No One Touches My Friend

Chapter 2

The next day at Bayville High, during fourth period, Freddy was patiently waiting for Angel meet up with him behind the bleachers. He waited a good ten minutes before she finally arrived.

"Hey, Angel." he smiled, "What took ya so long?" But his smile went away, when he saw that Angel was crying, "What's wrong?"

She ran up to him and hid behind him. He opened his mouth to ask again, but his answer came stomping across the campus towards them.

"Hey! Mute freak!" yelled Duncan with his crew not too far behind him, "I got a bone to pick with you!"

Freddy stood in front of her to protect her, "Leave her alone, Mathews!"

"You ain't on my hate list of today, Dukes, don't put yourself at the top by protecting mute girl over there."

"What's she done that's got you all riled up?"

"It doesn't concern you."

"Oh, it does. Cause that's my friend that you're after and if you're gonna do anything to hurt her, then you're gonna have to answer to me."

"Fine! I hope you realize that by protecting her you just brought yourself more trouble than she's worth."

"Mathews… You have no idea what fine line you just crossed."

"Get him!"

Duncan and his crew rushed in on Freddy, taking advantage of his slower reflexes.

"Stay behind me, Angel."

Duncan's two friends reached him first. They grabbed him by the throat and kneed him in the stomach, but their attack bounced right off of him.

"What the hell?" they gasped.

"Idiots!" yelled Duncan, coming in for an upper cut, "He's so fat that he can't even feel your attacks on his stomach, go for his fat face or at least his groin!" he swung and got Freddy right on the chin. "Ha!"

Angel gasped as he stumbled back, bracing herself to catch him, but he found his footing, "Don't worry, Angel. It'll take a lot more to take me down than what these guys throw at me." he grabbed the two that were still wrapped around his neck, pried them off, and slammed their heads together. Just enough to knock them out cold. "Now, for you…" he reached out for Duncan, but Duncan ducked out from Freddy's reach.

"Have to be faster than that to catch me, blob boy. " he reached down, grabbed some dirt, and threw in in Freddy's eyes.

"Gah! I can't see."

"Awe, too bad." he kneed Freddy in the groin, making him drop to his knees, and punched down on the top of his head, stunning him, "Ha Ha All that fat makes a good defense for your stomach, but it does nothing for that thick skull of yours. And now… For you…" Duncan glared at Angel, who stood behind Freddy, frozen with fear, "I'll make you pay for ruining my chances for a super cool date with Jean Grey!" he moved around Freddy and grabbed Angel by the front of her shirt, rearing back his fist, "Maybe this'll teach you not to be so accident prone." his fist speed towards her face, but it did not make contact, "What the!"

Freddy had finally snapped out of his stupor and turned around just in time to see Duncan grab Angel, infuriated he grabbed Duncan's arm, and slammed him on the ground hard. Getting up, he walked over to the side of Duncan, grabbed him by his football jersey, and threw him ten feet away from them. Duncan's body flying body landed in a nearby trash can.

Breathing heavily, Freddy turned to face Angel, "Are you… Okay?"

Angel stared at Freddy, her eyes tearing up, she threw herself at him, clenching his bib over halls tightly in her hands, she wept into his stomach.

Taken back by her sudden burst of emotion, he froze, when he finally relaxed his smiled and stroked her head, "It's okay, Angel. I'm alright. Come on. Let's go find a new place where we can hang out when we're not in class." he chuckled, Angel looked up at him, rubbed her eyes, and sniffed. They snuck around the school grounds, until they finally found the old abandoned class room where the X-Men freed Forge from his limbo verse project. "This should do. Not even the janitor comes down here. How ya feelin', Angel?" Angel gave him a thumbs up, but she still held a troubled gaze, "Angel… Is something… Wrong?"

Sighing, she made her way over to one of the tables, and sat down on top of it.

"Angel?"

Pulling out her small note pad and pen that she carried around, whenever she needed to say something, she wrote: "My dad got angry at me last night… When he's angry he says some strange things."

"What kind of things?"

"When he's really angry he says that I'm not his daughter… That… I'm nothing more than a burden."

Freddy was unsure what to say, "Maybe… Maybe he didn't really mean that." she looked at him with hopeful eyes, "Sometimes dads say things that they don't mean. Mainly when they're under a lot of stress. Has your dad been under a lot of stress lately?" she nodded her head, "Well, maybe that's the case. Deep down inside, he really loves you, you just gotta be patient with him." Angel thought about it for a moment, smiling widely, she ran up to him and gave him a hug.

Pulling away from him, she wrote another note: "My dad's not going to be home for the next couple of days, so we can hang out together even longer!"

"Cool. Hey, since we've got more time to hang out, you wanna go hang out at the mall? We don't have to buy anything just to hang out there." she nodded her head vigorously, "Sweet. We'd better go to the rest of our classes before principal Kelly gives us detention."