Healing Gabriel: Chapter Eleven
※(*)※Gabriel's POV※(*)※
The first thing I noticed was Evan's attitude. He seemed cold, distant, and snappish. Then I noticed his appearance. He wore dark shades over his eyes, which was odd, because it was cloudy and rainy outside. Another thing I noticed about him was that the usual cocky yet cheerful smile on his face he wore around me had been replaced with a scowl. Yes, something was wrong with him. And I wanted to find out.
"Is the weather getting to you?" I asked him when he finished retrieving his books from his locker. He turned his head towards me. I could feel the glare from his eyes practically eating me alive. What'd I do? "Wh-what's wrong?" I stuttered.
"Stop talking so loud," he groaned softly, wincing. He was speaking in mostly muttered tones.
"I'm practically whispering," I told him, which was true. I didn't want to talk in my normal voice when he looked as if he were about to beat up someone who looked at him the wrong way. Evan rubbed his temples, his mouth twisting in a grimace. "Are you okay?" I asked him, unsure.
"I'm fine."
"You don't seem like it."
"Seriously, I'm alright. Just...go do something."
"I have study hall with you," I told him in a shaky voice.
"Oh. Well, come on, then. You can wake me up when it's my next class."
"Study hall is our last class. Remember, it's half day?" A lost expression crossed his face, until realization dawned over him. He nodded his head, then placed his books back in his locker, closing the metal, forest green rectangle shut. As he walked down the hallway, towards the library, he seemed to waver a bit from side to side. I trailed behind him, thinking of what could be wrong. Did I say something last night that had upset him? No. At least, I don't think so. He didn't seem upset when he left. In fact, he seemed content. I could still feel his lips on the top of my hand. They were soft and pleasant, and I almost found myself wanting them pressed against my own lips.
Almost.
"Ugh," Evan groaned quietly when he took a seat at an empty table in the back, inside the library. I sat down next to him, suspicion starting to bubble up inside me. Evan seemed disoriented in an odd way. And, no matter what, he wouldn't take off his glasses. He seemed tired, and throughout the beginning of the day, his face would have a nauseated expression on it for a short amount of time.
I didn't quite understand what was happening with him. He was staring down at the table, his jaw clenched, his eyes cold and hard behind the dark shades. The way he was acting was beginning to scare me. Was he having second thoughts about me? Did he not want me to be around him? But that was preposterous. He wanted me. He promised to keep me safe. He wouldn't be stupid enough to just...abandon me now. Right? He could've stayed away from me from the very beginning, but he didn't. So that means he does want me.
Right?
"It's weird. I mean, it's January, yet there isn't any snow," I said to Evan, though my eyes were focused on the darkened sky. It was around 10:30 at night.
"Does it ever snow here?" he inquired.
"Rarely," I sighed.
"Would you like it to snow?"
I thought about it for a few moments. In my old town, snow was common during the winter. Though I didn't like the cold, I always loved the snow. The way it fell from the sky. The smell of it in the early morning breeze. I laid my head on his shoulder as I suppressed a yawn. Evan was taken a back by my sudden...affection, I guess, for a few seconds. Then he put his arm around my shoulders and waited patiently for my answer.
"Yes," I said simply, my voice just a breath.
"Me, too."
The two of us were silent, simply enjoying each others' company. I don't think I've ever felt this relaxed and put at peace before. I guess you could say that I was falling head over heels for him. We liked each other, that was obvious. We wanted it each other. But the only thing keeping us at bay was me. I realized, though, that it wasn't him who made me afraid to be held and kissed and other things that people do to show their ever-growing affection for each other. No, it wasn't him at all. He hurt me, he pressured- no, forced -me into things that I didn't want to take part of. He controlled, abused, did unfathomable things to other children and me. His grip was filled with pain and his eyes showed harm.
Evan wasn't like that, though. He would never force me into things that I wasn't comfortable doing. He would never hurt me. His eyes were filled with affection and softness. His hold was relaxing and put at peace.
I knew that Evan wasn't going to cause any harm to me like the mistake for a man before did. So, I wasn't afraid to be held and touched anymore. (At least, if it was above the waist, that is.)
The thing that kept Evan and me apart was something else from my past.
"Hey, are you okay?" Evan murmured quietly, his warm breath tickling my ear. I closed my eyes, then nodded my head.
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"You're shivering in fifty degree weather."
