The Bad Boys Angel

Here Goes Nothing

Song: This, by Ed sheeran

Angels’ POV

“Ah, my bundles of joy!” Mrs.Newman exclaims a bright smile etched on her face as she does so, but she only receives a chorus of unpleased groans.

Though I must admit her always positive attitude is one of the things I admire most about her. If only I could be that happy all the time. What a dream that would be.

“Well as it seems, you guys don’t appear to be too, excited, to do anything that involves half a brain, so I’ll go a bit easier on you today.” Mrs.Newman says, and a few cheers are heard from around the room, “Settle down, settle down. I still expect you to do some work, but I’ll cut you some back.” She announces, to my pleasure.

“Okay! The lot of you are free to work with others or alone. I don’t really mind either, as you know. Just make sure to stay on task!” She says as she claps her hands together with a bright smile on her face.

“Wait, what are we even going to be doing?” A blonde haired lad behind me asks, the question all of the class was wondering at this point.

“Oh, yeah right. Sorry, I guess I just got too excited to get you off my back.” She smiles widely as she speaks and I can’t help the contagious one that grows on my face. “Anyways, you guys are going to be doing the next chapter online, but only the assigned problems. And don’t fret, I didn’t assign any homework for you tonight.” Mrs.Newman speaks, looking away from me at this point to my relief.

“But you never assign homework! It’s not even a part of our curriculum!” An unidentified boy shouts out from the huddle of guys in the back, causing the whole class to burst into laughter at his brutally honest comment.

“Oh hush up yeah?” She says to the kid sternly, but the smile on her face shows just how serious she is. “Now, go on then. Although I wish I could, I can’t just let you guys sit here all day long.” She tells also and the class immediately gets up as people begin to shuffle around it to get to their friends.

I decide to just lay low and work individually, in hopes of avoiding obnoxious classmates as well as Zanthus, whom lucky for me doesn’t seem to be in class today. Though much to my luck, I hear the door open with a loud thud, and I close my eyes and let the inevitable sink in.

It’s not that I’m not shedding a different light on him now, ready to give him a second chance like discussed, but more so that I’m just not sure where to begin. What am I meant to say to him, really? We’ve had a bit of a rocky few days, nothing quite clear on where we stand with each other. It feel as if he’s almost unnaproachable.

I hear his heavy footsteps making their way across the room, and don’t miss the way the class stays silent with all eyes on Zanthus. In the blink of an eye, a textbook is slammed down onto the clean surface in front of me, and I don’t have to look up to connect the arm to the body of the culprit. It’s quite obvious who the beholder is.

I hear the legs of the chair to the right side of me scraping across the floor in a very ungraceful manner that causes me to cringe and clamp my eyes shut. A loud ‘thump’ is followed by this noise, and I can only assume that was the whole of Zanthus’ body roughly seating itself on the chair.

Maybe if I keep my eyes closed for long enough I’ll up and disappear?

“Angel? Are you alright?” I hear a sweet voice ask from the left, contradicting to where Zanthus is sitting on the right of me.

“Huh? Oh me, yeah I’m well.” I respond, looking up to find Mr.Newman standing beside me with a lingering smile on her face as she watches me.

“Are you sure?” She asks me, her smile stretching a bit farther across her face as she watches me squirm in nervousness.I just give her a simple nod in return to her question.

“Alright, well then I guess I’ll let you get to it.” She says and goes to walk away, but gives me one last quick glance over her shoulder. “Have fun won’t you?” Her words are accompanied by a slight smirk, which baffles me completely.

I feel my desk shake ripping me from my thoughts, and turn my head to the right to see Zanthus roughly searching through the pages of the textbook. Quite honestly, he seemingly looks like a little boy who’s throwing a tantrum which is much to my amusement.

I hear the sound of a light giggle greet the air and instantly sober up, wondering who on earth would ever be brave enough to laugh at Zanthus, of all of them. I look behind me and notice no one looking his direction to my surprise.

When I turn back to face him I notice him staring at me, and only me. This only prevails one thing to me, which is that I’m the one that giggled.

Oh.

