≡ U N E D I T E D ≡

"Shit, I'm not hallucinating."

I ignore my best friend and take a few steps forward, to greet the girl dressed in all black – what a shock. "Hi," I say quietly as I outstretch my arms, having her wrap hers around my waist with a smile. "Did you have a nice ride?"

I'm still not really sure why she insisted to take a cab to the frat house, instead of me picking her up; could be just a girl thing. "Yeah, it was great. The car was warm and the driver didn't talk to me at all," She says, a genuinely satisfied smile on her face. This is, if not the first, then definitely one of the first things about her that I can relate to.

With a nod, I turn to Seth, who still has a puzzled look on his face. After all, he was expecting a 'short, chubby blonde that giggles at everything you say'. He basically described Leanne. Minus the chubby part. "This is my, unfortunately, best friend, Seth."

"Which means that I'm the unfortunate one for having him as a best friend, of course," He babbles, – I love nervous Seth – not even looking at me. I decide to ignore him, again, and smile as Angel offers him a hand, though he refuses it with a shake of his head and a smile on his face.

"Please," He chuckles, extending his arms too. "Any girlfriend of Niall's is a girlfriend of mine." And he's back.

He pulls her in a hug, and she awkwardly just puts her hands on his sides for a few seconds. Standing next to them, I don't know whether to laugh or pat Seth on the back once he's done hugging her.

"Wow, you won't even hug me back. She's a keeper," He tells me, and gives Angel a tight nod when he pulls away, furrowing his eyebrows soon after.

"Do I know you?" He says quickly, frowning harder while looking at her. I frown as well, as Angel takes a few seconds before shaking her head no. "'Cause I swear I've seen you somewhere."

I close my eyes at his last statement, an amused smile spreading across my face because I'm pretty sure I know exactly where he 'knows her' from. While both of them are, on the other side, confused by each other.

"I don't think we've met before, I'm sorry," Angel says, though when I look at her, I can't help noticing that she's fighting a smile too. So the only oblivious one here is Seth.

"I dunno, like I'm trying to remember if you just remind me of someone or- oh, wait. Oh. Oh." He stops in the middle of his first sentence, widening his eyes as realization washes over his face – he's most likely remembered where he knows her from – and then turns to me. "Okay. Alright, Niall?"

His lips form a grin as he takes a few steps toward me. "You the man!" He shouts happily and takes my face in his hands, kissing both of my cheeks before giving me another bright grin, and then walking away – jogging off to the frat house. "Wait 'til I tell the guys!" He yells before running up the short flight of stairs and disappearing from my sight.

I turn to Angel, who has a puzzled look on her face, much like Seth's earlier expression. "He's half Italian," I shrug, "And apparently, they're very physical with people. So he does that all the time, whenever something good happens. That's his excuse. If you were wondering."

She smiles as I stumble over my words, and takes a couple steps toward me. "That'll do it," She says quietly and places a kiss on my lips this time, surprising me a little. Like nothing just happened, and that lunatic wasn't with us. "Can we go inside?"

The kiss ended a lot sooner than I would've wanted it to, leaving me no time to compose myself. "Erm, okay. We're having a bonfire sort of thing, just so you know."

Angel's already started dragging me toward the open gate, but stopped after my statement. "What do you mean, we'll have to come out?"

I shrug, "Well, later. Everyone's gonna be in the backyard. People even turned up earlier so they'd help organizing and stuff."

She pulls her lips between her teeth at my statement, and starts slowly nodding. "Okay. Hopefully they won't start it before I have to go to work."

I narrow my eyes at the side of her head as she continues dragging me inside the house; first she doesn't want me to pick her up, now she doesn't want to be with me in public. I'm scared by how whiney that sounds.

"Do you have a problem with being seen with me?" I ask awkwardly, trying to keep my voice casual. It's really not that big of a problem, I'm just interested.

Yeah right.

"No, of course not," She turns to me, her eyebrows furrowed as she chuckles, like my question is outrageous.

"Are we hiding from someone?"

"That's exactly what we're doing."

