• Chapter one:




    There was no sense in it anymore. The whole conflict that I had faced only made time slow down. Yet, it was perfect time just to be with Gabriel, for as long as we were in each other’s presence, time had no limit. This remarkable person was not a vampire, a werewolf, or a wizard. He was a man and that is how I will put it, now and forever, a true human man in these pained eyes. The only person I thought I'd never meet in my life. I could remember my first day as if it were yesterday. So much I couldn’t have foreseen at the time when I stepped onto that smooth pavement walkway. It was just august the fifteenth, freezing cold and cloudy as ever.
    It was around 6:30 in the morning when I heard the noises of objects being thrown. It was silent for a couple of moments, but then came a familiar loud and congested voice, “Dani, did you happen to see my wallet? I left it on the counter last night and now its gone.” Frankie had seemed to have that slight tone she had had with me ever since she and dad got together. “I'm not trying to blame you, but I just want to know. So please, any help with finding it?”
    Frankie was my stepmother at the time, before any of the drama came into play. She was the regular blonde, skinny and gorgeous lady you see in magazines. While I was the plain, straight haired, brunette that you just are friends with. Compared to her…I was the worm and she was the bird. I being the worm meant that she would take me and break me down to my most simple components. Sadly enough, I was like a third grade puzzle.
    By the time she finished what she was saying, I had a bagel stuffed in my mouth. I could care less for her cheesy leopard-print purse she called wallet. I began to sneak past her in order to escape. “Frankie, I don’t know where it is. Have no clue where you put it, and besides I start school today so I really can’t. Sorry.” Before she could even turn to get me, I was out the door.
    Racing down the steps of my porch I caught a vision of an Angel. However Angel was not the word I would have used at the time in that dreamy sense. Perhaps the right word would've been, Demon? I was a bit terrified and amazed at how his body worked all in one. Each step seemed flawless, even if they were unplanned. His arms swayed to his side and the movement seemed rare. His legs also motioned without much care, and now I felt my own legs start to weaken. He seemed to be walking to the same bus stop I was going to, and so I followed. I staggered behind him due to the fact that I had been examining him, and wondering what he would do if I had wanted to talk. His hair was jet black and down, without any hair solution to keep it the way he did. It seemed to hang down on the left side of his face; blending in with his hair, his eyes were bluish-green matching with his peach pale complexion. His choice of clothing seemed to be band brands judging by the symbols. I had no idea what Metallica or Pink Floyd was. In fact I didn’t even know who or what they were. Being home-schooled for the past six years of my life took its toll on my childhood. It began to bother me as I tried to figure out what it was. Then suddenly a deep but smooth voice interrupted my cross-examination. I instantly snapped out of it, realizing I was caught.
    “Uh…what are you doing?” His facial expression gave me the idea that he was annoyed by my stare. It couldn’t be helped, and I continued to look into his eyes. “Hello?” He stepped closer, snapping his fingers in front of my face, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
    Then I came to, “I’m…sorry. You just reminded me of someone and I thought…nevermind.” I cupped my hand over my eyes slightly so he couldn’t see how embarrassed I looked. I heard a chuckle and that made it worse. But then the bus came and I felt relieved as I dropped my hand to my side. Then the boy mumbled something, a curse word maybe? It was too low of a voice
    As we boarded the bus, he rudely pushed his way in front of me. I just shook my head and got on inserting two dollars into the money slot. I was frantic when the bus began to move and tried to keep steady on my feet. The rocking from the people inside and the speed bumps made it hard to do so, and I kept stepping on other people’s feet. I began to search from where I stood, seeing if there were any seats unoccupied. Nope, not a single so far. Finally, there it was, the last seat open and seemingly just for me. In some strange way it called for me to go over and sit, yet there HE was, sitting and looking out the window his headphones on and listening to his Zune.
    In a quick decision over getting yelled at and getting my own foot stomped back on, I chose to be yelled at. Or would I be yelled at? His tone back at the stop didn’t seem too angry and besides, he looked okay now. So I carefully swung my way over to that very seat, managing to not step on anyone’s foot. When reaching two feet near the seat, he glanced up and shook his head a smirk planted on his face. Unfortunately the bus shifted to the left and as did I. Once again I managed to make a fool of myself as I fell; my head landing in his lap; Directly looking at his crotch area. Everyone near us hollered and whistled, which didn’t make only me blush, but this boy as well.
