Gaurdian Angel

“Hannah Jeanette Manzo. Daughter. Sister. Friend. 2/23/93-6/15/11. Taken Too Soon.”

“They forgot to add “By her best friend” to the last part.” Autumn Turner thinks to herself as she sits at her best friend’s gravesite with a bottle of vodka in tow. She puts the bottle to her lips as she thinks about the night she lost her best friend. Even though she was a bit tipsy she remembered about that night.

“I miss you Han.” Autumn says trying to contain her emotions. But instead she feels water rolling down her cheeks. Whether it was tears or the downpour of rain that had been going on for 20 minutes now, she knew it was time to go. She puts the bottle back in her bag and lifts her skinny pale body off of the cold wet ground. As she stands up she sees a figure in the distance.

“Who comes to a gravesite at 11:30 at night?.........Well I guess people like me.” She laughs humorlessly to herself. Feeling scared by the unknown person’s presence, Autumn blows a kiss to Hannah’s grave stone and sprints her way home.

By the time she gets home her body is numb and shaky. She stumbles up the stairs in her modern Victorian home to her bedroom. Getting off her wet clothes and changing into warm pajamas felt like heaven to her. Autumn goes to her bag and takes another sip from the all too familiar almost empty vodka bottle. Finishing it off, she puts it with the other empty bottles under her bed. There had to be at least 5 down there. She puts in her iPod headphones and lies in her bed. She needed to drift off for awhile. Autumn starts to fall into a deep sleep when the melody of a random song plays.

The next morning Autumn is awoken by her older brother Mitchell.

“Autumn, its seven thirty you need to get up. You’re going to be late for school…again.”

“Seriously go away. You’re not my parent.” Even though her voice is heavy with sleep, she knew it was a low blow. Their dad had been in jail for a few months now for drunk driving and their mom left them when Autumn was little.

“Well since their not coming back that leaves me in charge of you and your attitude. So get used to it.” He snaps back, throwing her black and purple striped comforter off of her and her bed. “Get up. I’ve got breakfast for you down stairs.” He leaves her room. Now that she was up she drags herself out of bed and gets ready for school. Throwing on a pair of skinny jeans and a black hoodie, her usual attire, she comes across a pink flowery shirt she used to wear all the time. Before Hannah died she was a preppy girl. Without looking at it thoroughly she hurls it across the room. She goes to her bathroom and puts on her black eyeliner and mascara. As she finishes she looks in the mirror to take a good look at herself. She stares at herself with disgust. This was a face of a killer. She shakes her head and goes back downstairs.

“I made breakfast.” Mitchell is at the kitchen table calling over Autumn.

“Not hungry.” She replies as she opens the front door to leave.

“Autumn you need to-“ before Mitchell can finish she already slammed the front door and went to her car. She starts up the old beige Taurus she’s had since her 16th birthday. She looks in the rearview mirror and pushes her almost black hair out of her face and sighing in frustration as it falls back to where it was.



When she gets to her school she parks the car and takes a deep breath as she always had before she walked in.

“One day at a time.” She mumbled to herself as she makes her way into the old brown building heading straight for her locker without making eye contact with anyone. If she doesn’t get noticed it would be a good day. Autumn opens her locker quickly as she feels eyes stare at her and she hears the quite obvious snickering from the other teens.

“God she’s been so weird since her friend died.” Most of the comments were the same. Hannah wasn’t just a friend, she was a sister to Autumn. She helped her get through her first breakup, when her dad was put in jail and when Autumn was going through depression because of her mom’s absence. Much like the depression she was under now. But this time Hannah wasn’t here to save her. She was going in on it alone.

Autumn gets her old ripped economics book and shuts her locker and makes her way to her first hour without even a second thought. She looks around her first hour economics class watching everybody cautiously. Most of the people in here were the so called “populars”. The blonde girls who wear the short skirts and low cut tops. The guys who were on the football team. The usual high school thing. Autumn gaze fixes on the front of the room when Mrs. Fowler walks in.

“Class we have a new student. He’s from New York. This is Andrew Hartwell.” The old economics teacher, who tried to act like she was 20 when she was actually 65, points to a tall brunette boy around 17. His short dark brown hair was slightly spiked in the front showing off his perfectly clear complexion. His American Eagle dark straight leg jeans and red long sleeve shirt with the American Eagle A and E symbol on the top right side made him look like an American eagle model. He smiles and waves to the class.

