Chapter 25!

I walked into the kitchen to see Tom, Dawn, and Angel sitting at the kitchen table playing some type of card game. Willow walked in right behind me.

"Hey Buff." Angel smiled at me.

"Hey." I said very quietly and tried to walk past him. I felt weird being around him now, like if I do one false move he'll know.

"Buffy." Angel called to make me stop in my tracks

"hmm?"

"Something wrong?" he asked me suspiciously

"Nope, nothing at all." I said and walked out of the room. Angel looked over and Willow who shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll go talk to her." Willow said and followed me.

"Buffy what was that?" Willow asked when I went into the living room. Nobody was in there.

"I know I know! I got nervous Willow." I whined

"Buffy you got to act normal or he's going to know something's up." Willow said

"yeah I know." I sighed. I had to do this. "Ok." I breathed and walked back into the kitchen

"Ah you have returned." Angel said to me. I was behind so I don't know how he knew I was there. "Want to play cards?" he asked me and Willow

" Damnit." I heard Dawn curse over at Tom.

"What are you playing?" I asked

"Go fish." he grinned. I smiled at him.

"You don't like thinking games do you?" I grinned

"Hey! I'll have you know, you have to think quite a bit at this game." Angel turned to Tom. "Got any 2s?"

"Yeah I'll play." I said taking a seat in between Tom and Angel. Willow sat in between Dawn and Angel.

Angel dealt a new hand of cards.

"Got any sixes?" Dawn asked me. I shook my head no.

"You know I'm surprised." Tom said

"bout what?" I asked

"You and Angel have not gotten in trouble once since we got here." Tom laughed

"You guys usually get in trouble?" Willow asked

Dawn laughed "their always getting in trouble for something."

"They haven't fought very much since we got here." Tom said "That's one of the main things they get in trouble for and they really haven't been outside to get in any trouble."

"Hey we don't get in that much trouble." Angel said. Tom stared at Angel.

Tom laughed "well I guess our stay here isn't over yet, we still have to survive the night and tomorrow."

"Oh speaking of getting in trouble there is something I wanted to ask you guys." Angel said

We all looked at him.

"Well Cordelia has been calling and calling wanting to come out here and I obviously don't want her to actually come here seeing how my mom hates her so I figured that we could invite everyone to go down by the lake." Angel finished. The lake was on the other side of the town. It was real pretty.

Willow shrugged. "Sounds good to me, Tom you got any kings?" Tom shook his head.

"And this is how your going to get in trouble, you guys know perfectly clear that our parents don't like us down by the lake." Tom said

"That's why we're going to go after dark when they all go to sleep." Angel said

"your going to get caught, you know you will. Somehow you always do." Tom said

"not this time." Angel grinned. "Dawn got any fives?" Dawn sighed and gave her fives over.

"What are we going to do at the lake?" Willow asked Angel

" I don't know maybe bring some food and have a picnic." he shrugged

"Can I come?" Dawn asked Angel. Angel look over at me.

"Ask you sister."

I glared over at him then looked back at Dawn and simply said "no"

"why do you always make me be the bad one?" I asked Angel

"because you're her sister, it's your job." he grinned

"why can't I go?" Dawn whined.

"Because I don't want my little sister tagging along." I said

We argued a bit more until Dawn finally gave in.

"fine." Dawn pouted. I'm just glad she's old enough not to be a tattle tale and go tell on me.

"Well I'm going to go call everybody then." Angel got up. "So they can have a head start on getting here."

"Well I'm going to go watch tv." Willow got up. " I was going to watch a cooking show with your Aunt Jan. They're going to make this awesome cake!" Willow got excited

"Oh can I come watch?" Dawn asked. Willow shook her head yes and they both left the kitchen.

"Buffy are you really going to go?" Tom asked. It was just me and Tom in the room now.

"Yeah. Probably." I said a little unsure.

"I wouldn't, you know your going to get caught." Tom said " And then you won't be able to do anything forever." he pouted a bit. He just wasn't as cute as Angel when he does it.