    I struggled to come back to reality, and rose up as quickly as I could from the ground. Still in blush I swung my backpack over and sat down. I didn’t dare look in his direction for if I did I thought I’d give the wrong impression. But that was too late now wasn’t it? The fact that I had been a klutz my whole life had been one reason why my parents declined me from going to public school. Another reason was because the nearest elementary and middle school was already filled. However, High school was when I could start being normal. This was my first day, freshmen and basically new girl in town. What else could ruin the day?
    Suddenly the bus had stopped, and every rose from their seats. I was too slow to manage my way off my bottom and thus was kept down by the many surrounding people. Why? Why does this have to happen? I could understand what people were thinking of me now. How so far I screwed up my so-called ‘First Impression’. I sat still on the bus; I had given up trying to stand up from my seat, seeing that there was no way. Then when I was about to fully give up hope, I felt someone reach for my hand grabbing my wrist and pulling me through the swarm of people. This was the start of life at Westwick High
    “There you are!” The girl announced, “Dani Byrd, why have you not called us?” It was Terry and Anastasia. The two girls I had ever established friendship with, my only friends before,during, and after home-school. It seemed rather sad to me. This had been the first time I had seen them in about three to four years when they last visited my house. We had all managed to chat online and update each other on our life status. We even sent pictures; which had helped me out that day.
    “Terry? That can’t be you…is it?”
    “Of course it is silly. Who else? But wow you grew taller and not to mention…” She pointed to my chest, “Extra Junk. Nice.”
    I was pretty embarrassed that she had pointed to my breasts like that in public. But I excused it; seeing that it might worsen the upcoming subjects we were to talk about. Anastasia or Ana as we called her, stood quietly next to Terry on her right side. They looked like twins almost, aside from the fact that Terry was white(Fully americanized eurpean girl) and Anastasia or Ana was (Philipino). I continued the conversation.
    “So Ana how are you doing? You seem quiet.” I was concerned about this.
    “I’m fine, honest.” Her smile was a slight annoyance to me and I really didn’t want to be rude to say that she was like a mouse. Quiet, sneaky, and cute when you wanted her to be. “How are you? Did you have a nice bus ride?”
    I nodded as I yawned. Not much sleep, that was normal for me. Last night I decided to stay up and worry about tomorrow, and now it was here. “Please forgive me, I didn’t get to sleep so well. Dad and stepmother… snore louder than a hurricane.” I chuckled darkly under my exhausted expression. “Besides I was preparing for my first day of real school. It’s kind of odd so far, but I guess I’ll manage, right?”
    The two of them nodded in response. It didn’t seem too promising. I had almost forgotten the incident on the bus, but I knew it would haunt me every now and then. Like a knife to the throat hostage situation; at least that’s what it felt like to me. I wanted to know what the boy’s expression had been exactly. I knew he was a slight bit flushed with anxiety at the expense of me falling directly into him. How the people made us or should I say me, feel like we were, or mostly I was the only idiot in society. Being a klutz was just normal I guess, and it was something I’d have to fight being known as. The thought of his mood from that point on had lingered through my rather small mind.
    Still in thought, I had not noticed the bell for school go off. In fact I didn’t even know what the bell was for at all. Until I waited and saw everyone hurrying off to class. Then I followed Terry as if I knew what I was doing and she gave me a concerned look. She rolled her eyes and took hold of my arm firmly tugging me to my first class, which was Mr. Johanson in geometry. I sucked at geometry, even though I had been taught over and over again. When the final bell rung I had made it through the door, many eyes directed towards me. It felt like my stomach had exploded and something was eating me from inside. I was not the girl you’d expect to just open up.
    In class we did an activity that included no mathematics, we all introduced ourselves after he gave us a syllabus. This was too confusing for me, the rules said:

    ‘...No gum, food and/or drinks are allowed in class during class hours. Please keep rude comments to yourselves and respect others. There shall be no usage of cellphones during class...’

