[ w a r m t h o f c o l d n e s s ]
♥ gabriel ♥
"WHAT THE HELL do you want then?" I said to the lanky squirming boy from my History class, voice frozen with chilling ice.
His wide eyes were full of some sick adoration as he stuttered, hands trembling in fear behind his back. "I-I just wanted to check you were okay with us doing the essay on King James?"
Unbothered, my silver eyes only momentarily lingered on him before moving back to my lunch.
"I don't care." The meal was placed on the varnished wooden table in front of me. "Was that all?"
"Um, I guess. Unless you want to decide on a time we can meet to work togeth-"
"No."
Ignoring him, I picked up the heavy silver cutlery stabbing a lonely piece of roasted broccoli. It was damn sad to think that a Michelin Star chef had cooked this. He was getting paid too much.
A couple of seconds later when I noticed that the stick with glasses was still standing there, my dark eyebrows pulled into a dead straight line.
Tensing my jaw tightly, I put the knife and fork back down.
"Is there anything else I could do for you, Isaac?" My low voice was laced with exaggerated politeness whilst surprise flooded his face that I knew his name.
Did he think I was an idiot?
"Well, no bu-"
"Fuck off then."
He scrammed under my glare before I could resume digging into my pathetic excuse of a meal.
A moment later, I was interrupted yet again when a slinky tall brunette dragged out the seat beside me on the central table of the dining hall. I hadn't even noticed her approaching.
"Something about humans," she narrated poetically, the thin rim of seafoam around her pupils flashing as she smirked. "They seem to love you more when you treat them like shit."
The fabric of her satin green dress reflected in the bright light of the majestic hall like leaves from the tallest trees in the rainforest. "It's the strange allure of rejection, isn't it?"
After glowering at the double meaning of her words, I continued eating.
"No, hello?" Resting her chin on her light toffee hand, she deliberately sat mere inches away from me with eyes piercing on my face like arrows.
"Not until you stop stating the damn obvious, Lisa."
From the side of the table, I caught Arlo briefly lift his head at my words, tufts of almost-white hair swaying, before sinking back into his seat and taking a sip from his black coffee. Furthest from me was Lexi and Prince, the pair of them engaging in a hushed conversation, probably about me.
Talisa laughed loudly with giddiness, leaning even closer to me and placing her hand on my bicep. I shrugged it off. Eyes swimming with dedication, she continued to lace her right hand with my left.
Eyes narrowing, I snapped my head to the side, my meticulously gelled back hair staying in shape despite the movement. "And how the hell do you expect me to eat?"
Her gaze ran through me from top to bottom. The sound of her voice was like a whisper on a dark night when one corner of her lip pulled sideways. "Your other hand seems more than
capable, Gabe."
I felt the warmth of her fingers momentarily spread into my ice-cold hand. Within seconds, the beam got suffocated by my darkness and the soft palm against mine became nothing more than a claw under the influence of lust.
Only then did I process what she'd called me. Instinctively, a snarl encased my face as my eyes pierced into hers like bullets. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"
She shrugged her shoulders, the calculating expression on her face suggesting she knew she was testing my limits. Despite that, her priority in the moment was getting a reaction out me; anything to prove that I wasn't completely robotic.
A face flashed in my mind and I found myself grabbing my thermos that certainly wasn't full of tea or coffee full to drown it out.
It was ridiculous how a man's own name could be crippled by a woman to the extent when he no longer wished it were his own.
"How about Riel?" She persisted.
The perfectly controlled expression on my face, dripping in poison, gave her an answer.
I knew not to make the same mistake twice.
Or apparently thrice.
Pressing my large hands against the table, I slowly leant towards her watching intently as she shuddered at the proximity. Speaking in a whisper, my mint breath merged with the air, "Lisa?"
Her green eyes locked on mine as she held her breath. "Yeah?"
"Go put on some damn eyewash. Your eyes look as if you just swam in a pool with an unhealthy chlorine concentration. If you're going to do drugs at school, at least try to make it subtle."
Talisa wasn't surprised at my response and only looked at me dryly, "Looks like I had too much fun earlier. You're jealous that you missed out."
A part of me was.
Eyes still lingering on my structured face, she stood back up in her stiletto heels and slung her slouched handbag over her shoulder. "Come round mine after school. I want you to meet someone."
"Who?"
Twisting to face the large door of the hall, I caught her reply. "You'll find out."
Before I could stare her into answering my bloody question, two peach arms wrapped around her caramel shoulders causing her to smile lightly. "Hey, Ashlei."
