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SpagBol

"He asked you on a date?" Total asked, incredulous. "Tonight?"

"Well, um, yeah," I answered. "So?"

"Angel…on a date?" he said. "You're not being serious, are you?"

"Why's it so hard to believe?" I shot back, my cheeks suddenly burning.

"Look, Angel, the last person who had a date here in Virginia that we know of is Max. And look how that turned out," Total said.

I blinked. I had forgotten about that.

"It's not anything serious," I assured him. "It's just a chance for me to get to know other people."

"The Angel I knew was pretty fine with just a dog," Total sniffed. "Like…like Akila or me."

I stroked Total softly. "Hey there," I murmured. "She couldn't understand you anyway. And we can't go back and change the past. You know that as well as I do."

He glared at me. "The Angel I knew would also never do what you just did. She would comfort me."

I sighed. "Whatever, Total. I'm ten years older than the Angel you knew. I've changed."

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," he said sourly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I muttered back. "Just cause I'm trying to get on with my life as a human- which I am, by ninety eight percent- it doesn't mean that you have the right to freaking criticise how I do it! It's my life, Total. Not yours. And definitely not Ma- anyone else's'."

He stared at me, and, without warning, turned away and stalked off.

"Total…"

Then I heard what he was thinking.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. If only the rest of the flock were here…and Akila. Why did they all die? WHY? I'm stuck with Angel, now, dammit. She's such a bloody coward, as well. Can't even say Max's name. It's like the flock never freaking existed with her.

Total. I sent the thought furiously at him, and he suddenly cut off.

Angel, he replied.

He said it as just a sort of acknowledgement. There was no fury in it, no happiness, no sadness…no nothing. For a moment, there was silence, then I spoke up again.

I heard what you said, and I-

Forget about it, he interrupted me bitterly. I'm kind of glad you heard anyway. Now at least you know the truth.

What, that I'm a COWARD? Whatever, Total. You and I both know that that's not true at all. I was the one that-

He interrupted me again.

You were the one that got us into all this mess. Remember ten years ago? Why the hell didn't you do anything? You heard those weird monsters' thoughts, didn't you? Those…Flyboy-slash-Erasery-looking-mutant-whatever-they-were-s' thoughts. And why the freaking HELL didn't you do anything? You were the one that killed the flock, Angel, not them. He spat the word- my name- out, as if it weren't true anymore. You were the one that killed Max.

It wasn't my fault! I screamed at him. I was only six ye-

Whatever.

Would you STOP interrupting me, Total!

A muscle throbbed in my jaw as he spun around to look at me, once, before rolling his eyes.

"I have a date tonight," I growled. "And I'm going now."

Have fun, he thought, with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Don't be back too late. And use protection, honey! You don't want any crabbies now, do you?

Shut the freaking hell up.

And then I leapt off the cliff-face, and began spiralling down towards the town, tears pricking at my eyes the whole way. Once I was close enough, I picked a pretty inconspicuous place to land- in a patch of thin forest quite close to a CO-OP. I checked my watch.

6:47pm

My date was at seven.

Shoot.

Biting my lip, I thought of myself dressed in a pretty, dark blue minidress, complete with a silver belt. Then I imagined the shoes- blue satin heels with a silver strap, as well as two silver earrings and a bracelet. Finally, I screwed up my eyes, and visualised myself with a some mascara, eyeliner, lipgloss…there. Perfect.

I smiled as I looked over myself, taking in the gorgeous dress, the shoes, the make-up. Then I checked the time again- 6:53pm.

God, I love this skill, I couldn't help thinking, as I began to walk out of the forest, and onto the street. I could see Number 57 out of the corner of my eye; a huge white house with a nice, trimmed garden.

And there, standing out on the porch wearing a crisp, light blue shirt and jeans, was Louis.

My stomach did a funny flippy-over thing suddenly, and I staggered to a stop. He caught sight of me, and raised his hand, waving. I waved back, and started walking again. He turned away, and a second later, I saw him coming down a set of stairs with some keys in his hand.

"Hey," he called over to me. "You came!"

"Sure I did," I answered.

He looked me up and down, and grinned.

"You look great, by the way," he told me. "Really pretty."

I ran a hand through my hair, and blushed.

"Thanks," I said. "You don't look half-bad yourself."

He chuckled. "Whatever, beautiful."

My cheeks felt like they were on freaking fire, and I couldn't help but read the thoughts running through his mind.

