Angels of a Feather

Chapter 2

Ari

I looked at the food in front of me. It looked so much better than the gruel I was served before. I frowned, unsure how I was supposed to eat a burger. I looked around and saw another boy eating it with his hands. I could do that.

I awkwardly picked it up before taking a bite. Saltiness and sweet and tangy. I let out a moan. This was the best thing I had ever tasted. I set the burger down before I picked up a french fry. I took a bite and it was also salt but the best part was how crunchy it was. 

“Enjoying your food?” the server asked.

“It’s the best,” I told her grinning. “Thank you very much.”

She smiled and chuckled a little. “No problem, here’s the check.” She set a piece of paper down on the table. I blinked. What was a check? We didn’t have anything like that in the angel realm.

I picked it up and saw each item with a number by it coming to a total of 10.27. What was that for? I felt a pit form in the bottom of my stomach. “Um excuse me,” I said. “What is this for?”

“Are you kidding me?” she asked, now annoyed. “It’s the bill. How much you owe for the food.”

“Oh,” I said. How was I going to pay for this? I didn’t have any money. How did you even get money? Maybe... maybe I shouldn’t have left. “I... I don’t have any money...”

“Then why did you order?” she asked, aggravated.

“I got it,” A voice said. It was before the boy from earlier moved his plate and drink by mine.

“Fine,” she said before walking away in a huff.

“...thank you...” I told the person as I looked down at my food. How was I going to survive here if the first time I tried, I had to have help from a stranger? Perhaps Mother was right when she said I was good for nothing.

“It’s not a problem,” he smiled. “So, are you from around here?”

I shook my head. “No, I just got here. Where I’m from we didn’t have to pay for anything. It was all shared with each other.” 

“Yeah, unfortunately, they don’t just give burgers and shakes away,” he said munching on a french fry. He seemed nice at least. “I’m Nick, by the way.”

“Ari,” I told him. 

He smiled even more as he continued to eat and sipped on his drink. “So, do you have a place to stay?”

“What?” I asked. That was a new phrase to me.

“Somewhere to sleep tonight?” he asked, tilting his head a little.

“Oh, not yet,” I told him and didn’t feel all that hungry anymore. My stomach felt like it was all knotted up. “I... I hadn’t really thought about that.”

“Well, you can crash at my place tonight,” he told me. “It’s about five blocks from here. And we can either share a bed or you can crash on the couch.”

“Crash?” I repeated. Why would I want to fall into the couch? And what was a couch?

“Yeah, it’s another word for sleep,” he explained. That made a little more sense. “But eat what you can and then we can take whatever‘s left home.” I nodded and started chowing down on my fries.

Once Nick was down and he was content I ate enough, he paid the bill and had me box up my burger. “Come on. Let’s get going.” I nodded and followed him to his home.

Maybe my Mother was wrong, and the Angel Mother was watching out for me. I closed my eyes and gave her a little prayer of thanks for having Nick here for me.