Corrupt Me

Angel didn’t talk to me at all the following week after Isabelle asked me out. I don’t understand why. It isn’t like I did anything to him. I can’t think of a reason why he would change the way he’d been acting towards me, or anyone else lately. But he didn’t even look in my direction, let alone talk to me all week. I noticed that he had a cast on his hand on Tuesday, and I wondered what had happened. He also had a cigarette in his other hand. I didn’t know he smoked. I was going to ask him about his hand in biology that day because I was expecting him to sit next to me as usual and make me squirm with some cheesy pick-up line, but he sat down at a desk in the front of the room. He sat down the front of the room all week and always walked away whenever I went up to him to ask him about his hand.

I expected things to go back to normal with Angel when the next week came around. I figured, maybe he just had a bad week or something, but no. I saw him come towards me on Monday morning, with a hint of his usual smirk on his face, but when Isabelle came up and hugged me, and I kissed her on the cheek, his face kind of dropped and he stormed off. I saw him a few minutes later, standing with his friends, puffing on another cigarette and waving his casted hand around angrily. I decided that, even though I wasn’t particularly fond of the flirtatious and sometimes crude Angel, I wanted to get to the bottom of why he was suddenly acting like he hated me, and I decided that I was going to find out before the week was out.

Turns out, it was much easier to try and talk to him than I expected. I say ‘try’, because, although I got him to talk to me, he didn’t actually tell me what was wrong with him. On Tuesday morning, just after first break, I walked into biology and noticed that Angel wasn’t there yet, but that didn’t surprise me, only about half the class was there when I arrived. I became more, for lack of a better word, anxious when the desks slowly filled up (although the seat next to me remained empty) and Angel wasn’t occupying one of them. I thought that maybe he just wanted to avoid me so much that he just didn’t bother coming to class, but then, as soon as I thought that, he slumped into the room. It was then that I realised, at the same time that he did, that the only spare seat was next to me. It was what I wanted, because it gave me a chance to talk to him, but from the look on Angel’s face, he would have rather had been anywhere but next to me. That hurt, especially since I didn’t do anything wrong.
He practically threw himself down into the chair beside me and stared pointedly at the front of the classroom. I looked at him for a few seconds, still in confusion, before I decided to speak.

“A-Angel?” I stuttered, nervous.

He swore quietly under his breath, but apart from that, didn’t acknowledge that I had even spoken.

“Angel… look, did I… did I do something to upset you?” I tried again. “I…I didn’t mean to, if I did…”

“No. You didn’t do a thing wrong,” he told me in a hard voice, still not looking at me, “…except…” he began mumbling under his breath and I didn’t catch what he said after that.

So obviously I have done something wrong, something to hurt him. I just need to figure out what it is, because I really don’t like it when people are mad at me.

I was thinking so hard about what I could possibly have done to make Angel mad at me that I was startled when a tall, fat, balding, spectacled man situated himself in front of my desk.

“Did you not hear me?” he asked.
“Um, no,” I replied, blushing deeply.
“You should have been paying attention then. Angel, please explain to Micah about your pairs assignment so that I don’t have to repeat myself,” the teacher said, sending a glare my way.

Angel sighed, “We’re doing a pairs assignment you and me are together we’re doing the male reproductive system cause we got left with the shit cause you weren’t paying attention thanks for that by the way it’s due in four weeks and we have to present it to the class,” he told me all in one breath.

“O-oh. Well, um, do you…do you want to work with me in the library this afternoon? To get some research done?”
“Aren’t you going to be with your girlfriend?” he sneered the last word.

Ohhhh. This must have something to do with Isabelle. But I couldn’t figure out what my apparent love life had to do with Angel. Either way, I was going to play it cool until I knew for sure that’s what it was.

I shrugged, “No, not this afternoon.”
“Oh. Well. Okay, I guess I can,” he replied.
“Good. I’ll meet you at the entrance as soon as school’s finished, okay?” I sounded much more confident than I felt. How would Angel and I manage to work together for four weeks when he can’t even stand to be in the same room as me?
“Whatever.”
“Okay. Good,” I nodded, just as the bell rang.

Angel leaped out of his seat and hightailed it out of the room. I sighed, and silently sent a prayer to God that I’d soon be able to figure out what’s wrong with Angel, before he drives me insane with worrying about what I could’ve done to him. I walked slowly out of the classroom and met a smiling Isabelle in the hall. She immediately wrapped her arm around my waist and led me over to our Photography room. As we were about to enter, I glanced over my right shoulder when I heard someone slam a locker door shut. My eyes fell on Angel, his face bright red and holding a furious expression. He marched right up to where Isabelle and I were standing, hissed “slut” in her face, glared at me and pushed past us into the classroom. Okay, it has definitely got something to do with Isabelle. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of it once and for all this afternoon. I can only hope.