It was the morning the Ghosts were planning to mess with the Angels by destroying some of their territory, before Nick texted me with a tone of desperation I had never seen from him before.

Nick:/: can I come over

Alex: why?

Nick:/: Please. Damn. That was a word I thought I'd never hear coming out of his mouth, even though it was only in written form.

Alex: here's my address: xxx

Nick:/: be there in 10.

As the clock neared 2:30, the time he said he'd arrive, I opened the curtains to look out of the window, spotting Nick standing on the doorstep, raising his finger about to ring the doorbell. I opened the door before he could.

As I got a better look at him, I gasped. His face was covered in a charcoal colour, swiped across his face as if someone had taken a paintbrush to him, an ashen shade that looked like it was from smoke, but luckily none of his face had been burned. The dull colour was cleansed by outlines of tear tracks; I couldn't begin to imagine what he had gone through.

How could Nick text me so casually when he had just been in a literal fire? 

I couldn't do anything except say, "come in." I hadn't exactly warned Grace that Nick was coming, but I doubted she'd be very against it --- she'd been encouraging me to make friends and stuff (probably not with a suspected gang leader though). Grace looked up from her cooking at the sound of the door opening, and stared Nick right in the eye. Nick's eyes widened briefly, but I couldn't imagine what for. Maybe he was just nervous around people's guardians, I know I was, but that was because I was always scared that other people's parents were like mine.

He shot an awkward look towards Grace as he told me, "um, my house burnt down. And I think I know who did it." Grace nodded in the background.

"Yeah," she said. "I think there was something like that on the local news a few minutes ago, the Angels, right?" of course it was the Angels. If this was a targeted attack, the Angels were the only thing that made sense.

I stepped back from the doorway to allow Nick into the house, and I tried to view our house from his eyes. Stark white walls that contrasted with colourful knick knacks of all kinds, from Russian dolls to displayed engraved forks. Grace had told me that our grandmother was an artist, something I didn't know since my parents rarely let me see relatives. But Nick didn't say a word, just asked Grace if it was okay if he sit on the couch. Upon her nonverbal yes, he immediately slumped down and closed his eyes. 

"Do you know if he likes tea?" asked Grace. "I guess he'll be staying with us for a few days." I hadn't even considered that: where was Nick going to live now? Were we just going to kick him out after those "few days"?

Grace lowered her voice as she said the next part. "They won't attack us because I'm undercover as an Angel."

"You what now?" I whispered, (well, not really whispered, it was more like a scream-whisper). 

Why was everyone in this town in a gang? Why couldn't people just live peacefully? At my judgemental look, Grace frowned. 

"Hey, don't be like that. When I was held hostage from the Ghosts, it was either be an Angel or get killed. You don't understand what it's like here." I listened more solemnly at that, remembering what Ryder had told me, and the words I had heard from Nick: you don't understand. So far the Angels seemed the more violent of the two, although I still didn't know what had happened last year.

But she didn't say anything else. Ugh.

"Yeah," I said. "I think he likes tea." The truth was, I barely knew anything about Nick, but who didn't like tea? I was far too embarrassed to say I didn't know, as this was someone who I had brought to the house, but I didn't think too much about it.

I placed a red and blue checkered blanket on him as he fell asleep. 

When he woke up, I was practically shoving tea into his hands: a green mug which he accepted gratefully. I mentally exhaled. At least he liked tea.

"You want to see my room if you're feeling better?" I asked politely. Nick wiggled his eyebrows at me, which made me look away and blush at what he was implying.

"No..." I stuttered. "No. Down, doggie."

"Woof" he responded, sticking his tongue out. With such an innocent expression on his face, I couldn't help but feel like he was precious, that he was something to protect. But he probably knew how to protect a person way better than I did.

Once we made it to my bedroom, Nick placed his mug on my desk, looking around briefly to observe what my room was like.

"I guess..." Nick started, hesitating. "I guess I have to tell you what happened now, we're in too deep for this." 

He took a deep breath. "I killed one of the Angels when I found out they had killed my dad, who only visited me once a year since my parents are divorced and my mom is always... god knows where, doing drugs. They didn't even know it was my dad, but fuck it, it doesn't matter what they thought. It matters what they did. Adrian, the guy I killed, I stabbed with a knife about ten times. It was pretty bloody, that's why they let me leave, because they were too afraid of me. Before they killed my dad, they took numerous people hostage, Grace, Ryder, and his sister. Grace turned Angel, although she works with us to leak information. Ryder refused to join anyone, so they killed his sister, who was only nine at the time." I paused, trying to take all of that in. That was a lot, I couldn't imagine what he and Grace had been through. I briefly wondered, why didn't Grace tell me? Then deemed that question unfair. I knew why she hadn't told me.

In the midst of him opening up to me, he held his hand out palm facing up towards me. He knew what he wanted, but he wasn't pushing it. As I drew closer, I slowly interlaced his fingers with mine. "Thank you for telling me." 

And this time, I kissed him all on my own. He kissed back greedily, both of us closing our eyes and we pushed back and forth against the other like waves in the ocean. He teased lightly by grabbing the edge of my shirt, and when I didn't resist, he brought his hands up underneath my shirt, exploring my waist and moving his hands up higher to my sides. That's when we were interrupted.

"I know what y'all are doing up there!" yelled Grace.

Well, shit.