CHAPTER 16

"Where are you going?"

So much for me trying to be a silent ninja. Ten steps and I would have walked out the house unnoticed.

Reluctantly, I walked back near the landing, looking up I could see my dad's tall, bulky frame standing at the top of the stairs, with a suspecting look.

Wiping the perspiration from my palms against my jeans from being under my dad's heavy gaze, I coughed out, "I'm just meeting some friends."

My dad's immediate response was to give me a look that read, 'bullshit'.

"I do have friends - we just wanna do some late Christmas shopping."

There went the look again. It was so hard lying to my dad - despite the years we spent apart, he could easily know when I was lying. He wasn't implying that I could not make friends, he just knew the type of person I was - a loner at heart. This came to an advantage when I changed schools because it was easier for me to move on as I hadn't made any strong attachments.

"You and your "friends" go shopping at eight a.m. in the morning?"

"Yeah, we wanna get to the mall before it gets too crowded. "

"Es, you do know you sweat more when you're lying-same thing your mother does."

Playing dumb, I said, "Huh?"

"'Huh' is for people who suffer from speech difficulties."

Ignoring the repetitive vibrations of my phone, no doubt knowing who it was, I started, "Dad -"

"Lucy, I wanna go too, are you going Angelo's house?" asked my brother out of nowhere his little frame stood behind my dad, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I could've just strangled him at that moment. Instantly my dad transformed into Overprotective Father at the mention of a male's name and me going to the said male's name house.

That was exactly the situation I was praying hard to avoid, even though he knew the nature of our relationship, my dad was convinced there was more to it than there really was and I didn't want to further prove my dad right

"Angelo? So even your brother is well acquainted with this boy."

Already taking backward steps towards the main door, I quickly said, "Dad it's really nothing...I really have to go...love you...I'll be back soon."

I ran out the door like my ass was on fire, thankful that Angelo's car which turned out to be a minivan was already parked outside, I jumped in and not caring at that moment that he was looking at me like a crazed woman, I told him to drive.

Surprisingly, he did as he was told like a good little boy with no questions asked.

When I finally managed to catch my breath back and I made sure we were free from harm's way, namely my dad, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing that the car wasn't working, as I wouldn't have put it past my dad to stalk me until he got some answers.

Looking over at the driver's seat, Angelo drove uncharacteristically quiet and I wondered what was up with him. He had woken me up at half six in the morning asking me to get ready for eight with no explanation of why.

I couldn't say I couldn't come because frankly I didn't have a choice. Still feeling grumpy for being woken up early, especially on Christmas Eve I asked him where we were going.

"Obviously somewhere", he replied in a bored tone, which I did not appreciate at all.

"Try being a little bit more specific, Henriquez?"

"How about you try shutting up for a second, damn, so annoying."

His irritation spoke volumes. I couldn't lie, it got to me that he'd talk to me in that way - I thought we'd past that. Clearly not.

It didn't take long for me to be pissed off. After all, my dad had just come back home from jail and I would rather had been spending time with him than be sat next to his miserable butt.

Looking out the window seeing all the wreaths, sleighs and snowmen light up the houses we drove by managed to put me in better spirits. Seriously though, some people went in hard on their Christmas decorations.

"My mum burnt herself badly whilst cooking yesterday so I had to drop Robinho at my uncle's house and take my mum to hospital and we didn't leave until five in the morning. So yeah that's been my night."

At least it explained the cranky attitude.

If he thought he'd be easily forgiven - well he was right, but I'd let him stew for a while. I wanted an apology. I knew I probably wouldn't get one but I could still try. I didn't know where I got the confidence to be even demanding for one - but damn, I deserved one. And for the rest of the ride I made it a point not to speak with him.

We ended up at the shopping mall. Wordlessly I got out of his car and followed him as he took lead.

I was surprised by the hordes of people that had already filled the mall and of course as expected it didn't take long for me to be self-conscious. The judging gazes forwarded to Angelo and I didn't help matters - or maybe I was just seeing things or looking too much into things. Ugh, I didn't know. All I knew was that he was attractive and I...and I was not.

Like why couldn't he have just called one of his friends or something to come with him - but then again who would want to go shopping at this time? Or maybe this was some sick game of his, to make himself look better standing next to the ugly duckling. I've read magazines and books lying around how sometimes 'pretty' girls surround themselves with their 'less attractive friends' so they could stand out even more. Was this the same shit Angelo was pulling with me?

