-1Chapter 10

What to Do About Angel

Note: Sorry gang. I made a mistake earlier in my last chapter by saying that Angel's eyes were blue, when in fact that they are amber. I'll try to remember that next time.

Jean and the others went home after school. The three girls were worried about the situation between Angel and Freddy. Their worry did not go unnoticed by the others.

"What's the matter Jean?" Scott asked.

"Huh? Oh… It's nothing really. It's just-"

"What?"

"You know that Angel girl?" Rogue interjected.

"Who?"

"Angel. The girl that pounded pretty boy in the cafeteria today."

"O-kay. What about her?"

Jean sighed, "Freddy's been avoiding Angel."

"Why would he be avoiding her? Don't girls normally avoid him all together?"

"Normally, but this time one actually wants to hang out with him."

Kurt became curious about the conversation, "That's odd. Vhy vould he be avoiding a girl that's interested in him?"

"I don't think she's interested in him that way, Kurt." Jean answered, "Anyways… Something's just not right about the way Freddy's been avoiding her. He tries to push her away, but his body language says otherwise. We saw him today outside the girls bathroom, after we tried to help Angel. He looked as though he wanted to hold her and as though he was about to cry."

Scott scoffed, "Blob crying? That'd be a funny sight to see."

"It ain't funny, Scott!" Rogue yelled, "You should of seen how much pain they were both in. Especially Angel…"

"Sorry… I guess I just don't see Blob as being the sensitive type."

Jean rolled her eyes and stared off into the distance, "Figures, since you really don't pay much attention to anything, unless it involves you."

"Hey! That's not fair, Jean."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just worried about Angel. I mean, it looked as though she really want to be our friend, but when she saw Logan she quickly changed her mind. You should have seen that look in her eyes when she saw him, Scott. It was if she wanted to kill him, but was being held back like a dog on a leash. Logan doesn't even know who she is. He tried to follow her, but she disappeared like she was covert-ops or something. I wish I could just look into her mind, but I know that the professor disapproves of such methods, and I don't want to do anything to make her not want to trust us."

Scott took in everything that Jean said and thought about it, "Should we tell the Professor and Logan about Angel?"

"Most definitely, especially since she clearly showed signs that she's a mutant."

"Alright."

Meanwhile, at the Brother Hood Boarding House…

Freddy sat, locked in his room, crying. He couldn't hold it in any longer. Since the hospital, he had been holding everything inside; not telling anyone what really happened or how he really felt about Angel.

"Angel." he cried, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry!"

There was a knock on his door.

"Yo, Freddy." Toad's voice came from the other side, "You okay?"

"Go away!" Freddy's voice came out more as a cry than he meant it to.

"Freddy! What's wrong?!" Toad tried to opened the door, but it was locked. For a while things went silent and Freddy went back to crying, until he noticed Toad at his bedroom window, "Freddy! Whoa, are you crying, yo?"

"I said go away!!!" Without even thinking, Freddy grabbed a random object and chucked it at Toad.

"GAH!!! Freddy, what the hell's wrong with you?!"

"Toad!" he gasped, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" all the anguish inside conflicted with his urge to control himself, "Please, just go away."

"I'm not gonna go away, Freddy. I know something is wrong an' I wanna help."

"You can't help… Even if you could it wouldn't help much."

"Why? Is this about that bitch Angel?"

Toad's words enraged him, he grabbed Toad by the throat, and slammed him up against the wall. He growled through gritted teeth, "Don't… Don't you EVER say those things about Angel! She's a good person, who'd never hurt anyone!!!"

Toad pulled at Freddy's hands, "If-If that's so… Then why'd she send daddy dearest to put you into a hospital?!"

"She didn't send him!!! Her old man attacked me, because I was trying to stop him from killing her!!!"

Toad's eyes widened, "What?"

Streams of tears flowed down Freddy's cheeks, "H-Her dad tried to kill her or… At least try to seriously hurt her. Her dad is Sabertooth and he beats her, Toad." Freddy let go of Toad, letting him drop to the floor, "When I tried to stop him he got angry and took it out on me."

Toad stood up, rubbing his neck, "Didn't Angel try to stop him?"

"She couldn't… When I looked into her eyes it was as if… As is there was nothing there. I think she went catatonic." he paused for a moment before he began again, "H-He told me that if I didn't stay away from Angel that he would hurt Angel even more. I don't care if he hurts me. I can take a pounding, but Angel… She lives with that bastard and I can't protect her. Pushing her away was the only thing that I could do to protect her, but I don't know for how long…"

"Awe, man!" Toad ran his hands through his hair, "Now I feel bad."

"For what?"

Toad sighed, "Uh… Don't get mad, okay? It's just, well… Pietro told us to pick on her."

"WHAT?!!"

"Freddy. Freddy!" Toad backed away, as Freddy stalked dangerously towards him, "Come on, yo. We were only trying to protect you! Uh-Uh… Did I mention that it was all Pietro's idea? Heh Heh"

"GRRRR!!!" he grabbed Toad by the front of his vest and reared back to hit him, but stopped, "Damn it! I can't hit you. You were only trying to protect me and your too pathetic to beat up anyways." he let him go and walked to the other side of the room, "I want you to do something for me, Toad."

"Anything, Freddy. Just name it!"

"I want you to look after Angel for me. Make sure that nothing bad happens to her at school and make sure that Pietro and Lance don't pick on her anymore. I can't be around her without putting her life in jeopardy. Sabertooth will smell my scent on her and he'll get angry and just take it out on her."

"Freddy…"

He clenched his fist and lowered his head, "Angel needs a friend, Toad… She has no one."

"Can't you just take her away from Sabertooth? I mean, the guy's a wanted criminal and all-"

"He's too smart to get caught. Mystique told me about him and everything he does to make sure that he doesn't get caught. Besides… Angel loves her dad. If I took her away from him, she'd just hate me… I couldn't bare it if she hated me."

"How do you think she feels about you now?! You've been pushing her away so much that she's beginning to grow cold inside!" Toad walked up to his friend and forced him to look into his eyes, "You say you care about her and you're trying to protect her, but all's you're doing is feeding her more to the fire! Avoiding her ain't protecting her, Freddy, it's tearing her apart. You saw what she did to Duncan in the cafeteria today. You're my best friend Freddy… An' I know now how much she means to ya. Since she came along, I ain't ever seen you smile so much since you came to the Brother Hood. She's the best thing that ever happened to ya, yo."

For a while Freddy was silent, then he pushed Toad away, "Promise me you'll look after her and be her friend…"

Toad looked at him with disgust, "Everyone always said that you were all bronze and no brains and you wouldn't even know that the sky was falling even if it fell right on your head. I always defended you, Freddy! No matter how much they picked on me or beat me up, I always defended you, because you always defended me. You were the one person that I looked up to the most, because you never let anything bad happen to any of your friends. But now… Now I don't know what to think."

"You just don't understand!"

"Oh, yeah, I don't understand anything! I'm just a little toad after all." Toad walked to the door, unlocked it, and opened it, "Don't worry, I'll look after her, but I'm not gonna pick up any of the pieces that you've left behind. I'll let you do that on your own." with that Toad left the room, leaving Freddy to think.

'Is Toad right? Is avoiding Angel all together making things worse instead of helping? Angel… Is your father keeping his word about not hurting you or did he say that so that I'd stop being your friend?"