    The school so far had the same rules set at home. Certain things were allowed and other things weren’t, cellphones weren’t allowed. Of course I didn’t care because one, I don’t own a cellphone and two, I know better. I grinned at the concept. Halfway through class a knock on the door interrupted my introduction, and I was a bit relieved as well. But the relief was short. There he was, standing at the door. The same boy from the bus, he who was very rude to me. I turned my head away from him and prayed that he would not recognize me. Still as I was, I heard his chuckle as he whispered the something to my new teacher. I noticed the two of them exchange laughter and this only made me not want to just die then and there, but take him with me…to Hell or something.
    Coming over, he pulled me from the front of the class and outside. I was panicking as to why he did this. I tried to struggle out from his quite unbelievable strong hold.
    “What do you want with me?” I could hear myself growl. “Seriously…don’t tell me it’s about the bus incident?”
    He smirked to my remark. Then scratched his head, and in a deep calmed voice trying to suppress his laugh he replied truthfully. “Well, no. That was weird though. Anyways I kind of was asked to show you around…so follow and don’t try to ask too much questions.”
    I nodded, but still felt awkward that I had to be with him out of all people. Why did things have to be so difficult today? And why was he the one to show me around? I couldn’t tell at all, I just followed like said. “So, do you…forgive…me?”
    “Forgive you?”
    “Yes forgive me as in ‘Yes I accept your apology’ forgiving.”
    “Why? You didn’t do anything wrong…” He stammered, “Well not yet at least.”
    I sighed seeing that there was no point in even talking to him. Especially when he did not understand what I was saying and doing. I knew why I was apologizing, but then I realized it was his fault that I had been so clumsy. But wait how was it his fault? Had I been so blind not to see that I wasn’t focusing enough on the bus? That I didn’t just hurry into the seat instead of over observing. It was my fault. I knew this and yet I blamed him. Blamed him for my clumsiness.
    My observations were soon categorized into fact and fiction. Fact was that he wasn’t like any of the boys I’d seen so far. Fiction was that he was a demon of some sort, ready to take my body and soul down to the depths of Hell. This had all been confirmed by his slightest action. During his explanation he moved his hair out of his face once in a while to keep proper eye contact. His voice was insanely soothing for a boy. There was no way I could not get distracted from sightseeing. “Well that’s basically it. I’ll help you out with your classes and all okay? We don’t need little home schooled freshman running around crying.” As he laughed I glared, not liking his wording about it.
    “Ahem. This little home schooled freshman can watch herself, thank you very much!” My voice had risen a little. It was harsh sounding to me; I hoped he’d understand. But instead of arguing, He laughed once more. “What’s so funny?”
    “Oh. Just that you get so easily offended by the slightest insult.”
    Insult. Exactly what made me angry. Idiot. I rolled my eyes at his immaturity.
    “My name’s Gabriel, but people call me Gabe. So I guess you could call me that when you get to know me more, uh…”
    “Danicka. Call me Dani though. There’s nothing more and nothing less.”
    “It’s a pleasure to know your name. Dan-Dan the one girl who tried to please me this morning.” His laugh still lingered as I turned a bright red color. “If you’d let me know sooner, I’d take you to dinner first.”
    First word in my head was, pervert. My blush faded and my face bunched up, as if almost crying. This would surely lead him on and let me off the hook soon. However my sobbing only made him sigh and shake his head, one more mumbling a curse word.
    “God you freshman are so…annoying.”
    “No…I’m just curious. Can’t I go to my class now?”
    “Too bad, class is over,” He took my arm again dragging me back to my classroom to get my bag. “Well next class, Dan-Dan.”
    “It’s Dani!”
    “So? I’ll call you Dan-Dan. It’s basically the same.” He knew this annoyed me and it was working, big time.
    Anyways we continued our little tour, irritating jokes included. He also managed to make me laugh when he tried to put care into explaining. For example, he had explained the gym area and how kids would go inside and start some rave dancing party including free donkey rides. Most would say that is just plain idiotic and unthinkable. But the way he said it with such a smooth face and voice, he made almost everything seem so opposite of what they were. Maybe I was wrong about him, and maybe opposites do attract, but not in the way of a love relationship. Just a friendship one, maybe, and that’s all.
