls away from us. It’s only Hunter and I, no one else exists. The only feeling is his lips against mine, his arms wrapped around me, his heart beat against my hand that rests on his chest.

  When the song ends, he pulls back and smirks. “Finally! I thought I was going to explode if I didn’t get to kiss you, really kiss you, soon.”

  Tossing my head back, I laugh as we continue to dance to another slow song. He just gazes me as if I’m the most precious thing in the world to him. My heart skips a beat.

  “Have I told you have breathtaking you look tonight?”

  Shaking my head, “No remember you couldn’t speak when you saw me,” I tease.

  “You’ve always been beautiful to me Jessa. Even when we had that mud fight after that big rain storm and you were covered head to toe in brown goo.”

  “That was back when we were thirteen,” I say shocked.

  Nodding, “Like I said, you’ve always been beautiful to me. But tonight, damn baby, when you walked out of the kitchen I had to work hard to keep from embarrassing myself.”

  Even though I know what he means, I still have the need for him to say it. “What do you mean?”

  He blushes and I smile. “You turned me on more than I thought I had already been and if your father had seen that, there’s no way he’d be letting you out the door with me.”

  “He wouldn’t have stopped us. I talk to my parents about us, about sex and all that. They know. Don’t worry. They just trust me that… How did my dad put it? Oh yeah! I’ll use my brains and be careful whenever the time does come. He said that he trusts that you’d do the same. He knows I’m growing up and said he’d be a hypocrite if he said that I had to wait until I was married. All he wants is for me to be happy. He likes me happy, but he wants me to be safe happy.”

  “Basically the same thing my parents said to me,” he laughs. “What parent out there do you know that would be telling their kids it’s okay to have sex just use protection,” he laughs.

  “I think only ours baby,” I laugh with him.

  Hunter leans down and kisses me again, but this one is so much shorter than the first because some barely dressed girl yanks Hunter’s arm causing him to spin around. With one arm still around me, he pulls me closer to him.

  “What the hell is this Hunter?” The woman shrieks.

  “What is what,” and Hunter honestly sounds confused.

  “I thought you weren’t coming to Prom,” she crosses her arms.

  “I never said that. I said I wasn’t coming with you. As you can see, I have a date,” he pulls me even closer as he says this.

  “Yeah, the town weirdo,” she rolls her eyes at me. “You can do community service on any other night. Why’d you pick tonight?”

  The tension in his body is so strong, one hit and he’d probably snap in half. “I didn’t come…” he shakes his head and I watch a spot in his jaw jump for a moment before he speaks. “This is my girlfriend, Jessa. We came here to have a romantic night out together. I told you know because I’m not interested in you, not because I wasn’t coming.”

  “What,” the shrill in her voice has me cringing. It can be akin to nails on a chalkboard.

  Hunter sighs. “It’s nothing against you, Evie. You’re just not the one for me.”

  “And she is,” Evie questions.

  “Yes,” he says firmly, looking down at me and smiling. “She’s my everything and so much more than I deserve, but I love her so damn much…”

  “You… love… her,” Evie chokes out. “Like seriously?”

  “Yes, seriously and completely.”

  She stomps off on a huff and I can’t stop the trembling that’s taking over me. Hunter must feel it because he looks down at me with concern. Leading us over to a table, we sit and talk. All it takes his Hunter’s voice and touch and I’m calm. But tonight, I’m seeing with more and more clarity that he really does deserve better than me. Inside my head, I hear the clock ticking.

  “Hunter,” a tall blonde haired, blue eyed, muscular guy says standing with a girl that is probably my height with hair that I couldn’t decide if it was red or light brown with a tent of red in it. Her eyes were a bright green that would rival any emerald out there. She had curves, but in a good way and her smile made me feel a little more comfortable.

  “Parker,” Hunter stands and half hugs the guy. “How are you doing?”

  “Better. Glad I healed in time to take my beautiful queen to her Prom.”

  “Carmela, it’s nice to see you again,” Hunter says warmly. “I’d like you guys to meet my girlfriend,” he turns and holds out his hand to me and I tentatively place my hand in his. “Jessa, this is Parker and Carmela. Guys, this is my Angel.”

  My throat is clogged in fear. Everyone tonight has made some kind of scene and said hurtful things about me. Right now, I just want to run from here and never come back out of my house again.

  “Hunter’s told us so much about you. He didn’t lie on how beautiful you are,” Carmela says warmly.

