It seemed like everyone was going through something terrible. Everyone was depressed. Even though I was having marital issues and also dealing with another pregnancy, Angel was probably experiencing the worst. She truly believed Valerie’s death was her fault. Her old roommate Parris was going to prison for 10 years for Valerie’s death. On the day of Valerie’s funeral Angel tried to attend it but once she saw Tina, Alex, and Matt there she froze up. She couldn’t do it so she waited until the funeral was over to pay her respects.
“I probably shouldn’t even be here but I had to come to show my respects. I just want you to know that I didn’t want any of this to happen. I’m so sorry for calling you all of those mean names and stuff. That wasn’t right. I was just angry because I finally found a great guy after going through my troubles back in high school. I wasn’t going to let anyone take that from me.”
Matt was hiding behind a tree listening to the whole thing.
“I told her not to do it. I told her not to damage your car. Yeah I was upset about you kissing Matt but you didn’t deserve to pay with your life. And for that, I blame myself. It’s my fault you aren’t here anymore. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. May you rest in peace Valerie. Hopefully you had the chance to meet my unborn child that I lost a few years back.” Angel said as she shed a few tears.
After wiping away her tears she placed a bouquet of daisy flowers on Valerie’s dark oak wood coffin.
“I figured daisies were your favorite since you always wore that pink daisy clip on your head. Goodbye Valerie.”
Once Angel turned around to walk away she saw Matt just standing there looking at her. They both just stared at each other not really knowing what to say. Angel continued to look away. She couldn’t look him in the eye after what she did. Matt slowly walked toward Angel. Before he got close enough Angel ran off. She was so ashamed of herself. She didn’t know how to approach Matt so she ran away from him.
Angel finally made it back to her room alone. Alone in her dorm was how it was going to be for now on until next year. Angel hated being alone. Espeacially after what happened. Being alone made her think way more than what she wanted and on the wrong things. Angel shut the door behind her when she walked into her room. She tossed her keys on her desk and plugged her phone up to the charger. Just as she sat down on her bed to take off her shoes her phone began to ring. She looked to see that Matt was calling her. She didn’t bother to answer it. She didn’t know what to say to him after all that she had done.
A few days had gone by and Angel continued her now routine life. She would go to her classes then go back to her room to study, sleep, or talk to me on the phone when I wasn’t busy. That night Angel decided to spend the day relaxing. She was trying to stop herself from stressing as hard as she was so she finally took my advice to just relax. I even gave her the idea to turn off all of her lights, light up some candles, play some soft music, and just chill. Surprisingly she told all of my advice.
Just when Angel turned on the soft music her phone began to ring again as it did for the past few days. Angel knew it was Matt so she didn’t both to answer it. She turned the soft music up a little louder and sat down on her bed. She was a few seconds away from laying down when someone began knocking on the door. She assumed it was one of her neighbors complaining about the music even though it wasn’t that loud. Angel got up to answer the door and when she did, her mouth dropped.
Matt was standing there when Angel opened the door.
“Hi Angel. Can I come in?”
“Actually, I’m kind of busy right now.” Angel replied.
“Please Angel. I promise it won’t take long.”
Angel finally decided to let him in.
When Matt came into the room he was shocked. He saw the candles around the room and heard the soft music playing.
“Wow, you must have been expecting me.” He joked.
Angel cracked a smile. They both went into Angel’s room and sat on the bed.
“So how did you even get in here?” Angel asked.
“Actually, this girl helped me out. I told her that I was trying to get to you so she pretended the two of us were dating and I was able to get through that way.”
“Nice.” Angel said as she got up to turn off the music.
“No, leave it on. I like the sound of it.”
Angel sat back down without touching the radio.
“Well I said this wouldn’t take long so I’ll just say it. Angel, I miss you. Everything that happened between us was insane. I’m sorry if I hurt you. I love you.”
