💫ANGEL💫

Thanksgiving turned out to be the beautiful disaster it always panned out to. I avoided the drama and misery of my own family to be tied into the drama and misery of Giselle's. Being back on campus had never felt so refreshing, falling back into the routines of class, café, and Loki's place. The first day back was like a family reunion, everyone met up in the café, hugging and greeting one another. Then, as we ate lunch, we all shared stories about the last week of absurdness.

"I missed you, dweeb." V whined, taking a voluntary seat onto my lap.

Without hesitation, I picked her up and shook my head no, hoping she'd understand and not take offense. Looking up into her eyes, I could tell that wishful thinking wasn't my strong suit. There was an ounce of disgust and liter of full-fledged fury.

"I can't—we can't anymore." I mouthed, hoping the rest of the crew didn't witness my rejection.

"What?" She laughed a half-confused chuckle. By the look on her face, I could tell she didn't want to accept it.

"Come on, V. You can always sit on my lap." Zack joked, seemingly attempting to help diffuse the situation.

"Angel's being a bitch!" Rolling her eyes, she mumbled underneath her breath. I knew that she knew I could hear her.

The tension around us festered a moment. A few side-eyes, throat clearing rumbles, and change of conversation should have done the trick. But then, in comes little miss sunshine, happy and jolly as she made her way to her usual spot across from me.

"Hey baby." I smiled, leaning back in my seat and winking her way.

"Hey." Ever since we'd gotten back from break, a lot had changed about the way Giselle carried herself. She was always carefully happy on the outside, which made me assume she was the complete opposite on the inside. I couldn't fathom the feelings she felt, finding out her entire life was a lie. Finding out all of the sadness and loneliness; the abandonment and distance were all a cover-up. I tried talking about it with her a time or two, but she always shot me down with a grueling gaze that made me run in the opposite direction. She needed time. I understood that.

"So, lets talk about this Biology final!" Sevyn randomly yelled. "I need help."

"Sevyn, you know I'll help you. We can have study sessions at the room."

"Or, we can all just go to my place and cram in all in." Loki barged in, taking his usual seat next to me.

"What's up, man." I dapped him up, as he sat down.

"Nothing much. It's pretty damn good seeing all these lovely faces again." Stretching his arms out, Loki leaned back into his seat.

"We missed you too, dude." V smiled. Once her eyes wandered in my direction, that same friendly smile disappeared.

"V, how was your break? All of the festivals and traditional things on your island?" Giselle asked, popping a few fries into her mouth.

"Cool." V answered without even looking up at her.

Fuck. This is about to become a complete nightmare.

Giselle glanced over at me, shrugging her shoulders as she turned her face upward, acknowledging V's sour mood. I tried to pretend I didn't notice anything. I didn't want to know anything, to be honest. Loki warned me about V. He tried to open my eyes and force me to face things that I'd seemed to have ignored for far too long. Blinded by my own selfish desires to avoid feeling anything while feeling everything during our moments of pleasure, blocking out the echoes of nature's call to desire more than physical needs, and so on and so forth. It was me that I blamed for whatever was to come between V and myself. Or even between V and Giselle. Avoiding the inevitable was naïve. I had to do the right thing.

"Want to get out of here? Head back to my place?" I asked Giselle as she stuffed more fries into her mouth. "God, girl. You hungry? We can go get some real food." I laughed, standing and extending a hand towards her. "Come on."

Without hesitation, Giselle took my hand and I led her out of the cafeteria. I could feel the envious burn of Vanessa's eyes, trailing behind us as we made our way out of the café. I prayed I was the only one that noticed, but after picking up our order at Hanigan's and settling in at my apartment, I found out I was wrong about that as well.

"So, what's up with Vanessa?"

"I don't know." I lied, sighing loudly as I spoke. "She seemed off today, rolling her eyes and shit, but I don't know why."

"Come on, Angel. You know why. We both know." Giselle crawled over towards me and began to lie down on my lap. "It's so obvious."

"Is it?" Looking down at her beautiful face, I couldn't help but admire the natural, stunning glow that radiated from her pores.

"It's us. I think she may be jealous."

"You might be right."

