As We Know It
Chapter 2Taylor had already been having an exceptionally strange day. His alarm had gone off exactly twelve minutes late - he had been mildly irritated until he realized that it still would make him three minutes earlier than Isaac - and about two hours earlier than Zac.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off. It was like there was a buzzing in his head - he discovered, however, that it was only the incessant chirping of a bird outside his window. When he walked out the front door, he gave the little white bird perched outside a particularly menacing glare.
One his drive to the studio, he got stuck in traffic, which set his mode back to genuine irritation. Taylor changed his moods as many as 14 times before he had his first cup of coffee, frequently depending on the ratio of cream and sugar in it and if Starbucks had run out of blueberry muffins. Because of this, when he saw that the traffic was held up because of a five car pileup, one that he would have likely been caught in the middle of had he arrive about twelve minutes earlier, his mood changed yet again: perplexed. He took a sip of his coffee and settled on that particular mood for the day.
When he got to the studio, he was surprised to see that Isaac was already there. Somehow, Taylor was late. He half heartedly looked to see if Zac's car was there; it wasn't. It occurred to him that he should have probably been more annoyed by this - if he had so much trouble that morning, what excuse could Zac possibly have to be this late?
He stepped out of his car, coffee in hand, and rushed towards the door - a bird flew past him, so close he could feel it, and it perched on the ledge immediately next to the door. Taylor could feel it looking at him. It was a beautiful, pure white color, just like the one he had seen outside his apartment. He thought that he should take a moment to appreciate its beauty, but honestly, he didn't have time for that. Taylor waved his hands towards it.
"Shoo!" he said. The bird stared at him and puffed its chest out importantly, clearly offended. Taylor sighed and went to walk past it, and the bird made a strange, muffled sound. It wasn't quite a chirp as far as he could tell, but sounded more like someone mumbling his name. Taylor stopped with his hand on the doorknob and looked back at the bird.
"Whatever," he said, and opened the door.
Isaac was already set up inside, his eyes focused on the computer screen in front of him. He looked up as soon as he heard the door open.
"You're later than usual," Isaac said with a knowing smirk. Taylor got the sense that Isaac derived some perverse pleasure out of getting under his skin.
"Sorry, Isaac, some of us have a life."
"You overslept, didn't you?"
Taylor scowled at that, then picked up the remaining half a danish Isaac had sitting next to him once his attention was back on the computer.
"Did you notice some weird bird hanging around the front of the studio when you came in?" Taylor asked through a mouthful of danish. "It was all white, it looked a little like a dove or something..."
"Is bird watching part of this riveting life you apparently lead?"
"Never mind. You should stop buying those raspberry danishes, I always get the seeds stuck in my teeth."
Isaac paused and glanced down at the spot his breakfast used to be.
"I didn't have much appetite today anyway."
"What is it, something with Laura?" Taylor asked with a frown.
"It's always something with Laura, isn't it?" Isaac sighed. "But it's not important. We should probably get to work, Zac hasn't even reached the stage of not being ready where he decides to let us know he's going to be late."
"I'll call him and find out what's going on."
Taylor reached for his phone, letting out a frustrated groan when he realized ht was missing.
"Shit," he said. "I don't have my phone."
"Whatever, just use mine," Isaac said with a shrug. "He's going to ignore us either way."
"No, I'm sure that I brought it with me, I think it might have dropped it outside. Let me go take a look."
Taylor didn't wait for a response and walked towards the door. As he stepped outside, the bright sun hit his eyes immediately, momentarily blinding him. When his eyes focused again, he did a brief scan of the lot outside their building, and found nothing. A mental tally of the pros and cons of that day began to formulate in his mind - losing a brand new phone was definitely topping the "cons" list.
Across the street from their building was a small, hole in the wall diner. Other than the occasional pit stop during their late night recording sessions, he never took much not eof it. I twas so much a part of the city that it almost perfectly blended into its surroundings, more like background noise than an actual place. But it wasn't the building that Taylor noticed when he glanced across the street - it was the man standing just outside. He was watching Taylor.
Once their eyes met, Taylor wanted to look away, to break contact, but it was as thought he simply couldn't - he felt compelled to stare back. One thing did draw his attention away: something small and compact gleamed in the man's hand, something Taylor immediately recognized as his phone.