If it wasn't the fakest woman ever.
You mean second fakest.
My teeth ground together when Ashlei began gossiping in her over the top voice, long wispy hair framing her oval face. "Oh my god, have you heard about Mr Holland? He was caught red-handed with Allegra Skelton, some 16 year old."
"What the fuck? That's disgusting," Talisa exclaimed with a curled lip. "In Year 7, I thought he was the cool teacher."
Even my eyebrows twitched infinitesimally.
What the fuck was wrong with people?
"You have him for English, don't you Gabriel?" the annoying blonde questioned me. When I didn't reply, her nails nervously tapped against her thighs.
I knew exactly what was going through her mind in that second. She was wondering if I knew.
Of course, I did.
I wasn't going to tell her though. She deserved to suffer in the unknown.
"Anyway, I overheard him begging the faculty to trust him when he said the relationship was totally consensual."
I could have sworn there was a slight tinge of vengeance in her cornflour blue eyes when she glanced at me and continued, "He even had to guts bring up Logan to show that in contrast, he respected and loved Allegra."
In a split second, our entire table went dead silent at her last words. It was as if somebody had put a silver gun to each person's head.
Prince was looking like Ashlei like she was deranged, Talisa was shocked that her new best friend had forgotten the unspoken rule and Arlo seemed worried about where this was going.
Gradually, the quietness spread throughout the whole of the hall, obsessed ears listening in for what was wrong.
Nobody at Forteaux dared to mention the name Logan anymore. Not only because he was a mentally messed up bastard but because the name Logan led to Louisa.
And everybody knew how that ended for the speaker.
My hands clenched into strong fists under the table, knuckled clicking like popper buttons. Wrapping my hand around the thermos as if it were somebody's neck, I took a long gulp, grey eyes blazing in anger and irritation.
They moved to the supposedly innocent blonde, looking for any trace that gave away how deceitful she actually was. When I found none, a calm expression grew on my face, comforted that my theory had been proven correct once again.
Everyone is so damn fake and so damn good at hiding it.
Beyond my stoic face that looked as if the life had been sucked out of it, I was beyond pissed off at being reminded of a particular brunette. I stood up and pushed the chair backwards. It grated against the floor, the shrill sound filling the almost soundless hall.
Oh, God. Do you think he's going to flip again?
Not gonna lie, I hope so. He looked kinda hot last time. His bone structure impregnates me.
Hot? You mean terrifying. Timothee's face afterwards... don't get me started. I really want to know what even happened between him and Louisa though. They were kinda cute, you know?
For God's sake, shut up, both of you! He's not deaf. You'll be next if you don't stop.
There was a pause.
At least that would mean he'd talk to me.
Stop being so desperate, Becky. You have a boyfriend.
My shoes slapped repeatedly against the hard oak floor, the sound echoing across the gleaming walls as I walked towards the exit with a rigid straight spine. The other pupils silently shrank back in a mix of admiration, respect and sheer terror as my 6 ft height towered above them. My long legs beneath my black suit trousers strode powerfully forwards with total control, impeccably hiding the raging storm within.
Behind me, I vaguely heard a high-pitched nasal voice ask me to wait but she was cut short by another. By then the oak doors had slammed shut behind me.
One thing was certain; I wasn't going to be missing the burnt broccoli on the white plate.
Robotically, I walked towards the location at Forteaux where I'd been spending a hell of a lot of time recently. On the West side of the grounds was the Clermont building full of classrooms where Maths used to be taught decades ago. A bitter struggle between the descendants of Mr Lewis Clermant, one of Forteaux's past headteacher who personally owned the building, and the current governing body had led to the structure being completely abandoned.
Music filled my ears.
It turned out I wasn't the only one who knew about this place.
Climbing up the stairs to the second floor, I walked towards the third door on the right. It was the biggest room of them all. My forehead tensed slightly when I heard the sound of a girl singing some upbeat song. Something about blue skies, chirping birds and other ridiculous shit.
"Get out," I said monotonously without turning my head towards her. I was too busy sitting on the dusty floor and leaning back on my go-to peeling, white wall that faced the floor-length window. Stretching my legs out in front of me, I loosened my tie and tipped my head backwards.
Footsteps pattered quickly behind me as the girl sprinted out, probably shaken by the total lack of anything human in my voice. The joy that had been present in her harmonious notes had completely dissipated due to my presence.
I didn't care.
When she was older she'd permanently come to the same conclusion that I did a couple of months ago.