I clenched my hands to make them stop shaking, but realized that it was just a memory. I rubbed my temples after giving my head a slight shake to clear it. I hated it when I thought about those type of things. It made me do things that I wasn't even aware of. For example, my hands. I didn't even know that they were shaking until Evan had brought it to my attention.
"I'm oka-" I started, but cut myself off when I felt something warm against the outside of my hand.
"There. Now you're really okay. Hey, I gotta go, I think my parents should be coming home soon. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Gabe."
Before he left, I felt his warm, soft lips kiss the top of my hand again. I sat there, stunned, watching him return back over to his house across the street. When he disappeared inside, I, too, slipped back inside my home.
My mind was racing as fast as my heartbeat was by the time I laid down in my bed, pressing the back of my hand to my chest, above my scar, where my heart was.
He kissed me. He kissed me on the hand.
Ah, Evan. I looked across the table, seeing him fast asleep. My heart seemed to melt as I saw his peaceful face, now free from that awful mask of hatred. He was resting his cheek on his arm, his lips partially open, a peaceful, almost silent snore coming from him. Feeling more daring than usual, I reached my hand across the table. I hesitated for a moment before I brushed his hair away from his forehead. He stirred slightly from the movement, but his lips seemed to form an unconscious smile. If I thought my heart was melting before, then wow, was I way off. At the moment, my heart was melting faster than the wax of a lit candle.
Due to the silence and lack of activity, I became lost in my thoughts again. The thing from my past was another boy at the hell house I was kept in. That boy...he was my everything, when I thought I had nothing.
Sixx.
I haven't thought of him in a while, but every time I did, my eyes would get watery and I would feel as if my whole world was crashing down on me. My insides felt like they were caving in. My self-esteem plummeted even lower than it already was as I called myself a worthless, unforgivable bastard. Sixx was like a younger brother to me. I loved him to death (in a brotherly way, of course,) and I knew that he felt the same way. I remembered, a month after we became familiar with each other, he had made me laugh. For the first time since I had been kidnapped.
"Come on, Blue Eyes, smile!"
"For the last time, my name isn't Blue Eyes."
"Well, it's not like you ever told me your name, so how should I know what to call you?"
"My name...my name?" I scoffed in whispering disbelief, looking away from my dirt-covered knees and instead at the small boy sitting next to me.
"Yeah, you're name. Unless you like to be called Blue Eyes."
"How am I supposed to tell you my name when I don't even know what it is myself?" I whispered, more so to myself rather than him.
"You don't remember your own name?" he asked, shocked, his large hazel eyes widening more.
"Does it even matter?" I murmured, leaning my head against the wall, brining my knees closer to my bare chest.
"Duh, of course it matters! Everybody needs to have a name to them. It's the least amount of sanity they can hold onto when everything starts to slip out of their grasps." When I didn't respond, he continued. "My name is Sixx. Like six, but spelled with two x's. Unique, huh?"
All I could do was stare, bewildered. How could he be acting like we were two friends who just happened to run into each other on a walk through the park, when really, we were just two strangers who were kidnapped and forced into a room together? I turned my head away from him, instead scanning my eyes across the dark room. After a second, they focused on a door. Being left in the dark for a month straight, my eyes grew used to it. Some call it night vision, but to me, it's just regular vision and the darkness is actually light for my eyes. So, as I took in the rackety, old rusted door, I began feeling queasy for some odd reason. It wasn't because of the nasty odors that were hanging in the air, though. It was simply from fear.
"Hey, it's okay, Blue Eyes. You don't have to get worked up about him," Sixx whispered from next to me. His voice became more and more distant as I thought more and more about that door. The Hell behind it. The Hell it unleashes. The Hell that made me this way.
I could already feel his hands on my skin. His foul, alcohol-scented breath right under my nose. His nails clawing into me when I did something wrong. His body weighing down on mine.
"Blue Eyes? It's okay, Blue Eyes."
He was wrong, though. It wasn't okay. We were the only two left in the storage room. The other forty-eight boys were behind that door, being molested and raped.
That's going to be me, I thought to myself. After he's done with his current victim, he'll come back in here, and he'll do the same thing to me over and over again. In front of the other boys. And he'll do it with no shame.
I was breathing heavily now, my scarred, bare chest rising and falling quickly.
"Blue Eyes, shh, you're okay. You're okay, Blue Eyes. I'm here with you. And you're here with me. And together, we'll be strong. All we need is each other, right?" His voice, filled with sincere honesty and care, seemed to bring me out of the depths out of my mind. I looked away from the door and at him. His large, dismal brown eyes met mine. He gave me a smile, then scooted himself a bit closer to me.
