An hour and a half later, Dr. Byrne's lecture was finally finished. "All right. That's all I have for you today, and fortunately for you I have a meeting, so there won't be any homework for tonight." The class breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Byrne's homework assignments were always long, tedious, and stupid. "Dr. Farber is running a little late, so I expect all of you to behave while this building is left unsupervised. She ought to be here in ten minutes."
Just as he was about to leave, Sean walked in.
"Oh, Mr. Watson. You've missed today's lecture. I do hope you'll gather the notes from Mr. Brenner." Dr. Byrne said, and left the room.
Gabriel rested his head on his hand, smiled, and sighed when Sean walked in. Stiffled giggles could be heard from the corner where Griselda and her friends sat. Gabe then glanced at his wrist, and remembered the sunglasses.
Sean glanced around the room, and sat down. "What's with the shades, dude?" He asked Gabe upon taking his seat.
They keep me from being blinded by your beautiful smile Gabriel thought. "Oh...they...no reason. So uhh....here are my notes from the lecture." Gabriel said, handing Sean his notes.
"Thanks" he replied, and put the notebook in his bag. "So..what did you say to Griselda?"
"What do you mean?"
Sean rolled his eyes. "You spoke with Griselda. I know you did. Or you did something that pissed her off. Did you wonder why no one would sit within ten feet of you?"
"I suppose...I mean I just figured it was nothing. I walked to school with Griselda this morning. She seems nice...We didn't talk about anything that seems important."
"Huh. Okay..." Sean said, barely believing him. He began to copy the notes from Gabe's notebook into his own.
"Oh yeah! I meant to ask you a while ago. What happened on the first day that you had to get pulled out?"
Sean thought for a moment. "Oh.. I'm helping Dr. Farber with her plant research outside of school for extra credit. An urgent thing came up with one of her hybrid Pear-Apple trees." Gabriel lied.
"Oh okay. cool." Gabriel said. He began to pretend to text someone on his phone, so he looked like he had something to do. Dr. Farber peeked her head in the door, and beckoned Sean outside. He left the room discreetly. Gabriel pretended not to notice.
Once Sean was out of the room, Gabriel heard a deep voice behind him. "Hey Fairyboy." Gabe looked back to see Kenny Meek, who despite his name was not very Meek, and everyone hopes to God he won't inherit the Earth.
"Oh. Hi Kenny." Gabe said dimly. Kenny was the dumb muscle type. He somehow managed to skate by with 60.0% in every class...the exact minimum to be able to stay on the Football team. He, of course, was the star quarter back.
"I hear you like to suck cock" Kenny said.
"Excuse me?" Gabe said, surprised. Kenny usually didn't pursue his annoying nick-names. Yes, Gabriel was known to Kenny and the Football team as Fairyboy.
"Yeah. All you faggots, all you wanna do is suck dick and get fucked in your faggoty asses." He said, balling up his fists.
Gabe looked at him confused and shook his head. "Ugh." He muttered, and got up to leave the room. He decided Kenny was probably high on some variety of illicit drug. Unfortunately for Gabriel, for once in class Kenny was quite sober.
"Hey! I'm talking to you. I ain't gonna take no disrespect from no faggoty-ass fairyboys." He grabbed Gabriel by the shoulder, and spun him around.
Gabriel smirked. "Nice quadruple negative. Are you this dumb all the time, or do you only act this way when you're high on pot?" The rest of the class, who was watching the interaction intently all "Ooooh"ed at the same time, highlighting the dis.
See, Gabriel knew that this wasn't the greatest time to criticize Kenny's intelligence, but when Gabriel gets put in such situations, he intinctively starts acting like a jackass, despite the fact that it isn't the healthiest decision, especially when dealing with people like Kenny. One of the many character flaws inherent in smart, but scrawny students like Gabe.
"Dumb Faggot." Kenny said, and firmly planted his fist into Gabriel's face. Many times. Gabriel was now on the floor, and Kenny, as well as a few of the football team were engaged in taunting and jabbing at the near unconscious Gabriel, who was bleeding everywhere and temporarily didn't have use of his eyes.
Gabe heard footsteps, and then a voice. "Oh my god. Okay. Cro-Magnons! Get the fuck off of Gabriel. What the fuck are you doing?" Gabriel was so glad to hear sean's voice, but currently lacked the ability to smile.
"Oh so the fairyboy's boyfriend comes to the rescue." Kenny said, who had been holding Gabe by the lapel, dropped him, and he hit the floor with a thud and blacked out. Kenny held up his fist "You wanna end up like Fairyboy?" The entire class gasped, and looked at Kenny like he was absolutely insane.
Sean smirked, and pulled out a leather wallet which revealed a badge embossed with an elm tree. "Do you ever wonder what happened to the Klauber family?" Everyone in the classroom stopped cheering, looked at the badge, and immediately began to work on their non-existent homework, pretending nothing had ever happened. Kenny looked at the badge in amazment. "Oh. No, sir. Sorry sir. I hadn't realized that you were the Guard, sir."
