No Angels

.chapter two.

{Leo! Leo!}

The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

{Silly, I'm over here!}

It was then that I realized I was walking along a beautiful coast. I could smell the ocean on the breeze, felt the wet sand in between my bare toes.

I looked up and squinted - Kaitlyn was running before me, her arms outstretched by her sides.

{Look, Leo! It's like I've grown wings!}

Oh, this memory again.

I finally remembered - this was our first date.

The first time I realized that I might be in love with her.

I looked down - sure enough, I was wearing my favorite white knitted Cashmere sweater and a pair of my old ripped jeans.

It was a time before the pain started, when everything was still beautiful and innocent.

I found myself running to keep up with her, and for some reason, my cheeks ached.

I touched my face and realized that I was smiling - something so foreign.

In this memory, I wasn't a loser.

"Wait for me!"

Kaitlyn heard me and turned around, laughing when she saw me trying to keep up.

"You'll never catch me, slowpoke!" she shouted.

"Oh, yeah? Watch me!"

I ran after her, my long legs carrying me surprisingly well over the wet sand. In less than a minute we were side-by-side.

"No fair, you have longer legs!"

"And you have prettier eyes, but I guess we can't all get what we want!"

She threw back her head and laughed at that.

Her laugh was so magical back then - it sounded like fairy bells.

In this memory, she looked so fragile, so - pure.

She was wearing a light cotton dress in white, and her dark hair was spilling over her pale shoulders. She wore yellow slippers, and was holding a flower crown made of sunflowers in one hand.

In the other hand, she held mine.

We'd stopped running by then, and we were just walking along the beach, side-by-side, enjoying the breeze.

I remembered turning to stare at her in awe, thinking about how lucky I was to be loved by someone so beautiful.

{Leo, you're such a loser.}

I frowned - something didn't feel right. Was it just me, or was the memory starting to feel a little... forced?

Something was wrong.

Kaitlyn wasn't smiling anymore. She clamped down hard on my hand, stopping me in my tracks.

"Are you alright?" I asked, concerned.

She stared at me, and I saw anger flash in her dark brown eyes.

"Pathetic human being, can't even pay for his own food, you're useless!"

It felt like a slap - something that woke me up.

I stared at everything, realizing with a sort of dawning horror that we were no longer at the beach - instead, we were outside her office building, standing by a hotdog stand.