Page 22 of Gabriel
You can talk to me. None of that makes any of this better.
His pain permeates the air around him. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before. It’s there in the hard set of his shoulders. The aggression in his steps. Even now, as he walks away from me, I know the muscles in his back are tight. The strain in his body close to snapping.
He doesn’t want pretty words of comfort.
He doesn’t want anything.
Not from me.
And for some strange reason, it bothers me.
CHAPTER 9
GABRIEL
The muscles in my arms burn as I shove the bar up from my chest. I hold it there for a few seconds before lowering it back down. My breath hisses through my teeth, and my arms shake, muscles straining to keep the weight up.
I adjust my legs, widening my stance, and pressing down on my heels to give me a more solid base as I repeat the motion.
Up. Down. Up. Down.
A muscle jumps in my bicep. I ignore it and do another rep.
Again.
Come on.
My biceps scream out for relief. Jaw tight, I glare at the bar nestled between my fists and struggle through it.
Fuck.
A sharp stab of pain spears into my shoulders.Almost there.Arching my back off the bench, I bare my teeth and shove up until the pain becomes unbearable. My lips peel back from my teeth in a feral grin.
What I’m feeling now is the reason I came here. I love lifting. The strain and agony it puts my body through. The sheer effort and determination it demands from me.
Pressing up again, I know I won’t be able to bench press another round, so I tilt my wrists back and set the bar on the rack. Metal clanks against metal and I grunt, swinging myself into a sitting position. Fatigue sweeps through me.So close.Another twenty minutes in the gym and I’ll wear myself out enough to crash as soon as my face hits my pillow. And then, bliss.
“Damn, bro. What are you benching?”
Using the front of my shirt to wipe the sweat from my brow, I look back at the bar and shrug. “I don’t know,” I tell Felix. “Didn’t bother to count.” There’s a small bite of pain working its way down my spine and I consider ignoring it. All I want to do right now is catch my breath and then go at it some more.
I close my eyes and sink into the pain, eager to feel something physical. I’m damn near desperate for the distraction. Most of the time, hitting the gym is enough to take my mind off things. It’s always been there to clear my head. But the shit storm brewing in my mind refuses to go away.
“You didn’t count?”
I shake my head. “Nah.”
After leaving Cecilia at the pool, I came straight here to the gym on campus. I needed to work off some steam. Didn’t really care how I did it. So, when I sat down to bench, I threw on my usual plates and started, but it wasn’t enough. Three reps in, I needed more, so I added them. A few reps after that, I added another plate.
I benched and added, and benched and added, until it hurt. Until I could stop thinking about the pain in my chest and could focus on the ache in my muscles instead.
Felix cants his head to the side, his lips moving as he wordlessly counts. “Savage, man. You’ve got two-twenty racked up.”
I shrug. It could have been three hundred and I wouldn’t care. I’m not here to show off or to get any sort of praise. In fact, I’d be a hell of a lot happier right now if I were alone, but one look at Felix lets me know that isn’t going to happen. He’s still staring at the bar, a somber expression on his face. I don’t have time for him to read into my shit, so I grab the water bottle I left beside my gym bag and chug half its contents while I try to come up with a reason to get him out of here.
“Any particular reason you're here when it’s not one of our scheduled training days?”
“Nope.”
