Day Three: Flight

“Drew! Come on, we’re going to be late for church! Hurry up!”

            I groaned and realized it was Sunday. Ever since I can remember, there hasn’t been a day my family has skipped Sunday mass. On vacation? Sick? Nope; you go to church anyway. I got in the shower and, realizing we only had ten minutes until mass started, rushed out of the house without even glancing at the journal.

We got to mass just as they were starting the entrance hymn. We grabbed our usual pew near the front, and sat down after opening prayer. I looked across the church on the other side of the altar, and saw two faces that had been haunting me for a while.

Chloe. And Rachel. Sitting next to each other.

A lump formed in my throat, seeing both of them so close together. My hands got sweaty again, and I started getting fidgety in my seat. I turned to Cheryl, because I wanted to make sure she hadn’t caught on to why I was acting like I was having a nervous breakdown. I didn’t want her making fun of me, getting all nervous like that in front of Rachel. I still didn’t know what I felt towards her �" whether I liked her or as a friend or what �" and I didn’t need Cheryl, Rachel, or Chloe getting the wrong impression. Thankfully, she wasn’t paying any attention to me. But she was looking in the same direction I was, with the same dazed look I’m sure I had had.

I looked back to Rachel, and noticed there was a boy sitting next to her, probably a freshman, by the looks of him. He had blonde hair that was spiked up in the front. I looked back at Cheryl and saw that she, too, was getting kind of antsy.

Oh, I thought. That’s the kid she’s been drooling over. He looked like a pretty good guy. He was pretty good looking. Not bad, for a freshman. It made sense why she liked him.

Chloe spotted me looking over there and waved her little seductive wave. I nodded at her, and continued to sneak glances at Rachel. When we had the ‘Sign of Peace’, Rachel left her pew to go up and be a Eucharistic Minister. Better than that, she was administering communion to my side of the church. I walked up to receive communion from her.

She smiled wide. “Body of Christ.”

I smiled wider and felt my heart race a little. “Amen.”

She handed me communion and I sat back down. The rest of the time I saw her stealing glances at me and smiling.

As I sat there, I prayed. Dear Lord, please help me figure out what the hell Rachel means to me. She’s driving me crazy. Oh, and help me figure out what she thinks about me, too. Amen.

Mass ended and I wanted to say hi to Rachel before she left. She and her brother were already almost to the door, so I started running down the aisle towards them. All of a sudden, I felt my feet lift slightly off the ground, like I was gliding on ice or something. Holy crap I’m gonna fricken die in a fricken church, so help me God, I thought, trying to regain my balance as I slammed into the partition wall. Thankfully, the only person who saw me was an usher, who was chuckling a little bit. He had black hair with a black hat, black clothes…

Wait a second…

I approached him and whispered. “33?”

He looked over to me and smiled. “Yes?”

“What the hell, man? What power is this?”

He glanced over to me. “You’ll have to read the journal to find out.”

“Drew! Come on, we’re going home!” I looked back to find my mom and Cheryl almost out the door. I turned around to say goodbye to 33.

“Well, I’ll-” And he was gone. Just like that.

 

 

The ride home was quiet. I ran to my room and grabbed the journal from my desk. I flopped down into my bed and flipped to the next page.

 

Sunday, August 24^th, 2012

 

DAY THREE:

FLIGHT:

This power gives you the ability to fly. Obviously; what else would it do?

ACTIVATION:

You must get a running start in order to activate the flight. You will be running slightly, and then you will feel your feet come slightly off the ground. Keep moving your legs until you gain enough altitude to keep you afloat.

 

You will learn eventually, Andrew: before you do anything, always read the journal. You wouldn’t want to have a nasty accident like you had in the shower again, would you?

 

Signed,

33

 

That’s funny, I thought. He hadn’t known I hadn’t read the journal until twenty minutes ago… How…?  I reread everything to make sure I was seeing everything right, and then flipped back to the past two days’ pages. Funny thing was, nothing was on them. They were both empty. What the hell?

My train of thought was halted by the smell of my mom making one of her big Sunday breakfasts for us. They usually consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, waffles, pancakes, three or four different types of jams, jellies, and juices, and anything else you might want to put on your breakfast. Whipped cream, fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, anything �" if it was there, it was free reign.