Without warning, I felt warm hands grab my cold ones, and looking up at the Hand-Thief it was none other than Angelo.

"You're too slow," was his only explanation as he carried on walking.

Not wanting further attention on us, I tried to let him go of my hands but his grasp was too firm. I hated the fact that I loved the feel of his hands wrapped around mine - they were so big, strong yet gentle.

Ridding myself of my ridiculous thoughts, I tried once more for him to let go of my hand, but the boy was just too damn strong.

"It would help things a lot if you talked to me."

Accepting defeat, I said nothing to him and let his hands do all the work of holding mine in place. When his thumb started drawing stupid circles on my palms I had to remind my legs to keep moving and my lungs to keep on taking in air.

He was seriously waltzing with my heart.

Maybe I was just being unnecessarily awkward over something that wasn't such a big deal - but it was weird having a guy willingly want to have any contact with me. I just didn't get it. It was something that made me withdraw even more.

But in the depths of me where no-one could see, I was happy at how we looked - like a damn couple. Finally we reached a stop, and I nearly pee'd myself with excitement when I took in the sight before me.

A candy store!

"I guess if my words can't get me back into your good books, I'm hoping that candy can."

"Don't get ambitious, you were never in my good books."

Before I knew it I found myself standing in front of the jelly bean dispenser.

Grinning he said, "Well at least it's got you talking and it works with Robinho, so I thought I would try it with you."

Rolling my eyes at him, I helped myself to the biggest bag and filled it a quarter way with jelly beans before moving to the butterscotch gums, "I'm not a child."

Laughing to himself like there was a joke I'd missed, he said, "I know that for sure."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing", he said giving me a quick upward downward glance before turning away to get a bunch of Christmas themed rock sweets.

After four and a half hours of shopping, Angelo had finally declared it home time. He had bought so many things we had to keep going back and forth to his car to drop the items off which explained why he brought the minivan instead of one of his fancy sports cars.

"You sure do have a big family."

"It's not for my family."

"Oh okay, for your several baby mamas then."

The way he burst out laughing shocked me a little, I placed my hand on my chest trying to still my racing heart as I watched unamused Angelo bent over with tears spilling from his eyes.

After he'd sobered up we entered the chemist and without noticing we had found our way in the feminine hygiene section. With eyes raised I turned around to ask him what we were doing there and for the first time, he seemed to be out of his comfort zone- as he should be.

"What erm - is there something I should be looking for when buying these things?"

I was confused, but then I thought of Sara, "Didn't your mum tell you what sanitary item she uses?"

"It's not for my mum," he answered, "or for my girlfriend."

He had a girlfriend. He had a girlfriend and I couldn't help not being pleased about it. And that was saying it politely.

It was seriously hard for me to maintain my composure with the way that Angelo looked at me like he was gauging my reaction. I didn't even like him, so why was I jealous?

And most of all, why was I surprised? A handsome egocentric guy like him will always be able to have girlfriends even if he treated her like a peasant.

"So who do you need to buy this stuff for?" I asked pretending to be interested at the box of hair removal cream because I couldn't look at him without him noticing the disappointment on my face of him having a girlfriend.

"To the homeless shelter."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

And that's when it actually made sense - the number of gloves, scarves, hats, socks, men and women's briefs and all the other stuff he'd bought that made me wonder a little deeply about what was going on.

For some reason, he seemed rather reluctant to tell me and I didn't understand why.

"We...we have this thing in our family where we don't give gifts to each other on Christmas, instead we give it to others who aren't as fortunate."

Honestly, I could have just hugged him - if I was brave enough. What makes a guy more attractive than knowing he has a generous heart?

Trying the best I could not to give anything away, I picked a pack of pads and box of tampons, "You're going to need to buy different sizes of these."

"Why?" He asked taking the pad I had out of my hands.

"Erm because some women bleed a lot and some don't bleed that much."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

For some reason, it did not feel weird talking to him about that sort of stuff. Handing the basket over to me, he said, "Since you know what you're doing, you can take over. Just get a bunch of stuff they might need. I'm going to get some breakfast."

"Angelo, are you being serious right now?"

Not saying anything, he clasped a band of notes and his car keys in my hands. "Have fun."