"There you are. I thought I lost you," he murmured. I just kept my eyes glued to him, not daring to look away. My name, something I still couldn't remember, was not the little bit of sanity I had to hold onto. My piece of sanity was Sixx. And him alone was like a whole block of sanity that belonged to me, and me only. I felt myself trusting and wanting him immediately, like I always did. I gave people my trust and love too easily.
That was what got me here in the first place.
"You look like you need to laugh. Do you need to laugh, Blue Eyes?" Sixx asked, a slight trill added to his voice. I nodded my head a bit. I did need to laugh. It had been a while since I last smiled, nonetheless laughed. "Okay, I'll make you laugh. What did the lawyer say to the other lawyer?"
"I don't know. What?" I asked. Sixx was already starting to giggle. "What'd the lawyer say?" I repeated when Sixx had to bite his lip to keep from laughing too loud. As he began to laugh harder, uncontrollably, I felt the corners of my lips begin to lift. They lifted until they made a full smile. As Sixx started shaking with laughter, trying hard to get out the rest of the joke, I found myself laughing, too. It was an odd laugh, though. A laugh that had not been used in a while, so it sounded dull and a bit raspy. But, nonetheless, it was a laugh. And I laughed even harder when Sixx finally managed to get out the rest of the joke, as he was now officially cracking up.
"He said, 'Hey! We're both lawyers!'!"
I wasn't laughing because of the joke. I was laughing because of Sixx, and his reaction to his own joke. Right there, and right then, I told myself that I would never, ever upset him. That I would never betray his cheerful, joyous soul. He was the first glance of hope I had seen since I got here. He was kidnapped and brought here before me, and everyday, since that day I first arrived, he would talk to me. Everyday he would try to create conversation with me. And now, a full month later, he had succeeded in making me laugh. Just like he promised.
I, too, will keep my promise to him, I thought to myself. My promise meant that I would protect him from the evil man behind that door. I would not let Sixx die from dehydration or lack of food. I would not let any of the other boys try to touch him.
I would make sure that Sixx got out of this place alive.
That promise echoed throughout my head, seeming to be never ending, as if it were there to remind me how I failed to keep that promise. It reminded me of how much of a heartless, monstrous thing I was. It told me that I shouldn't even be alive, that I should've died there with all the other girls and boys. I betrayed Sixx, and yet, he still saved me. Even if that meant death for him.
"Evan," I whispered when the school bell rang, knocking me out of my trance-like-state. He didn't move. "Evan," I repeated, just a bit louder this time. Still, he was fast asleep. I bit my lip, then let out my breath. Leaning across the table, I placed my lips by his ear, then whispered his name again.
"Stop it, baby," he mumbled, a smirk coming across his face.
"Uh...school's over. It's time to go home."
He mumbled something to low for me to hear, a pleasured look coming across his face. Well, that's just great. He's having a dream, a disturbing one at that. But, what was I supposed to do about it? Evan was just a regular teenage guy, who went to parties and had perverted dreams. That was part of him, and I can't be upset with him for that.
It was obvious that Evan was not going to be waking up anytime soon with the sound of my voice, so I had to come up with another plan. Meh, no, forget the plan. I simply removed his arm from underneath his cheek. Like a jolt of electricity had just ran through him, Evan shot up as soon as his head hit the table, obviously wide awake.
"What the hell, asshole?" he snarled. I felt my jaw drop slightly. So did his. "Oh, my God, Gabe. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"What's your problem?" I asked, standing up from my seat.
"I honestly didn't mean to call you that, I swear-"
"You've been acting like a total jerk to me all day! What'd I do to you? Are you mad about last night or something?"
"What? No! I'm not mad. And you didn't do anything-"
I put on my backpack and stormed out of the library, not bothering to listen to him. It was one thing to be distant and cold to me, but it was a whole other thing to call me something so disrespectful. He told me to wake him up when study hall ended, and I did.
So why did he just blurt that out to me?
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Note
UMMM, WHAT THE HECK?! Oh my GOSH! I can't believe Healing Gabriel reached fourteen THOUSAND reads!
14,000! 1-4-0-0-0!
And every chapter of Healing Gabriel has one THOUSAND reads!
1,000! 1-0-0-0!!!!
It makes me CRAZY about how much people are enjoying Healing Gabriel!
Don't forget to vote and comment! (Like I need to remind you? xD) [Oh, and about the comments on Chapter 10, I absolutely LOVED getting all those long comments~! It really did make my week. <3!]
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