Angel Full of Flowers

❁ 16 ❁

Still smiling, he replied, "It was fine."

There was a part inside of me that screamed he was lying. I knew he was. His expression earlier said it all. I wasn't sure why he was all alone out here, but I did know that it had something to do with what happened during the break. I noticed immediately that he had grown just a smidge taller. It scared me because it meant he was changing. Angel was growing—becoming a man. I was worried because that meant that his mother would eventually take him out of school. Who knows what would happen to him then.

"What about Camellia?"

He had broken my train of thought. "Huh?"

"How was your break?" He inquired, giving me a cheeky smile.

Now it seemed like it was me who couldn't quite look him in the eye. "Oh, well, I didn't do anything special. I just spent it with my family." I gave him an awkward smile back.

Angel looked directly into my eyes and said, "Sounds special to me."

My heart skipped a beat. Testing, testing, is my heart okay? I might be having heart palpitations. He was too close for my own good.

I took a small step back and robotically chuckled. The others thought my mannerisms were odd and laughed along with me. As long as he was here—safe—then that was all that mattered.

Or so I thought.

When we were back in our rooms, putting everything back to where it once was, I thanked him for the beautiful necklace.

Angel promptly responded with, "I don't know what you're talking about."

I looked back at him. He reminded me of a cat; A stubborn one. I rolled my eyes and went back to placing things into the drawers of my desk. Then, out of nowhere, he said, "I like the card you made me."

As soon as he had said this sentence, my ears perked up and I quickly turned around to face him. His back was to me as he began to take off his shirt. My cheeks burned and I looked down for a split second. Then back up again. I had never really seen Angel change in front of me. He did so the first time we met, but never again. So I was surprised when he did and I couldn't help myself from peeking. But what I saw was not what I was expecting.

My eyes trailed up his pale back. The first thing I noticed was that he was terribly skinny—to a point where you could see his ribs protruding against his skin. At the right side of where his liver was, was a healed scar. It was about two inches long. That was obviously a red flag. However, directly above that, below his right shoulder, was a giant bruise. It was blackened, slight purple surrounded it.

I gasped. "Angel, how did you get that?!"

He looked down to where I was pointing, only an "oh" came out of his mouth. I repeated the question.

"It's nothing," he insisted.

I would not stand for it. He continuously lied about being fine and I had had enough of it. "Tell me the truth," I demanded.

Angel did not look at me. "My mother must have squeezed my shoulder too tightly or something. There's nothing we can do about it anyway."

"There must be something we can do!" I protested. "Perhaps we can take pictures and send them to Oleander."

He shook his head. "I don't have a phone, nor do I know her number. My mother is always watching me, somehow, she just is. It's useless. Just give up on it."

His words made me fume. "No. I will never give up on you."

Angel finally turned to look at me and his eyes widened in surprise at my firm declaration.

I walked back towards my bed and picked up my phone. "I have an idea. I'll take pictures of your bruise and scar and I'll print them out. Then I'll mail them to Oleander."

He was thoughtful for a moment. "And how do you plan to send them to her? Neither one of us knows her address."

"That's what the internet is for," I smirked.

Angel agreed to go along with my plan and I snapped a few photos of his injuries. Then, without a second thought, I headed straight for the library.

There were already a few girls there, checking out books and getting ready for the new semester. I, however, had plans of my own. Making sure no was around one of the copy machines, I swiftly connected the computer to my phone and printed the pictures out. The loud machine began to work its magic and I quickly deleted the pictures from the computer.

It was so loud that I hadn't realized when Poppy appeared behind me. "Camellia!"

I let out a strange noise and snatched the pictures from the machine. I gave a tense smile. "Hi!"

"Whatcha doing?" She pondered and tried looking behind me. I tried to play it off cool.

"Um-" My voice cracked. Ugh! Really? I cleared my throat and tried again. "I was just printing out pictures of my dog! Yup, I love my dog, haha." Nice!

"Aw, really? Can I see?" Not nice!

Poppy slowly began to approach me when I instantly blurted, "It's ugly!" She stepped back, startled at the loudness of my voice.

"Yeah, she's just a r-really ugly dog and I don't want anyone to see her." Gah, I'm so stupid!

Being the kind girl she was, Poppy said that it was no problem at all and respected that I wanted no one to see it. We said our goodbyes and I zoomed out of the library. I would just have to use my phone to look up Oleader's address.

Dear mama,

Sorry I haven't written in a while, everything has been somewhat hectic lately. But I believe something good will happen! I feel it in my bones. It has been a bumpy ride, but that's just life—like how you would always say! I'm going to do everything I can to help Angel. I know this is his ticket out of here and away from his abusive mother.

With love, always,
Camellia

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