Wingspan(Paranormal, Young Adult) MAJOR EDITING**

eighty seven

after hours of explaining to me a reality of existence there was one thing i still had yet to wrap my head around. 

i walk beside toby shoulder to shoulder. all i'd wanted to do was shut my brain off and disappear. it was dark by the time we'd left the woods and i was afraid i'd trip in front of him. 

"can i ask you something?"

"nephillim can be-"

surprised i look at the outline of his face.  "-no not that."

"sure, why not." toby glances at me sideways. "you're taking this exceptionally well for someone who's destined to destroy the earth."

i laugh at the absurdity of his comment. "oh, trust me. im freaking out on the inside. im just trying to get perspective before i run for the hills." i only half joke. 

all of a sudden it gets quiet again. i wasn't certain what i should feel. toby was convinced i was a bastard child that was going to kill off humanity. pretty freaked out summed it up. 

aside from the apocalyptic doomsday i got the sense toby wasn't concerned by trivial matters. 

still, i was bothered.

"That wall that you have up needs to come down can you do that? No secrets." i still didn't know how far he would go to keep the future from crumbling. 

"Yeah yeah I can." toby said falling silent.

"Wow. I'm so glad we had this talk." i said sarcastically.

Oh yeah sure. He was a bit of a stick in the mud but he had his moments. Too bad people never thought of him in the same light i did. 

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a charming personality?" Maybe if he had a friend then he would loosen up a bit. "And Death glares don't count." 

Eyes glazed Toby looked sideways and kept walking.

At first my reaction was so maybe he's pretending like I don't exist. But then he shook his head like he was thinking of something else that must have been important. 

and to think if I wasn't already looking at him I would have missed that short nod of his head that I'm sure he would not have liked me seeing. Vulnerability and all that.

toby wasn't much of a mystery. What shocked me was how quick I put two and two together. I may not have seemed like the type but I wasn't a peoples person. That alluring energy you hear about, yeah, I propelled advances. 

Me caring was new.

So Toby wasn't the guy you ran to your problems with. He had the same qualities we all had. Though inconceivably complex he was a person I suspected with great amount of depth and character that set him apart. 

Natural charisma, so not his forte.

And yet I wondered. Like a yapping small dog I was curious.

Toby frowned. "What." He reacted like a big mean dog. Confused at my lack of distance and annoyed that I didn't shut up and let him be.

"I don't see it." i carefully studied him in the dark knowing he couldn't see my eyes trail across his face. 

as we followed a narrow pathway i'd walked under a tree that sprawled its long branches freely, without boundaries, like a magical fairyland underneath. 

Already he looked annoyed. An awkward silence settled over us and I hurried to fill it. 

"what makes you believe i'm somehow connected in all of this?" i ask toby unconvinced i was half angel. "from what i know my father was a dead beat truck driver who bailed when i was three years old trust me my dad was no angel."