Your Guardian Angel

Prologue

The near black clouds of this gloomy Fall day loomed over the school like a darkness. It was said it was going to rain and it looked like that might be coming true in a few minutes. Everyone on two legs in Los Angeles wouldn't know what to do with themselves once the first drop of water hit them. It would be a powerful storm, one that was going to last all week.

She loved it.

She couldn't help but look up at the darkened gray sky as she strolled over to the library. She wasn't going to be late - as a matter of fact, she was twenty minutes early per usual - so she decided to take it in. She smiled when the first drop of rain hit her cheek.

The rain started coming down more and more in just a few minutes. She managed to rush inside and just barely miss getting soaked to the bone. She wouldn't have minded so much, but her boss might.

The library looked almost magical in this weather. The lights were dim enough to look like candles were lit throughout the vast room. The roof of the building was glass which caused the library to be encased in more darkness than it is used to. Cassie thought it looked like something out of a Harry Potter film.

"There she is, early again," her co-worker Nick said as she walked past the front desk.

Nick was in his sophomore year, but the same age as her. He got a late start in the college game only by a few years, but never failed to express his envy for Cassie graduating when she did. He was a very nice guy with a bit of a troubled past. As a student, he got straight A's. As a civilian, he has a hefty arrest record, all involving possession of drugs.

When he was nineteen, his parents made him go to rehab. He relapsed the day he got out. They put him into a sober living home, but that didn't stop him from sneaking out and getting high every night. Eventually, he hit rock bottom. It shook him so bad that he dedicated himself to getting his life together. He's been sober for six and a half years and he has easily become one of Cassie's best friends.

"There he is, reading more Keats," she said as he leaned forward on the tall desk.

He looked up at her and closed his book. "You know, the system says you still haven't returned Twilight. Should I summon our great leader, Miss Brum, and inform her?"

Cassie narrowed her eyes at him. She couldn't help her laugh as she told him, "Don't you dare! I'll bring it in eventually, just keep putting the extension on it."

Nick gave her a smirk, then started typing on the computer. "There, it's extended for another fourteen days. What are you doing with that thing anyways? I could read that garbage in a day!"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "I read it, but then I lost it, okay? I've got all this baby shit my parents ordered being dropped off at the apartment and I think I lost it in all the boxes. I'm positive it's somewhere in the living room."

"Why are things being shipped to your apartment if you're moving?"

Deciding her swollen pregnancy feet needed a rest, she went behind the front desk and sat down at her usual working spot behind a computer like Nick's. She huffed and put her hand over her stomach. "Because it was such a last minute decision that they didn't have time to change the address. So now I have that to pack up, too."

He waved her off as he told her, "I'll come by tomorrow and help. You shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting."

She put her hand on his arm. "Thank you. I mean it, you've been a rock throughout this whole shit show."

"Uh, speaking of shit show..."

Cassie followed his gaze and saw Ben walking into the building. "Dammit," she sighed. He was clearly looking for her by the way he was dipping his head in between book shelves and looking over the heads of other students.