    To my stern surprise he asked if I wanted to, I could hang out with him and his friends at lunch for a while. As soon as I agreed to this I knew I would get caught up into a new world, an alien world, my first ever ‘clique’ to study. The so-called Goth and Emo’s group or outcasts, were the first cluster of people I would get to meet. Well I wouldn’t say cluster, some were anti-social and others were way too quiet and scared maybe? I couldn't tell. I met three new people, Catherine and Trisita Wolfe and Aaron, Gabriel's little brother. These people seemed to have some type of color scheme, because they matched.
    The three of them wore black and like Gabriel, the shirts all seemed to be band brands. Aaron had Atreyu; Catherine wore the sign of a band I later found out was HIM; meanwhile Trista wore a shirt with the name, Hawthorne Heights. Gabriel’s shirt had more than one band it was basically a cluster of a bunch of band names on one guys shirt. The two girls seemed to be wearing the same skirts and that’s when I noticed they were twins. I was really confused until I saw their hair; Catherine’s seemed to look soft and with its beautiful crimson-like colored waves. Her sister who was Trista had pure black hair with rainbow streaks through her hair, and it looked teased. Not as tamed as her sisters. Their skin matched slightly as one’s was tanner than the other.
    Their body structures were normal for their age at least. I’d never seen such beauty in such plainly clothed girls. The two smiled a little towards me somewhat welcoming me here. However Aaron didn’t like the fact that I had come, he glared at Gabriel for a moment. Oh and on this note I suddenly realized how ironic Gabriel’s name was. Tck, Hero of God. Mhm. I learned that when looking up name meanings not too long ago for an assignment. Anyways I didn’t seem to tune in to hear the smug comment from Aaron’s profane-induced lips. Gabriel seemed to curse him under his breath, leaving me lost in translation.
    Catherine smiled and shook my unsteady hand, “Charmed.”
    “As am I.” Trista added as soon as Catherine let my hand go. She looked as if she were competing for my friendship.
    Aaron seemed young and aggressive, passive aggressive at most. He did not seem to like the fact that he had to be told to get used to me coming around every now and then. He seemed pale despite how long he stood in the sun; he had ruffled brown hair by the looks of it, his body contour wasn’t as fit as Gabriel’s. Not even close to Gabriel’s, it seems that Aaron was going through that awkward phase pretty late. His voice did seem to crack when he did talk, which was rare. I soon found out that this was Gabriel’s little brother who had come to stay with Gabriel for the next few months. Information wasn’t so hard to receive here.
    Asia and Terry hadn’t been so helpful here at Westwick. I didn’t get to see them until school practically ended, but by then I felt too tired to talk. So I wanted to avoid talking by going to my special field after school. This was the one place where I could go to without any disturbances and be myself. A field which was filled with flowers of many kinds, lilacs were my favorite and they were rare to bloom here. There was also a cherry blossom tree planted here years ago, this place had been used as a Zen garden earlier. But now it was for me, and only for me.
    The peacefulness only lasted a minute, as I heard loud hammering noises. I was curious and went to check it out. When I did, there HE was again. HE referring to Gabriel and he had been adding things to an already built shack. This ticked me off a bit, “Gabe. Why are you here? And what are you doing?”
    “Building.” Was his simple answer as he continued his work.
    “Yes I see that…but what exactly?” I felt the anger rise inside me.
    “A hang out.”
    I clenched my teeth together. “Hang out for what, Gabe?”
    He finally paused his hammering and sighed long and hard. In a rude voice he said, “Oh I don’t know…for uh hanging out. Stop bothering me.” He suddenly went back to his ‘work’. I didn’t like the idea that he had been doing this is in my secret location. I gave up and sat down on the grassy, dirt ground, seeing that my randomized questions didn’t stop him. Gabriel continued on his work, I hadn’t noticed that his shirt was off until he turned to me. I was in awe at his glistening body; he was well shaped for a guy who wore lots of clothing. I wondered if he noticed me shaking all over. His muscles seemed sculpted out of clay and I could tell they were soft, yet hard even if I couldn’t touch them. My lips quivered as I tried to speak.
