They were little when they'd first met, both 4 years old just ignorant kids, practically inseparable they did everything together, protected each other all through life
Sam was 11 when a few boys from their school thought it be funny to mess with him, when Gabriel found out he was none too pleased and ended up being suspended for punching the bully in the nose, ultimately breaking it
But he'd just smiled and said he didn't regret a thing
Then of course they got older, freshman year of high school was tough but as always they got through it together, when Gabe was failing classes and was looking at summer school Sam spent every spare second he had tutoring him and it had paid off
They made new friends, but never drifted apart, most of said new friends assumed they were more than just besties but that wasn't the case- at least they didn't think so
Gabriel was different from Sam in a lot of ways, he was more carefree and charismatic- living every second like it was his last, and Sam was more serious, focus on the future but weirdly they fit together so perfectly because Gabriel would bring out Sam's fun side and Sam would bring out his serious one
And like all friends do they fought, most of them were just playfull arguments about how Gabriel ate too much candy or Sam didn't eat enough
But their worst was the time Sam broke up with his first girlfriend Jessica, now Gabe had no problem with her she was actually really nice and he thought Sam had loved her but when his friend casually brought up the break up he wanted to know why but Sam wouldn't give him a real answer
He'd pushed so much that Sam had kissed him-out of nowhere, he didn't know why but it'd freaked him out so much he muttered some excuse and left
If he'd just stayed at Sam's..
He had got into his car at the wrong moment when some drunk senior douche from their school crashed into his car
Gabriel was in the hospital for weeks, Sam went to visit him everyday, mostly out of guilt thinking if he'd never kissed him then..
But Gabriel assured him he was peachy and soon things went back to normal and they didn't talk about the kiss
Come graduation day, 14 years and they'd finally made it through- well everything, both having graduated
It was dark, just hours after graduation Gabriel had disappeared on Sam
So after all the congratulations he made some excuse and quickly changed out of his gown to find Gabriel
It wasn't very hard, his friend was high up in a tree in the woods they used to climb when they were kids, one no one but them knew about "How'd you find me?" Gabriel said, not needing to look up to know that it was Sam
He was sitting on the heavy branch legs dangling, the only sounds were the leaves moving below them, Sam shrugged "Old habits die hard" He frowned "Why'd you bail?"
"I don't know, I just couldn't..be there- sorry" He said, his voice just above a whisper, "Remember when we were kids?" Gabriel sighed "Things were just easier then, thinking we had all the time in the world" He shook his head "I'm not ready Sammy, I don't think I'll ever be.."
"Of course not Gabe, you're never gonna be ready" Sam said "Just because I have my future planned out for me doesn't mean I'm not terrified, because I am"
Sam swallowed, "When you got in the accident I felt so guilty, I always thought I'd have you by my side but-..it was my fault"
Gabriel shook his head "No it wasn't Sam, you can't blame yourself anymore- it was just a dumb argument"
