Your Guardian Angel

Prologue

This book belongs to me. So if I find this book elsewhere without my permission I'm willing to break someone's hand. K? K.
Enjoy :)
- xx Lilly

Thunder shook the ground as lightening lit up the sky. It was a brilliant sight really, the rain hadn't even begun to fall. I sat on the concrete steps of our roofed front porch, and I realized how nice it felt to sit down. My back ached and my feet were sore due to the too tight shoes I had worn and hunching over my laptop at work, slaving my life away to stupid people who completely lack common sense in the customer service department. Rain suddenly falls in crystal clear sheets on the world around me; it looks like something out of a movie.
"Dad?" I turn around.
"Adora! Oh, I didn't hear you come up behind me." She gave me a small smile and took a seat beside me. "Can't sleep?" I asked her, reaching out to pat her back. She sighed and nodded. "What's the matter baby?"
She shrugs.
I chuckle, "Let me guess, don't wanna tell your old man? Is that "uncool?" I use air quotes on the last word just to try and make her crack a small smile. "I'm not even that old!" I add, raking my hand through my hair. "See? I'm not even thinning."
"I could've told you that," she retorts, poking me in the stomach.
"What are you trying to say?" I ask in faux shock. "Are you saying I'm fat?!" I let my hand flutter over my heart playfully. She laughs.
We continue to sit in a comfortable silence and just watch the ongoing storm before Adora speaks up.
"It's Chase."
"Chase?" She nods. I'm familiar with Chase, her current boyfriend. He's one and a half years her senior, 17. He drives a blue 2013 Dodge Ram, fairly good student, and works for a local farmer. "What about him?"
She runs her hand through her auburn hair, I notice her nails are freshly painted a light blue. "He uhh.." She pauses and bites her lower lip. "I really like him dad, love him even," she states, looking right at me.
"Okay," I say hesitantly, not sure where this is leading.
"It's just... I don't know. I think I'm overthinking things, I'm just worried in losing him." She tells me, her voice low. Thunder continues to rumble across the night.
"How long have you two been together?
"Just over a year, about 15 months." I consider this.
"And why do you think he doesn't feel the same?"
"I don't know," she sighs. "I just don't feel like he's the same lately. He's seems more... Distant, not always here for me."
"Well, I'm sure he's a busy boy. It's the summer before his senior year, he's working, he's getting ready for his future." I can see her pondering this.
"Hey dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Am I crazy for wanting to be a part of that?"
"Of what?"
"Of his future." She looks back up at me, her eyes a kaleidoscope of colors and emotions. A burst of lightening flashed.
My lips turn up into a small smile. "Not at all Adora."
"And Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I sleep on your floor tonight?" Her eyes silently pleaded with me, I knew how she hated storms. "Please?"
I stared into our front yard, rain continued to fall. "Just like your mother." I whispered to myself into the night.
"Really?" Adora asked.
"Really."
It wasn't hard for me to think about Adora growing up and moving on, leaving me. As long as I got a chance to say goodbye, I had been deprived of that right once. And it was one too many times.
*******
Love is a crazy, stupid, dysfunctional kind of thing. But, it's also the most beautiful, fantastic feelings man has ever known. It drives you to do things you never would've imagined doing, it makes you feel. Really, truly, feel. There is no way to explain this to others, there is no way to explain it here. It sneaks up on you in the most unorthodox ways, and I'm not ashamed to say this is the way it found me.
I let Adora sleep in my room in a makeshift bed of spare blankets. The storm raged on outside my window and thunder stuck again, sending a shiver down my spine. We whispered our good nights and I closed my eyes. Sleep sounded delicious, but for me tonight was worlds away. It was hard for me to relax. My mattress felt too stiff, my pillow to soft, nothing felt right. I opened my tired eyes and stared at the electric red numbers of my alarm.
11:32.
Tomorrow was Saturday, no work. Relief flooded through me with this realization, but not enough to comfort me into subconsciousness. The clock cast a dim glow onto the oak nightstand, illuminating the picture frame that sat beside it. Her smiling faced stared back at me, frozen in her youth. And just like that I could feel her skin pressed against mine, the smell of her wrapped around me. It send my mind into a frenzy of flashbacks, and I didn't mind at all.