Burning

Chapter THREE

"As long as you have cake, it should be fine. No cake on your birthday is bad luck." Bre confirmed. "So Are we doing it Friday? We can celebrate the end of the semester and your birthday!"

"Board games."

"I'd rather go to a movie-"

Gabby put up her hand. "I vote we break a coconut."

Mel pointed to her. "There we go. Those are the kind of suggests I need. Epic!"

Gabby curtseyed from her spot on the floor and listened to the increasingly unhinged suggestions for celebrating. By the end of lunch she was feeling a little bit better. Bre had insisted she join her for some Christmas shopping on Saturday with the pretense of needing someone to share a massive cinnamon roll so she wouldn't get fat. Bre was a Varsity sprinter. Gabby was pretty sure she could eat her body weight in cinnamon rolls and be fine but she appreciated the sentiment. Daniel flanked her back to the lockers.

"Did you still want my brother's chemistry notes?"

"Please!" Gabby sighed. "I feel like I've missed the bus on stoichiometry. No- worse I'm being run over by the bus. This is just some thing I'm not understanding."

Daniel squinted at her. "Alright, alright, only because you are cute when you are flustered."

"I'm always cute." Gabby insisted, bouncing on her toes while she watched him retrieve his older brothers old notebook. Dan gave her a quick look up and down and grinned.

"I agree."

"Watch it, buddy." She told him sternly. Now that Mel wasn't around she could kiss him quickly without the melodrama.

"Still up for Thursday night, then?" He asked.

"Absolutely." Gabby squeezed his hand. Even before the library his family's overbearing attitude had made it difficult. Now they'd barely seen each other in a month. They'd had to cancel the last two dates to Gabby's frustration. She tried to understand but it was hard to be patient. Especially since their dates were always under the guise of him studying. His parents knew she existed, they'd been friends since middle school but not that they were dating. At first it had been fun, exciting even, to have a secret relationship. The novelty was fading though. She wanted to just go to his house and watch a movie instead of sneaking around.

"Pizza, then the park. Just know I'm getting the one with garlic sauce. I'll bring breath mints but no promises on how effective they will be. Sorry in advance."

Gabby grabbed his arm and gave him a serious look. "Never apologize for garlic breath." She went to kiss him again. She gave a little squeak of surprise when she felt his finger slide into her belt loop and force her hips closer. She pulled back a moment later, pleased to see he looked as dazed as she felt.

"Thursday is too far away." He lamented this time giving her cheek a kiss. "See you tomorrow my love."

She smiled after him, deciding once again all of the struggles they had were worth it. Less than 2 weeks and she'd be free.

Gabby held on to that happiness tightly to keep the dread of returning to the library at bay. Per usual it was empty. Except for Connor. He'd been coming in routinely for the past two weeks. At this point he tolerated her presence and a few times after she'd given him a snack asked awkwardly about her day before running back to his table. The kid was sitting rigid in his same place but today he had more than one book. A small stack of them, actually. And apparently he was waiting for her.

"You're a little late." He had glanced almost immediately at the door when she'd come in and met her at the front before she could even remove her coat.