Angel slowly rolled herself awake. She propped herself up with her right arm and found herself staring at the back of the boy she’d slept with last night.
She blinked a few times, tying to awaken her tired eyes. Where was she again?
She looked at the all white, paint-chipped walls of the dormitory-sized bedroom she was occupying, and then she narrowed her eyes at her little friend again.
Truth was, she remembered. She didn’t want to, but she did. He had taken her bra off with his teeth. Ew.
Carefully, with the skills that are usually only found in ninjas, Angel crept out of the wobbly, twin sized bed and scanned the floor for what she had come there for—money.
A brown leather wallet was sticking out of the dude’s jeans’ pocket-perfect! Forgetting the need to be quiet, Angel scooped up the desired item and pulled out its contents. 300 quid. Wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
Angel stuffed the bills into her backpack and started searching for her clothes. She got ready as fast as she could manage and ran out of the apartment.
From the second that one converse hit the stone pavement, Angel knew it was snowing again. She wasn’t looking up, but she could see the fluffy white piles her sneakers were perched on being replaced by yet more specs.
Awesome. She took a deep breath and started walking. Where was she going? She had no idea. She never did.
She was just about to approach another internet cafe when she heard someone calling for her in the distance.
“Angel. Angel. ANG-EEEEL!”
She whipped her head around, her messy blonde hair flopping about. Oh no. Marcus.
“Where the fuck’s my money Angel?” Marcus asked, a cigarette bouncing between his lips as he spoke.
“It’s…well. You see,” Angel stammered. Shit. This wasn’t good.
Marcus spit the cigarette out and started drilling it into the ground with his foot. “Where. The fuck. Is it?” he asked again.
“I…I…” Angel repeated.
“You know I’ll always find you. I’ll always find you. You think you can fucking hide from me?” Marcus demanded to know, stepping so close to Angel that she could smell the alcohol on his breath.
“Nuh—no. No,” she admitted. If only she could. She owed Marcus around 2,000 pounds. All because she couldn’t live without her drugs. Fuck.
Closing her eyes as tightly as she could and trying to forget about who’s lips she was about to kiss, Angel pressed hers against Marcus’, hoping to convince him to play nice.
No such luck.
Marcus pushed her away like she was an annoying fly instead of a beautiful girl. “Not this time, princess,” he spat. He pulled out the gun he had on his person and put it to Angel’s head.
She froze.
“3 days,” he whispered into her ear. “3. Days.”
“FINE,” she shouted. For a second, Marcus seemed shock by her outburst, so she lowered her voice. “Fine.”
With that, she and Marcus parted ways. Angel walked for a while, once again not sure where she was headed, but paused when her ears experienced the most beautiful music she’d ever heard.
She let her eyes wander, trying to identify where the sound was coming from. Through a large, clear window, she was able to see a handsome man with ginger hair strumming a guitar.
He was wearing a faint blue hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. Angel loved music, and spent as much time as she could watching artists in bars, so there was no doubt in her mind that she should go inside.
The bar was crowded, but not too many people seemed to be paying attention to the good looking redhead and his guitar.
Angel took a spot directly in front of the musician and let her bag fall to the floor. Now that she was closer to him, she was able to examine him further.
He was beautiful. Boy, was he beautiful. His skin shone…it looked so soft. His eyes sparkled, and his voice made everything feel okay when it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay at all.
He looked so enthralled in his music, as if he was unable to even think about anything else. Nothing could tear him away, nothing could distract him, nothing could tear his focus, nothing could-
The music stopped.
The singer was staring directly at Angel. She couldn’t play it off by saying that he was looking at the girl next to her, or the person behind her. It was obvious…100% clear that he was looking at her.
Angel was instantly reminded of her appearance and started running her fingers through her curly blonde locks.
The instant she started doing this, ginger guy smiled. At her.
Suddenly, probably because he realized he had randomly stopped his set, he spoke into a microphone. “Thanks for coming out tonight, folks. I really appreciate it. In case you forgot, the name’s Ed Sheeran. Goodnight and may joy be with you all,” he said.
When in the bar went back to his conversations, Ed curled his finger into a “come here” motion and smiled.
Angel slowly approached him. Her whole body was shaking. She wasn’t sure if she was nervous, or cold, or both.
“You alright?” the ginger guy asked.
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