Chapter 10

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.