A/N: Well, it only took me 11 chapters to get through the aftermath of the letter & everyone's reactions to Jordan and Angela being together again. Events speed up after this chapter as they move onto the next "level" of their relationship. I stayed up until 4 AM getting this chapter out for your holiday pleasure…Hope you enjoy!
Ch. 11 More than Just a Dream
Jordan was left standing in the hall as the bell rang. He didn't understand what had happened. He couldn't help feeling like just when he thought he knew Angela, they were like total strangers again. It was almost like she was avoiding him all over again. He sighed heavily and turned around to realize he was alone in the hall. Hell, he thought, he was already late. May as well go ahead and skip now, Jordan rationalized, as he headed back out to his car.
Jordan figured if he couldn't understand what Angela was thinking, why try figuring out what the teachers were thinking? Staying at school was not an option, unless Jordan wanted to risk being caught, so he started the engine and decided to head over to the loft and practice on his own. He wanted to finish that song for Angela. He may have started writing it about his car, but the more he sang it, hummed it, or thought about it, the more he knew it was really about Angela. She was the one who made him feel safe and warm; like he was going somewhere instead of nowhere.
Entering the loft, Jordan went straight for his guitar. He passed by the hammock and immediately thought back to last night. God, he couldn't believe they had come so close to making it last night. She said she was ready and he knew from the way she was holding him and rubbing him that she was. Just thinking of it made Jordan involuntarily begin to harden. But then there was the damn screw up with Graff. He hoped Angela could forget about it, like soon.
Jordan shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and his blood, for the time being. He only had a short time to work on the song before he needed to head back to school. He wanted to see Angela again, and English would be like his first chance. He had to know if she was O.K. He didn't like the way they left it, with something bad like, hanging there. If he was ever going to have a chance to sing her his finished song, or get in that hammock again with her, he needed to find her and make sure everything was cool. His thoughts turned to his music and Jordan got lost in the notes.
Angela barely made it through biology, feeling Brian's eyes on her through most of the class. She knew he was let down, maybe even a little angry, but she also knew there wasn't anything else she could do. It wouldn't be fair to let him think there could be anything more than friendship between them. She just wished he could turn his attention to some other girl, like now. She wished Jordan was there and couldn't wait to get to English to see him again.
To Angela's supreme disappointment, however, Jordan never appeared in English. Depression sank in and hit her hard. She really needed him right now. She needed his reassurance that he wasn't going to just walk away the first time things got tough, like it was too much work, or something. She was really depending on him to make all the rest of her sadness disappear, and now he was the biggest reason for her to be sad. I mean, I told him I'd see him in English, she thought to herself. For him to just blow me off is like, a slap in the face.
Feeling stupid for pinning so much hope on Jordan being there to make her feel better, Angela couldn't wait for the final bell to ring. She had to get out of the halls before everyone started to ask her what had happened to Jordan. She just didn't feel like facing any of her friends right now, looking at her with pity for thinking she could count on Jordan, and being let down again.
As Angela rushed out of the school building, she saw Jordan leaning against his car, waving her over. She frowned briefly, then slowly started to smile again as she headed toward him, and realized she would always be compelled to do so.
"Out on bail?" she asked him playfully. It was one of her favorite things that Jordan had ever said to her and she loved tossing it back at him now. Her earlier irritation with him vanished as she got lost in those beautiful blue eyes once again.
"What?" Jordan didn't understand. He knew he'd missed English and when he finally stopped working on the song and saw how late it was, he just decided there was no point in going back until school got out so he could pick up Angela.
"Well, you broke out of this jail today, didn't you?" Angela teased as she gestured toward the school with her head.
The last time he saw her, Jordan wanted to make sure she wasn't mad at him or something. Now she was smiling at him and like, teasing him. She would always keep him guessing, he figured with a little chuckle of his own now. "Miss me?" he asked her seductively as he grabbed her with both of his hands and pulled her close to him.
Angela stepped between Jordan's legs and leaned into him as he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her to his lips. Her arms went up to his neck and her fingers played around in his hair. She'd never get tired of running her fingers through his hair, she knew. This was what she wanted so badly all day long, she thought, as he opened her lips with his tongue. Angela happily gave to Jordan what he would take, feeling overwhelmed at just how much she really had missed him and relieved that he was here now.
"Mmm, I take it that's a yes," Jordan said in her ear as Angela buried her head in the crook of his neck.
God he smelled so good, Angela thought. She never wanted to leave this spot. Just then, she heard a guy's voice call out, "Catalano, man, where ya been?"
Jordan looked up and Angela attempted to turn around, thinking he would want to break the contact while talking to his friend. But Jordan pulled her back against his side, his right arm hugging her to his right side. She looked over to see his friend Shane standing a few feet away, and smiled a half smile at him. He just grinned back at her like he was amused at the situation. Angela felt her own smile grow as she looked at Shane looking at the two of them.
Ever since the day Jordan had taken her by the hand and walked out of the school with her, his friends had stopped pretending like they didn't know her. But they still didn't spare her too much time or interest. They mostly just like, tolerated her, Angela thought. It felt weird for one of Jordan's friends to be grinning so big at her. It made her feel, like embarrassed or something.
"So ya gonna be at band practice tonight?" Shane asked Jordan, finally doing something besides grinning at them both like a fool.
"Yeah, we'll be there," Jordan replied, tightening his arm around Angela as he spoke. Shane and Angela both caught his meaning, making Shane look back at Angela with a studied expression, which made Angela look down at her own two feet. She couldn't help but grin a little as she realized Jordan's intent, and as she noticed that his right leg was pretty squarely in between her own two legs, standing at his side like she was. It all just felt so, good.
"Well, O.K. then. Later, man," Shane finally broke the silence among them.
"Yeah man, later," Jordan said.
"Bye," said Angela in a small voice, making Shane look back at her one last time before heading off.
Jordan's full attention was already back on Angela, even as Shane was walking away. He liked her at his side, but he had liked her even better standing between his legs, where he felt she was all his. But before he could pull her back to where she had been before Shane showed up, Angela looked up at him and stopped him with one word.
"Yes," she said simply.
"Yes, what?" Jordan asked, confused.
"Yes, I missed you. So don't be posting bail anymore and leaving me inside, O.K.? If you break out, you gotta break me out with you, deal?"
"Oh baby, I'm sorry. I meant to get back in time for Katimski's. I mean, I wanted to like, see you…ya know, and talk to ya…and make sure everything's O.K. Cuz when you left this morning, you seemed…"Jordan's eyes glanced around as he struggled to find the words he meant. He frowned slightly, remembering how Angela left him earlier, like something was wrong. But when he looked back at her, she was just smiling at him again, a beautiful smile that always seemed to make him forget everything else he had been thinking and think only one thought instead. He thought how much he wanted to kiss lips that could smile like that.
All of Angela's displeasure at being left at school without Jordan was now completely forgotten, as she reveled once more in his calling her 'baby.' He just did it like it was no big deal, like he had always called her 'baby,' only he hadn't. He had just called her that for the first time last night, and now for the just the second time today. It made Angela feel special, like she was dreaming and when she woke up this would all be over.
But it was more than just a dream. Jordan was here, and she was here. And he was holding her, and kissing her, and he wasn't leaving her when his friend showed up. And he was calling her 'baby,' Angela thought one last time before she gave in to Jordan's lips that had come seeking hers once more.