Angels
flash fiction | it's time
“Erica, do you really believe in angels?”
“Bitch, what’s with that tone? How about I ask ‘do you really believe your boyfriend is going to stop drinking enough to be long-term material?’”
Olivia laughed. “Calm down fire girl, I didn’t mean it that way. Besides, he’s all I got and provides great service.”
“Any 22 year old would, but you can do better. And why do you ask?”
“Well, do you remember Isabella? You met her at Tracy’s graduation last summer.”
“I guess.”
“The one wearing pink hot pants and blue silk scarf as a top.”
“Oh yeah, totally wrong vibe.”
“Anyway, I bumped into her at Burger King yesterday and she said an angel told her she needs to move to California.”
“She was probably high.”
“She was, but she said she wasn’t when the angel spoke to her. Anyway, she also said an angel told her Roland was going to break up with Cynthia. She barely knows either, and I found out today it happened.”
“Whatever. Everyone knows they shouldn’t be together.”
“Yeah, but when would it happen? Anyway, I thought of that time last year when you and I were dancing with Greg at The Pit…”
“I hate that place.”
“…so do I, but you said something about angels.”
“He said his better angels told him to take us both to his place right now.”
“Well, whatever, he was just being Greg, but you said something about angels, too.”
“Oh Christ, I don’t know, did I say something like ‘any decent better angel would tell him to go to hell?’”
“Yes, but you also said your own better angels would protect you from the likes of him.”
“That didn’t age well.”
“Yeah, but I warned you about Ted, so you only wasted two weeks with that creep…”
“Whatever! Why are you asking?”
Olivia lowered her head and whispered, “Erica, I swear to god, I felt like some angel visited me last night and told me ‘it’s time.’” She glanced around the bar. “In the first instant I was scared, but then I felt very peaceful and went to sleep, and I was thinking about it this morning when I got up.”
Erica sighed, and asked slowly, “What does that mean, ‘it’s time’?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking if you believe in angels?”
Erica looked at her best friend, seeing the genuine concern and appeal in her face. The sarcastic ‘fire girl’ vanished. She exhaled a deep breath, took a final sip of her gin and tonic, and then, suddenly inspired, snatched Olivia’s phone off the table. “Liv, if an actual warrior of God told you ‘it’s time,’ then we are blocking your boyfriend’s number right this second. And if you don’t break up with him today, I’m calling your mother.”
by George Alger
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