Word Count: 1756

Dawn Turner

"Thank you for coming, Sir! I hope I was able to help you today and you're always welcomed to come back again." I lead the old man to the exit of Funzel Art Gallery with a bright smile stamped on my face.

Exactly a week ago, someone from Funzel called me.

See for some reason I thought they were impressed with my interview despite the fact that it went so incredibly horribly wrong. Turns out they were very short on employees and I was apparently their 'last resort'.

Basically they were so desperate to hire someone and I was the only person available, much to their dismay.

You know what? I'll take it. At the end of the day I'm still getting paid and that's all that matters.

It has also been a whole week since I last saw Alexander.

I woke up Monday morning with no memory of what happened the previous night. Alexander is nowhere to be seen as well and he hasn't shown up to kill me at all since out little 'party' . I just hope I didn't embarrass myself too much or give him important information that he could use against me.

This might sound weird but I was so used to him terrorizing me every single day that I now have no idea what to do when he doesn't. Thankfully, I got this job to keep me distracted from all that fantasy world and I've been hanging out with Skylar more often too.

It's not like I started enjoying Alexanders' company or anything. It just became a norm for me to feel anxious every single day and now that I'm mentally stable, it feels unusual.

It's like I'm just waiting for the next bad thing to happen to me because I'm not used to this quietness.

Even though I needed a distraction, working at Funzel isn't as easy as I had expected. I had to memorize historical backgrounds of art pieces to explain them to visitors and I processed non of that information. I thought every employee here would be assigned to certain artworks and we'd all work together but apparently we had to study ALL the artworks here and it's too much for me to handle.

I can't even begin to explain how bad I am at memorizing things.

Most of the times, I would hand the visitors over to another employee without my boss noticing or I'd just read everything off of my flashcards.

I can now see why I wasn't hired as a full time employee.

My thoughts were cut off when a stranger walked up to me with a bright smile on his face.

I returned his smile and got ready to recite all the information that I barely memorized. "Hello, sir. Do you need me to tell you about any of the art pieces here?"

He shook his head. "Oh, no. I just wanted to deliver a message to you from someone." He smiled at me again but this time it looked more fake.

Not this again.

His smile made me feel very unsettled. I've been paranoid about everything after I met Alexander and this is one of those moments.

Still, I decided to give this man the benefit of the doubt. "Is that so? Tell me then." I kept my smile intact.

He straightened up. "Well, someone asked me to tell you that you have 5 minutes to meet them." I raised my brows. "Or they will kill you or something." He continued ominously.

My blood started boiling at his threat. This is the second time Alexander has threatened me at work and I won't take it anymore. Maybe I felt too comfortable with him last time.

That was a mistake.

I was so angry in the moment that I didn't care about the crowd of people in the gallery anymore. I shoved the guy to the wall and cornered him, placing my hands on both sides of him. "Who sent you." My voice was low and anyone could tell I was pissed. The guy stood there in shock and said nothing. "Tell me who sent you!" I said, louder this time.

"Dawn...?" Skylar's voice came from behind me.

I quickly let the guy go and turned towards her. "I can explain." A nervous laugh escaped my mouth.

"Yeah... why are you threatening the guy I sent?" My eyes widened.

"YOU SENT HIM?" I went from wanting to kill that guy to wanting to kill Skylar in under a second.

"Yeah. We agreed to meet outside 5 minutes ago but you were late so I told this random guy I met to ask you to come out." She was still looking at me weirdly.

I really thought Alexander sent that guy.

I turned back to that guy and laughed awkwardly. "I am so sorry. I thought someone else sent you." He stared at me weirdly for a few more seconds before turning around and leaving without saying a single word.

My bad.

"SKYLAR." I yelled at her. I swear everyone is trying to piss me off this week.

"I'm sorry! I didn't think you'd threaten him." She glanced up at the ceiling to avoid eye contact. I stared at her blankly for a minute, making her even more uncomfortable. "Okay look, lunch is on me. Don't be mad. "

"Fine, let's go."

