Frog Meets Girl

Chapter 12--Shock and Awe...and a Horse

Okay, it's been a while since I've uploaded. I've been working on it and almost have the next chapter done, too. I really struggled with how to work this chapter, so it took a while. My biggest concern is that what's going on with Gabby and Will seems true to life and doesn't feel fake or forced. Feedback on any point is appreciated, but especially this. :) 

As always, thanks for reading!

            Gabriella could feel the frown etched into her face. It was a familiar, unpleasant sensation. Failure. Again.

            However, the thing that struck her more forcefully than the embarrassment over her apparently repugnant attempts at friendship was that he was genuinely sharing his thoughts. Will was not just to try to make her do something, or to manipulate her, or even to tell her whatever what she wanted to hear.

            Her next words halted Will as he turned to leave.

“No one has ever talked to me like that before.” She didn’t sound angry, though. She sounded like she was chewing carefully on his words, tasting them. “Not even my brother.”

Even Claudio had his ways of placating her—and she knew when he was only placating her. He would distract her with something else, try to get her to see things his way, or just ignore that she was upset. She’d let him do it because he was the only one that cared.

            Footsteps approached. It was more like the sound of running, accompanied by the slapping of leather. Isabella watched the page approach, leaning backward to balance as he hefted a saddle with his skinny arms. It was almost as big as he was. The myriad straps smacked against each other as he jostled toward them.

Gabby didn’t seem to notice his approach, though. She slowly crouched down to look at Will. “You think I’m scary?” Her skirts were bunched on the ground, inches from a big green pile of digested alfalfa remains, but she didn’t see.

Will shifted his weight as he crouched below her, “Well, no. Not all the time. Sometimes you’re happy and fun. It’s just when you’re angry, but you seem to be angry a lot.” He didn’t look up at her, unsure of how she was going to take his words and very sure he didn’t want to see her death stare again.

“I’m sorry.”

Had Isabella been one of those girls that passed out at the slightest provocation, she would have done so just then. As it was, her heart seemed to stop beating for a moment and the world grew incredibly still. She had never heard those words come sincerely from Princess Gabriella’s lips.

Will seemed to sense how momentous this was, based on his experiences with her over the last twenty-four hours, and was at a loss for words.

Gabby stuttered on, suddenly anxious to fill the awkward silence. “Sometimes I do it to people on purpose, but I didn’t mean to do it to you. I mean.”

It was still very quiet and very uncomfortable—like wearing a stylish dress. She was never sure if she was right on, or just looked silly.

“I, um,” she pressed on, not even sure what she was trying to say anymore. “I am just so used to….no, wait,…People don’t treat me the way they would treat anyone else, so…” A warm, prickling sensation began to nudge her eyes. “I’ll try to do better—well, I was trying. I mean, it’s just that, um, I’m really sorry.”

From the floor, Will was just trying to ingest what she was saying. There were way too many feelings oozing through them for his taste. This was the kind of scene that was best finished with a good joke about flatulence, well, among his friends anyway. What to do among girls? He was pretty sure that the old standby, the arm punch, would not be the winning choice here. He pictured his stubby, webbed fist whacking her arm. Yeah, that’s not going to work.