”Oh God not another popular.” Autumn thinks to herself as she rolled her eyes knowing that the girls would be all over him and the guys would want to hang out with him. She looks over to the popular side of the room where the girls are practically drooling and the guys are looking a bit jealous. Autumn laughs slightly to herself at her spot on guess, but her laugh soon fades when she hears Mrs. Fowlers nasally tone again.

“Andrew you can sit next to Autumn there in the back.” Andrew strides to the seat and sits down next to Autumn as he flashes a brilliant smile, expressing his straight white teeth.

“Hi.” He says simply. Autumn is a bit baffled when he greets her. Nobody ever talks to her.

“Hi” she replies back shyly.

“Class I need to go to the copy room to get your assignments so don’t burn this place down while I’m gone” Mrs. Fowler exits the classroom. Before even a minute can pass by, the blonde bimbo of the school, Victoria Watson, walks over to where Andrew and Autumn are sitting.

“Hi I’m Victoria. But you can call me Tori.” Victoria puts out her perfectly manicured hand for Andrew to shake. The fakeness in Victoria’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard for Autumn.

“Ummmm…okay.” A response neither Autumn nor Victoria expected. Usually if Victoria introduced herself to a guy the guy would instantly fall for her. Autumn giggles lightly as she thinks about Victoria getting rejected by him.

“Shut up freak.” Victoria scowls at Autumn.

“Hey. Don’t talk to her like that.” Andrew interjects. Looking straight at Victoria. With those few words she took her seat across the room. “Did he just stand up for me?” Autumn questions skeptically in her head. “Was he joking?”

“Don’t listen to her. She’s just an insecure little girl.” Andrew glances over at Autumn.

“Thanks” the only thing she could choke out. For some reason she was speechless with him. He was perfect. He’s gorgeous , has chiseled features and is a nice guy. She shakes the thoughts out of her head as the bell rings for class to end. To Autumn she thought class had only just begun. “That’s weird.” She thinks to herself as she gets up quickly to walk to her next class. As she gets into her Pre-Psychology class she sees Andrew at the front of the room. How did he get there before she did Autumn wonders to herself. She rushes to her seat, careful not to catch his attention. She doesn’t need any more attention than she already has being the weird girl of the school.

“Just sit where you want.” Mr. Connelly, the Pre-Psychology teacher, doesn’t even look up from his computer to Andrew. Andrew looks around the half empty classroom before his eyes fall upon Autumn. The eye contact sends chills up her spine. He sits next to her as if it was the most natural thing.

“Hey there. Looks like we have some other classes together.” He says stating the obvious.

“Yeah.” Autumn tries to look like she doesn’t care. Maybe if she ignores him, he will get the message.

“I don’t bite you know.” He flashes another perfect smile as he playfully punches her arm.

“You talking to me isn’t the best idea for your rep you know that right?” She rebuttals, furrowing her eyebrows.

“I highly doubt that.” Andrew turns his attention to the front of the room as the bell rings and Mr. Connelly starts his lesson. “And by the way I don’t care what people think about me.” He looks back over to her for a moment.

“Autumn could you please catch Andrew up on what we’ve been doing the past few weeks?” Mr. Connelly stops Autumn at the end of class. She doesn’t remember the whole hour. It was like it never even happened.

“Autumn?” Andrews’s voice breaks her thoughts.

“Uh yeah do you want to come over and work on the packets we’ve been doing?” The words fall out of Autumns mouth without her knowledge. What was she saying? She closes her eyes knowing she wasn’t getting out of this one now.

“That be awesome. Do you think I could get a ride from you?”

“Uh, sure. Meet me after school by the library?” She chokes out cautiously. She couldn’t believe she was actually saying this.

“Yeah I’ll be there.” He chuckles at her sudden nervousness. “See you then.” He smiles charmingly as he leaves the room.

The next two hours Autumn was in a daze. How could someone so perfect want to be friends with someone like her? There had to be a catch. The populars probably set him up. Or maybe he’s a killer like me.

“Ah we meet again.” Speak of the devil she thought to herself as Andrew sits next to her at a lunch table near the back of the lunchroom. She doesn’t remember the last two hours. “Great” she thought to herself “I’m going crazy”

“Are you stalking me now?” She says half jokingly.

“If that’s what you want to call making a friend then yes I am a full fledged stalker.” He laughs coyly as he picks at his food. “You not going to eat?”

“No.”

He thinks for a minute before he replies. “Oh so you’re one of those girls that thinks if they eat there going to die from embarrassment or something ridiculous like that.” Autumn laughs at his high school girl cliché. This was the first time in a long time that she was truly laughing.

“I knew you knew how to laugh!” He slams his hand down on the table jokingly as he chuckles with her. As the laughing dies down he looks her straight in the eyes.