Skylar held my hand we walked out the gallery together to get some food. Luckily there was a mall nearby so the drive was short and Skylar didn't have to deal with my lecture for too long.

I know it might seem like I overreacted but it's still scary to send a random stranger you don't even know to talk to your friend. That guy could've been a serial killer...or a creep... you never know. Skylar thinks I'm being dramatic but I think it's being cautious. The world is a scary place and that's a fact.

"So what have you been up to, Sky? " I started munching on my fries the second we got our food and sat down at an empty table. I know some people leave their fries till the end so they don't feel full early on but I just can't see a fry sitting on my plate and leave it for last. Not to mention that fries taste way better when they're still hot.

A fry is an actual blessing sent to us by the heavens above and I'm not even exaggerating when I say this.

"I've been hanging out with my sister a lot recently. She broke up with her boyfriend." She shot me a sad smile. Zach broke up with Skylar's sister? How did they even meet? Was it planned so that he would be able to keep an eye at me?

I hope not.

"Um, what happened? He didn't do anything wrong, did he?" I tried to sound nonchalant by scrolling through my phone.

"Oh no, not at all. She broke up with him actually. It's because he was always busy with work apparently. She's still upset about it because she really loved him but she didn't want to be in a relationship where she barely gets to hang out with her boyfriend." I guess Zach didn't need a slap to his face after all. That's too bad because I was looking forward to slapping some maturity into him.

"Well, she did the right thing. I'm sure she would feel better soon." I gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"So, are you going to tell me exactly how you got back home on the night of my party when I was the one that drove you there in the first place?" I choked on my pizza.

Shit.

I grabbed a cup of water and gulped some down. Tears were sparkling in my eyes and I let out a nervous laugh.

"We didn't exactly drive back." I shrugged, trying to look as calm as possible.

I wasn't going to tell her I witnessed a brotherly war between an angel and a fallen angel and then got teleported back home by my guardian angel. That sounds a little too complicated and a lot too crazy.

"We? I knew you were with a guy!" She exclaimed happily. Well shit, how do I get myself out of this one?

"We, as in me and....my legs. Yeah, we walked back home." I continued laughing awkwardly.

Hand me my award right now. That has to be the most believable lie that's ever been told.

I'm truly an inspiration.

To nobody.

"You walked all the way back from my house to yours?"

"Yup."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Uh huh."

"By yourself?"

"Yup."

"All alone?"

"I already said yes."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"Duh."

"Dawn, you used to collapse at school for having to walk all the way from one class to another. You really expect me to believe that you walked all that distance without, I don't know, calling me while crying and swearing to come pick you up? Because you know very well it has happened before."

So is this the part where I give up and tell her the truth about Alexander and Zach?

Nah.

"Um yes. You should believe that. People change, Skylar. "

"You have 4 seconds to tell me the truth, Ma'am. " Did I ever mention that Skylar is really scary when she's angry?

"Why 4 seconds specifically?" If I'm lucky enough, she would forget all about our conversation and move on to another topic.

"Odd numbers make me cringe. Now answer me."

And of course, I'm never lucky enough.

"Okay, yes. I got a ride with a guy. I don't even like him though so--"

"I KNEW IT! NO ONE KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN I DO, DAWN. IS HE HOT? IS HE TALL? DOES HE SMELL NICE? I NEED YOU TO ANSWER ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW!"

It's times like these where I wish I could disappear. If only I had the ability teleport from one place to another the way the angels around me do. It would've made my life so much easier.

"Relax, Skylar. I didn't notice any of these things and I don't remember much about him anyways." I shrugged her off.

I'm playing the 'I was too drunk to remember' card.

"Well, who is the guy anyway?" She beamed at me. Would she believe me if I told her it was Zac Efron? I'm good at convincing people, you never know.

"It's... Uh...."

"It's me. Hi there."

My eyes widened when I heard the voice of someone I haven't seen in about a week.

This is just great.