Angel • Carl Gallagher

i'm a gentleman

"Hi, I'm Fiona, Carl's sister"

"Hey, I'm Camila, but you can call me Cammie"

"Well nice to meet you Cammie, come on in, we're just setting the table for dinner"

She shuffled through the door, closing it behind her before stepping into the living room. Her eyes were drawn to a tall redhead sitting next to a girl with long black hair, who both turned their heads after hearing the door shut.

"Oh my god Cammie?"

"Mandy?"

A flash of black hair barrelled over the sofa before she was assaulted with a deadly tight bear hug.

"Wait, you guys know eachother?" Carl's husky voice said in confusion as he stepped out of the kitchen.

"Yeah me and my sister used to live 2 houses down when I lived with my parents"

"Speaking of Lia, how is she? I haven't seen her in months"

"She's great, long story but uh she broke up with Elijah and we now live with Stell in the apartment building near the school field"

"Never liked him, always tried to look down my shirt, fucking perv"

"Tell me about it" The girl laughed uneasily, trying to forget the night of the party.

"Well anyway, uh that's Ian-"

"Wait you're the kid from the grocery store"

"You're the girl who buys a mega pack of flaming hot cheetos every day" The redhead laughs.

"Those fuckers are delicious"

"-and that ugly mug over there is Lip"

A curly haired boy waved from the sink, then flipped off Carl.

"You just met Fiona, and that's Debbie and Liam at the table"

"Dinners ready" Fiona spoke loudly, trying to gather everyone in the household to the table.

Everyone gathered around the table, and a short black-haired man jumped down the stairs and put his arm round the tall ginger.

By the time everyone had sat down, there was no space left for Cammie to sit. She looked around, seeing if there was a stool or extra chair she could use.

"Sit here baby" Carl smirked, patting his lap.

"Don't be disgusting, here take this" Fiona said, glaring daggers at Carl before passing her a wooden stool.

The table erupted into conversation, laughter flowing as the food was being passed out. Camila learn't a few things about the Gallagher family while sitting at the table. Debbie and Carl seemed to have a typical brother-sister relationship, constantly bickering and throwing food at eachother. Ian, and who she remembers to be 'Mick', were in a relationship, from the way they were holding hands under the table and leaning into eachother. Mandy and Lip seemed to have something going on, based on the occasional gazes, that were held for just too long to be a coincidence. And finally, Fiona seemed to be a parent to the kids, looking proudly at each one of them, and was probably the only parent-like figure they had in their lives.

Well, you don't live in Southside your whole life and not hear about 'Frank fucking Gallagher'. The beating he got the other night seemed a long time coming according to Camila, hearing about all the shitty things he'd done to people over the years.

"So, how'd you meet Carl?" The older sister asked, curiosity in her eyes.

"Uh, we actually kind of met twice.... the first time was on the street a week ago when I almost knocked Frank unconscious, for calling me and my sister sluts-"

"Jeez I'm so sorry, you should just ignore him, he's a piece of shit"

"It's fine honestly, he probably got the beating of a lifetime from my older sister, but the second time we met was at a party last night, and thankfully he took me home instead of leaving me among sweaty drunk teenagers" She laughed at the last part of the sentence, remembering the atmosphere of the party.

"Wow, Carl actually doing a good deed for once, shocker" Debbie gave a sarcastic smirk to Carl, only to earn a kick under the table.

"I'm a gentleman, I have no idea what you're talking about" At least half the table scoffed at his reply, probably thinking about all the girls they'd seen stumbling out of his room and into the bathroom in the morning.

An hour later, food long forgotten on their plates, the family, including the two Milkoviches, and Kev and V, surrounded the television, engrossed in an action movie.

Camila remembered seeing Kev and V around the alibi, from the daily visits she was dragged too by her mother.

"You wanna go upstairs, I'm bored" She heard whispered into her ear.

"Yeah sure, I have to be home in a few hours though"

The couple sat up, careful not to disturb anyone and stepped towards the stairs.

"Condoms are in my top drawer" Ian snickered, along with Lip and Kev laughing.

"He wishes" She threw back, laughing.

Everybody else chuckled at Carl's defeated look, watching him pull her up the stairs.

Once they got to his room, the instant smell of boys and sweat was noticeable. She joined Carl sitting on the bed near the window, pressing their backs against the wall.

"So, uh, did you like dinner?" The boy asked awkwardly, seeming as if it was the only thing he could think to say.

"Yeah, it was great"

"Good"

The two sat in silence with their knees touching, trying not to make the situation more awkward. Camila tried to think about absolutely anything, to take her mind off the mind numbing silence that fell upon them minutes ago. Her mind went to Mandy, and how much she had missed her. The abrupt move with her sister was so out of the blue she didn't even get to say goodbye to her. The memory of playing with her and Lia over the many summers came back to her, remembering the smil-

Before she could finish her though, she felt lips press against her own, and a hand on her thigh. He tried to push into the kiss more, but before he could Camila had stood up, straightening out her shirt before exiting the room and quickly walking down the stairs. Carl was hot on her heels, throwing every apology he could think of out there.

"I'm sorry.... please..... Cammie it was just in the moment.... please don't leave"

Before she could get to the door, she turned towards Fiona and thanked her for the dinner and left, leaving a remorseful Carl and a giggling family behind.