    However the damned words wouldn’t come out. I didn’t know what this force was that made me tremble when I was there; maybe it was cold? No, it wasn’t that. It was expected to be a very humid and sunny day. How could it be that? I felt myself lose my mind as I continued to stare. I had to look away, have a distraction of some sort. So I got up took a step back not knowing that there were a set of rocks behind me to bust my head open. And before I knew it...I was falling back I felt a sudden lapse of distress and I realized that I had hit my head and was bleeding all over.
    The sounds around me were droning my ears. Everything was pain now and I wanted it to go away. The next moment I blanked out and then woke back up in a hospital bed. I felt my head with one of my hands, feeling that my hands and head were bandaged. I couldn’t see much and yet I saw that special dark figure sitting in the chair next to my bed. No not the Grim Reaper. Gabriel. My so-called ‘guardian angel’ or at least what he was referred as by my friends. I did not like that to be his reputation nor mine. Anything that tied me to him was very absurd. It was not so much that I hated Gabriel, but it was that I did not like him in that sort of way. I stayed in bed, silent, not wanting to look or speak to him.







    Chapter Two




    It seemed that Gabriel would rather die than let me die and this was one thing I was sure of. I did not credit him for anything else besides that day. Strangely enough I had to go to school that week for many reasons. One reason was for our school testing, and the other was mainly because Gabriel forced me to go. In just these two or three days that we’ve known each other, I did not ask anything more about him other than his name. In fact I really did not care to ask for anything more. Even if it was accustomed to get to know someone in order to become friends. This was all completely opposite to me.
    Frankly I was used to just knowing people’s names and become their friend without knowing much about them. Perhaps this wasn’t the best thing to do. Some people that you only know their names by could be an axe murderer or a self-entitled kidnapper. No. That’s a bit too exaggerated. I’m not exactly sure what those people could have been, but I was now sure to start to get to actually know people now.
    I struggled to keep my head clear from all the drama. I haven’t been so keen to good luck since starting school. My head started to hurt every now and then, so I took some medicine recommended by my doctor. Just the simple kind of painkiller pills which I had to take two of every four hours. They were huge to me; I wondered; how in the world could anyone ever swallow such things? My dad always disagreed and laughed at how much I made a big deal out of my medication. He knew diabetics who took even more than I did. Soon enough I got used to it.
    During my healing process I stayed away from Gabe. I thought of him as the reason for my clumsiness. In fact some instinct or just bad judgment of mine told me he was to blame. This didn’t make me feel guilty at all. It was his fault that I got into so much trouble so far. Not mine at all. I repeated this in my head to keep from going near him. It seemed stupid at the time. I did feel horrible for doing this to him, but he acted as if he didn’t give a damn.
    I remembered how the day before when it was lunchtime. I sat there alone working on a paper I had been assigned in English to do. As I took a break to take a bite out of my cold tuna sandwich, I felt him staring at me from where he was sitting. I knew he knew that I was angry with him and yet he waved over tauntingly. I hated it when teased me. There were times when I just wanted to go over to him and hug and apologize. Yet Gabriel being the so-called Macho man I guessed he might try to be would probably react by pushing me away in just three seconds. There was really no change in his behavior since we actually first met, aside from him being a bit nicer to me. Still though, in Gabe’s eyes I was still the same little annoying freshman girl. After a while of teasing me from far away, he came over and took my backpack, wanting to get my attention. He thought that it was nothing of a big deal.
    I retaliated by punching his shoulder and wrestling my backpack away from him. It wasn’t pretty. I felt myself hit him more and more. Adding force to each hit. I didn’t know what was going through my mind, but I knew I was going overboard. Then again he was a lot bigger and stronger than I was. During the ‘fight’, he started to say things, not apologies. He had brought up many unrelated comments. One of them caught my attention. He said and I quote, “Come on I know you like it when I look at you. And you know something? You're cute when your angry.” I stalled the encounter, wondering if I should accept it as a nice comment or perverted-like comment. During my epiphany, he threw me down on the ground in a swift and careful way. Then next thing I knew, he was sitting on top of me and pinning my arms to both of my sides. I didn’t dare struggle; the only thing I was worried about now, was what he was thinking at this moment.