I walked down the hall and into the kitchen, where my mom was putting the finishing touches on the table. “Cheryl!” she called. “Breakfast!”

If there was one thing that could get my little sister out of her bedroom and into the kitchen faster than anything, it was my mom’s breakfasts.  We all sat down and inhaled everything. I was starving; I hadn’t eaten much the day before. I had at least three pancakes and waffles with everything on them; three pieces of bacon and sausage each, some eggs, and a few pieces of toast.

Again, I was starving. Don’t call me a pig.

Cheryl, however, was playing with her eggs with her fork. She looked dazed. I waved my hand in front of her face. “Hello? Earth to Cheryl; Earth to Cheryl; come in, Cheryl.”

She glared at me. “Shut up, Drew.”

“Is everything okay, honey?” my mom asked.

“Yeah…” she answered, half-assed.

I stared at her for a minute, with that I-know-something-you-don’t-know look on my face. She wrinkled her eyebrows. “What do you want?”

I shook my head and chuckled. “Nothing. But don’t count me out; I might want something later.”

She looked at me quizzically, then went back to eating her breakfast. I finished before her, and put my dishes in the sink.

“Drew, don’t forget, it’s your turn to do the dishes,” my mom called as I headed to my room.

“I did them last time; it’s Cheryl’s turn.”

“No, it’s not, I did them yesterday.”

I chuckled as I shut my bedroom door and listened to some Black Veil Brides.

 

So hear my voice

Remind you not to bleed

I am here

Savior will be there

When you are feeling alone, oh,

A Savior, for all that you do,

So you live freely without their harm

 

I heard Cheryl go into her room, so I turned off Andy Biersack and went into her room. I had to talk to her about something.

I leaned against the door frame. Her room was a bright shade of orange and pink, and she was curled up in bed listening to music, same as I had been. She saw me smirking at her, took out her earbud, and glared at me. “What do you want, Drew?”

“Depends on how much you’ll give me to keep your little boyfriend a secret from Mom.”

She widened her eyes, got up, and ushered me into her room, closing the door behind me. “What do you want?”

“I just want to know I’m right. It’s that kid you were staring at in church today, wasn’t it? That blonde kid?”

“His name is Chris,” she shot at me. “And yeah. That’s him. Chris Hopkins.”

I smirked. “I knew it. Now, what are you willing to give me?”

“I won’t tell Mom you’re crushing on his older sister.”

I stared at her, my eyes opened wide. She hadn’t seen me looking at Rachel. She’d been paying too much attention to Chris. I felt my face heat up, a lump forming in my throat and my heart racing just by thinking about her. “How the hell do you know about Rachel?”

She rolled her eyes. “You talk in your sleep, Drew. You have since you were eight. That’s how I knew you stole my Gameboy when you were ten.”

S**t. I didn’t know that. “I… I do?” She nodded. “Well, you’re wrong. I’m not crushing on her. She’s just a friend at school who is taking lessons at the shop. That’s it.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s not what it sounds like when I hear you talking in your sleep at four in the morning.”

I looked at her. “What kind of stuff do I say?”

She grinned. “I’m not telling. Besides, you really wouldn’t want to know.”

I shrugged. “Whatever. I won’t tell Mom, I guess.” I glanced at my watch. “Hey, I gotta go to work. Stay out of trouble, okay?”

“Oh, you know I won’t.”

I grabbed my keys and yelled to my mom that I was leaving for work and drove down to the shop. Dirk and Brady were both there, and I was supposed to cover Brady’s shift so he could hang out with his girlfriend, Amber. I ran up to the door, and my feet left the ground again. I partially controlled it this time, floating a few inches off the ground and softly running into the door. I went inside and saw Brady.

“Hey, Brady, you can go now. I’ve got it.”

“Thanks, Bro.”

“No problem. Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

He grinned back at me. “Since when do I not do anything stupid?” He walked out to his bike and rode home.

Sundays are slow at the shop. No one schedules lessons, and we close early at five anyway. Not a lot of purchases, so Dirk and I mostly just fooled around with our guitars and drums a little bit most of the day.