My smile turns into a frown, as my 'joke' goes in an unexpected direction."For real?"

"Yeah, if I get found, they'll take me away and tie me to an electric chair, and then I'll die."

I've started nodding long before she's finished her sentence; of course that's what's going to happen. "Sure."

"What, do you not believe me?" She asks, extending her hand to push the door open, but I beat her to it.

"Sure I do, there's nothing weird about what you just said. Ladies first." I give her a tight smile, to which she responds with a glare before walking into the house.

"I don't like how you don't take me seri- wow," She cuts herself off, looking around as I lead her to the living room. "This actually looks nice."

"What were you expecting?"

"Well, you know," She shrugs as she sits on the couch, inspecting the patterns of it as she takes her leather jacket off. "Mess, dirty laundry, neon signs... basically like a place that looks like twenty college students live in it."

"Oh, we have mess and dirty laundry and neon signs," I grin as I flop down next to her, after taking my jacket off. "We just keep them in our rooms."

She nods, and leans back in the couch. "Makes sense. Tell me something," She turns her head to me, pulling her legs up so her knees are against her chest. "Are all of your friends as weird as Seth?"

I give her a small smile, and slowly raise my hand to pull a strand of her hair behind her ear – which makes her close her eyes in amusement slash annoyance. "Only the ones that know what you do on Friday nights." I gulp, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as I myself remember what she does on Friday nights.

As the words leave my mouth, she opens her eyes to look at me, her expression hard to read. "Do any of them have a problem with you hanging out with a dancer?"

There's a question I wasn't quite expecting. "Um, no? It's quite the opposite, actu-"

"Do you have a problem with hanging out with a dancer?"

Her previous question is nothing compared to this one; now I'm taken aback. "What?"

"You heard me."

I blink a few times, trying to compose myself and to think of an answer that wouldn't hurt her feelings, but would also be an honest one. She's asking for it anyway. "Well, I... I don't think you'd be doing... you know, the thing that you're doing if you absolutely didn't have to, so..."

Come to think of it, I've never thought about why she dances. Or asked her why. Probably financial difficulties, that would explain why she wants 'safety' and whatnot.

I shrug instead of finishing my sentence, hoping she'd figure out what I'm trying to say, and look down at her; to see her shaking her head. "If I absolutely didn't have to," She repeats, almost in a whisper, staring at the ceiling.

I feel like she's not exactly happy with my answer. "I like you." I say simply, and pause to scoot closer to her. "Your personality, your wit, how you make me chase you sometimes. Most of the time. All the time," I correct myself for the second time, earning a smile from her. "And I thought that your job would be a problem to me, but it's not. Not really, anyway. It's not who you are, it's just what you do."

Saying something like that at 19 and actually meaning it is probably a sign that I've watched too many romantic comedies. "There's so much more to you than just spinning around a pole in your underwear."

Now that last part sounds more like me. Angel chuckles, closing her eyes and I can tell that she's thinking the same thing too. "I wanna say something funny, but I don't want to ruin the moment."

One of the ends of my lips curls upwards, "We're having a moment?"

"Well, not anymore," She rolls her eyes but starts laughing as I do too. Her laughter dies down before mine, so I'm caught off guard when she places her hand on my cheek again and gives me another kiss, as short as the one we shared when she first came here.

"I..." She mutters against my lips, a minute later but bites her lip instead of continuing. I raise my brows, the distance between us large enough for her to see the look on my face, but instead of reacting, she just closes the space between our faces again.

"Never mind," I hear her mumble right before pressing her lips to mine again. I can't help but smile into the kiss at the thought of what she'd wanted to say before she decided not to say it.

"I'll take that as 'I like you too, Niall'," I mutter, my words incoherent since she has no intention of pulling away, even when I'm obviously talking.

"Stop talking," She mutters back – as if reading my thoughts – and I raise my eyebrows again as she gently pushes me back against the couch, my body tensing up as I feel her swing her leg over my lap. I have no idea what I've said or done to make her do this, but I've already made a mental note to ask her about it later.

