Angel sat at the table with his little sister, playing monopoly. He tossed the die and moved past go, hi sister handing him $200 for the move. "We need to finish this game up. I need to finish cleaning the kitchen before mom gets home."

"I can help! I know all about using the vacuum cleaner." She nodded enthusiastically.

Angel closed up the board game. "Well, why don't you put this back and then get your toys put away, and I'll clean up the kitchen, and then I'll let you use the vacuum." She jumped up and took the box to put away, then moved on to her Barbie's.

Angel had finished up cleaning the kitchen just as the phone rang, but before he could answer it, Clara lunged for it and grabbed it. "Hello?" She looked over in Angel's direction as his hands rose to his hips. "Yeah… No, he just has a cold… He played in the rain yesterday… No I took good care of him all day… Okay, just a minute." She smiled up at Angel and handed him the phone.

He covered the receiver. "Who is it?"

She just turned into the living room, shrugging. "Dunno."

Angel sighed heavily. As if he didn't know who was on the phone. Ha sat in the oversized arm chair, folding his legs under him and slowly lifted the phone to his ear, squeezing his eyes shut. "Hello?"

"Hey Angel, it's Collins."

"Hey! What's up?"

"Ohh nothing much… Missed you in school today is all." Angel could feel himself blushing. "Heard you were sick?"

Ohh ya! He was sick. He pretended to cough. "Ya, but it's okay. I'll be fine by tomorrow. No big deal."

"Look, I'm sorry about yesterday."

"For what?" Great he was sorry. You say sorry when you make a mistake, which meant that everything Angel had thought might have been flirting yesterday had been a mistake on his part.

"Just for… keeping you out in the rain and getting you sick. I didn't think it would get that bad."

"Really, I'm fine."

"You want me to bring you soup or something? You shouldn't have to cook for yourself when you're sick."

"No!" Angel lifted a hand to his cheek. He wasn't sick, but he had a faint burse on his cheek, so his mother had told him to stay home for the day, so long is he did a lot of extra cleaning. It wasn't a bad one, it would be gone by the time he woke up the next day. "Really I'm fine. My dad left money for pizza, so I don't have to cook."

"Ohh. Okay." Angel thought he had heard disappointment in his voice, but he could have just been being too hopeful. "I do hope you're better for school tomorrow. Art was deadly boring."

Angel chuckled on his end of the phone. "How's your project coming?"

"Ohh I dunno. I'm pretty happy with myself. I mean why would I want to change anything about me? I'm too hot for that right?"

Angel blushed again, and was very happy he called and didn't come over. "You actually want to me answer that?"

"Not if you have an answer against it. But if not, then sure!"

"Then I have nothing to say then." It just kind of fell out of his mouth. He didn't mean to just tell Collins that he was hot, if that was what it had sounded like, but he could hear Collins faint 'aww' in the background. "Hey, I have to go, my mom's gonna be home soon and I have a few things to do."

"Ohh… Well… I hope you feel better."

"Thanks."

"I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"You too. Bye."

Angel barely head him say goodbye as he quickly turned off the phone. He replaced the phone to its cradle and lifted his knees to his chin, resting his head on them for a moment. It was times like this he wished his father didn't work all the time. His father didn't tolerate anything like back hands and spankings when he was home, but that was only about two hours a day, and Mondays. And if he had been home yesterday, his mom wouldn't have slapped him, and he would have been in school that day.

He reluctantly slid off the arm chair and into the hall to grab coats. "Come on Clara. Let's go get our dinner."

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Angel was again waiting for the bell ringing. He still couldn't figure out if Collins was for real. He seemed so comfortable with everything, but that was the problem really. Angel still didn't know where the line between being nice and comfortable, and flirting was. He had never flirted with anyone, and he was pretty sure nobody had ever flirted with him before. Either that or it went right over his head, which was entirely possible.

If it was just being nice, Angel didn't want to mess anything up. It would be nice to finally have a friend aside from his little sister. Not that monopoly every night wasn't great, but maybe to do something else every so often would be nice too.

But then if it was flirting, Angel didn't have a clue what to do. If it was flirting, then Angel thought he was somehow being rude, but he could tell. It was all too much for his sixteen year old brain to handle.

The bell rang and he moved on to art class, where Collins was already sitting at Angel's usual table, sketching away in a black sketch journal. Angel took a deep breath and joined Collins at the table. He didn't look up from his sketch until Angel sat down and looked over his shoulder. He smiled as is he had been sitting there forever. "Do you think this project counts if you don't change anything?"

Angel thought for a moment. "Well, I guess it defeats the purpose of the assignment. You really don't want to change anything?"

"Why should I? You already told me there was nothing you would change about me. That's good enough for me." He gave her a wide smile and went back to his sketch, sketch, which was wearing the exact same thing he had on at the moment.

Angel turned his face away from Collins, looking intently down at his sketch book with a slight frown. Collins looked back up and his smile disappeared when he saw Angel's frown. He placed his hand over Angels arm, and Angels eyes went just a bit wide, but he didn't look to Collins. "Hey I'm sorry. I was just messing with you." He offered a comforting smile.

Angel looked back up and arched an eyebrow defensively. "Really?"

Collins chuckled shortly and took his hand back. "No not really. I was dead serious, but if it's making you uncomfortable, it's a waste of effort at the moment."

Angel bit his lower lip. "I'm sorry. It's just not… And you're…" He trailed off, not really knowing what he was trying to say.

Collins laughed again, deeper this time. "S'ok Angel. It's only been three days after all. I can wait." He tilted back on his chair. "Got all the time in the world to wait."

Angel blushed again. Collins seemed to know him better than he knew himself. And okay, it was pretty clear now that he was flirting, or as far as Angel could tell. He was still just a little bit confused. But if Collins said there was all the time in the world to think about it, wait it out, then that was good enough for him.

He gave Collins a small, but whole hearted smile, and Collins returned it. "That's all I was asking for!" He gave Angel a discrete wink and went back to his project.