Angelo flees to his room...

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Angelo arrived at the dorm, and was relieved to find it empty. Quickly, he began throwing his few possessions in a bag, eager to get packed and get gone before anyone found him.

Paige was close behind, somewhat out of breath from having decided to take the stairs three at a time on her dash up to his room. She hadn't been positive that he'd go there, but she couldn't think of anywhere else, and was glad that her theory was correct as she pushed open the door. "Angelo? What in the world are you doing?" she said, pausing in the doorway and looking from him to his bag and back.

He didn't look at her as he answered, saying simply, "What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're packing, but that's not a logical explanation. You have nothing to pack for. So what are you doing?"

"Do I really have to spell it out?" Angelo asked, still concentrating unnecessarily hard on his packing to avoid meeting her eyes.

It wasn't like Jono would admit he'd been following Paige - and Angelo by proxy - because it had only been some rather long minutes since the tableau at the gym, and he wasn't really ready to forgive or forget. But here he was, again unnoticed by the other two, leaning his shoulder against the doorway. "Go ahead and spell it, Espinosa," he called.

Angelo spared him the briefest of glances, before turning his attention back to what he was doing. "Fine. I'm leaving."

Paige looked unaffected but for the sudden tightness in her jaw. "You are not."

That got a response, although perhaps not the one she was hoping for. He twisted to look at her, finally. "How can I stay? Look what I did to you..."

"I am very curious as to why everyone here seems to think I am so easily broken," Paige replied. "As you have not noticed, I'm just fine. I'm more worried about you."

"I'll live", Angelo answered shortly. "Wouldn't be the first time." He swallowed suddenly, before admitting, "I can't risk this happening again. Can't risk hurting more people..."

They registered a faint strange feeling in the backs of their minds, suddenly realizing it was what passed for Jono's laughter, although far from happy. "You won't get farther than twenty metres from the door," he said, crossing his arms. "So why don't you try?"

"Boys…" was Paige's warning tone before continuing. "So, what? You have fits like this often? Funny, I must have missed that even though, you know, I live in the same building as you. Running away is going to solve nothing, Angelo. You are only going to hurt more people that way."

"Not in the long run", Angelo said, determinedly carrying on with his packing. "What if this had happened and I'd had a knife? I could have killed you..."

There was another burst of sharp-edged glee from Jono. "Oh, *please*."

"And what happens if you leave right now and don't get any help? You kill off some random stranger in the street? How is that *better*?" She shot a look at Jono. "You're not helping."

"Not my intention, Guthrie," Jono glared at Paige, then pushed himself off the doorway and strode across the floor to Angelo. "Fine. You really think this is somehow solving something? What world do you live in? I blew her," and here Jono made a wild gesture towards Paige, "across half a bleeding room and you think one smack is worse? God, Espinosa, you hit like a girl."

Angelo shot to his feet, glaring at Jono. "*That* was different and you know it."

Paige winced at the use of her last name but didn't lessen her steeled tone. "How about you two *stop* playing “Who Beat Up Paige Better?” now? Thank you." She stepped between them again, eyebrow raised in a dare.

Jono turned away from her, either in shame or in anger, and glared at the wall instead.

Angelo stood for a moment, not looking at either of them, then turned back to his packing, still feeling it was best.

Paige muttered something under her breath, sounding very much like, "Boys!" and snatched Angelo's bag away to hold it behind her back. "No. You are not leaving."

"Give me back the bag, Paige", he told her, doing a remarkable imitation of her steely voice. "I know what I'm doing."

"What, no kiss and make up?" Jono's words were biting.

"No", she replied shortly. "I refuse to let you leave. You are staying here and we are figuring out what's wrong and you are getting help. End-" Paige cut off at Jono's words, going suddenly very tense and quiet.

Angelo registered Paige's distress and shot Jono a death glare. However, he had nothing to say at that moment, and kept his silence.

"The novelty of being blown up wore off then?" Jono continued, sounding downright hateful now, just not towards Paige or Angelo, but rather himself.

"For once this is not about you! Besides, what do you care? You go around playing strip poker with my ex-roommates! Obviously commitment is not a high priority on your list," Paige yelled, her voice strained. "Don't you dare go doing the woe is me thing. Hate me, fine, but…” She looked at the two of them, both of them leaving, and tried to will down the tears that were welling up. "Just don’t.”