“Your laugh is almost as pretty as your eyes.” The combination of his warm chocolate brown eyes and his sincere compliment made Autumn blush deeply.

“I'll see you in an hour.” She says shyly as she gets up and heads to her last class. Being a senior had its perks. Like 5 hour days.

After school Autumn sprints to the library. She doesn’t know why she was this excited. She felt like a little girl with an elementary crush again.

“Well I’m glad you didn’t back out on me.” Andrew comes up behind her making her jump a little. They just stare at each other sweetly for a few moments before she catches her thoughts.

“Come on lets go.” she tucks her hair behind her ear nervously as they walk to her car. They get into her beat up little car and then without warning he turns up the car radio, blasting a hardcore rock song, making them flinch. She was surprised to hear him sing along to the Black Veil Brides song blaring out of the speakers. She giggles at his impression of the screaming part of the song.

“By the way”, he turns down the stereo as they pull out of the parking lot onto the main road, “I’m sorry for scaring you last night at the graveyard.”

She thinks back to last night. It was pretty fuzzy but she suddenly remembers the figure in the distance. “That was you?” she asks surprised.

“Yeah. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He pauses for a minute. “Who’s Hannah?” Andrew keeps his gaze on her. The very sound of Hannah’s name made Autumn hands grasp the steering wheel tighter and tears form in her eyes.

" She was my best friend." she finally replies.

"Oh. I’m sorry."

"Don’t be. She’s gone and there’s nothing I can do about it." Her voice is now cold. She hasn’t talked about Hannah to anyone.

"That’s a little harsh don’t you think?" Andrew looks out the window as they park in Autumn driveway.



"Not when I’m the one who killed her." She looks him straight in the eyes and then gets out of the car. Tears flood her eyes and fall effortlessly down her face as she scrambles to her front door. She just wanted to go up to her room alone and get her vodka bottle. She wanted to forget. Running up the stairs she doesn’t bother to shut the front door, prompting Andrew to follow her in.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.” Andrew follows Autumn to her room.

“Whatever.” She looks down as she sits on her bed. She felt tears running down her face. Oh God I don’t want to break down in front of him. She tenses up as she holds back future tears and wipes away the ones she had failed to keep away.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“She was my best friend. No, actually she was like my sister. She helped me through so much.” Autumn fills him in on everything.

“Why do you blame it on yourself though? Just because you didn’t leave the party with her doesn’t mean you could’ve stopped that drive by bullet. I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to guilt yourself like that.”

“I guess. I just feel guilty that the last conversation we had was an argument. A drunken argument actually. She wanted to leave so badly but I wanted to stay. I was her ride home and I made her walk home at 1 in the morning.” She shakes her head as guilt washes over her again.

“Nobody could have stopped that bullet. And if you wouldn’t have stayed you and Hannah could be dead.”

“Sometimes I wish.”

“Hey don’t talk like that. I would hate to not have you in this world. You’ve got a lot to offer if you just picked yourself back up.” Andrew smiles encouragingly.

“Yeah. I’m sure Hannah would hate to see me like this. She was always the one to push me out of my darkest times. It was almost like she had a gift.”

“She seems like an awesome person.” He smiles again at her as he grabs her hand comfortingly. “I would love to visit her.”

“Really?” Autumns eyes perk up a bit.

“Yeah let’s go.” And with that they went to the graveyard. They sat at Hannah’s grave silently.

“Hey Han.” Autumn finally breaks the silence after a few moments. “I miss you sis. I wish you were still here. Everybody misses you. I love you chica.” She continues as she lightly runs her fingers over the gravestone.

“I’m sure she’s smiling down at you right now.” Andrew states as if he knows.

“So who were you visiting last night?” Autumn turns the spotlight on him.

He looks nervous when she asks. “Um. Just a… umm old friend.” The once strong and confident Andrew was now a nervous wreck

“Well let’s go see.” Autumn takes off in the direction of where he was standing the night before.

“Autumn wait!” He gets up and runs after her. But it was too late. Autumn was standing in front of the gravesite he wishes she would have never seen.

“Andrew Joseph Hartwell. 6/23/1992 – 9/19/2011.” Autumn reads the gravestone out loud. The thought in her head were running a mile a minute. Yesterday was September 19th. He was actually dead? So this was the catch?

“Autumn I can explain.”

“Explain? Explain to me that you’re actually dead?” She is almost shouting now.