“I love you too Matt, but you did hurt me. You kissed Valerie. Seeing that broke my heart into pieces. I trusted you and you couldn’t even tell me that you were engaged to her. All of that happened to me at the time after I had finally let my guard down just made me lose it. The truth is I wanted to get even. I thought if I did that I would feel better, but afterwards it made me feel like shit. I hurt not only you but Tina and Alex who didn’t deserve that. I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I know doing something like that to your friend isn’t easy to forgive.”
“It isn’t easy to forgive, but I do. I wasn’t honest with you like I should have been and so I guess I deserved that. I need you to understand that I never kissed Valerie. She kissed me. She was trying to make something work with us but I didn’t want that. Their was something else I wanted.”
“What?”
“I wanted you. I’m glad she and I never got married.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to marry you.”
Matt went in for a kiss and succeeded.
Angel and Matt continued to kiss. I guess you can say they were making up for all of the time they were apart.
Angel took off Matt’s jacket and then took off his shirt. Once his shirt was off showing off his tattoo Angel reached for his pants as they continued to kiss.
“Whoa, you sure you want to do this? Once you get me started I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.” Matt said getting turned on by Angel’s aggressiveness.
“I’m sure.” Angel assured with a smile on her face.
Once again they kissed as Angel reached for Matt’s belt. She unbuckled his belt and helped him take off his pants. Now that Matt knew Angel was okay with what was going to happen he didn’t hesitate to take off Angel’s clothes. Once they were both only in their underwear they both got under Angel’s blanket. Matt got on top of Angel as Angel took off her bra. Matt watched as she did it and then took off his plaid boxers and thew them. They began to kiss again when all of a sudden the room began to get brighter from the flame of Matt’s boxers catching on fire.
Matt quickly got out of the bed to stop the fire while Angel laughed hard. Matt finally put the fire out and Angel was just enjoying the view of her naked boyfriend. Matt began to pose for her.
“Like what you see don’t you?” He joked.
“Oh yeah.” Angel said with a smile.
“I like what I see too.” Matt said.
Angel reached down to take off her panties and then threw them at him.
“Had to make sure they didn’t catch on fire.” She joked.
Matt joined Angel in the bed once again. Kissing turned into touching, and touching soon turned into something else as they enjoyed their first intimate night together.
The next morning Angel woke up from the sunlight shining in on her. Matt was still sleeping on her. She decided to wake him up with kisses.
“Now I can get used to waking up to kisses from my wife every morning.” Matt said as he got up.
“So you were serious about wanting to marry me?” Angel asked.
“Of course. I don’t just go around telling girls I want to marry them.”
“I guess this means we’re engaged then.”
“No need to guess it Angel. We ARE engaged.”
“Well how about I treat my fiance to some breakfast.”
“Sounds good to me.”
After getting dressed for the day Angel and Matt headed out for breakfast. Angel saw Tina opening her room door to go in.
“What’s up Tina!” Matt yelled.
“Hi Matt.” She said in a relaxed voice.
Angel just frozed. She didn’t know what to say to Tina after everything that happened. They both just stared at each other for a few seconds before Tina went into her room. Angel continued to stare as Tina shut the door behind her.
“You two haven’t made up yet?” Matt asked.
“I don’t think that’s going to ever happen.” Angel answered.
“Why not?”
“Look at how she used to treat Alex. She could never give all her trust to him and he worked hard for it. So imagine how things would be between us now.”
“I guess you got a point. I still think you should give it a shot though. It won’t hurt to try. After all, look at what happened when I came to you.” Matt replied.
“Yeah. You ended up not wearing any underwear because they caught on fire.” Angel reminded him.
They both shared a laugh and headed out for breakfast. Tina opened the door and watched as they walked away. She was listening in on them when they mentioned her name.
“So how is Alex doing?” Angel asked as they eat their breakfast.
“You can never really tell with him. He likes to hide his emotions and stuff. I just feel bad for him because he’s never really tripped out about a girl before. I can tell that she’s different to him.” Matt answered before going back to eating his scrabbled eggs.
