The next morning, the worst day of the year in my opinion, everyone was groggy from watching so many Christmas cartoons. No one went to bed until after midnight and even then Angus stayed up with Ellen in the living room. Goodness knows what they did down there, I certainly didn't want to.
I still felt horrible for not letting Angus come with me. Dog gone, he could have gone as a friend, not as...whatever he used to be. I decided to talk to him about it and apologize better than I did last time.
I found him in the laundry room strumming his guitar, sitting on an amplifier. "Angus?" No answer. "May I please talk to you?"
"I'm a little busy," he said not looking in my direction. I stood in the doorway watching him, still feeling guilty. He sighed and motioned his head for me to come in. "Get in here."
"Angus-"
"Yes?" I walked up to him.
"I feel horrible."
"That's nice."
"No, I mean for saying you couldn't come with me."
"It's okay."
"No it's not." Angus continued to play his guitar. He seemed to have forgiven, but not forgotten. I was a smidge tired of how he was acting. We were adults after all. But if he was gonna act like this, fine. "I'm sorry," I managed to say before I tripped over the random bar in the floor that no other laundry room has. I heard something drop behind me and someone reached out and caught me before I fell.
"You okay?" Angus asked.
"Yeah, I think so. Your guitar isn't though," I said glancing over his shoulder.
"It's alright I can get a new one," he said looking in my eyes.
"Th-thanks," I stuttered. We heard running footsteps and separated as quick as we could.
"What happened? We heard a crash," Linda said rushing over.
"Nothing. Just dropped my guitar is all," Angus said.
"Wow Angus, you never drop your guitar," Linda said crossing her arms. "Nervous around a pretty girl?"
"Yeah Lin, that's it," Angus laughed glancing at me. Why does everyone ship us? Even Ellen supposedly ships us. That's not right in the real world. Well, if one is married by the way. And the wife shouldn't be in on this!
"Uh, Hannah we'd better go shopping for more groceries. The milk won't be enough," Linda said.
"Okay. Oh uh, Angus do you want to come?" I asked. Angus gave me a genuine, warm smile.
"Nah that's alright."
"Aw, come on Angie. It'll be fun!" Linda said smiling.
"Okay okay, I'll go."
"This store is much busier than that shack we went to yesterday," I said to no one in particular.
"And it's open today, so that's a plus," Linda said. "Come on Angus, keep up or we'll leave you to melt in the heat!"
"I'm comin', I'm comin'," he smiled. Angus seemed a little out of it since I declined him yesterday. I don't think he'd be in such a sour mood for that, even after I apologized and invited him today, but you never know. Maybe I really did hurt his feelings. That wouldn't feel too good. He stayed behind us a ways and strolled along with his hands in his pockets. I backed up down the aisle and walked with him.
"You okay Jose?" I asked. He smiled a little, but he didn't answer. "You can tell me if I bothered you or offended you-"
"No, I'm alright."
"Doesn't seem that way."
"No?" I shook my head and he laughed. "Looks can be deceiving you know."
"Not with you usually." He kicked his foot out and stopped walking.
"I-actually do have something to tell you," he started before Linda called us.
"I'm leaving with or without you!"
"Come on, she's our ride home," Angus said walking quickly to the exit. I followed his pace and noticed he seemed to be trying to get out of telling me something. Trying to get out of the situation.