"Well..." I said a little unsure.

" Stay here with me." Tom got up and got behind me and whispered that into my ear. He was playing with my hair. He leaned over the back of my chair and kissed my cheek. He started to kiss down my neck. I felt myself pull away a bit. I think Tom felt me pull away because he got beside me and sat back down. "So are you going to go?" Tom asked in an irritated voice.

"No." I said quietly.

I must have said the right answer because he smiled at me and said good. Angel chose this time to walk in. I was glad so maybe he could brake this tension in the room.

"Ok everyone is coming and they're going to call me when they're about here so we can meet them." Angel shook the cell phone in his hand.

"I don't think I'm going to go." I told him

Angel gave me this look but I'm not sure what kind of look it was. " why not?"

"Me and Buffy are going to stay here." Tom said and smiled at Angel. Angel gave Tom this look. He almost looked like he was glaring at Tom. "We have better things to do." Tom said with a hint in his voice. Angel continued to glare.

"Ok fine." Angel said and walked out of the room. Wonder what that was all about. Between Angel and Tom. Are they in a fight?

Angel walked into the tv room and plopped down on the couch and watched the food channel with Jan, Dawn, and Willow.

"What's the matter Angelus?" Willow asked when she heard him sigh on the couch.

"Nothing, nothing at all." he said in a tone and continued to watch tv.

Later on that day it was darker and about time for Angel and Willow to leave. I was hungry so I went into the kitchen to find something to eat. I might make a sandwich...oh dill pickles. I love those. I brought the jar to the corner of the counter to try and open it. I was facing the wall. My back was facing the whole room.

"You should have watched it though, that cake looked so good." Jan was telling her dad, George while walking upstairs into the kitchen.

"Any cake with that much chocolate has got to b-" he was cut off form Jan hitting him on the chest lightly to be quiet. Jan was about to be at the top of the stairs but stopped when she saw Angelus walking towards me in the kitchen with my back turned. She looked around the corner and was spying on me and Angel. She pressed her fingers to her lips indicating for George not to talk. She made a gesture so he would come up a bit further and spy on us with her.

"I want to see if they're really always mean or if they just act it when we're around." Jan whispered to George rolled his eyes but nodded and watched with her. He still didn't believe we would ever get together.

I couldn't get the jar open. It was really hard so I tried to hit it against the side of the counter.

Angel stopped behind me and grinned. I didn't know he was behind me.

I saw a hand reach over me should and grab my jar. I jumped slightly. "Need some help?" Angel asked grinning. I smiled at him when he got the jar open. "Thanks" I said quietly and turned back around. I felt Angel's hands rap around my waste from behind and his chin rest on the top of my head. I loved how he felt pressed up against me like that. I gave a happy sigh.

"What are you doing?" he chuckled at me when he saw me pick pickles out of the jar and put them in a bowl.

"I'm going to go downstairs and eat dill pickles while watching a good chick flick." I turned my head upside down to look him in the eyes.

"I see and your going to be kissing Tom with pickle breath?" he laughed

"Oh I'm prepared for that" I grinned and grabbed a stick of gum from my pocket.

Angel laughed at me.

"Or I'll simply make him eat some pickles so we both have pickle breath and we'll have a pickle-a-thon." I looked back down at me pickles. Angel still had me up against him. His face was right next to mine now because he was watching me put pickles in my bowl. I glanced over at him and grinned when I noticed he was looking at me.

"What?" I grinned over at him.

"Nothing, sometimes you're just so damn adorable." he smirked. Ok I had to say that. She is so damn cute! No harm in flirting with her a bit.

"Stop your making me blush." I grinned at him.

"Ahhh." he moved one hand from around my waste and pinched my cheek.

"Angel stop!" I giggled but then he just started to tickle me on my sides. I squirmed but he was still behind me and not letting me back up so I just kept moving back and forth.

"Angel!" I whined but was still laughing at the same time.