“Uhm, er, I’m so sorry,” I say to him avoiding eye contact, but as I look up he just continues to stare at me without saying a word, which tells me he is really angry. “I truly am. I didn’t mean to laugh at you, well giggle at you, well the same thing, but I sincerely apologize. I just, you were, I don’t know what I was thinking. I won’t do it again I promise. It’s not like-” I’m cut off by something that sounds almost like music to my ears, and I’m more than shocked to glance upwards and see Zanthus laughing quietly at me.

Take a breath, Angel.

“I, uhm, you-what?” I squeak out clearing my throat in following embarrassment to my slip of composure.

Though then again, when do I ever hold my composure?

Zanthus simply shook his head at me as a small smile sits on his face, and then faces back to his textbook to continue searching through pages as he was doing before.

“Uhm, we’re not, we’re not using our textbooks today. The work’s online.” I all but whisper out to him, too embarrassed and afraid to try speaking in a normal tone, as the last outcome wasn’t to my benefit.

He furrows his eyebrows a bit as he glances at the random page in front of him, before nodding and proceeding to close the book. I continue to watch him in some sort of awe as he neatly places the textbook at the corner of the table and then leans down a bit to grab his rucksack.

I may not favour him much at the moment, but I cannot deny how downright gorgeous he is. Without even trying in the slightest he seems to put all others in his presence to shame. And though I am a firm believer that everyone is beautiful, which they are, Zanthus just appears to be in a whole other world to me.

I avert my eyes immediately as he turns back to the table eyes catching mine in the process and causing a light blush, well a deep blush to paint my cheeks. “I uhm, I wasn’t planning on working with anyone.” I speak out, and I swear I see his expression fall a bit at my words, though I can’t be too sure.

Did he want to work with me?

“Would you,” I pause and force myself to push back the anxious lump in my throat, “ would you like to work with me?” I question while picking at my sleeves, my nerves nearly bursting in anticipation of his reaction, rejection being at the top of my predicted responses.

Seconds feel like hours as he sits silently in response to my question, and the floor seems much more interesting than his face. What a foolish question it was. Why would someone him want to work with someone like me? I mean, he’s basically the human representation of perfect, and well, I’m me. Of course, he’s going to say no, or maybe he’ll just ignore me likes he’s doing now.

“Yes.” Zanthus’s voice cuts through the air smoothly, causing my head to jerk up at a speed that could likely cause me whiplash.

“Really?” I ask in surprise, most definitely not expecting him to react in such a way.

I mean, I know he said he wanted to work together in the following classes, but I wasn’t sure if that was just him being nice in order to save me from the embarrassment of him not enjoying my presence. As well, with the tension and plain awkwardness displayed amongst us after what happened two days ago, I was sure he’d be avoiding me as well.

“Yes.” Zanthus repeats the same three-letter he had said just moments ago and snaps me out of my thoughts yet again. I look at him and see a slight smile gracing his lips, and feel another wave of red hit my face like a tidal wave.

“Uh, okay. Alright then, yeah.” I say in response to him, but soon realize my jumbled words don’t quite make sense. “I mean yeah that’s alright, with me of course. You don’t have to say yes if it’s not really alright with you. I mean I only asked because I just thought maybe you’d like to and well, if it’s not what you actually want to do then you could just-” He cuts off my signature nervous rambling by placing his hand over my mouth, which I most certainly was not expecting.

I reckon my stomach just about exploded.

A wide smile paints his face as he does this, his eyes boring into mine with a slight gleam in them that lights up the room. I take this time to take in his facial features, yet again. I almost melt on the spot when I glance at the very apparent dimple that carves into his left cheek.

I’m a sucker for dimples.

I realize I’ve been staring for too long once I feel Zanthus’s hand slowly fall from my mouth, though it doesn’t entirely leave my face as his thumb stay mounted atop my chin, his other four fingers gracing my neck lightly with their presence.

I am stunned and quite frozen, to say the least.