    All he did was stare down at me with his greenish-blue eyes in some mesmerized way. Once he rose, he walked away as if we had just been only playing a game of touch football. I raised myself half up and watched him go. Everything in my gut told me that there was something going on with him. Something that wasn’t normal about what had just gone on. If only deciphering the Gabriel code was easy, as easy as me. Just like the bird and the worm story, easy. From that day I wanted to know, I wanted the key to his mind. I need it.
    It looked as if I needed to start making friends with everyone or I’d be a bit of a bug. Maybe I needed a break from it, but it was only a month and a half since I came here. How impatient was I? That was one question which was obvious; my answer would have to be very impatient. Just to think of learning and remembering so much information made my head hurt. Why couldn’t having friends be less work? Shouldn’t it be fun to hang out and talk to others with a bond? To me having friends looked as if it were labeled as a job.
    Aside from the previous day mishap, I managed to start writing my own book. Today was Friday and there was a lot of free time. The beginning was a pain; I had three or four alternate openings. None of which suited my tastes. Sadly enough, on the same day I gave up seeing as there was no point in pursuing this impossible career. It was a major fail on my part. Today Gabe came over to help me in English. Since I was failing, and I wanted to show him what I had put down in writing. “See here is my…latest work.” I said handing my small notebook over to him.
    Taking it, he replied, “So is this what you do other than think of me?”
    I stayed silent to his remark. Then he opened it and I felt nervous of what he might say. “Well not everything is right. I'm still trying to find the right beginning. So I’m not finished!”
    “Well then why’d you want me to see it huh Dan-Dan?” I recognized his smile as a smile of triumph. Seeing that he had me in some way. This was what I tried to avoid, yet I knew it was odd that I wanted him out of all people to see this.
    “Well, I just decided I needed an upperclassman to see it for his or herself. Otherwise my work would be jeopardized. I would then lose faith in ever becoming a creative writer, I would hurt myself in every way. Embarrassed by my own material; shunned from literature society. So I needed your help in order to perfect my workings. Besides you’re the only straightforward pain in the a** guy I know. And that has its advantages, like for example we went shopping.” I paused as I saw him roll his eyes at my typical feminineness. Then cleared my throat as if to stall, for what reason? “If we were to go shopping and I got this yellow shirt that looked like a horse peed on it. You’d say, ‘When they said piss like a racehorse, I guess someone did with that shirt’. Or something like it.”
    “So I’m asking if you would help me, please? If you do I will do whatever you want.” Then he began to open his mouth to say something. I guessed his typical answer. “Aside from that! But will you? Pwease?” Yes, I added the innocent puppy dog begging idea to this. I hoped that would work and luckily he agreed, so in this case it did. But he made me keep my promise of doing whatever. Besides the dirty things I knew he was thinking. Hours passed us, and I didn’t notice. He knew though that he stayed a bit longer than he should have.
    “Uh…Gabe, it’s nearly eleven thirty. Do you think your parents might get worried?”
    He stared long and hard at me for a moment before saying anything. “If you want me to go, I will.” I didn’t answer. Then he went back to writing suggestions for me. What I said apparently had no effect. Then I wondered why he didn’t care if he worried his mom and dad. Out of nowhere he began to put some of his things into a bag that he had brought with him. Soon he got up from the chair he had been sitting on, and pushed it in. As he was going to the door to leave, I had this urge to do something. Something made me get up and over to him, hug him tightly and thank him nearly a hundred times.
    Strangely enough he didn’t say anything disapproving of it. Instead he embraced me into his big arms. He smelled like expensive cologne, no hint of over usage of Axe or Tag. Most girls found that attractive, but I wasn’t one of them. I took in a deep breath and nearly forgot what were doing. I inhaled his fresh scent; it was as if he were never dirty or smelled bad like most men. He always looked dirty though. From afar you get the idea that he doesn’t take care of his hair. However that is the exact opposite of what I know. His hair smelled really nice, something inexplicably…delicious? My attention drifted to his neck, it felt smooth and not at all rough. It was as if I could bite it. If I did, surely he’d be angry and push me out of his embrace.
