Requested by -OnceUponaDime

Not Hob, I hope that's okay.

Young Gabriel Damon. imo, he looked better when he was a teen.

(I wanted him to be 14, since that was around his age when he played Hob, but imo, 14 is a bit young to be in a serious committed relationship (I think you should be at least 15-16), and 15 seemed a little more appropriate.)

~~~

15-year-old me was bored. Nothing to read, nothing to draw. I didn't feel like doing much. I lay on my best friend Gabe's bed while he was outside doing who-knows-what. I think he was horsing around with his friends or something, I don't know. He just called me over and sat me in his room, telling me to wait, and disappeared for--I looked at my watch--about an hour now.  

What I do know was that I was bored and that I started rummaging around Gabe's room for something. I don't know what exactly, just something. And I don't know why, exactly, I just had a feeling about something. I had stolen a few of Gabe's hoodies on occasion, nothing fancy. I ruffled through his sock drawer first, which had a decently large wooden box that was nailed into the drawer. I opened it to see a bunch of papers overflowing out of the box. I picked them up, seeing ticket stubs and random information here and there. But a few caught my eye. 

I saw a pink slip of paper, and I saw Gabe's handwriting scrawled out a small phrase.

"That was my lunch!"

To anybody else, that would've been some random phrase, a writing prompt possibly, but I chuckled at the memory. That was when we met in first grade. I was the new kid, and I had my lunch set out in front of me, all neat and tidy. Then along comes Gabe and his friends, goofing around and generally not paying attention to the things around them. They had made their way over to where I sat, locked in some wrestling match, and in the process, Gabe accidentally knocked over my lunch.

"Hey!" I called. "That was my lunch!"

Gabe's eyes were glued on the food on the floor, his face a look of utmost horror and sadness. He looked up at me, an adorable frown on his face. "I'm sorry." he muttered, dropping his head.

I smiled as the next slip of paper popped up. It was light blue this time and read, "It's no surprise that things turned out like this."

I smiled, remembering that in 6th grade, Gabe had trouble with his Biology work, so our teacher assigned me as a tutor to him. He had nervously approached me in the library that day, his face uncertain.

"Can I help you, Gabe?" I asked him, not looking up from my work.

"Uh, well, Mrs. Burke assigned you as my tutor." he said.

"And?"

"And there was an assignment that she wanted you to go over with me." he replied timidly, handing me his test we had taken last week. He had almost failed, getting a 70 on it. Now, that might've been an okay grade in some other schools, but our school was a school that graded hard. They didn't take a failing grade for an answer.

I skimmed over the test, seeing that he knew the info, he just needed a way to understand it. "It's no surprise that things turned out like this." I told him. "Sit down."

"What do you mean?"

"Mrs. Burke is a terrible teacher, I'll give you that. But the thing is, you just need the motivation to do well."

Gabe had passed the class was a solid B+. Not bad.

A green slip of paper fell from the stack. It read, "Park kisses." A blush appeared on my cheeks as I remembered my 13th birthday. I had no party this year, partly because I didn't feel like having to prepare everything and just clean it up later, and partly because I wanted some inspiration to start my writing. It was a nice day out, and Gabe had climbed the tree in front of my window. He tapped on it, scaring the living daylights out of me.

"Gabriel Damon!" I hissed at him immediately after opening the window. 

"You called?" he replied with a smirk. 

I facepalmed. "What do you want?"

"Come with me. I haven't had the chance to hang out with you on your day." 

I sighed, getting my house key from its hook by my lamp. "Meet me at the front door."

I shut the window as he climbed down the tree. A few minutes later, we were walking to the park. I kept my gaze focused on the sky, seeing Gabe glance at me from the corner of my eye every so often. It was adorable, seeing him blush each time.

We eventually stopped by the big oak tree in the middle of the park. We sat at its foot, leaning against it and watching the sun set. 

"It's nice, just sitting here in comfortable silence." Gabe remarked. 

I nodded, yawning. "I wish my birthday was like this every year."

"Speaking of which....I didn't bring you a gift, but..." Gabe turned to me, his back to the sunset. "Happy birthday, Grace." 

He kissed me on my cheek, earning a blush from me. I smiled at him, pulling him in for a hug. "It's better than any present I've gotten this year."