We locked up at 5:30, and I kind of needed to think about some things before heading home. I texted Cheryl, then drove to Sacred Infant.

 

          tell mom not 2 have a cow. im coming home later and will be home 4 dinner.

 

          I parked next to the church, but I needed somewhere isolated to think straight. I backed up, got a huge running start, and flew up to the bell tower to sit. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever experienced �" I felt the wind in my hair and I felt… free. Free as in I didn’t have to worry about messing up the shop, getting my mom mad at me, having to fight Brendan, dealing with Chloe and Rachel kind of free. My worries and troubles melted away until I sat down, where I had gone to think over all my worries.

            First on my mind was Brendan. He was easy enough; knock the guy out, say he started it, walk away clean. Then was my mom �" I didn’t need her being twice as overprotective with Ray being gone. I just had to scoot around her and not hit any raw nerves. Then the shop; I just had to make good business decisions. Like what I did with that mother and with Rachel. Keep customers happy, it keeps them coming back. Ray always used to say that, and I was going to stick to it. Then Chloe; I just had to avoid her whenever I could, so I wouldn’t get pulled into that seductive stare and wave and s**t she always gave me. Then… then Rachel.

Rachel was a whole other story. Cheryl actually thought I liked her… I didn’t like her. Not like that. She… she was cool. Interesting. Different. She wasn’t like all the other girls I’d known and seen; she was … mysterious. I knew stuff about her, but only because she told me. She was…captivating. Her eyes, her smile, her demeanor, just… my heart raced every time I saw her smile. But I didn’t like her. Not like that.

Did I….?

            The main reason I had wanted to go up to the tower to think, besides the awesome view, was because I was considering telling Dirk and Brady about my powers. My opportunity. What I can do. I know 33 told me I couldn’t, but it wasn’t fair keeping something like this from my two closest friends in the whole world. I mean, we told each other everything �" even the s**t no one wants or needs to know about, we told each other. We’d always been there for each other. They’d been there for me when Ray died, and it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t. But on the other hand… I didn’t want to get in trouble with 33. I mean, if he had the ability to give me this opportunity, what else could he �" and would he �" do? After about twenty minutes of contemplation, I decided to tell them the next day. Yeah, Mondays were always good for telling best friends stuff like that.

            Yeah, like I have the opportunity to get a superpower and you don’t. That should go over swimmingly.

            Man, the view from up there was really sweet. It was mind-blowing just how peaceful everything was. I could see most of the town from there, including the forest where the Shack was hidden. I tried to fly down carefully, but I ended up epically failing about fifteen feet off the ground, landing flat on my feet, then falling down to my a*s.

            S**t… that fricken hurt.

I limped over to my car and drove home. Dinner was relatively quiet; Cheryl was probably thinking about Chris, and Mom was on a phone call with one of her coworkers. After dinner I went into my room, drowning everything else out, falling asleep to “In The End” by Black Veil Brides.

 

Damn it, why wouldn’t Rachel leave my fricken mind?

Every night since I met her, I’d gone to sleep thinking about Rachel. I swear, I didn’t like her like that. I didn’t know why my heart raced and my palms got sweaty and my mind went blank and I got all nervous whenever I saw her or her smile or looked into her eyes or even thought about her. I didn’t know why any of that happened. I couldn’t explain it, and I probably can’t now. I have absolutely no clue what she meant to me, and I had no fricken clue what she thought about me. I mean, I know for a fact she couldn’t be feeling as conflicted as I was. She probably thought of me as a friend, nothing more. I wish I could just have some kind of sign or something to make me realize what I truly felt about her, and what she felt about me.

I lay in bed, almost until three in the morning, thinking about her. Thinking about how she made me feel every time I looked at her. How she had been stealing glances at me during church, just as I had been. That moment during her first lesson when her eyes had met mine and she didn’t pull her gaze from mine. How I barely knew her, but how I felt as if I’d known her forever.

Damn. This girl is going to drive me to insanity.

As long as I get to see her smile. I’d be perfectly content being mentally insane if I can see her smile at me again, see her look into my eyes like that again.

Perfectly content.