My hands slowly slide from under her knees up to her hips, and I grip her waist to hold her down when I hear the door open – and that obnoxious, cheery voice speak up – knowing she'd want to pull away. I'm not even complaining, I knew it was too good to last since she kissed me herself.

"Hey, do you guys want any- oh. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't mind me," Seth says, an audible smile on his face as I hear him rushing through the large room. I sigh when Angel finally manages to pull away from me, and looks over her shoulder to see whatever the hell that fucker is doing.

"What do you want, Seth?" I ask in a monotone voice, laying my head back and looking up at the ceiling, praying to God that he's gonna be out in 3.2 seconds.

"Just the laptop, we're gonna test the outdoor speakers." I tilt my head to the side so I could look at him, just in time to catch him winking at me as he stumbles out of the room, carrying one of the shared laptops and a bunch of cables. I smile and give him a nod, right before he closes the door.

When we're alone again, Angel looks back at me and lowers herself down so she's sitting on my legs – still far from where I'd like her to be sitting. "Tell me another thing."

I place my hands on her kneecaps and give her a small nod, and she glances at the door before looking back at me. "Do all of your friends look like Seth? Because I might wanna come here more often if that's the case."

Shaking my head, mostly in disbelief, I contemplate whether to act offended or turn it into a joke. "What if I told you that most of them look like me, would that be a bad thing?" Of course I chose the second option.

The smile she has disappears for a split second, before her face lights up again – and this time her smile is even brighter. "Not at all," She tells me, leaning forward. "I find you very... suave."

I was planning to act cool and brush off whatever she says, but this answer is too ridiculous to be ignored. "That's good, I'll take suave," I say through a laugh, as she continues leaning forward, although she stops once there's an inch separating our faces. She looks out the window behind me, and for once I'm happy that she stopped.

"They didn't just accidentally play Bed Of Roses, did they?" She asks in a quiet tone, and I just give her a wide smile instead of answering. "That's why he winked at you before walking out of the room."

That wasn't even a question; I love how she always puts the pieces of the puzzle together so quickly. "That's right." I cock my head to the side, "You wanna dance?"

She glares at me before standing up from my lap – much to my dismay. "Congratulations, you've discovered my weakness."

"Dancing is your weakness?"

"Think about what you just said," She says as she walks backwards, to the middle of the room, while I stay on the couch, trying to figure out what she meant. I just asked if dan-

"Oh," I interrupt my own thoughts as I realize; dancing. Because she's a dancer. Of course.

"Right," Angel says with another smile as she puts her hands behind her back. "Now are you gonna join me or am I going to have to dance by myself?" She asks, pursing her lips and standing on the sides of her feet, so that the soles of her combat boots are almost facing each other.

"What's that?" I ask back as I point to her blouse. I was going to say something dumb like 'you look cute like that' but something else managed to catch my attention.

Angel glances down at herself, before looking up at me with a skeptical expression. "They're called boobs, Niall."

"No," I say through a laugh as I finally stand up, walking over to her. "I meant this." I allow my thumb to touch the skin that's showing, right under her left collarbone, where the beginning of what looks like a tattoo is. It's definitely a tattoo, I decide as I slide my finger to the right, until it's at the end of it. It's two lines of something written in- well fuck me if I know what language that is.

"That's my second tattoo," Angel tells me as she glances at it herself. "I got it when I was 18. It's the inscription of the One Ring."

"The one what, now?" I ask in a flat tone, looking up at her.

"The One Ring," She says, louder and clearer, as if that's supposed to help me remember. "Do you seriously not recognize it?" I shake my head again, with a light laugh, while she keeps looking at me in disbelief. Why is it so important that I know what it is anyway?

"Lord of the Rings. Still nothing?" Angel shakes her head at me, looking like she'd be disappointed if I didn't remember now.

"Oh." Luckily I do remember, and the realization makes me grin. "I never took you as a sci-fi geek."

"Well, I am one." She completely ignores my teasing and lifts her right leg instead, pulling her jeans up until her ankle is visible. "A big one, at that."

"Oh, I know what that is," I point at the triangle featuring a circle featuring a line. "My brother cried while watching the last movie and said he's gonna get the symbol tattooed on his forehead."