She looks really good tonight... I hope she likes Italian … I've heard that girls find Italian sexy, but- Oh god I hope I'm right… I hope she's not one of those stressy little blondes… No, she doesn't look it… Man, she looks gorgeous tonight...

I smiled. It was all fine.

"You know, I love Italian," I said, as he led me into his car. "It's so…yummy."

Honestly, I'd never tasted Italian before. But I'd guessed, from sixteen years of experience, that teenage mutant bird kids loved any form of food…so now I loved Italian.

"Really?" His eyebrows went way up. "How d'you know I'm taking you to Italian tonight?"

"Uh…girls find Italian sexy, so I just assumed…" I said, recalling what he had been thinking.

"O-kay," he answered. "So, Italian it is."

He revved the engine, and we sailed through the roads, him all the while telling me about the 'little Italian place around the corner' where we were going.

"Yeah, and they have this poster on the wall," he continued, "of all the waiters throwing spaghetti at each other. It's kind of weird, I know, but…who cares, huh? As long as the food is good, and they serve a killer pizza margherita every time."

I giggled. "Spaghetti?"

"Yeah, I know, weird, right?" he laughed. "They're all covered in SpagBol."

"I love SpagBol," I replied. "It's so good!"

He gave me a strange look, then carried on.

"And there's this one waiter called Max, who-"

He kept on talking, but I wasn't listening anymore.

They never leave me alone, I thought angrily. The flock's everywhere, all the time. What the hell do I have to do to forget them? I don't want them clogging up my mind… I need something to distract me from them; something so big that I'll forget them completely, and they'll never ever make me sad again, because I miss them so much, especially Max, and-

"Hello? Angel?"

Louis was clapping his hands in front of my face.

"Huh?" I said, snapping back into reality.

"We're at the restaurant," he said. "Come on."

I nodded and stepped out of the car, where he was waiting.

"You okay?" he asked me, a little worriedly.

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," I answered. "Shall we sit down?"

A young, slim Italian young woman hurried up to us, and asked us in a heavily accented voice: "Can I help you?"

I noticed she was ogling Louis, and I read his mind again, just to check… And there, in his mind, was the memory of my face smiling up at him as he stood on the porch.

I grinned, ecstatic. I was safe.

"A table for two," he said to the waitress, tugging my hand into his.

Instantly, a rush of heat tore up the length of my arm, and I gulped. He glanced down at me, and as our gazes locked, I took my hand from his, and instead, slipped it into the crock of his elbow.

We followed the waitress to a table by a window, and on the way, we passed a large poster with the photograph of waiters throwing spaghetti at each other.

"SpagBol," I whispered, and we both started laughing quietly.

As we sat down, he said to the waitress: "I'll have a coke and, Angel, what about you?"

"Can I have, um…two cokes and a milkshake, please?"

The waitress looked slightly taken aback, but scrawled down our orders.

"And for your eating?" she asked us.

"A pizza margherita to share?" Louis asked me.

"One each, I think," I told the waitress. "And I wouldn't mind having this salad, a tomato soup, and a spaghetti carbonara with extra cheese and ham. Oh, and, could I have some SpagBol?"

Louis burst out laughing again.

She smiled awkwardly and dashed away, screaming orders at the chefs.

"You're very hungry," Louis commented.

"Can't help it," I replied. "I love Italian."

He chuckled softly. "So do I. They make the best food."

I tutted, shocked. "What about sushi?" I asked. "Sushi's amazing."

"Well, yeah, sushi is pretty good, but-"

"And English Breakfasts!" I announced loudly. "Bacon and ham and egg sunny-side-up and egg sunny-side-down and scrambled egg and boiled egg and mushrooms and toast," I finished in one big breath.

"Gotta admit, English Breakfasts are good as well," he said.

"And you can't forget buffets!" I burst out, my eyes widening. "All-you-can-eat buffets are awesome!"

"Buffets, too," he mumbled.

"God, and jelly," I gushed. "Jelly is just so…" I trailed off as my stomach growled. "Sorry," I said sheepishly. "Talking about food just gets me hungry, sometimes."

"Yeah, I guess you've got a big appetite," Louis said.

"You can say that again!" I said. "Especially when I'm having cookies. Warm, chocolately cookies are just so-"

Then, before I knew it, he had stopped me talking.

The reason?

It was because his lips were pressed to mine.