If These Wings Could Fly [Sky High]

08 Lights Go Down

There was a knock at the door of the Hartley home, to which Angel yelled from the kitchen, "One minute!" She rifled through drawers, looking for cash. "Stupid new house," she huffed under her breath.When she found the bundle of cash hidden in one of the drawers, she hurried to the door and opened it. She was slightly shocked at who was there.

"Lash?" He looked at her, his backpack slung over his shoulder. He smirked and she wiped away the shock. "You're here early."

"I can come back later," he said and she grabbed his shirt as he tried to walk away. He laughed and looked at the money in her hand. "Oh, is that for me?"

She rolled her eyes and invited him in. She looked outside for a moment before shutting the door. "I ordered pizza half an hour ago, so the delivery guy should be here any minute now."

"How's your hand?" he asked, pointing to the bandage she wore.

She shrugged. "Better."

Lash dropped his backpack on the couch as she led him into the living room, but his eyes looked anywhere else but where he was going. The walls were full of pictures of Cambrie, from the time she was a baby to the present. There was a section of one wall dedicated to ribbons and awards she'd won, a picture from a talent show where a middle school aged Cambrie stood holding the small trophy.

"Wow, your sister's face is all over the place," he said.

Angel scoffed, nodding. "Yeah, can't ya tell who the favorite child is?" she asked sarcastically. She rolled her eyes. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll go get some drinks." She walked out of the room, leaving Lash to sit on the couch.

When she came back, he took the glass of juice from her before she sat down. For what felt like the first time ever, her wings were put away. Her top was black with little skulls printed all over it, the strings around her neck tied neatly. Her hair was pulled up, soft waves falling over her shoulder as she grabbed her notebook off the table. He sipped his drink as she sat back.

"So, I say we just get this dumb little questionaire out of the way," she started, pulling out a sheet of paper that had a list of questions on it, "and then, I don't know, maybe we could watch a movie?"

He looked at her, putting his arm around her and nodding. "That sounds great," he told her. He scooted closer to her, making her shake her head, but she didn't move away or take his arm off of her.

They started on the questions, Angel wrote down his answers despite most of Lash's answers being exactly the opposite of what the teacher was looking for. Somewhere in the middle of it, the pizza was delivered and the two took a break for gooey cheese and hot pepperoni. When Angel went to refill their drinks, Lash tossed a mint in his mouth. She came back chewing gum. They went through the rest of the questions.

She smiled when she finally got to put away her homework, stacking her books on the table. "That felt like torture," she said and stood up, taking the pizza box into hand.

Lash watched her, not yet moving from his seat as he grinned. "Eh, it wasn't so bad."

She rolled her eyes and took the remaining few slices of pizza to the kitchen. "If you still want to, we can head upstairs and go watch that movie!" she called from there, grabbing a few sodas.

Lash stood up and slowly followed her, looking at the stairs before turning his attention to her. "What do you have to watch?"

She walked back to him and smiled. "Just about anything you could want." She started up the stairs and he was quick to follow. "You name it, we have it."

"Scream?" he asked, a grin coming over his face.

"Yep," she said, leading him down the hall to her room. It was almost as if she'd been tucked away at the back of the house, but she didn't seem to care. She opened her bedroom door and handed him the sodas. "You get settled, I'll go grab the movie."