Chapter 13: Knight in Shining Armor

Things had come to a very bad end, no doubt about it. It was a reflection of the entire evening, really. Dancing with Charles Finster was only the culmination of a series of bad occurrences.

But fortunately for all parties concerned, he was surprisingly adept at keeping off of Angelica's feet. Also adept at keeping his hands to himself, which was good because otherwise Angelica would have maimed him. He was even bopping his head mostly in time with the pulsing baseline of the song. And he'd remembered that she sang this song when she was three years old. He'd remembered, and for some reason that made her smile. Just a little.

Leaning in close enough she could smell the cigarette smoke in his hair, she shouted above the music, "Not too shabby, Chuck."

He locked eyes with her and grinned. It was his half-proud, half-embarrassed grin—his standard response to a compliment. Angelica rolled her eyes, but it was mostly out of habit. The truth was, dancing with Chuck was the most fun she'd had all night. Of course, that wasn't saying much, considering that her night had started off with a disaster of a date …

Egads. Apparently to even think of the troll was to summon him. Because there Matt was again, over by the bar, staring a little too intently at her and Chuck. As he pushed away the bar and started wobbling over, Angelica tensed. Oh, no. Her eyes darted back and forth between Chuck and a rapidly approaching Matt. For a few interminably long moments, a clueless Chuck just squinted at her in the dark, trying to puzzle things out. He only turned to look behind his shoulder in time for Matt's fist to meet his face.

As Chuck stumbled backwards and fell, Angelica automatically leapt forward. Before Matt could do any more damage, she grabbed his wrist and, with a quick twirl around, flipped him over her back. He landed with a dull thud that could be heard even over the dance music. Carefully Angelica placed one stiletto heel on his chest, leaning forward so that some of her weight pushed the heel's sharp point down a little, just for effect. Even in the dark she could see Matt wince in pain.

Thank goodness her sorority had chosen to cosponsor Take Back the Night last year. Otherwise, she might never have taken that self-defense class.

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Author's Notes: As always, thanks for reading!