Now I Lay

PRESENTLY

Eighteen years....

Actually, seventeen years three-hundred and sixty-four days, to be exact.

That's how long Felice had been in this small town with all the same small-minded people. Four-thousand five-hundred and forty-six small-minded people with small dreams. Felice was stuck here.

To be fair, the town of Santa Luisa had been home to her family for generations. Her ancestors had helped build the town with their bare hands. Many of them were praised and adored throughout town history. That is until her ancestor, Roberto fell in love with Venizia.

Felice couldn't fathom why Roberto and Venizia never left this town. Especially after all the wealthy and influential families shunned them, including Roberto's own. Instead, they secluded themselves to the outskirts of the town setting up residence in a slice of unowned wooded property where Roberto built their small home. Roberto took the surname Carlo to constantly remind the Luisiano family patriarch of the son and grandchildren he turned his back on.

The Carlo's had a tough time making ends meet initially. The Great Depression was the turning point when, having expanded the grounds, home, and staff, the Carlo's had the only surviving yields in town. They singlehandedly stocked the market for the next two years while all incoming shipments from larger farm towns and city goods had ceased. Their newfound fortune coming hand-in-hand with the fact that the Carlo's saved Santa Luisa from literal starvation, the town had no choice but to accept them back into society.

So accept them back in they did, but it wasn't without the snippy comments and whispers as they walked through town. That behavior continued through generations. Felice had now heard the story of her family's fall from grace and historic resurrection into society more times than she cared to admit.

School wasn't bad, honestly. At least only half of the people here had despised her family as their town, being so small, had decided to make a jointly run high school with their neighboring town to the west. The school was built on the border of both towns to ensure both towns a football team large enough to make a splash in Texas.

Felice had been the target of constant bullying at the hands of Carina Santana, the heir to the Santana fortune. Carina was a 5’10” slender beauty with a fair complexion, alarming green eyes, and caramel-kissed hair. She was also homecoming queen, future prom queen, class Vice President, and had been dating the football captain, Gabe Rosas since freshman year.

Felice was nearly a polar opposite with her deep golden olive complexion. She was only 5’5” and she had curves for days. Her eyes neared black in color but paired well with the voluptuous raven hair the women in her family inevitably inherited. Unlike her nemesis, Felice never had many friends and definitely no boyfriends. She liked to keep to herself.

When Carina hadn’t given Felice her usual glare in the Senior parking lot, she’d become hopeful that the eve of her birthday might not be so bad. Boy had she been been wrong.

The “queen B” had an uncanny nose for finding Felice’s whereabouts in the school hallways. She used this “sixth sense” to intentionally run into Felice at every corner. “Watch out!,” “Are you blind?,” “Get out of my way!,” and finally, “Can you please stop trying to touch me by pretending to bump into me?!?!” The last one turned heads and drew laughter from the whole hallway of onlookers.

Not even Felice’s deep golden glow could contain the deep blush rising from her already heated skin. She felt the gentle sting of early tears and swiftly fled the scene. The echo of laughter grew louder as Carina yelled behind her, “Sorry, babe! I’m not available!”

Felice was mortified. She focused her tear-stained gaze on the fast strides of her green converse across the grey checkered hallway tiles. So fixed on the front entrance of the school Felice hardly noticed the school office door begin to open. By the time the door had swung all the way open blocking her pathway, she had no time to react.

With a loud thud, her head connected with the door. She felt her body giving out as she crumpled to the floor. As the lights dimmed in her mind, she thought she saw blurry figure of an Angel hovering over her. His deep black eyes burned into her soul. And then she was out.