“I feel so bad about that. I have to make things right.”
“What do you have in mind?” Matt asked.
“Let’s go to your house after this. I want to talk to Alex.”
“That was the plan anyways. I need to put on some boxers. ‘Free balling’ is only cool when you’re at home.” Matt said making Angel laugh.
Alex was relaxing at home watching TV in the front room when someone began knocking on the door. He got up to answer the door and when he opened it his facial expression changed. He went from being calm to upset.
“Hi Alex. Can I come in?” Tina asked.
Alex let her in.
“It’s been a while. I guess I wanted to check on you and see how you’ve been.” Tina explained.
“You guess?”
“Ok, I WANTED to see how you’ve been?”
“How do you think I’ve been Valentina?” Alex asked in an angry manner.
“Upset with me. Clearly.” Tina answered.
“You damn right! How in the hell would you feel if someone did what you did to me? I’m not a player anymore Tina! You of all people should have figured that out but now.”
“I know Alex.” Tina said.
“No you don’t! If you did you would have never said that bullshit to me!”
“What did I say?” Tina asked.
“You said that you knew I couldn’t keep it in my pants for long. If that was the case why did you even bother giving me a chance in the first place?”
“I didn’t mean that Alex. I was just so angry that I wasn’t thinking.”
“Right. When people are angry they tend to say exactly how they feel and let’s be real Tina, you never trusted to begin with. Do you know how frustrating that is? When I was bad I wasn’t trusted by people and when I try to be good no one trust me either. Even when I know I should have gained your trust by now, I haven’t. Shit, I might as well go back to being a player then, at least then I won’t have to work as hard to win someone’s trust.”
“I was raped when I was fourteen at a high school party.” Tina admitted.
Alex mouth dropped.
“Oh baby, I’m so sorry.” Alex said quickly hugging Tina.
“No, I need to get this all out.” Tina said as tears fell from her face.
“I didn’t know baby. I’m so sorry.” Alex said as tears began to fall from his face as well.
“My group of friends at the time knew some of the senior boys. They were always having parties and stuff. At first I didn’t want to go but my friend Marie convinced me to go. I was by myself most of the time at the party. Those girls I called my friends were attention whores. I watched as they made out with older boys and got drunk. By that time I was ready to go home. I was just about to walk out the door when this guy stopped me. He started dancing in front of me and told me that if I danced with him to one song he would let me leave. I decided to get it over with. We ended up talking more than we danced. I decided to loosen up by drinking a little myself. That’s when I went into a room by myself because I forgot to call my mom and tell her that I made it to our destination safely. Once I got off the phone with her that same guy came into the room. I had a feeling something was going to happen from all the Lifetime movies I watch with my mom. I quickly walked to the door trying to get the hell out of there so nothing would happen but he stopped me. Then all of a sudden two other guys came into the room. I quickly began to scream so someone could hear me but the music was too loud. The two guys grabbed me and pinned me down on the bed. One of them covered my mouth and I bit them as I continued to put up a fight. He screamed and then slapped me. I still fought back. I thought I was saved when Marie opened the door, but once she saw what was going on she quickly shut it back. The guy that I was dancing with ran after her and I guess he threatened her. By this time one of the guys found some tape and put it over my mouth. The other guy ripped off my shirt. Gary, the guy I was dancing with, came back into the room and quickly took off his clothes. He told me that I should feel special because I was the prettiest girl at the party. After that he raped me. Once he was done, the other two guys took turns on me. I wanted to believe that I could live my life without being haunted by that. I thought I could still be myself after that. Now I realize that because I never told anyone what happened I’ve kept myself hidden from people. I know I joke around and stuff but I was hurting on the inside. I couldn’t trust anyone after that. I even had a hard time making friends after that.”
“I didn’t know Tina. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time.” Alex said.