"Paige… you don't deserve to be hated", Angelo tried to reassure her. "*I'm* the one who started all this..."

A slight movement betrayed Jono's intention to touch Paige, but he caught himself and let his hand drop. He leveled a frozen look at Angelo. "Did you," his voice fell flat.

Angelo looked back, confused. "Did I what?"

"Did you kiss her?" Jono said, resigned now.

Angelo paused, then said frankly, "Yeah. I did. I..." He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Jono nodded thoughtfully, as if coming to terms with something. "I envy you."

Eyes darting, Paige watched the conversation. The fact that they weren't attempting to murder each other was certainly a plus. There was a long pause as her companions stared at each other and she took both their hands, holding tight enough that they couldn't pull away. "Look. I know I don't deserve this but... Jono, I love you. As much as I haven't been giving you any good reasons or you good reasons to me, I do, I never stopped. But Angelo is… very special to me. Very… very special. And I don't understand what this means."

"And I don't care," Jono yanked his hand back to himself, took a step back, and whirled around, starting towards the door. "Solve your own bloody problems, I've got things to do."

"Jono, please!" Her voice cracked and she cursed herself, trying to wipe back tears futilely. Her lips moved, but she had no words and Paige covered her face with her now free hand, turning away.

Angelo reached out to comfort her, realizing that Jono might not like it and really not caring. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Paige moved her damp hand from her face to on top of Angelo's. She rested her cheek on them as her silent tears wreaked havoc on her frame, making it hard to stand.

Angelo pulled her into a hug, feeling that comforting Paige in her distress was more important than whether Jono liked it or not. He looked defiantly at Jono over Paige's head, daring him to object.

At the doorway, Jono had turned to cast a glance at them, and caught Angelo's challenging look. "Take care of her," he whispered in Angelo's mind only. "If you leave and make her even more miserable than I just did, I swear I'll hunt you down and kill you." Then he walked out, disappearing into the hallway.

Closing her eyes against the retreating form of Jono, Paige turned into Angelo's shoulder, fingers tight to the point of bruising on his arms. She wasn't so much crying, she was past that point, as she was shaking violently. "Oh, God."

Angelo, not knowing what to say, just held her, rubbing her back gently and trying to stop the shaking.

"Stay," she managed to get out, muffled somewhat by his shirt. "Don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere", he murmured soothingly. "How can I, now?" He bent to kiss her hair. "I've really screwed things up, haven't I? All this... I never meant..."

"No." Her cheek rubbed against his collar and Paige sighed. "I know."

"I'm sorry", Angelo said simply. "I shouldn't have..."

Paige's arm made it around his waist, a comfort to him, as he was to she. "Shush." She seemed unwilling to move but her words spoke otherwise. "I'm going to have to go after him."

"Are you OK?" Angelo asked, knowing she wasn't, but also that she would pretend.

"More worried than anything," she replied, eyes unfocused on the pull on a set of drawers as she went over the events in her head. Paige pulled slowly away, and looked up at him, anxious of his reaction. "I have to-"

"I know", he answered, too quickly, certain that he already knew what she was about to say, and not wanting to hear it.

Paige smiled a little and stretched up to kiss his cheek, almost an apology but leaning more to the sweet than the bitter. "Thank you."

"It's fine", he lied. "Go find Jono. I'll be unpacking."

"I'll be back." She smiled at her private joke with her herself. "Really this time." Paige backed slowly away, so much mirroring last time except it was for entirely different reasons. "I promise, and I don't break a promise."

"I know", Angelo answered, avoiding her gaze in another echo of last time. "It'll be OK, you know?"

"I know." She laughed suddenly. "For all we know, we sure don't know a lot, do we?" Paige paused and ran back to him, giving him a tight hug, so quick and so by surprise he didn't have time to return it before she pulled back and headed out the door.

Comments

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

"How about you two *stop* playing “Who Beat Up Paige Better?” now? Thank you."

*sporfle*

You know, Scott would like to see if he could beat Angelo and Jono in that game. :)

It's the game *everyone* can play! *ducks and runs*