Hell's Angel (EDITING)

12 - James | There are no bike riding classes in hell

'No! Don't let go!'

I wobbled on the bike and Andrew snorted rather rudely. My fingers were turning white from how hard I was gripping the handles.

'I have to let go eventually,' he pointed out.

'But I'm not steady yet!'

This is absolutely humiliating. How did he even figure out I can't ride? Even if he saw me wheeling it through the window, I still could've ridden it up to his street and decided to walk from there.

I read a lot about him from his personal file to prepare myself for the task, but there is still so much I don't know. The file lays out the facts; it doesn't talk about him as a person. I only know now how perceptive he is. I need to be more careful with hiding my identity in the future.

'Try to balance yourself, James,' Andrew said, rather unhelpfully.

'I am trying to balance,' I grated out through gritted teeth, 'It's not like I'm wobbling around on purpose.'

He snorted yet again, his laugh almost infectious although I was definitely not in the mood. It seemed he was taking too much enjoyment from this and I wasn't sure whether that was a good sign or not.

Andrew started to sneeze and tried to let go for a moment to move away, but the bike tilted too much and he had to grab on to it again. I disgustedly wiped his snot off the side of my face as he apologized profusely.

'I'm so sorry,' he repeated, rubbing his hands all over my face and hair and only succeeding in spreading his snot around even further.

I held in a long-suffering sigh and tried to balance myself again, waving away his unhelpful cleaning efforts.

'So... how come you never learned to ride a bike?' he questioned, gripping the seat tightly to keep it steady.

'No one ever taught me.' I shrugged. It's not like we have bike riding lessons in hell—but I didn't mention that.

'Your parents can't ride either?'

'I don't have parents.'

I immediately regretted saying it because Andrew sucked in a breath and his eyes widened and glistened brightly. Hell, he was tearing up about the fact that demons don't have parents.

Technically, demons are born through acts of hate and wickedness, so I suppose I do have one parent, probably still alive on earth. Angels are quite the opposite, being born of an act of great love and sacrifice. But similarly, they would also likely have only one parent who they won't meet while they're still alive.

I never want to meet my parent.

Andrew was mumbling out a stream of apologies which I didn't care to hear. Whoever created me did so with an act of such cruelty that it literally created demon spawn. I didn't feel any kind of affinity towards them or a longing to meet them. I don't want to know what it was they did that was so bad.

'I didn't mean to-

'Don't worry about it, Andrew,' I grumbled, 'It's not what you think. Just teach me how to ride this darned thing,' I added before he could interrupt with more unnecessary words of remorse.

The bike started leaning heavily towards the left as I lifted my feet off the ground and put them on the peddles. Andrew hurriedly slipped his arm around the seat, grabbing it tightly.

'You can't just sit there; you have to pedal!'

I experimentally pushed down on my feet a little and the bike wobbled precariously, slipping from the human's grasp. He grabbed me around the waist as it fell to the ground with a crash.

I cleared my throat somewhat awkwardly, breaking the stunned silence after the loud crash. My feet found the ground and I slowly untangled my fingers from Andrew's collar; I seemed to have clutched onto it in my surprise.

'I guess that's it then,' he vocalized, his gaze shifting from my face to look at the broken handle-bars.

'That's a relief,' I grumbled under my breath.

I am actually surprised there are no bike-riding lessons down in hell; it's literally torture. I can't believe humans just do this for fun.

'I'll teach you someday,' Andrew vowed, gripping my wrist suddenly. His dark eyes were large and shimmering— Oh hell, he was feeling upset about my non-existing parents again.

Luckily, a vehicle pulled up to the driveway just then—before Andrew could get too emotional—and I immediately recognized his dad. I'd perused his family tree assiduously before setting out on my assignment.

'Dad!' Andrew exclaimed, waving at him to roll down the window, 'Could you take us to the vet please please, James found this little kitten abandoned in the gutter, look—'

He thrust the kitten through the now open window, looking at his father pleadingly.

'Hm? Oh, you're the James from school.' He peered at me curiously after blinking in confusion for a moment at the cat. 'Hop in, then.'

Mr. Andrews gave me a serious third-degree which spanned the entire car ride. Luckily, I had already prepared a believable backstory as part of my training, so I was quick to respond to his fast, consecutive questions.

I actually did have made-up parents as part of my cover. I had even studied their interests and behaviours thoroughly, so that I may speak of them naturally in conversation.

Somehow, all of this studying had simply jumped out of my head when Andrew had stared at me with his eyes full of understanding and softly mumbled his questions.

I can't believe how honest I'd been. We're supposed to take on an entirely new persona when we shift into our human forms. We're supposed to feel relatable to our assigned human so that we may seem more trustworthy—that's mainly why we go through their files. We're supposed to find out their interests and pretend to be a part of them; learn who their friends are and seamlessly knit ourselves into the group.

'...James.'

Andrew's whisper had me blinking away my dazed musings. He was holding open my door and partly leaning on it, his head resting on the crook of his elbow.

'Oh sorry, I was lost in a—Thank you,' I interrupted myself as I got down.

We went in to request an appointment and the receptionist laughed when we told them we named our kitten The Void.

'Please, take a seat,' they chucked, 'The vet will be with you shortly.

The Void popped his head out from the confines of Andrew's hoodie when it heard its name being mentioned.

'Yeah! That's you! You're The Void!' Andrew enthusiastically told it, bouncing the little kitten up and down.

'That was a coincidence, cats aren't smart enough to know their own names,' I muttered.

The Void glared at me and rudely stuck out its tongue.

~~~
I still can't ride a bike y'all, someone teach me😔