Page 101 of Gabriel
Austin bares his teeth, but before things escalate further, Jamiea—our assistant coach—pokes her head into the locker room. “Everyone dressed?” she calls out. Her hand covers her eyes as she walks further into the room.
“All clear,” Julio says, keeping his voice controlled.
She drops her hand and, almost as quickly, drops her smile. Her dark brown gaze flickers over each of us. “Everything alright?”
Austin takes a step back.
“All good,” I tell her, not bothering to remove my gaze from Holt’s.
“Just catching up with friends,” he adds.
“Mm Hmm. I absolutely buy that.” Sarcasm. Walking toward us, Jamiea inserts herself between us, forcing both Austin and I to take several steps back in order to give her enough room to pass for respectful.
Now, Deacon climbs to his feet. It looks like he’s still got eyes for our assistant coach.
That’s too bad. Jamiea won’t cross that line. Not now that he’s a student at PacNorth. She isn’t much older than us. Twenty-five or twenty-six if I had to guess. And she’s not a teacher. But she’s still faculty and there are rules. Ones I know Jamiea well enough to know she won’t break.
“Anyone want to explain what’s going on?” She folds her arms and taps her foot, her impatience clear.
Holt and I glare at one another over the top of her curl-covered head, our eyes never leaving each other.
“It’s all good,” I tell her. “We were just heading out.”
CHAPTER 31
CECILIA
Igo home after class, but the first thing out of my parents’ mouths is to ask about Gabriel. I haven’t told them we ended things. Not yet.
Life is finally going back to normal for me. They still hover. That’s not going to change anytime soon. Not after the suicide attempt. But they’ve chilled with the fifth degree whenever I walk through the door.
Mom doesn’t watch me like I’m a ticking time bomb she’s waiting to see explode.
I don’t want things to go back to that. So when my Dad asks why they haven’t seen Gabriel around this past week, I lie. I tell him Gabe’s doing extra training for an upcoming game and that I’m only here to drop off my school bag and grab some things before heading back to campus to watch his practice.
It kills me to lie to my parents, but what choice do I have?
Better a small white lie than breaking their hearts. I know they want what’s best for me. They want me to be happy. But everyone needs to give me some breathing room so I can figure out what happiness looks like for myself. So I can sort out how to move on.
My phone buzzes, and I quickly glance at the screen.
“Speak of the devil,” I tell my mom, flashing the screen in her direction long enough for her to read his name on the screen.
Her smile is wide when I tell her, “Gotta run.”
“Alright, honey. Have fun.”
I swipe across the screen to open the message.
Gabriel: Hey.
Butterflies dance in my stomach as I stare down at the words. We’re not really talking, but after today I guess we’re notnottalking.
But what am I supposed to say to that? Do I say “Hey,” back?Heydoesn’t really invite conversation.
Do I want to invite conversation?
I glance at the time on the screen and chew on my bottom lip. Gabriel should be at practice right now. Maybe the text was meant for someone else? Like a ‘Hey, where are you?’ if he was waiting on Julio or Felix to get there, maybe? That seems logical.