I put the stack of papers back into the box, taking note of all the colorful unread slips of paper left inside that were probably associated with memories between the two of us.

Before I closed it, I saw an envelope on the side of the box. It was addressed to me. I pulled it out of its place, opened it and began reading.

Dear Grace,

I don't know where to start. There's just so many things to tell you. So many memories made. So many gifts given. So many moments remembered.

Grace, you are such a beautiful girl. You have such a caring heart, and in a way, I'm sort of happy that I knocked over your lunch in first grade. You were mad that I knocked over your lunch, but it didn't matter too much to you. I liked how you didn't throw a fit or anything. You didn't realize it then, but I thought you were the prettiest and fiercest girl I had ever met. 

Middle school comes along, and suddenly I think you're even prettier than before. All the boys did, actually. It was so hard not to beat up some of them for the things they said about you. I wished they would all just shut up and find a different girl to dream about. But nooooo, they all had to pick my best friend. Remember that fight I got in with Jake during 7th grade? Yeah, that was because he said something unworthy to write down. If only you had heard what he said about you, you would've beaten him up to kingdom come. I had a few bruises and a busted lip, but I didn't care. As long as my angel wasn't hurt, I was fine.

I felt a happy tear fall down my cheek and I quickly wiped it away, for fear of staining the letter with it. This was somewhat new news to me. I had a hunch that he liked me, and I was glad that my suspicions were confirmed, but I was still freaking out over the fact that he liked me. I had a bit of a crush on him when we were in 6th grade, not going to lie. It hadn't gone away just yet.

Your smile is something I always look forward to seeing every day. But since we have totally different schedules these days, it's kind of hard to see you smile. We only ever see each other in the halls, and even then, you're occupied with your friends or something. I realize now how childish that sounds, but I'm being honest. I wish I could see you more often during the day.

This letter doesn't seem very long, but trust me, this letter could be longer. I could even write another one if we get married someday. But for now, I'm going to have to stay happy with being your best friend.

Love, 
Gabriel

I smiled, my happy tears falling more freely now. This boy was such a sap, writing me a love letter. I was putting the letter back when the door opened and Gabriel walked in.

"Hey, Grace, can--" he started, but then stopped abruptly. 

I whirled around, the letter evident in my hands. His face went from happy to utter horror. Judging from his look, I wasn't supposed to read the letter. But I was snooping around, anyway, so I probably wasn't supposed to be doing that either.

"Did you...?" he asked slowly.

I nodded, apprehensive of what he might do. He groaned and put his forehead on the door frame, silently muttering to himself.

A minute later, he raised his head and looked at me with an uncertain smile. "Well, I was supposed to give you that at a later time, but now's just as fine."

He ushered me towards the window, telling me to look outside. I gasped when I saw what he had laid out. Christian, Marty, Aaron and Trey had set up four letters covered with fake roses. The letters read, "HOCO?" Max was holding up the question mark, and David was holding a bouquet of roses and a box of my favorite candy.

I turned back to Gabriel, who was nervously shifting back and forth on his feet. I smiled at him before he could say anything, and pulled him in for a kiss. He seemed taken aback at my reaction, as if he was anticipating the worst. But he recovered from his shock and returned the kiss.

"Hey, Gabe!" Max's voice rang out, causing us to break apart. "You done up there? Hope you're not doing anything!"

Gabe and I poked our heads out of the window, laughing. 

"We're good!" Gabe called down.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Trey and Marty exclaimed at the same time. 

"My arms were going to fall off!" Marty exaggerated.

Gabe and I laughed again as we pulled ourselves back into his room. I gave him another kiss; he was cute when he was flustered.

"I'll be ready at 7:00, don't be late." I told him as we walked out of his room. Gabe nodded along, as if he was in a daze. I laughed and kissed him on his cheek, and bid him goodbye until school on Monday. 

"Gotta get a comfortable dress! See you Monday!"

He waved after me, a smile apparent on his face. The last thing I heard before going out of earshot was Max clapping Gabe on the back and congratulating him on getting me to come to Homecoming with him.

Came out a bit later than I hoped. Thank you for being patient with me!

Hope you enjoyed! Tell me if anything needs to be changed! :)