Treat You Better

Chapter Fifty-four: Boyfriend Duties

I eventually giggled when it became quite ticklish. And I thought that made him chuckle. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?" I craned my head to look at him with a grin, "You're the one who's-" My words cut off when I noticed my phone on my table light up, a message! I immediately paused the movie and set my laptop aside, nearly falling over as I hurried to my desk.

"Please, please... Annie!" I gasped and opened the message.
My shoulders deflated when I realized the message wasn't even for me but for the class group chat, asking about an assignment. "Well... maybe she just came online and hasn't seen my messages yet." I said aloud to drown out the other voice telling me that Annie deliberately did that to let me know that she saw that I sent messages but she was still not going to reply. Then there was absolutely nothing from Susan.

"That... just might be a little bit desperate, sweetheart." Angelo said and I sighed as I sat next to him once more, still staring at my phone, still anticipating.

"I know I just..." I trailed off, putting the phone down and pressing my fingers against my eyes. "I basically have no friends now..." Again.

When I turned to look at Angelo once more, he was scribbling something on a piece of paper. Then he gave it to me.

"Ouch." I read aloud before turning to him with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Angie, you know what I mean..."

"Turn it around." He said, gesturing to the paper in my hand which turned out not to be a piece of paper but a photograph.

I gave Angelo a confused look, "It's just a picture of a little Goth boy- OHHHH!" I gasped loudly, covering my mouth with my hands as I stood up to look at him and then the picture and then him. "I- I didn't think- what?!" It was him, it was him the whole time! How on earth did I ever miss that?

Angelo just sat there, patiently watching me take it all in.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I finally asked, having calmed down a bit. "After all this while, why just now?"

"Truly?" Angelo said as I retook my seat next to him. "I really wanted to separate then and now as I've always done. I'm... not exactly fond of my past self, he did a lot of stuff, made lots of bad choices."

"How bad?" I asked, smiling, "You stole candy from the shops?"

"It started there." Angelo nodded, raising his right hand to rub at his neck and I thought I saw something odd about his hand but then he spoke again, "Then it ended in rehab at fifteen."

I blinked, wide eyed. "Oh."

"Yeah, everything went downhill around the period I took this picture." He said, "Besides that, I wasn't too sure about how you'd react, I did kind of disappear without a word, wasn't sure if you'd hate me for that."

"Well, I don't..." I said, but then I pressed my lips together when my mouth trembled as old memories attached to surprisingly vivid emotions started to resurface, old disappointment, old loneliness, old anger...

"Oh my goodness," I said with a small laugh full of mixed feelings, "I do kind of hate you for that. Why did you leave right after you said you'd-"

"I didn't mean to, Violet." Angelo said, placing his hand next to mine and I could tell how unsure he felt about touching me right now. "I stayed at Hotel Lotus for the holiday and the place was still a huge mess then, you know, when the hotel was still secretly used for money laundering and was still a gang hideout-"

"Excuse me?!" My jaw was on the floor.

"Hey it's fine, Pedro convinced Tio Damien to turn away from that life, they go to church together now." Angelo explained, "He almost didn't make it out unscathed... but my point is, my caretakers at the orphanage found out so they took me away and said I had to stay away till I was eighteen. I never wanted to leave, I wanted badly to be your friend."