Broken Feathers

This Is War

Chapter Fourteen: This Is War (30 Seconds to Mars) 

  

To say I was in a good mood the next morning was an understatement; the flat was clean and tidy, the windows were open and I was in the middle of creating a masterpiece. Star had eventually gone home an hour before, our goodbye sweet and the lure of another date buzzing around my head. It felt as though I had come the full circle; this was where my life was supposed to be. This was what being a happy man felt like. Damn, she was like the sweetest nectar, teasing me and testing me until I was at the very edge. 

And I fucking loved it. 

It was only when I heard the door slamming that I looked up, jerking out of my thoughts and staring at Kalem. He was still wearing his suit from last night and from the scowl on his face, he was obviously in one of his moods. 

"Dirty stop out!" I teased, stepping out from behind my easel. "The hell have you been?" 

"Fuck off," he snapped, his eyes flashing. "I haven't done anything." 

I stared at him, confused at his reaction before realising that Star and I had set him and Frankie up. So entranced with how the night had gone, it had slipped my mind that we had shamelessly drawn him away from us with feminine curves. 

"You and Frankie?" I exclaimed, letting my jaw fall open. I gaped at him, sorely tempted to say something grossly inappropriate for two angels to converse about. 

"No," Kalem growled. "We didn't do anything, dipshit, were you  not listening? Her place was empty and she looked lonely, so I stayed. On the sofa." My eyebrows were waggling before I could stop them, relishing in the fact that my best friend had been out all night with a girl. 

"But you wanted to, you dirty dog!" 

Kalem glowered at me, his cheeks sunken and his eyes dark with anger. 

"Fuck off, Jay." 

I chuckled to myself, turning back to my painting. 

"Star only asked her to distract you," I said, picking up my brush again. "Didn't think she'd take you home; you've chosen a cheapy!" What I hadn't been anticipating was Kalem smacking my head with the back of his hand. Yelping loudly, I jumped, turning around and staring at him like he was crazy. 

"Don't fucking talk about her like that!" 

I rubbed my head, staring at him in disbelief. 

"Jesus Christ! You like her!" 

Well. This was unexpected. The last thing I thought would happen was Kalem falling for his little blind date. Huh. Guess he wasn't as immune to human emotions as I had previously thought. And Frankie? I hadn't seen mousy curves to be his thing. 

Kalem grumbled under his breath, lying back on his bed and closing his eyes. I followed, still not quite believing I was hearing what I was hearing. 

"Are you...allowed to fuck about? Are there not rules about it?" Okay, so I had sort of tuned out when Kalem had given his explicit warnings about all the reasons angels shouldn't get with humans. And when I had first starting going with Star, I had just put it down to him being a spoilsport and left it at that. But from the expression that Kalem was giving me at that moment, it seemed that I had chosen not to listen to a very important aspect of Angel 101. 

"...What?" 

"There are rules, yes," Kalem bit out, shaking his head at my ignorance. "Even if there weren't I'd have...conflict about Frankie that way."