    He was so soft, like a pillow. Like I could fall asleep, and never have to worry about anything. I felt the back of my neck tingle and my muscles tighten. His very breath amongst my skin excited my nerves. There was one thing I knew still, this was that he was only my friend and I was only giving him a simple hug. And it was in his somewhat good nature to exchange my hug with another. “Gabe…” I began, “Can you help me tomorrow? Same time you came today?” He grunted softly; perhaps as a yes? Then he let his arms off from around me and stepped back.
    Now it was awkward, “Um…yea uh, sure.”He looked at the kitchen clock “I gotta go.”
    “Wait, do you promise?” I asked.
    He nodded, “Yea I guess so. I have nothing better to do.” He made a turn for the front door. But I knew if Dad and Frankie saw him, I’d be in trouble. Neither boys nor men were permitted to be inside my house alone with me. Especially at this time. “Wait! Gabe, go through the back please? The front is not the best place to exit.” He listened to my request and did go through the back. Just as he did, Dad was home and much sooner Frankie came.
    We had dinner together as usual. And during this dinner, we were supposed to talk about what went on so far with our lives. Things involving the good and bad parts of life. First up was my dad. All he talked about consisted of two or three things; work, Frankie, and home. It was pretty nice though, it would seem that he changed the subject. “So anyways today I was at lunch, there was a robbery going on just a few blocks down from Maddie’s Bar & Grill. Nobody noticed until this man was running out with a load of money. I was on my way to my car when the guy suddenly bumped into me and tripped forward over my left foot, then landed flat on his face. The cops weren’t too far and they managed to nag him. So…I guess we should celebrate tonight. Lets all go out to eat and play fun games.” I rolled my eyes at the “fun” idea. My father had no time for fun; I blame Frankie for that reason. She always managed to take his attention away from me.
    Later on we happened to go to our local Boomers and played a few rounds of miniature golf. I won of course, Frankie looked as if she were dying. I noticed how much fun my dad was having and that’s all that mattered at the time. We played mini-golf for a very long time; this was because we had all day passes. If we didn’t have them, we would of had to conserve. For once my mind was free of the whole Clique thing at school. But it reminded me of how little time I spent with Asia and Terry, and how much time I was starting to spend with Gabriel.
    We we’re now at the Go-karts, and I really didn’t care if this was childish, at least we were having fun. As I stood in line I thought about how to explain my absence from Terry and Asia. My attention wandered around only my soon-to-be excuses. There was a sudden push from behind as a bunch of guys made their way up in front. In that instance I noticed a familiar figure amongst the boys. His eyes caught my attention and soon his voice confirmed it. Whatever was going on, he was ignoring me everytime I tapped his shoulder. “Gabe? Gabe, hey listen...” I had the memory from earlier lodged into my mind. I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of my irritation.
    After a while I gave up and decided to punch his shoulder. But during the swing of my fist towards his shoulder, I wanted to stop. But I hit him, and hard enough to get his attention. Hurting my hand just a bit.
    “Huh? Hey what the H-” His eyebrows bunched together, and his face was questionably odd. “Dani? When did you get here?” Apparently he avoided my question.
    I smiled. “Oh my dad saved the day and so we’re celebrating. How about you?" I paused looking over his shoulder, "And may i ask who your friends are?"
    “Uh…they’re my cousins. We’re all sort of at a birthday party for my eleven year old cousin. Anyways this here is Justin, Dean, Brett, Al, and Jodi.” He pointed to each of them, but they only glanced over once. Waving shyly I was kind of surprised at how much they didn’t look like each other. All was different shaped and sized, and Gabe was the tallest there. Then he asked out of curiosity if I wanted to ride with him. Something in my mind told me to just go for it, so I did. Besides, it wasn’t like he was thinking of going crazy when we started to drive.
    My prediction was wrong. Gabriel did in fact drive crazy while I sat there nearly dying. My instincts told me to grab onto to the nearest object and hold on for dear life. The nearest object just happened to be Gabe’s arm. Then again it was fear that made me do this, and fear made me bury my head into his left shoulder. He kept his head straight on the track, but his eyes wandered over to me and I could see him smiling. I smiled as well. I didn’t mind this right now because I just didn’t want to care. There was nothing that said that I couldn’t enjoy being with him. For once, I actually thought of him more as a human being with feelings than a perverted jerk. That night turned out to be pretty amazing.