I continue to stare at him, eyes no doubt wider than saucers at his actions, though he seems completely calm in complete contrast to me. The previous smile hanging on his face has been wiped, replaced with a seeming curious gaze of some sort

It’s almost as if he is studying me like a problem on an exam. I feel the unending blood coursing through my cheeks, and give up on trying to hold my blush, as it has seemingly proved pointless over the past few days. Cue the nickname set upon be by Xander, Cherry.

“So how’s are my two favorite students getting along?” I hear Mrs.Newman’s preppy voice ring through my ears, and Zanthus immediately drops his hand from my face.

I am surprised to see him gracefully smile up at her, no deer and headlights look caught on his face, much unlike me. I refuse to meet her gaze as I brush a piece of fallen hair behind my ear, the embarrassment from her catching us in such a position hitting me, but as well the shock of the fact that Zanthus touched me in some sort of, romantic almost, way?

I must be deemed out of my mind for thinking in such a way.

“Angel?” I can almost hear the amusement in her voice as I feel her gaze settling into my head.

I begrudgingly lift my head to meet her eyes, my expression most likely a mix of humiliation and sheepishness. “I uhm, it’s going well. Yeah, it’s going well.” I state to her, repeating it a second time in hopes of sounding more convincing, due to the first one not even being believable to my own ears.

“Really?” She asks me with her eyes dancing in levity as she looks at me, and I force myself to nod instead of shying away from her gaze. “Well isn’t that just delightful news!” Mrs.Newman speaks cheerfully, clapping her hands together as she does so.

“Both of you did excellent while working together last class, and this class as well? You two are just quite the pair aren’t you?” She asks and I feel my face grow redder than it ever has before. I bring my hands up to try and discreetly cover my cheeks, though I see Zanthus smile slightly as I do so and I can’t help but believe he knows what I’m doing.

Stupid perfect boy and his stupid perfect senses.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it! Remember, call me over if either of you need help.” She states, “But I doubt that’ll happen.” A wink carries across her features as she swiftly turns away from us and walks to another group of students just a few rows up from us.

I keep my eyes planted to the ground once she is away, not daring to look up at Zanthus after the comment she just made before leaving, as well as her catching us in the first place so close. I hear him clear his throat but keep my focus downwards.

There is no way on earth I could face him again. I hear him clear his throat again, but still stay firmly focused on the ground just under my seat. I soon can’t bear the silence and my nerves kick in hard, causing the expected to occur.

“You know, the floor is actually quite intriguing. The design of it, the hold of it, it all draws me in. I would be extremely pleased if I were able to have a conversation with whoever designed it, wouldn’t you? It’s-”

“Angel,” Zanthus speaks my name for the first time, and I can’t deny I love how it sounds rolling off of his tongue, almost as it was made for him to speak. His voice is thick and hard with a rough edge to it, yet silky and incomparable to any other I’ve encountered in the way he pronounces the short word.

Aside from that, I am thankful he interrupted me rather to touching me this time. I’m not sure if I could handle him touching me like that again, it made my stomach feel like it was flipped inside out and my body feel all tingly and those sorts of things.

I don’t look up at him, though not on purpose this time but more of the fact that I am so caught up on the fact that Zanthus just said my name.

He said my name.

He said my name and it is the most outstanding thing I have ever heard. Not because it was my name, but more of the fact that it was his voice speaking it, an how perfectly it fell from his lips.

I feel a light tap on the top of my head and can’t help the smile that forms on my lips at the childish antics of Zanthus, considering he is well known for being so brooding and cold. I look up and see his smile, and silently bless the lord above for blessing me with such art countless times today.

I look down to see he’s holding a small white slip of paper in his hands, and my eyebrows furrow as he holds it towards me.I take the slip from his hands and open it, his neat handwriting complimenting the page as I read it.

‘Will you sit with me at lunch?’ is scribbled down on the paper, with and an adorable smiley face drawn on the bottom right corner, matching the expression on my own face as I read it, though I feel I am a little redder than the smiley face. I look up to Zanthus, and see an expression of almost, nervousness?

I brush it off as I remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing right now. I take a deep breath, knowing I’ll need it to keep my lungs from letting out short as I speak.

“Yes, I’d love to sit with you at lunch,” I say to him, and I swear his smile grows as I say this to him.

Well, here goes nothing.