She chuckles, pulling the fabric down and straightening it, before looking back at me. "Did he?"

"Nah," I shrug, "Too scared of needles. Especially when they're near his face," I tell her quietly and look down at her waist, slowly placing my hands there before the song ended. That's why we stood up in the first place, anyway.

Angel gets the hint and places hers on my shoulders, looking at my face while I keep looking at my hands on her waist. "What about you?" She speaks up after a short silence, and I finally look up at her.

"What about me?"

"Are you scared of needles?"

I shrug, trying to look down at her waist again but she prevents that as she presses her body against mine, leaving me with no choice other than looking into her eyes. It's actually either that, or looking at her boobs. And I'm not stupid enough to choose the second one. "Um, no, not really. I just don't want any tattoos."

To my slight surprise, Angel narrows her eyes and shakes her head in disbelief – again? "Have you ever even done something badass? Besides stealing Seth's car. And having beer when you know you shouldn't."

Those two things were literally the ones I would have offered if she didn't mention them, so now I only chuckle and shake my head. "No, I... I dye my hair?"

She tilts her head to the side, smiling – I'd assume she's realized how lame I am, but I'd also assume that she's known that before. "I've noticed that, yes. And it's not badass."

"What?" I frown, "How could you notice?" I ignore her second sentence as I pull the tips of my hair upwards, making her look up at what I'm doing and her smile widen.

"Your roots are too dark, for you to be mistaken for a natural blonde." She reaches up herself, surprising me as she freely runs her fingers over my hair, barely touching it. "And besides, I'm not lucky enough to meet someone who's blonde and blue-eyed and actually looks suave, all in the same time."

I chuckle as she uses the word again, and run my hand through my hair one last time. "Yeah... I think I should get it dyed again. And get a haircut while I'm at it."

Angel gives me a look of pure disturbance, gripping my biceps and leaning away from me; what the hell did I say now? Tell me so I'd never say it again. "No!" She laughs, as if I'd said the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. "Don't cut your hair, at least not yet. It's perfect to pull onto."

I blink a couple of times, restraining myself from frowning again because I feel like that's all I've been doing the entire time she's been here. "Why would you want to pull onto my hair?"

In my defense, the words came out of my mouth before I actually thought about their obvious meaning. As expected, the brunette in front of me grins at my stupidity, letting out the smallest of giggles even. "You know exactly why," She says, still grinning as she pushes herself on her tiptoes so she could reach my lips with her own. Her bold move makes me raise my brows, but it's barely anything compared to my surprise when she kisses my cheek, eventually reaching my neck too.

"Um..." For a few moments I just stand still, looking around a little awkwardly and trying to figure out what the fuck I should say. "Do you want to go to my room?"

I feel her let go of the skin that was previously between her teeth, and start panicking a little when she pulls back from me, with an unsure expression. "I don't have any mess, or dirty laundry... just a neon sign. It's orange, and it says 'Open'. But it's not open, my room's not open. At least when I'm not here. And even when I'm here, I'm always-"

"Niall." She gives me a sympathetic smile and, yeah, if she doesn't run out screaming right now, she never will. "I was just thinking... we could stay here? And maybe just snog for a while?"

Now don't get me wrong, that's definitely good enough when it's her that we're talking about. And it might be cruel of me, but I actually find the little look of uncertainty on her face a bit amusing. "That sounds alright," I smile and lean down, just in time to feel her breath fan over my face, presumably in relief. "Now would you like a drink first, you fucking tease?"

My tone is soft and quiet enough to fool anyone, even her for a second. She blinks at me, holding her breath before breathing out a laugh, once she realizes that I'm, in fact, not serious. "Sounds peachy."

I begin laughing with her too, subconsciously reaching down for her hand to walk her to the kitchen. And I only realize that it's the first time I'm actually holding her hand when her cold, bony fingers squeeze my hand, the feeling unfamiliar. Looking down at our hands, I have to gulp the words down so that I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. And it takes a lot for me not to make a big deal out of something. I don't know when I became like this. I just get excited about things all the time. God dammit.

