With All My Love, Angel _ Anthony Bridgerton

Chapter 8: The Lie

Her mouth fell open as she stared at him. "Anthony I just told you why..." "No you haven't, you told me why you should stay but you didn't tell me why you want to." She swallowed as her eyebrows raised in question. "I wish to be here for your family Anthony. Is that so wrong?" He rubbed his brow with a hard look on his face. "No, but there is no need for you to be here." Her lips trembled as she held back a cry. "Anthony surely you could not mean that." He glared at her. "You have helped us much these past months Angel but your time here seems to be up. I am not one to go against what your parents think is best for you and I will not start now." "Anthony I.." she was stunned, and he took the opportunity to continue. 

"My family is indebted to you and your family, especially after the loss of my father. You have helped all of us and I recognize this but you should go." Her mind was spiraling out of control as his words sunk in. In a moment her body and mind had calmed. She looked straight at him, truly looking at him she thought for the first time. Her mind was not blinded by this attachment that she had formed to him. No, it was clear the veil had been lifted. 

She could see his look of determination as if he had made up his mind on something. Gone was the boy who smiled at her at the dinner table and made her laugh over a nice drink. No, he had regressed into the boy she had hated all these years. A lump formed in her throat. "Do you mean to brush off our friendship Anthony? Is this why you are acting so unlike the person I have gotten to know." She would not cry she would never cry not in front of him. 

Her gaze did not waver as she stared him down. He shook his head. "I am only being reasonable. You have stayed the appropriate amount of time, the mourning period has passed, and your friendship cherished throughout this hardship. Now you must get back to your life. As to our friendship, it does not have to end. We will see each other when the families come together". Angel felt like she was being stabbed and each word that left his mouth continued to push the knife deeper and deeper into her heart. This was how he felt and how he saw her. She was just the girl that he was obliged to be around, the girl that meant absolutely nothing to him. Less than nothing since it seemed too easy to completely disregard her and forget everything. 

She felt silly at the moment as if she was losing her mind but she could not show that, not now. "Of course, we will see you over the holidays as we always do and you will of course visit since our families are clos...." "Anthony!" She had shouted interrupting his annoying ramblings of the ongoings of their lives. Her eyes narrowed as she bit her bottom lip contemplating for only a second before deciding to ask what was truly on her mind. "Anthony." She slowly got closer to the desk holding his gaze with those emerald eyes. "Do you mean to tell me that I mean so little to you, that after all this time that nothing has sprung between us?" 

Anthony sighed closing his eyes only to open them with an unwavering look. "I have acknowledged our friendship Angel and we shall continue it if that is what you wish." She felt her eye twitch in irritation. "What I wish, what I wish! Do you mean to tell me that after all this time after all we have been through and shared? All the late nights and looks across the table, you mean to tell me that you have no af.." Before she could finish Anthony slammed his hand onto the desk "BANG!" it reverberated around them, as a silence took up the space between them. She recoiled at the sound jumping a little from the abruptness. "Don't you dare.. Finish. That. Sentence." His lips were held in a grim line as his eyes lit with anger. 

She realized now what this was about. He sat back in his chair dismissing her and picking his drink back up settling his eyes on the desk. Angel started her trek to the door but before her hand could touch the handle that feeling that had been shoved to the depths of her soul bubbled up. She grimaced as all the feelings she had ignored took up every corner of her body, mind, and soul. Anthony looked at her eyebrows raised. "I said to leave Angel". Her hand tightened into a fist and her teeth clenched before releasing "You are a coward." She whispered.