"Ok ok I'll stop." he grinned and I felt his arms go back around my waste. I sighed and leaned back resting my head against his chest. I wanted him to kiss me here so bad. He felt so good against me. This

was one of those moments I didn't want to end but they always had to.

"You sure you don't want to come?" he asked

I looked up at him. "Yeah I'm sure." I sighed.

"Ok well I gotta go." he said and started to go but I didn't even know why I did it but I found his hand that had slowly been letting go of my waste and held on to him. I couldn't help it. I didn't want him to go. I know I said that I was going to try and act normal but I notice it's getting harder and harder to let him go. It hasn't even been that long since I admitted I was in love with him and I'm already having trouble letting him go. Angel looked down at me and I looked up at him. We stared at each other for what seemed like hours but really only a couple seconds. I saw Angel glance back down at our hands that were clasped together and back up at me.

"I have to go." Angel said more quietly and let go of my hand. "Cordelia will be waiting for me." he said more quietly and turned around and started to walk away. I wanted to shout wait but couldn't find my voice.

"I'll see you later tonight." he said turning back around facing me. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" he asked one more time.

"Yeah I'm sure." I said leaning against the counter. He walked back up to me.

"Ok well if you change your mind that scooters still in their garage." he grinned at me.

"I'll keep that in mind." I smiled at him.

"Ok well I'll see you later then." he gave me a small peck on my cheek and walked towards the stairs where Jan and George were silently backing down the stairs knowing they could still hear us at the bottom of the stairs. "And Buffy." I looked back at Angel. "Be careful."

I smiled at him. " I will." I know he was talking about Tom. Angels always been protective of me when I had boyfriends.

Angle looked at my one last time and sighed "why do you always have to be so cautious?" and walked down the stairs.

Jan and George took off around the corner and sat down on the couch with everybody else. Everyone looked at Jan and George like they were crazy because they saw them actually run around the corner and jump on the couch. Everyone was watching tv on the big screen.

"Mom I'm leaving." Angel came downstairs swinging his car keys.

"Oh where are you going?" Mellisa asked

"Just around."

"Ok." Mellisa said not wanting to meddle in her teenagers life.

"Willow come on." Angel beckoned Willow to come. Willow quickly stood up and left with Angel.

Back in the kitchen I was still trying to interpret what happened just a couple minutes ago. I brought my bowl of pickles and sat at the kitchen table. Does Angel feel the same way I do? I thought as I bit into a pickle. No he couldn't possibly. It's Angel we're talking about! The man that hates me and is always teasing me. Another thing that was bothering me was, does Angel really think I'm that cautious. Maybe he wants a girl that adventuresome, that'll take risks. Like Cordelia. I sat there and ate pickles just thinking of a way to get Angel to notice me. I mean REALLY notice me. Not just a girl he's forced to be around.

"What were you two running about for?" Joyce asked her sister and dad.

"Well you'll never guess what we heard between-" Jan started but George elbowed her. "What?" she asked irritated but he looked over at Tom who was still here. "Oh." she said quietly. Everybody just left it at that.

"Jan honey let those two have their moment without you meddling into it." George whispered in her ear.

Jan understood because she nodded.

"Angel why are you so quiet?" Willow asked Angel who hasn't spoken since they gotten in the car.

Angel shrugged "just thinking."

"Bout what?" Willow asked

"nothing really." he sighed. "Did I bring the food?" he asked changing the subject

Willow got the hint and looked in the back seat. "Yeah it's there." she looked over at Angel trying to read his emotions on his face but failing miserably, he was so hard to read at times. 'God I need Buffy!' Willow thought to herself. Willow sighed. She knew this was going to be a tough job, getting Angel to admit he's in love with Buffy.

A/N: Did ya like? Hope so. I'll be updating chapter 26 sometime soon. I don't really like the way that chapter 26 turned out but I needed them to have a little teenager fun. Just thought I'd warn you that you might be a little disappointed in the next chapter, I just thought it was a bit cheesy. Please Don't forget to Review!