"What's- why do you keep the laptop there?" Angel says, making me blink and put an end to my train of irrelevant thoughts, to look at where she's pointing.

"Um, well, you know how people don't pay attention to anything when they're at parties. I mean, that's the reason the come here," I comment as I stop in the middle of the large hallway, looking at the rectangle object and still not letting go of her hand. "So... they've already broken four laptops, but we figured out where to put them so they wouldn't get damaged. And it's right there."

Angel nods, still looking at the grey laptop that's neatly placed under the wide staircase- you can barely even tell it's grey anymore, from all the stickers and marker doodles that are on it. "Can I see what kind of music you have?"

I look over at her; while she's giving me a hopeful look. "Don't worry, I won't play anything. And in the meantime, you can get us drinks." She chirps, like she just got her life figured out. I chuckle, reluctantly letting go of her hand but smiling in spite of it.

"Okay, you can play something if you want to though. The guys won't give you shit for it, you're a girl and you're an insanely hot girl at that," I give her a tight smile as I begin walking away, but she grabs my forearm, making me turn around and face the curious look on her face.

"I just remembered something, you said Seth only kisses you on the cheek when something good happens, right?"

I nod slowly, her words spoken too quickly for me to comprehend them immediately. "Right, so?"

"What good happened when I came here?"

Her question makes me turn fully to her; it could take me a while to explain. "Basically, he came to the realization that I'm seeing a pole dancer."

"And what's so good about that?"

"To someone who's gotten pepper spray in the eyes from people of your sort more times than they can count, it is good. It's an accomplishment, in fact." It's true; Seth likes to think he's a ladies man and whatnot, but in reality, he's this idiot who wouldn't know how to get an actual girlfriend even if his life depended on it. His entire existence depends on his appearance. But as we've come to realize more than enough times before, good looks aren't everything in the world. So he's doomed.

Angel grins at my explanation; here I thought she'd be offended. Clearly she knows that she's more than just an accomplishment to me. "That's all I needed to hear. I'll have a Pepsi."

"Pepsi?" I repeat, to which she nods. "Well I'm sorry, but we can't be friends."

"Oh, I have something that'll make you rethink that," She says loudly as I've already begun walking away, and her words make me enter the room on the opposite side of the house with a wide grin, the creaking of the door instantly drawing attention from the other frat guys. I can't even call them my fraternity brothers; most of them are just acquaintances. Never really cared to talk to me, and it's not like I put a lot of effort into getting their attention either.

"Hi Niall," One of them says, with a grin identical to mine – and I feel like the story about them pretending I don't exist would take a turn now. "Story time, buddy."

I slowly walk further down the kitchen, my eyes darting from the two juniors and a sophomore on one side of the sink, to the two seniors on the other side. One of those two being the one that's spoken to me.

"Hi," I say flatly, feeling a little awkward as they keep looking at me. "What story am I telling today?"

"The fairytale in which you marry the pole dancer from The Blue Moon and you have half a dozen of kids and you live happily ever after," The same senior tells me, his tone just as flat, as he stares at me in disbelief. And slight annoyance.

"But it's not a fairytale." There's no way I'd miss out on a chance to make a guy older than me angrier, and especially when it comes to girls. "It's really gonna happen."

"Okay, for real now," One of the sophomores says, "What did you do to actually get her attention? I mean, from my experience, the closest you can get to a stripper is like five feet. And only if she's stopped running from you to search for her pepper spray."

I frown, but decide not to ask about that experience of his. I don't really want to know anyway. "I did the one thing you can't do," I shrug casually as I take a beer for myself from the fridge, leaning onto it as I close the door. "I wasn't being a dick."

He narrows his eyes at me, and I try figuring out whether he's angry or challenged. "I'm never a dick, I just try to be funny." He shakes his head, walking away from me – who would have thought that this would be an actual issue to some people? "It doesn't make sense, if we went to a strip club, it's obvious who would have more of a chance to score something. I mean, look at me, and then look at you."