She'd learn that being human was the biggest curse of them all.
Being chained to a destiny of trying repetitively, again and again, and again, until you become utterly drained. Being human meant putting your full force into attempting to achieve something and then having the finish line moved at the last minute.
The curse didn't lie in that though.
It lied in the fact that people seemed to persist regardless, pushing themselves up from the ground to try again and forgetting the inevitable failure always waiting for them at the very end.
It was fucking exhausting.
The solution was simple. After all, a person could only be betrayed a certain number of times before they realised that it was them doing something wrong. As soon as I'd distanced myself from every property of being human, things had got a lot easier.
At least, she did one thing right. Without her, I'd never have realised the sheer warmth of coldness.
Digging into the pocket of my expensive blazer, I pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a black lighter, stopping to glance at my reflection in it.
Dark brown tendrils of hair were intricately combed backwards revealing my perfectly carved bone structure; I'd abandoned my messy hair in the remnants of Christmas. I glanced at the sharp apex of my cheekbones and down the straight bridge of my nose to the sharp edge of my jawline. My stormy eyes stared at me emptily whilst my smooth lips protruded slightly from the side.
Somehow I'd turned into a machine and although those closest to me hated my seriousness, for the first time in my life I was getting results.
My grades had improved from hours of studying alone, I'd begun was modelling to earn money and the rest of the time I was drinking myself senseless.
Lighting it, I pressed the stick to my full pinkish lips in a long kiss, letting my long eyelashes fall shut. There were only two left in the box even though I'd only bought them a few days ago. I was beginning to move through them by the click of a finger.
With a deep breath in, it filled every inch of my broad chest - something that barely anything else could do nowadays - before I breathed out, letting all my thoughts melt away. Quietly, my eyes watched the smoke dance about in the air.
The sound of my phone vibrating caused me to break out of a daze.
No caller ID.
Standing up, I brought it to my ear.
"Hey mate, where are you?" A rich deep voice asked. In the background, I could hear students chattering. "I thought we could go to the golf course for a bit if you got a free period?"
It was a weak excuse considering today was another dreary day in May, the rain pattering against the windowpane. "It's pouring, Prince," I commented blandly. "If you're gonna check up on me, at least be more subtle. I'm fine."
Before he could convince me otherwise, I ended the call. The sucker knew I wouldn't have picked up if it wasn't no caller ID.
My hand locked around a toffee wrist tightly when I sensed something teach out to the left side of my face. Twisting my head to the side, my eyes met a green pair. The cigarette that had been pinched between my fingers had fallen to the ground.
Talisa tutted, eyes following it. "Ouch. That's one pound wasted. Those things don't come cheap, lyubimyy."
I released her hand immediately, turning away to face the window again. "Are you done? Now leave me alone."
My mind was already in overdrive today and I was torn between smashing my lips against hers and filing a damn restraining order.
Considering our most recent conversations, I knew not to do the former.
She raised a perfectly shaped brown eyebrow, "That's a shame. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the four bottles of Jack Daniels that I just hauled up the stairs."
Turning on her heel, she walked slowly away from me towards the door of the large room, hips swaying side to side.
I closed my eyes for two seconds before swearing quietly and opening them again.
"Wait."
Talisa stopped, lips pulling upwards. "What was that?"
"I'm not saying it again." She was testing me today and my patience was running dangerously thin, "Come here."
A victorious glimmer appeared on her face as she dug into her bag and pulled out a bottle of molten gold, bringing it to me. Before I could take it from her hand, she snatched it away.
I glared at her, catching the dark sheen that flickered through her eyes. "You know what I want, Gabriel."
"Oh wow. So now it's an exchange." We locked eyes for a few seconds before I gave her a taunting look, incredulity creeping in.
"No, it's not. It's so much more than that."
I didn't understand why she persisted when she knew damn well where I stood in the matter. I'd warned her countless times and yet Talisa continued to dig herself a deeper hole.
Bullets in the heart were excruciatingly painful.
She was handing me the rifle and telling me to shoot.
She's more than capable of making her own decisions. If she wants to screw herself over like that, Lisa's just going to have to learn the hard way.
Shrugging my shoulders with boredom, I pulled her closer to me, allowing the scent of ginger rose and desire to completely engulf me.
I really need to know what's going through all of your heads right now so drop me some comments. What do you think of the changes in Gabriel? As always there's hints for the rest of the story in this chapter (;
Hope you enjoyed chapter one!
Kiwi x
PS: Any of you get deja vu from the dining hall scene at the start of book one? :o
♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