“Yes. Just please listen to me.” He takes a deep breath before he continues. “I’m your guardian angel. God sent me to you the day I died. When you saw me last night I was looking at my gravestone because I couldn’t believe I was actually dead. Even though this gravestone isn’t real it’s a reminder that I don’t belong in this world anymore. Well unless God gives me my second chance.”

“A second chance?”

“Yeah God gave me this bracelet. If I do my assignment he’ll take off the bracelet and let me live my life. It will be like I never died.” Andrew lifts up his sleeve to show a shiny silver band around his wrist.

“So saving me is just an assignment for you?” Autumns tone is slightly angry

“No. Not to me. You’re much more than an assignment for me.” He steps towards her as he grabs her hands. Autumn felt herself let go for a moment. Her reality was just shaken by a guy she met only a few hours ago but for some reason she felt at peace. She finally had someone that wanted to help her instead of just tell her how weird she’s become. He actually cared about her.

“It's getting dark. I should probably get you home.”

When she was with him she felt like her old self. She felt like she has known him forever. The whole way home they talked about anything and almost everything.

“Well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Andrew walks Autumn to her door.

“Yeah I’ll see you then.” She smiles back at him as he kisses her cheek. It sent a small but known electric shock through her system. She gets in her house before the blushing begins. As she goes up the stairs she feels like she’s floating instead of walking. She puts her pajamas on and gets into bed without the security of her vodka bottle. She finally gets to sleep without any other factors for the first time in weeks. It felt good to her. The sleep and having someone there for her. She now felt like the world was an easier place to live in.

The next morning Autumn wakes herself up. She now felt like she had a reason to go to school. She gets ready in a rush and gets to school as fast as she can. Expecting to see Andrew as soon as she walks into Economics, she walks in with a smile on her face. He wasn’t there. She waited and waited. Minute after minute. But he never showed. Mrs. Fowler calls off the attendance like she always did but this time she didn’t call Andrews.

“He’s gone?” Autumn thinks to herself out loud.

“Mrs. Fowler I think we need to assign someone next to Autumn. She is talking to herself. She must be lonely.” Victoria sneers from across the room.

“Miss Watson that’s enough!” Mrs. Fowler looks from Victoria to Autumn. “Are you okay dear?” With her question, Autumn felt all eyes on her.

“Um.. I just..umm.” She stutters back before running out of the classroom. She ran with tears falling down her extra pale face.

“So was I dreaming or did he just leave me?” Autumn questions in her head as she runs to her car and speeds out of the parking lot. She wanted to leave and never come back. ‘How could this have happened?”

She gets home and makes her way to the kitchen. Without thinking she reaches for the alcohol cabinet, and grabs the first thing her hands come across. Whiskey. Before she goes upstairs with it she grabs one last thing. A knife. With both in her hands she stumbles upstairs and barely makes it to her bed. In fact she falls next to it in an attempt to get on her bed. With desperation, she stays on the floor and starts to drink. The bitter taste makes her gag but she forces it down anyways. She continues to drink until she stops crying. A quarter of a bottle later she is staring at the knife next to her. She takes a deep breath before putting the bottle down and exchanging it for the knife.

“I'll see you soon Hannah.” Autumn puts the knife to her lower abdomen. But before she plunges the knife into her, a voice cuts her concentration.

“Autumn stop!” Andrew stands in the doorway. She looks up to him and back at the knife.

“He’s not real. It’s just your imagination.” She coos to herself as she pushes in the knife a little. As soon as she feels it indent her skin she feels a strong force hold her wrists down to the floor. With tear filled eyes, she glances up. Andrew was on top of her forcing the knife out of her right hand. She fights with him for a minute before she surrenders. She throws her arms around him and sobs.

“Honey its okay. Shhh baby I’m right here.” He sits her up and holds her to his chest. She continues to cry until she realizes something. Her mood suddenly changes.

“You left me!” She backs away from him. “You said….” Before she can finish Andrew pulls her back to him by her waist.

“I know and I promise you from now on I’ll be here. With you.” He smiles as he pulls up his sleeve to reveal a now empty wrist. The bracelet keeping him from the real world was now gone. She smiles through the last of the runaway tears as she touches his bare wrist. They could finally be together. All of the thoughts running through her head sobered her up.

He suddenly lifts her chin up so she is looking at him. “I love you.” The words she had not expected but longed for escaped his mouth in a sweet whisper. She crashes her lips onto his without hesitation. He kissed back like it was his last day on earth. When in fact it was his first. She pulls away and whispers the words back “I love you too.” With their foreheads resting on each others, Autumn thinks to herself “I’m with the love of my life. The guy of my dreams. My saving grace. My guardian angel.”