The other guys make quiet oh-s, sounding like they're watching an intense game of soccer. "Yeah, you're right," I nod firmly, "You're tall and dark, and I'm short and frenching a stripper. Huge differences."

Now the guys are cheering louder, while the sophomore goes back to his previous spot, shaking his head, while I'm grinning from ear to ear in my spot.

"Niall?" I turn around to see Seth standing at the door, the frown on his face a bit worrying. "What the hell just happened?"

"We decided that he's our new leader," One of the guys says – whom I actually recognize as Aaron, the one who introduced me to Seth the first time. "Have I ever told you that you're the closest thing I have to a brother, Ni?"

Not a soul in this house has ever called me Ni. "Don't you have three actual brothers, though?" I smirk as I look over at him, to see him flipping me off with a bright smile. I was just about to return the gesture, before Seth's voice stops me from doing so.

"Wow, you're really clueless," He tells me loudly, marching into the room to grab my arm and pull me outside. I follow him, succeeding at leaving my bottle of beer on a counter in the kitchen without it falling over.

"Slow down, what's going on?" I ask, nonchalantly glancing at the staircase, and frowning when I notice that Angel isn't there.

"Do you know that guy?" Seth points out the window, and I'm left frozen in my spot when I notice a man, pulling Angel by the arm while she hopelessly tries to get out of his grip. What the actual-

"No," I shake my head, my feet carrying me out of the house before I even know what the hell I'm doing. I push through the small crowd of people on my way out of the yard, and manage to catch just a few words coming from the two of them.

"You really thought you could hide, didn't you? At a fucking fraternity party? You thought I wouldn't find you?" All the while he keeps yanking her arm, waiting for answers from her but she just keeps quiet. I can't see her face, but I can almost feel her fear from ten feet away. Seriously now, what the actual fuck?

"I wasn't-" She begins, whimpering out her words, but the man just opens the door of a car and pushes her inside.

"Sure you weren't. We'll see about that," The thick American accents speaks again, and when he walks around the car to sit on the other side I get a good look of his face; short black hair, and green eyes that would make anyone jump out of their skin.

When the car starts moving, it finally hits me; Angel basically just got abducted. And I was too busy bragging to the frat guys to notice and do something about it.

"What happened?" I hear Seth's voice to my right, as I stand on the sidewalk and run my hands through my hair, becoming even more panicked when the car leaves my sight. I lower my arms to feel my pockets, but when I realize that my phone isn't there, I quickly turn to Seth.

"Give me your phone."

"What-"

"Just give me your phone," I say through gritted teeth as he struggles to get it out of his pocket. Then I remember another thing; she forgot her jacket here. Well, she never had the opportunity to take it with her from what I've seen. So I can only hope that she kept her phone in her jeans or something.

"Come on, come on, Jesus fuck, come on," I bounce in place, and just when I thought I'd have a panic attack in the middle of the street, the beeping stops.

"Listen here, whoever the fuck you are." I freeze once again in my spot, as I hear that same American accent from a minute ago. "Your number is memorized in this phone and I can easily track you down. So if you decide to ever call again, I won't hesitate to find you and break your fucking neck, do you understand me?"

I've barely heard half of what he'd told me; all I could hear were the cries coming from near him, before the line went dead.

"So? What did she say?" Seth asks as I look at his phone, and then at him; he's completely clueless. He has no idea that I might have just gotten him in a lot of trouble, just because of using his phone to call her.

"Here you go," My tone is a pitch higher as I hand him the phone, and start walking back to the house at a painfully slow pace. "I need to lie down. And then vomit. And then cry."

*******

THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER OF MY LIFE, JUST POINTING THAT OUT

So most of this was kind of filler bc I like cute and fluffy Nangel (or Nigel or you could suggest some ship names too) and I feel like we don't have enough of those. Except the last bit, of course c: so now I'd really love to hear your thoughts on it :D

Dedicated to @alwaysthewrongway because it was your first comment!! and it was a lovely comment!!!!

And so guyyyss leave feedback bc sometimes the only inspiration i have are your comments and if i don't have that then this story is doomed. like seth. lol thank you for everything so far, ilysm x