Angels Do Exist (ON HOLD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Ariana

        I pick up the third box in a row that I have to unpack and my god, is it heavy! I hold the huge, brown box with caution as I take one step forward, then two, then three .. and just as I'm about to speed up my pace, I trip on the foot beneath the bench and I go flying head first into the ground. As I mentally and physically prepare for my funeral in my head, I feel strange, rough hands tighten around my abdomen and slowly pull me back up. My back crashes into a hard, seemingly toned chest while I feel on a piece of fabric from behind and grip onto it tightly. My eyes are glued to the ground.

        I stare at the carpeted floor of the church in disbelief, at all the splattered items that I would now have to spend extra time picking up on this fine Saturday afternoon. I groan loudly and kneel to the floor to begin picking up the candles, light bulbs and several colorful pieces of artificial flowers. Thank god this wasn't the box with the vases. Lord knows that broken glass all over the floor would be enough to send me into a frenzy and cause me to faint.

        "What, no thank you?"

        My head whips around to see a pair of gorgeous, mysterious green eyes piercing right through my hazel ones.

        I continue to stare at him in awe.

        He's wearing a thin black hoodie with a thin, white V-neck shirt under it, along with dark washed jeans and a pair of white sneakers. His slightly straight, dark brown hair is in a part to the side, which looks completely natural as if he had just woken up, and not even layed a finger on it. The whole "fresh out of bed" look for most people is usually horrifying but he managed to make it look so .. good.

        He clears his throat loudly.

        "A girl your size shouldn't be allowed to carry boxes that big," he motions toward the mess I've just made, "Wouldn't wanna hurt yourself," he says and smirks.

        And of course guys who look that good are usually assholes within.

        He looks extremely familiar and I immediately take a dislike to him for a reason that I really can't come up with.

        I laugh as I stand and cross my arms over my chest.

        "I didn't need your help asshole. You should have just let me fall to my death."

        "Oh really? Well there's honestly no need for the attitude, all I was looking for was a 'thank you for saving my life you sweet, handsome young man, I appreciate it', that's all."

        "Right. Maybe I would've given you one if you hadn't thrown that little snarky comment my way... Asshole." I smile at him.

        His smirk fades. "You're obviously ungrateful. But you're right. I should have just allowed you to fall to your death. Ungrateful bitches like you deserve to go to hell."

        There's a sudden hit to my chest and anger quickly arises. This boy who doesn't even know me, is already taking jabs at me. And for what? He probably views me as some pretentious bitch because I didn't thank him. I suppose I started it with the name calling but still. It doesn't give him the right to speak to me like that.

        Just as I'm about to raise my hand and allow my palm to come in contact with this asshole's cheek, My father yells in my direction, causing me to turn my head towards him as he strolls up beside me.

        "I see you've met Layden. Mr. Evans here will be doing some community service around our church on his free time for the next couple of months. He'll be helping us every week from now on so we can tidy up and get a lot more things done around here. Won't it be great to have an extra set of hands sweetie?" my father says, obviously oblivious to the tension residing between Mr. Evans and I.

        "Oh," he turns to Layden, "and this is my daughter, Ariana. She's second in command when I'm not around or available, make sure to remember that." My father laughs as if he's proud to utter those words.

        "Yes sir, I definitely will."

        "Good. Now you two get to cleaning up this mess over here. This is not a good look for my church you know." My father chuckles and soon disappears to the front door of the church.

        I kneel back down to the floor in another attempt to clear up the rest of the candles and lightbulbs when I feel movement beside me. I look to see Layden quickly snatching up the artificial flowers and throwing them into the box and in a matter of mere seconds, he's finished.

        "You plan on taking all day to clear those up? Or would you like a real man to assist you?" He turns his body and winks at me.

        I glare at him. "I can do it my damn self, thanks. But. If you continue to mock me, I will poke the shit outta those gorgeous gree-" I suddenly catch myself and stop mid sentence.

        A smirk forms on his lips again. "Gorgeous what?"

        After a few minutes of silence, because I honestly have no clue what to say, Layden opens his mouth to speak.

        " You know, for the pastor's daughter, your mouth sure is filthy. Look, I'm gonna share a secret with you so you can see exactly where I'm coming from because I gather that you're not all that bright. I'm only here because I got into some trouble a few months ago and a couple people in my life believe that they can change me around for the better. But if you've been taught to be holy all your life, and have turned out like this," he stares deeply into my eyes, making my heart freeze for a moment, "then there's obviously no hope for me, now is there?"

        And with that, he stands and scoops up the remaining items left that I was suppose to pick up. I'm about to protest, but not one word is able to form on my lips. Layden does have a point about himself but is beyond wrong about me, because he knows nothing about me. Only the little smart ass attitude that I've given him for the past 20 minutes. I have nothing to say to him. I scoff. That's a first. If it's one thing that I got from my mother, it was definatley her quick-wits. He strolls off, taking the box to the back of the church.

        I also stand when he's out of sight and dust off my light blue jeans and the bottom of my plain white scoop neck t-shirt. I glance towards the back of the church and see no signs of Layden anymore. Hmm, no signs of my father either. I take my usual seat in the front row and wait for my father to show up from whatever task he's doing to take me home. I'm in need of a nice, hot shower, and then after I'll do a little homework and then go straight to sleep. My body will soon give in from all the excess work I've done today, I can feel it.

        My thoughts drift to the oncoming months where the church members and I will have to set up for our events, gatherings and annual concert, and to the fact that Layden is now basically apart of our team, an extra set of hands, as my father had stated. Ugh, Layden. I roll my eyes.

        I don't even know who this kid is nor do I really care to, but he definitely makes my blood boil. No doubt about it.

Gorgeous, green eyes, my ass.

Alluring, bad boy style, my ass.

Natural, perfect hair, my ass.

Layden Evans is the fucking devil.