Gabriel was dreading having to shop. It meant that he'll have to deal with people all day long. It's something he's not willing to do. He looked out of the window, wondering how they're life would've been if his mother hadn't died. Would they have moved to New York? Would he still get angry and get expelled? Many questions passed through his mind as he and his family headed to the mall.
When they reached the mall, they parked the car and got out. Gabriel followed his family.
They entered several different stores and buying the clothes they wanted. After spending several hours, they sat headed to the restaurant and had their lunch. After they finished with their lunch, they head to the grocery store and bought their food. They had taken several trips back and forth putting the groceries into the car and getting them from the store.
Once they finished, they headed home and unloaded the car. It took a while for them to unload everything. They had to separate all their clothes due to everything being mixed together.
Gabriel got all of his clothes and took it to his bedroom and put them all in his closet. After fixing his closet, he walked over to his bed and collapsed on it.
"Hey, Gabe," Justin said, entering Gabriel's room, "Dad said we're ordering take out. He wants to know what you'd like to order."
Gabriel sat up on his bed.
"Anything," he said. All of his anger disappeared.
"Define anything," Justin said. "Whenever you say anything, you always want something specific but don't say it."
"Maybe because whatever I want isn't something you all want to eat," Gabriel said.
"Dude, seriously, what do you want?" Justin asked.
Gabriel sighed. "Fine. I want... Burger King?"
"Alright," Justin said. "I'll tell Dad."
Gabriel didn't respond. He let himself fall back on his bed. This day was long enough. All he wanted was for it to end already.
Minutes passed and Justin entered Gabriel's bedroom
"Dad just ordered from Burger King," Justin informed his little brother.
"He did?" Gabriel asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Justin confirmed. "Surprised me too."
"When will it arrive?" Gabriel arrived.
Justin shrugged.
"Hey, do you want to come to my room and play video games?" Justin asked. "It's been a while since we hung out, so I thought that you might want...."
Gabriel hadn't realized that he and Justin stopped hanging out. Ever since he was expelled and their mother died, he had grown distant from his family. He didn't want to see them. He didn't even want to talk to them. They're a constant reminder to Gabriel that he'll never get his mother back.
"Uh, sure," Gabriel said.
He hated to admit it, but he missed his brother. He stopped hanging out with him because of his anger. The two brothers could've been hanging out, instead, Gabriel distanced himself from Justin, along with his father and Emma.
Justin smiled. "C'mon."
Gabriel stood up and followed his brother to his room.
"I think Riley might've rubbed off on you," Justin said.
"Dude, I've known for like a day," Gabriel said.
"I know," Justin said, "but still."
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"What do you think of her?"
"Too bubbly," Gabriel said.
"Too bubbly?" Justin repeated.
"Her personality, it's too bubbly for me," Gabriel explained. "It's a little annoying."
"Sure," Justin said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Justin asked.
"Um, I think that maybe you'd end up liking her or whatever in the future," Justin said. "But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong."
"I'm going to say this now, you're wrong," Gabriel said as they entered Justin's room.
"We'll see, little bro," Justin said. He walked over to his PlayStation and turned it on along with the television. He put in the game into the PlayStation and picked up two controllers and walked back to Gabriel, who was sitting on a bean bag chair. "Here."
Gabriel took the controller from his brother and the two soon started to play video games. They spent from that moment until dinner arrive playing video games. Even though Gabriel was having a good time with his brother, his anger at the world didn't fade away. A smile didn't even crack a smile. His expression only showed concentration.
Once dinner arrived, Grant called his kids to come to the kitchen and eat dinner. Justin thought it was a good time to stop playing video games for the night and possibly pick up where they left off some other time.
***
The following day, Gabriel woke up around 8:15. He wondered why he had woken up so early. He normally wakes up at 9:30, or sometime around that. On rare occasions, he'd wake up at 10.
Gabriel groaned, wanting to go back to sleep. He turned onto his side. The first thing he saw was a picture of him and his mother. She had her arms wrapped around his chest, hugging him from behind him. He missed her a lot. It hasn't even been a year since her death and he still wishes for her to be with them. With him.
Sadness over came him. Gabriel began to wonder what he did for him and his father to argue constantly. He wished they were like that. He wished that his relationship with his father would go back to the way it was, but Gabriel knew that their current relationship would remain the same and won't change anytime soon.
Gabriel sat across his father while they ate dinner. Since they started eating, Gabriel had barely spoken a word, which has become normal. It was unusual and weird at start, but over time, they had gotten used to it.
When it grew closer to 9, Gabriel got out of bed. He took a quick shower, changed and didn't bother to dry his hair. He put on a beanie on his head before he walked out of his bedroom. He headed to the kitchen, to find his father making breakfast.
"You're up early," Grant said in surprise.
"Yeah, so?" he asked.
"What? I'm just surprised," he said.
"Really?" Gabriel questioned. "It seemed like it was a problem."
"Alright, let's calm down," Grant said. "We don't want to start when it's still early in the morning."
Gabriel rolled his eyes at his father.
"So, I was talking to Cory and Topanga yesterday about school," Grant siad after placing a plate of bacon and eggs for Gabriel on the table. "They told me about this middle school, John Quincy Adams Middle School. I was thinking about sending you to that middle school and your siblings to the high school, Abigail Adams High School."
"Alright?" Gabriel said.
"I'll be taking you to take the placement test this afternoon and your siblings tomorrow," Grant said. "Will you cooperate?"
Gabriel shrugged.
"Don't get expelled this time," Grant said. "If you -"
"I'm not gonna get expelled this time," Gabriel promised.
"If you say so," Grant sighed.
A/N:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm planning on making an update schedule for Words. I don't want to update the book at random. So I thought that I should update every Monday. That way, I don't have you all waiting too long and it won't take me forever to finish the book.
Again, I hope you all enjoyed this book. I'd really like to know what you all think so please leave your comments.