GABRIEL
***
“You did what?” I shouted over the phone. I would regret it later but I was too shocked to remember that my Mom didn’t like it when people raised their voices at her.
“I called Terry. Planned a dinner date with the both of you,” Mom said, and I had to physically stop myself from screaming into the phone.
I had hoped that moving to Cresswell wouldn’t mean my Mom and Emily’s Mom getting together, but then, it was just a matter of time before it happened. I guess what I should have hoped for instead was for it to take much longer than it did.
“Have you told Emily yet?” I asked, putting on my jacket. I wanted to look for her. Tell her myself. Ask her to come up with an excuse, even. Or come up with one myself, so that we could push the dinner as far as we could.
“I got her number from Terry and I texted her, telling her that we’d moved here and that you’re in the same school,” Mom said.
“Really? Has she responded?”
“Yes. She said you haven’t met yet but she’ll look for you now that she knows you’re there.”
Haven’t met yet? It was true that we hadn’t technically met but if we knew that we were both in Cresswell. It stung a bit that she was choosing to pretend I didn’t exist and that I wasn’t in Cresswell. It also stung a bit more that she said she would look for me, knowing full well she wouldn’t.
That was it. I was going to make sure we met. I was going to give her no choice but to acknowledge my existence. I hated it, but I would make sure she hated it even more.
“Don’t tell her about the dinner,” I said, leaving my dorm, “I’ll find her and tell her myself.”
“Really? That would be great.”
I had planned to ask her to make an excuse but I had a change of heart. I was going to make sure we went for dinner. I didn’t know where to find her but I was not going to let that stop me today. I would look through every inch of this school to find her.
My first stop was the library. I walked through all the rows of shelves, making sure I checked between each one just in case she was in between shelves, reading a book on the floor. It was a habit of hers that I was sure hadn’t yet left her. I smiled at the thought of us in elementary school, me running to look for her during the lunch break. But my smile quickly faded when I remembered I was the reason why she went to the library during the lunch break because she couldn’t eat at the cafeteria anymore.
I ignored the thought. I was young and naïve. Plus she had forgiven me. The reason why we were at odds right now was entirely different. She was not in the library. I debated looking through the classes, but they were too many and I didn’t know her schedule so I didn’t know which ones to look in.
I was getting tired but I wasn't about to give up. She was going to meet me today if it killed me. I debated on whether I should go to her dorm but that was just strange. There were no rules that prevented girls and guys from going to each other’s rooms but I didn’t want to scare her or make her feel like I had been stalking her. I hadn’t even found out about her dorm on purpose, I’d just seen her going after her classes. I hadn’t seen her going on purpose as well, I’d just stumbled into her but she hadn’t seen me.
All in all, it was a bad idea. I would have to try somewhere else.
I was running out of options as well as time because my mother could not be trusted to keep her word. For all I knew, she had already texted Emily about the dinner.
I decided just to walk around and leave it to fate. If I had run into her before, I would run into her again.
I started walking around aimlessly and I had pushed back the thought I had from us in elementary school but it came springing up again, and it stung. Looking back, I see that she knew my becoming popular wouldn’t be such a great idea but she let me have at it anyway. She knew that it would harm our friendship but she encouraged me to do it anyway because it was what I wanted. It was so like her to do something like that. I found myself feeling sorry for how I treated her but I was overcome with anger.
She had left without a single word. Our friendship and our relationship had clearly meant nothing to her because she just cut me off and left. Did she know how many nights I spent wondering what I had done wrong? Did she know how heartbroken I was? Did she even care? I had been walking for a while now and I got to the statue of the school mascot which had some benches situated in front of it.
There she was. With some guy. I couldn’t see them clearly but his build looked like one of the guys she was sitting next to in Mr. Thomas’ class. Was it him? I walked towards them and I could finally see his face. It was Harry.
Harry was the most popular guy in Cresswell. I hadn’t interacted with him yet but he seemed to be a good enough guy from what I’d heard from Earl. He was good enough in my books, someone I wasn’t going to bother with, but now that I saw him with Emily, for the second time, I decided he was an enemy.
The fact that I kind of hated Emily at the moment didn’t matter, I didn’t want him near her. I found a new goal at that moment: I was going to become popular here in Cresswell. I was going to become more popular than Harry. They were talking but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Who’s Gabriel?” he asked as I inched closer to the two of them.
“That would be me,” I said.