"Yes, well now you know. You're pretty dumb for not figuring it out too. Anyway, I expect you to treat Gabriel and myself with the utmost respect. Now, for you punishment. Tomorrow, I expect you to drive to Gabriel's house, and pick him up for school. You'll open doors for him and pull out his chair for him. You're going to pay for his lunch and do his homework tonight and tomorrow night, and you'll have all of the answers correct as well. If he asks for anything else, you'll be more than happy to oblige." Sean said. He removed a pink piece of paper from the wallet and wrote Norman Meek on the top of it, and signed the bottom. "I think you know what will happen if this gets filed. I strongly suggest you obey your punishment, and you do so with happiness. Give me your carkeys. I need to drive Gabe back to The Mortar." He looked at Griselda, who was doing her best to look inconspicuous. "And I want to see you at my house at eighteen hundred. don't be late."
Kenny tossed Sean the keys to his Mercedes, and sat down, cheeks pink with humiliation. Sean carried Gabriel to the backseat of the convertible, and layed him down in the bench. He decided to take Gabriel back to his house instead of The Mortar.
{{yeah...i feel bad for not writing in so long...so this is a double episode.}}
Gabriel woke up, he felt a plush sofa underneath him, and warm blanket laying across his body. He looked up, and saw Sean sitting on a recliner next to the sofa watching television. Sean saw him stir, and looked over. "Oh, you're awake!" he said, smiling.
"Oh, my head. What happened?" Gabriel said groggily.
"You got pounded by the class idiot is all." Sean grabbed some Ibuprofen from the bathroom, and returned. "Here, this should help. I've talked to your parents, you're gonna spend the night over here." Gabe sat up, and he felt a little better knowing he'd be able to stay in the same house as the boy of his dreams. Who he didn't like. At all. Ever.
Sean switched off the TV. "Now, what did you tell Griselda? Cuz...you musta said somthing. Kenny Meek only beats people up when Griselda tells him to. In fact, I doubt he does anything without her prior approval...but that's beside the point. What did you tell her?"
"Oh...well...we just talked about...stuff." Gabe said, avoiding eye contact, his cheeks bright red. Sean opened his mouth to inquire further, but the doorbell rang. Sean got up, and let in Griselda into the living room where they all sat. She winced when she saw Gabriel's bruised face, and sat down in the chair across from Sean's.
"Oh hey Griselda, what's up?" He said, smiling, not understanding what happened. Griselda gave Gabe a curt Hello and looked away.
"Griselda. Let me see your phone." Sean demanded, and she tossed the pink handset over to him, knowing her impending doom. He scrolled through the phone, reading all of her sent messages. He raised his eyebrows as he flipped through them. He looked at Gabe, then at Griselda. "Would you care to tell Gabriel about the texts you've been sending?"
She looked at him, her eyes brooding. "What gives you the right?" She muttered. "What gives you the right?" She said, yelling now "to decide what happens to my family, and what goes on in this god forsaken town?! You know what? If it weren't for my uncle, I would've filed that pinkslip myself last fall! I would be more than happy to leave this ... this abomination to humanity! You're not a fucking day older than I am, and suddenly you get decide everything that goes and doesn't go! What gives you the fucking right?!"
"Zelda.." Sean said. "I didn't choose my rights, remember. I resent this position as much as you do, but its not like I can give it up. And remember whose fault it is that I had to be the new Guard."
Zelda sighed, her eyes glassy. She looked away from Gabriel. "I told everyone about you." She muttered.
Gabriel looked at her "About what?" he said, clearly not catching on.
"I told everyone what you told me."
Gabriel looked at her in panic. "What?! Why?!?! Oh my God!" he got up from the sofa, and ran outside muttering "holy shit! what am I gonna do?!" his eyes nearly in tears.
Griselda, on the verge of tears, looked at Sean. "What are you going to do to me?! I'm sorry!"
Sean looked at her, shaking his head. "Just go." She let herself out through the back door, and walked home through the woods so she wouldn't be seen.
Once she left Sean walked out the front door and found Gabriel sitting on the porch, crying. "Hey." Sean said, and sat next to him on the porch sofa, and looked out at the stars.
Gabriel just sat there crying, and didn't respond.
"You know, Zelda did the same thing to me. I don't blame her for what she did though. I'm actually glad in some ways that she exposed me, because if she hadn't, I'd probably still be in the closet."
"What did I do? Why did she do that to me?!" Gabriel asked, looking up at Sean.
"She has her reason. That's for her to say, though." He replied, putting his arm around Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel leaned his head on Sean's shoulder and continued to cry.
"Lets go inside. Its getting cold" He said, and he helped Sean into the kitchen, where he served him a hot plate of macaroni and cheese, which he at hungrily, his eyes still red from crying. "So...you are too?" he asked, looking up at Sean. He nodded, and smiled, looking into Gabriel with those big blue eyes.
"I don't know what I am. I keeping...having thoughts...but I can't be one of
them! I just can't." Gabriel finished his Mac & Cheese, and sighed, leaning against the wall.
"You know what you need?" Sean asked, still smiling.
"What?"
Sean beckoned with his finger, Gabriel leaned in, and turned his head for Sean to whisper into. Sean turned Gabriel's head back to face him and kissed him passionately on the lips. Gabriel pulled away at first, but eventually accepted the kiss, and even returned it a little.
After a few minutes, Sean pulled away and looked at the time. "Its getting late, we should go to bed."
"...kay..." Gabriel replied in somewhat of a stupor. Sean helped him to his bedroom, because Gabe still had something of a limp left from what happened with Kenny. Gabriel fell on the bed, and fell asleep imediately, tired from the day events and his body's recovery. Sean helped the asleep Gabriel into his pajamas, and then Sean too fell asleep, his arms wrapped protectively around Gabe.