"Hey!" Taylor said, and immediately stepped forward in reaction. Without a second thought, he took several quick strides in the direction of the diner, and it wasn't until he was halfway there that he heard the sound. It was a car's brakes screeching loudly, and he stopped in his tracks, frozen in the middle of the street as the car approached. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.
He felt nothing; it was like time itself had stopped, and when Taylor finally worked up the courage to open his eyes again, the car had passed him, beeping its horn wildly as it went, and he was safely planted on the other side of the road. He could feel the firm grasp of hands on his shoulders and realized that he had been pulled out of the way.
He turned around slowly to face whoever had pulled him to safety - and the young man who had been watching him all this time smiled brightly.
"You're all right," he reassured Taylor, who was becoming more aware of himself by the second, and could feel his body starting to shake lightly, shocked and numb. The man put his arm around Taylor's shoulders and led him into the diner.
"You just sit down and have a bit of water, and you'll be fine in no time." He sounded entirely too cheerful considering the circumstances, but Taylor followed his lead regardless, and they took a seat at the first table they saw. It was quiet in there, and as Taylor looked around to take in his surroundings, he saw that it was empty - no customers, no waitresses, it seemed as though he and Micah were the only two inside. Taylor opened his mouth and tried to speak, but nothing seemed to want to come out.
"Take your time," the man said, and he pushed a glass of water in Taylor's direction. Taylor took it, trying his best to steady his hand as he took a sip of it.
"You saved my life," Taylor said when he was finally able to find his voice again. "I don't even... you just came out of nowhere, like some kind of-"
"Angel," the young man finished for him. "That's right."
"Well, don't be modest about it or anything."
"Oh, no, I'm being serious. My name is Micah, and I'm an angel."
Taylor stared at Micah for a moment, taking in every word, before he let out an anxious laugh. Soon his whole body was shaking in hysterical, anxious laughter.
"You're... you're kidding me, right?"
"I'm not kidding you, Taylor. I'm here to look after you."
"Ok, I must have hit my head or something when you pulled me back, because..." Taylor, at a loss for what to say next, took a long drink of water.
"You weren't really supposed to know," Micah said with a light blush rising up in his cheeks. "Not yet anyway. I didn't think you'd notice me so soon."
Taylor took a long, hard look at Micah, assessing everything he could about him. Tall and fair, with a mop of light brown hair that even made Taylor feel a pang of jealousy, he seemed real enough sitting there in front of him. Something essentially kind in his face and demeanor made him markedly different, even dreamlike, but nothing stood out to Taylor as the markings of an angel; as far as he could tell, he looked like little more than some crazy guy. Strikingly handsome, sure, but insane. Taylor knew from experience that these were the worst sort to get tangled up with.
"If you're an angel, then where are your wings? Or some kind of halo at least?"
"You know, we don't really appreciate the stereotypes," Micah said, with what could only be interpreted as vaguely irritated cheerfulness. "We can actually appear in a lot of different ways - human, or animal."
Something clicked into place in Taylor's mind, and he pushed his glass of water away from him, closely examining Micah's face once more.
"Like a weird bird that's been stalking me all day?" Taylor asked, eyebrows raised.
"For your information, doves are the messengers of peace and love and harmony. Although... I suppose I don't really have such good news this time."
Before Micah could continue his thought, Taylor heard a familiar sound coming from beneath the table; it was his cell phone ringing.
"That's what got me into all this trouble to begin with," Taylor said, glaring at Micah. "How did you get that?"
Micah blushed again, and handed the phone back over to Taylor.
"You dropped it outside, and it sort of looked like fun."
Taylor sighed, and pocketed his phone without a second glance. He began to stand up, and shot Micah a look that was part annoyance, part apology.
"I'm really not sold on the whole angel thing, so before you move on to bigger and crazier things, I think I'm going to have to decline."
"You can't, Taylor, this is too important to-"
"Thanks for everything that you did, really. But I'm leaving now."
Taylor turned to leave, and pushed open the door, stepping outside into the sunlight once again. When he looked back into the diner, it was full and bustling with activity, just like it should have been, and Micah was no longer sitting at the table. Taylor took in a deep breath and left.
When he got back to the studio, Zac's car was just pulling into the lot, Zac looking nearly as shaken as Taylor felt. Taylor approached the car just as Zac stepped out and shook his head at Taylor, sighing deeply.
"You would not believe the kind of morning I've had."