Gabriella lives a beyond perfect life with her mom, her sister and her boyfriend of two years. She's finally at a place in her life where she is happy. Nothing has, and nothing will go wrong.
However, after finding out some devastating news, Gabrie...
"Welcome to Helen's Diner," the girl winked at me, already knowing who I was. "Welcome back," she grinned and led us over to a small table against the window. She placed her hand on my shoulder as she handed us the menus and walked back to the counter.
Gulping back, I stared back at Gabby to gauge her reaction but she was now reading the menu with an intrigued look in her eyes, which made my lips tug into a smile once again.
"Caleb, how's my favourite customer?" Maggie, the older waitress, shouted as she ran over to our table and pulled me into a small yet tight hug. It the weeks I had been coming here, Maggie had quickly become my favourite waitress and was always excited when she saw me come in.
Receiving a questioning look from Gabby, I smiled at her. "I'm good thanks, how are you?" I asked as she smiled down at me and leant up against our table.
"I'm good hun, who's this?" She asked, making me grin over at Gabby. Her cheeks, like usual, had turned a tinge of pink as she looked a little nervous sitting opposite me.
"This is Gabriella," I replied and looked over at her. Maggie smiled and shook Gabby's hand. "Nice to meet you darlin," Maggie poured another customer some coffee whilst still speaking to us.
"You too" Gabby replied as she smiled happily and played with her hands. She had been looking at the menu but since it had been put down, I assumed she had chosen.
"What can I get you guys?" She asked both of us as she pulled out a notepad and wrote my order down, already knowing it like the back of my hands. They had an amazing steak and fries, and my mouth watered just thinking of it.
"I've got your order, hun," she said to me as I smirked, "What can I get you?" She asked, turning to Gabby.
"I'll have the chicken nuggets please," Gabby replied as Maggie thanked us, then walked off back to the waitressing counter.
"How old are you again?" I joked to Gabby as she leaned over and playfully hit me. She sat back and played with her hands again.
"I just really like chicken nuggets."
The meals came after around ten minutes of a conversation that I actually enjoyed for once with Gabby. Other times, we would be arguing and I would hate every minute of it.
We both scoffed down the food in front of us as she grinned after each chicken nugget she put in her mouth. There was a comfortable silence around us, but it was probably because of how hungry we were.
"So, what was prison like?" She suddenly asked as I coughed slightly on my food. She laughed at my reaction as I looked up into her eyes. "Well, it's not actual prison, it was just a detention centre, and I guess it wasn't great," I told her as she shrugged and continued to eat her chicken nuggets, mildly happy with my answer.
I laughed before digging into my steak again and shaking my head. She really was a strange one.
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Gabriella Hart
Caleb had actually been genuinely nice to me today with the occasional comment, which was pretty common in our strange, dysfunctional friendship.
"You know, you're the first girl Caleb has brought here before," Maggie smirked as I watched Caleb rush out to the car in the parking lot. He was going to drive it up to the door so the both of us didn't have to run in the rain.
"Really?" I questioned as I turned to her. A small smile crept on my lips as she nodded. I had imagined Caleb taking girls here all the time when he didn't want them each knowing about each other. It was pretty much two girls a day with him.
I waved goodbye to Maggie as I ran out and climbed into the car. "Thank you," I whispered to him With a smile as he drove back down the road and back home. Even though I was thanking him for the meal, I was also thanking him for everything else.
He was actually here for me when not many other people were.
"Never happening again, princess," he replied as I laughed.
It didn't take long for us to get home and I noticed that no other cars were on the drive, meaning that Mike and Katherine weren't actually home yet. Caleb opened the front door for me as we both walked through.
Caleb went straight back to his usual bored expression and laid down on the couch to watch tv. Running up to my room, I noticed Kylie and Clara's room was open and they weren't in there.
"Where's Clara and Kylie?" I shouted downstairs to Caleb, loud enough so I could be heard over whatever the hell he was watching. "They've gone to a friends," he shouted back louder so that I could hear.
I felt bad that I hadn't properly check in on Kylie lately. We hadn't spoken like we used to, and I wondered about how she was and if she was still ok. She didn't even know my father, but I knew that it still forced a weight onto her shoulders.
Being reminded of Kylie and Clara, I suddenly remembered that I still had mine and James' tickets to the winter ball the school was holding soon.
Thinking about his face just made me angry again as I walked into my room and pulled out some homework to work on.
I hadn't even picked out a dress that I was going to wear, and I knew that I needed to do it soon, if I was even still going. It was going to be out last one, so I knew that it was going to be good, but I just didn't want to be surrounded by people like James. It would be my worst nightmare.
My mind was beginning to hurt when I was going through factorising equations. Everything was too complicated and I began to massage my temples to somehow help.
However, the vibrating of my phone pulled me out of my confusion. The caller ID was blocked so I clicked end call and returned back to my work, knowing that it was just going to be a random insurance company trying to get me to buy something.
Just as I began working again, the phone vibrated again. I furrowed my eyebrows as I lifted the phone and answered it. I held it up to my ear, silently hoping that it was just someone with the wrong number or an insurance company.
I really needed to get some homework done.
"Hello?" I asked quietly and tapped my pen against the paper laid out on my bed.
There was a silence that followed and I rolled my eyes, preparing to pull the phone from my ear and just simply hang up and block the number.
However, heavily breathing suddenly caught my attention and I held the phone up to my ear a little longer. "Hello?" I spoke again and felt my hands grow clammy.