  My mouth drops open in shock. Her tone is friendly. She’s being nice. My heart starts racing for the anger to rise from her as she’s unable to keep the fake charade up.

  “Don’t worry, honey. We won’t treat you like the others have tonight,” Carmela says.

  “Why don’t we all sit down and have a chat for a while?” Hunter suggests.

  After waiting for me to sit, he sits next to me, pulling my chair closer to him. Parker and Carmela sit across the table from us. My leg starts shaking and Hunter places a hand on my leg to still it.

  “Have you ever heard that saying that behind every person is a secret battle you know nothing about?”

  Nodding my head, I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t.

  “Well you see I’m autistic and Parker here is an epileptic. We will be the last to make fun of you or torment you. We’ve had our fair share of all that ourselves, we’d never dream of pushing that off on someone else like that.”

  My heart slows down and the breath from my lungs whooshes out. Feeling dizzy from the relief, I rest my head on Hunter’s shoulder. Before I can stop them, tears start to slip from my eyes.

  “Hey,” Hunter cups my face lovingly. “I promise, Angel. I’ll never let anything happen to you.” He turns and looks at the couple sitting with us. “We’ve not had a very good night so far… well some parts of it anyway. She’s on edge because of it all…”

  Parker holds up his hand stopping Hunter’s babbling. “I fit in with everyone around that you see here, until I had my first Grandmal seizure. Then suddenly I became a leper. Really, Jessa, we are here to offer friendship, not condemn you for being the best you, you can be.”

  Wiping my eyes, I look at the two people across the table. “Really?”

  “Really,” they say in unison.

  “Thank God, I was starting to question coming here,” I frown and look up at Hunter. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, Angel, I was questioning myself for asking you. So don’t apologize when you’d not be here if it weren’t for my asking.”

  The four of us kind of stuck together the rest of the night. Dancing, chatting, laughing and just plain enjoying ourselves as I had hoped I would. Hunter looks so happy and relaxed joking and laughing with his friends. It is a conscious effort to not frown. Have I kept him from that?

  Several other people came by to talk to Hunter. He wasn’t lying when he said he was popular. Most of them ignored me didn’t even take notice, which was fine by me.

  Hunter, however, lavished me with attention and love. Is it possible for your heart to break even while you’re being loved, I wonder to myself as he and Parker head over to see what some guys want. That’s when it happens.

  “You think you’re so cute, don’t you?”

  I turn to find Evie the shrill girl from before standing next to me. Before I can say a word, Carmela is standing next to me.

  “Leave it be, Evie. He didn’t choose you. Period. Have a li
ttle respect and let them have a special night.”

  “Oh, shut up, Echo,” she sneers at Carmela, who flinches at the name. “I’m talking to the nut job here. Do you really think you can hold on to a guy like Hunter?”

  “No,” I say before I can stop myself. Sadly, it’s the truth and it seems to throw Evie off her game. “I’ve never once thought that I ever deserved Hunter and have many times tried to get him to see me how you and everyone else here sees me. But no matter how hard I push, he won’t let go of me. The funny thing about love is that it’s not just one person holding on to the other and praying that it lasts. It’s two people holding on to the other and knowing no matter how bad one side gets love holds them together. See, I can push all I want, but it’s Hunter who’s holding on to me.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably some hoe bag that has him wrapped right around your crotch,” she hisses.

  “I’m none of that. As Carmela said, he chose me. I didn’t ask him to, he just did.”

  She steps closer and into my safety bubble, belatedly realizing that I never had a problem with Carmela or Parker getting in. But as she invades my space my panic starts to rise and I can feel the blood start to drain from my face.

  “Look retard, I don’t know what you’ve done to have Hunter so… I don’t even know. Maybe it’s because he feels sorry for the town reject. Or maybe that he’s having fun toying with the clueless freak. I don’t know, but if you continue to get in my way when it comes to him…” She steps even closer and my throat starts to clamp shut. Fighting, I’m fighting for each precious breath I’m able to draw in. “I’ll remove your ugly retarded ass from the picture myself. Do we understand each other?”

  Mentally, I’m telling myself to nod my head yes, but it betrays me. Instead of nodding, my head shakes back and forth. Then even more shocking my voice, soft and a bit shaky fills my own ears.

  “Hunter is mine. Until the day he walks away from me, from us, you’ll stay away from what’s mine or I will personally see to it that you suffer for every bit of pain you cause and inflict on others. Do we understand each other?”