"I know I am. Maybe she has a real thing for you, Angel. I mean, I've seen the sneaky glances and eye rolling from time to time. We should talk to her."

"No!" I almost shouted. "I mean, no. No. its's cool. I got it. I'll handle it."

"Are you sure? I don't mind talking to her."

"Giselle, I don't think it'll make things any better if you're the one who approaches her."

"Okay."

"Trust me?"

"Of course, baby." Sitting up, she settled her face to appear more serious. "I love you, Angel."

"I love you, too." And then to change the subject I added, "Talked to your parents?"

"Which ones?" She huffed, rolling her eyes and laying back down on my lap.

"Giselle."

"Angel."

"Come on. You have to talk about it at some point."

"You're right. I do, but not today."

"So, when?"

"When I'm ready."

For a moment, I just stared down at her, waiting for a sign that she was okay. All I saw was a girl, lost and lonely, buried deep inside of her hollow eyes. She didn't even want to be freed, she was locked behind the steel blue cage of sadness, staring out at the world and didn't even care to be saved. It wasn't my life, though. It wasn't my pain. So, I had to wait for the time that she felt ready let out whatever it was that roamed inside her.

"What do you want to do for the rest of the night?"

"Party." She giggled.

"Party?"

"Yeah. Lets have a party."

"Giselle, seriously? I'm fucking exhausted. There's no way I'm—"

"With just me and you. Lets go get some booze, and just drink. And party." Jumping up from the couch, she twirled around the living room, dancing to a non-existent song. I watched her for a second, hiding the grin that eased it's way onto my face. She knew she had me before I did. Sliding on her flip flops and grabbing my keys. "So, can I drive Big Red?"

"Hell no." That got me up, quickly. Rushing over in her direction, I dove at her, missing and running into the table. "Giselle, give me the keys." I laughed.

"Nope." Dangling them out in front of me, she started to tease me, wanting badly for me to charge at her again. So, I played her little game, chasing her like a hungry bull around the living room.

"Come on!" I laughed, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "Stop playing around. Give me the keys."

"Unh-unh! I want to drive your car." Placing her hand behind her, she moved around the furniture, making sure to keep her distance.

"Giselle." I focused in on her, trying to figure out where she'd dart to next. Then I launched towards the left of her and met her in the center of the floor. "Ha ha! Now give me the keys."

That's when the puppy dog eyes, and little kitten pout came out. Slumping her shoulders, she made herself appear innocent as hell, bribing me with her cuteness and sucking me in with that fake sulking. I walked toward her slowly, never taking my eyes from hers. There was a smug grin rising up as if she'd won or was winning.

"I just want to drive Big Red. Just one time, baby. Please."

"Oh my God!" Slapping my forehead, I smiled along with her. She knew she'd won. There was no use in pretending like I was going to put up much more of a fight. So, I did it. I let her drive.

"Lets just go. Let me grab my ID." I ran back into my room, grabbed my wallet, and headed back towards the living room. That's when I heard Giselle talking to someone at the door.

"What's up?" I approached them both slowly.

"Oh. V was just stopping by to see if you were hungry." The way Giselle's brows raised and hands found her hips, I knew this was bad.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. So...are you?"

"Um—" Scratching at my head, I tried to think of my next move. Truth is, I didn't have an answer. No, I wasn't hungry. We'd just eaten. But I also felt I'd rejected her one too many times already and didn't know how to do that again without things getting messier.

"Fuck it. I'll come back later." As V turned to leave, Giselle stopped her.

"No! He won't be hungry tonight, V. We're kind of—hanging out, tonight."

Vanessa turned around slowly, avoiding eye contact with Giselle and looking straight at me.

"Really? All night?"

"Yeah. I'm staying over. I'll make sure he's fed." Giselle's response seemed genuine, but I could tell it was eating V alive. My mind immediately went back to a night V and I was messing around and she'd fallen asleep at my place.

***Author's Words****

What do you think will happen with V and Giselle? V and Angel?

What do you think went on over Thanksgiving at Giselle's

So many mysteries unfolding

Are you ready for all the big reveals?

Please leave comments/critiques/suggestions

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