Guardians and Angels

Chapter 16: Rapunzel

One morning as I lay peacefully sleeping in my bed, my phone rang with an obnoxious ringtone and woke me up from my slumber. Even though I was still really tired, I begrudgingly answered it.

"Hello?" I asked with a groggy tone.

A slight chuckle was heard from the other side of the phone and I instantly knew who it was. I simply rolled my eyes and groaned.

"What do you want Jack?" I mumbled sleepily.

"Good morning to you too, Sunshine. You know, I could've sworn you claimed to be a morning person. I guess I must've heard you wrong," he teased.

I growled at him once more and sat up in my bed. "Listen Jack, I stayed up till 2 in the morning trying to finish my homework and I'm pretty tired, so tell me what's wrong or I'm hanging up on you and going back to bed."

I'm not normally this grouchy in the morning but since I stayed up really late several nights in a row, either studying, talking with Merida, or going on "dates" with Flynn, my mood was really sour.

"What's wrong is that I'm up before you. You should really be ashamed of yourself," Jack retorted.

"That's it, I'm hanging up," I laughed.

"Wait!" He paused for a minute as he tried to stifle his chuckles. "Hiccup and I were just wondering if you and Frizzball wanted to go to the Funplex and play laser tag."

By now I was completely awake and had no hopes of going back to sleep so I didn't really have a choice. "Do I have to?" I joked.

"Merida already said that you guys were going."

"Then why the heck did you wake me up if Merida already agreed?" I playfully scolded.

His annoying laughs continued to resonate through the phone until he finally got a hold of himself. "Because she told me that you were still asleep so I volunteered to wake you up."

"Butthead," I chastised while giggling a bit.

"We'll pick you up in an hour. Bye Princess." With that he hung up and left me shaking my head at his silliness.

I know I should've said no to Jack's invitation, but I can't keep ignoring him. He's been trying so desperately to hang out with me since the Halloween party, and I've always had an excuse, whether it be homework, or date night with my torturer, or hanging with Merica, I always had some sort of excuse. But in reality, I missed him. I missed letting loose with him and experiencing real joy. I missed his fun personality and insatiable smirk. I just missed him in general.

Speaking of the Halloween party...

Flynn has taken me on three dates since then. Whether it was to beat me or fulfill his lusting desires, he always made sure to get the job done. Thankfully, he's yet to live up to that "special date" he promised--well, more like threatened. He's talked about it for brief moments and almost gets giddy about the topic, which makes me more and more fearful, but he hasn't done anything... yet. It's like being blindfolded on death's row, waiting for your captors to fire their unforgiving guns. He was compensating and letting anticipation do its cruel job.

I shook away my daunting thoughts and proceeded to get ready for an outing with my friends. My outfit consisted of black yoga capris and a cute lilac tank top with a black elbow-length cardigan over top of it. I wore normal black flats with a twisted design on the top, and my hair was straightened with the front pieces pulled out of my face. I didn't put on much makeup except powder, mascara and lipgloss. Content with my look, I made my way downstairs for some breakfast.

Merida was currently sitting on the counter with a bowl of cereal in her hands. She wore dark capris with a few holes in it and a maroon sweater. Her hair was still as unruly as ever but she seemed to have pulled it back into a ponytail.