“I deserved it. I should have trusted you. You never gave me a reason not to but I guess I was scared.”
“And you have every right to be. I love you Tina. I don’t ever want to see you hurt.”
Tina’s eyes widened. Alex never said those three words to her.
“Yeah I said it. I love you Valentina Aura Lopez.”
“I love you too Alexander Pier Reese.”
They stared at each other for a few seconds and then began to makeout passionately.
As soon as Matt parked his car in front of his apartment Angel felt extremely nervous. She was scared Alex was going to flip out on her even though she knew she would deserve that. Alex was always the funny guy in the group so to see him upset made Angel nervous more than ever.
“We’ll, are you coming or are you just going to sit here all day?” Matt asked as he opened the door for her.
“Sorry. I was just thinking about something.” Angel replied as she got out of the car.
“I can tell. You were quiet during the whole trip here.”
The couple went into the apartment and instantly heard loud moans from a woman.
“What the hell?” Angel said.
“Looks like he moved on after all.” Matt said trying not to grin at the sounds that were being made.
“Oh Tina!” Alex yelled.
Angel and Matt looked at each other and began to laugh.
“Let’s give them their privacy.” Angel said as she continued to laugh.
“I’m there with you but I’m going to get a pair of boxers from my room first.” Matt said with a smile.
“Fine. I’ll be in the car. And don’t be a perv and spy on them.” Angel said with a smirk.
“I won’t.” Matt replied with a smile as the noises continued.
Matt and Angel decided to have a fun day to themselves. The day included lunch, a movie, bowling, and then dinner. They began to talk about their future together during dinner and continued their conversation as Matt walked Angel to her room.
“I’m glad we’re taking our time with this whole marriage process. I’m also glad that we decided that a five year engagement will be perfect for us. That way we’ll both be graduates.” Angel said.
“Yeah me too. The last thing we need to do is stress about school and getting married. Not to mention it gives us the chance to really make up our mind as to if we really want to be married. But their’s no doubt in my mind that I want to be with you Angel.”
“Their’s no doubt in my mind either Matt.”
“Good, because the last thing I need is another…”
“Shhh.” Angel cut Matt off as she put her index finger on his full lips.
“I’m not Valerie. I know when I have something great in my life and I refuse to let you go. I love you too much Matthew Stevens.”
“I love you too Angel Smith.” Matt said before kissing Angel goodbye.
Just as Angel began to unlock her room door Tina stepped out of her room.
“Hey.” Tina greeted.
“Hi. How have you been?”
“Better. Can we talk?” Tina asked.
“Sure.” Angel said inviting her in.
They both went into Angels room as she took off her jacket.
“So are you enjoying having this room to yourself now?” Tina asked.
“Not really. I hate being alone, but I was happy to have the room to myself last night.” Angel said with a smirk.
Tina’s eyes widen.
“No! You two did it?” Tina asked.
“Yeah. It was so romantic too. Soft music playing in the background, and a dark, candlelit room, and omg!!!!”
“What?”
“His boxers caught on fire.”
Angel’s room was filled with laughter.
“That’s hilarious! Also very romantic. Alex and I made up too.”
“Oh trust me, we know.” Angel said with a smile.
“Oh my God! You guys were there? I knew I heard something.”
“So did we. We heard a lot!” Angel said as she laughed.
Tina’s face began to turn red.
“Oh don’t be embarrassed. At least your underwear didn’t catch on fire.” Angel joked.
Tina began to smile.
“I’m sorry about everything that happened Angel.” Tina finally said.
“I should be the one saying that Tina. I’m sorry for hurting you like that.”
“I forgive you.” Tina said surprised that she did.
“It won’t happen again. Especially since I’ll need you to be a bridesmaids for my wedding in five years.” Angel confessed.
“What! OMG!! I knew you two would get married eventually. I happily accept your offer.” Tina said.
“Great. I’m happy were friends again Tina. I missed you. I really did.”
“I missed you too.”