EMILY***“Emily, come get the door,” Mom said.I wanted to ignore her but I knew she knew I had heard her. It was only the two of us in the house, after all. I didn’t want to get the door. I didn’t want this day to come. I had been dreading it but that didn’t change things. It was here. Oh well, might as well get it over with.I got up from my bed and made my way downstairs. The only reason I didn’t drag my feet was that Louise was outside. The other party, I didn’t care much for. I took a deep breath then I opened the door.“Hi,” Gabriel said as he made his way past me, making sure to hit my shoulder as he did.He was so full of it. I wanted to roll my eyes but I didn’t. I put on the warmest smile I could muster for Louise.“It’s so good to see you,” she said as she gave me a hug.“It’s good to see you too,” I said and I meant it.I had missed her. She was like my second mother and my friend. I had always been sorry about the way I left things with her. I should have told her I was
(Bakersville Elementary 2001)***“You will be doing your elementary school Science Fair Project in pairs,” Mrs. Berry said. There were mixed reactions in the class. Some people were excited. Others, not so much.Emily was excited. It didn’t matter who she got as a partner, she was excited about doing the science fair project. She already had an idea in mind.“Do we get to choose our partners?” a student asked, and everyone quieted down. This was the most important part. A ‘yes’ from Mrs. Berry meant the world to the elementary school class. it would mean they could choose their crushes. It meant their dreams could come true. Mrs. Berry had the rare and unique chance of being Cupid. Would she take it?The air was thick with anticipation. Everyone was holding their breath. Well, almost everyone. Emily didn’t care much for crushes. She didn’t have one, and she was sure no one had a crush on her as well.“No,” Mrs. Berry said and the class deflated with disappointment.Mrs. Berry smiled
GABRIEL***“I’m so happy for you,” Mom said as she reached her hand across the table to hold Emily’s.Emily had just announced that she was dating Harry. And I hoped she was lying. Besides, it didn’t make sense. The only reason Harry could have been holding Emily’s phone on the day we met was that he was giving her his number, and he’d also told her to call him. If they were dating, they wouldn’t need to tell each other that. Moreso, he wouldn’t need to tell her to call him. He would call her, right? Isn’t that what boyfriends did?I’d only come to this conclusion because I had been thinking about it for the four days that had gone by since it happened. It bothered me that they might have been dating this whole time. But that’s not what bothered me the most. What bothered me was how she acted when I grabbed her wrist. She said she was okay but I doubted it. I was worried for her. What had happened to make her so scared?I had debated texting her, to ask her if she was okay. I knew sh
EMILY***This is not what I had planned. I shouldn’t have allowed my desire for revenge to take over. I regretted it as soon as I said it, not only because I was dragging Harry into my drama with Gabriel, but also because Gabriel seemed unaffected by the news. I had a feeling he knew I was lying. It pissed me off all the more that he knew but he chose to play along.What pissed me off even more, though, was the fact that when he was asked if he was dating he said no. He didn’t play along. He didn’t try to pretend the way I was. It was like he was uninterested, unbothered. But the Gabriel I knew was not the type to be upstaged. I had hit him where it hurt. It’s not that he wasn’t affected. It’s that he was coming up with a strategy.I could tell by the way he got silent for the rest of the dinner. I could almost hear his brain turning. As soon as we waved them goodbye I ran up to my room. I needed to text Harry. I paced around my room. What was I even going to say? How would I bring i
EMILY*** “Thanks again for agreeing to meet me,” I said to Harry as I sat down. We’d decided to meet at a coffee shop off campus. It was my suggestion. I didn’t know where Gabriel was and I didn’t want to run the risk of running into him before I told Harry what I had done. “Sure,” Harry said, “is everything okay? You look pale.” I was anxious. I had never done anything like this, and I hated that I was doing it to someone who didn’t deserve it. Someone who was genuinely interested in me, that I was genuinely interested in as well. I hated that I was dragging him into this. “I’m okay,” I said, “probably just tired from the weekend. It was a lot.” “How was the dinner?” he asked. I guess we were getting straight to the point. “It was great. I hadn’t seen Gabriel and his Mom in a while so it was great to catch up on things,” I said, sipping on my Iced Americano. “That’s great to hear. What did you want to tell me?” he asked. I placed my drink on the table and took a deep breath
GABRIEL***“Glad you could make it,” I said to Harry as he sat down across from me. He’d asked to meet at a coffee shop off campus. He didn’t seem happy to be here. Emily must have told him about what happened between us. I didn’t blame him, though, that he’d chosen to take Emily’s side over mine. It made sense. I would just have to plead my case. “Make it quick,” he said.He was acting hostile, probably because of what Emily told him about me but I needed to make sure that he felt that I was genuine. It was going to have to be Emily’s words over mine. “I told you when we first met, that Emily and I have been best friends since kindergarten,” I said.“I remember that, yes,” he said. I could tell he was getting irritated. I needed to choose my words carefully, to make sure he didn’t feel threatened by me. “We’re not best friends anymore. I’m sure she’s told you that. I hurt her so many times and our friendship ended completely when she moved here. It’s all my fault.”Harry’s face
(Bakersville Elementary, 2002)***Emily was woken up by the sound of a soft knock at the window. She had gotten used to it by now, and she had become a light sleeper as a result. She needed to hear Gabriel coming in, otherwise, he would sleep outside in the cold. This had been their routine for the past few months. Ever since the day Gabriel showed up at Emily’s door, she had been allowing him to sneak into her room when her parent’s fighting got worse.Their parents didn’t know that he had been sneaking out, and she hoped they wouldn’t because it seemed that the fighting was getting so bad that he couldn’t sleep. She got out of bed and opened the window for him. It was dangerous, because her room was not on the ground floor of the house, and he had to do some serious climbing to get there.He climbed into the room. She had already set out some snacks for him in case he had not eaten, and his sleeping bag for when he was ready to sleep. He had been crying, she could tell. She hugged
EMILY***“I’m genuinely happy for you. You deserve to be happy. And I'm genuinely sorry.”I couldn’t stop thinking about Gabriel's words. He had called me two days ago after he'd met with Harry. and he had proved me wrong. Apparently, he'd met with Harry to apologize for the misunderstanding that he'd caused and he hoped that the three of us could interact peacefully from that point on.I felt like he was lying, like this was just another scheme of his but my conversation with Harry had given me much to think about. I called him after the call with Gabriel."Hey," I said."Hey, he responded, "I'm on my way back to school. I just met with Gabriel."I liked that he went straight to the point so that I didn't have to. I had been a bit worried that he would have taken it badly if I was the one who brought up Gabriel. I didn't want him to think that I cared."Oh, really?" I asked, deciding to act clueless, "how'd it go?""Quite well, actually. He apologized for lying about the both of you