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♥ gabriel ♥

I'D BEEN PRAYING so hard for Logan to walk in when I was talking to Louisa. 10 quid bet that he'd totally lose his shit. It would have been so hilarious that it'd made my week. Maybe month.

Lying backwards on the net that hovered over the sea, I briefly closed my eyes. I was still slightly confused why Louisa had left so suddenly.

Well, I don't know. Perhaps, the fact you dragged her under the water may have been a contributing factor.

Comfortably folding my arms across my bare chest, I chuckled thinking about the utter look of panic on her face as her drenched black hair stuck to her exposed back, trailing all the way down to her small waist. Her slim legs seemed to run on forever, an endless line of golden-

Okay Gabey-boy, that's enough.

For that split second, I felt like a complete asshole for scaring her although I had to say, that woman sure knew how to give a good kick. The corner of my lip jerked upwards as the long, thin scratch that she'd inflicted on my bicep into sight. Bloody killed in the salt water.

Lowering my eyelids, I felt a weight sink besides me and a flicker of a smile flashed on my face. "Came back to apologise for beating the hell out of me?" I said, knowing it would wind her up further.

"What?" a voice that definitely wasn't Lou said.

My eyes flickered open in uncertainty, my smile dropping as I took in the source of the voice. "Oh hey. You alright?"

Talisa analysed me for a couple beats before allowing what I'd said to slide. She was wearing a tiny bikini that really wasn't her usual style. The tiny piece of material covered barely anything and I found myself in an odd dilemna of not knowing where to look.

Was she wearing that for me? God, I hoped not.

No, she wouldn't. She wasn't that type of person. It was Talisa. Ultimately chilled all the time. Despite the fact I convincingly told myself this, I found that I still had many doubts of the validity of my statement.

"Yeah, I'm good. Did you not sleep away the jet lag? It's 7.30am. I crashed out as soon as we got on the yacht. That whinging baby behind us in the line at security gave me a fucking headache."

She propped herself up on her almond coloured arm, her bikini top slipping even lower. Usually, if a girl sat down next to me wearing that, my eyes would be wandering everywhere having the feast of their life yet this was different.

I decided to keep my gaze fixed on her face.

"Not gonna lie, I half expected you to grab its rattle and chuck it across the room," I said, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she moved her head in contemplation, probably imagining the scenario.

"That would have been a damn good idea. Shame, I hadn't thought of it myself." I snorted at her typically Talisa Lisin statement, bringing my observance to her eyes and struggling to see her fern light green iris due to her huge pupils.

I wasn't going to ask her about that. I had more important things to talk to her about. That didn't mean I wasn't willing to push that conversation as far back as possible. "Come on, you have to admit it was a cute baby."

It had been with a head full off curly blonde hair and huge saucers for eyes.

"Sure. That's if you find 1 foot tall monster machines - that do absolutely nothing but eat and cry - cute," Talisa muttered as I let out a laugh gazing at the buildings in the distance. We settled into a amiable silence for a couple minutes as I battled with myself to bring up the topic.

Coward. You're acting like those muscles are filled with air, not hours at the gym.
Milksop, coward, weakling, chicken.
Milksop, coward, weakling, chicken.
Milksop, coward, weakling, chicken.
Milks-

Ignoring the song in my head, I fiddled with the draw string of my swimming shorts. I'd be seeing her for the rest of the week. There'd be loads other opportunities to talk.

Buck-buck-buck-b-b-b-buck-buck. Buck-

I masked the frustrated sigh that escaped me with a cough. "Talisa? Can I talk to you about something? About that day at the patisserie." I questioned before I changed my mind. Talisa looked up at the sky before letting out a staccato laugh.

"134 seconds."

"What are you talking about?"

She tucked her hair behind her ear and rolled her eyes. "It took you 134 seconds to pluck up the courage to ask me about that, you scaredy-cat." I exhaled quickly in a mix of incredulity and dry humour as she continued, lightly punching me in the shoulder. "Come on Gabriel, you're destroying the impulsive, careless image I have of you in my head."

Blinking, I pushed her hand off my shoulder and shrugged them. "I thought I'd sound more like a gentleman if I phrased it well."

I totally wasn't lying.

"If you say so," Talisa continued in a relaxed manner. "Well. Go on then." Her tone deceived her, ruthlessly giving away she was more affected by my response than she let on.

I sighed slowly, turning my attention to the streaks of white painted over the blue canvas sky. "Okay, so I find you really funny. Sarcastically savage. Ruthless. Without giving a shit about anyone."

When I saw her looking at me unimpressed, I realised that this was sounding more like an insult that a compliment.

"Which is great," I quickly added before she reacted.

When I was around these people is was so easy to forget the sheer amount of power they had. With a click of their fingers, they could have the world at their feet and I had to be more alert considering I still didn't know for sure who called the cops on me that day. I highly doubted Talisa had anything to do with it however her callousness towards Lexi at her party had been almost frightening.

She raised an eyebrow again. "I feel like you really get my sense of humour. And you know me well which is why we get on so well. Plus you're naturally so hilarious without trying," I repeated, feeling rather stupid.

I hated talking about stuff like this. It was torture. Ever since my friends in Brighton had turned on me after I stupidly opened up about that day and those dreams, I hated anything to do with feelings.

Emotions were a toxic carcinogen whilst attachment was its venom, seeping deep into your skin until you were too paralysed to do anything. Opening up was willingly unarming yourself against the bullet that they were bound to shoot at you one day.

It was stupid how something as small as emotions messed with me so much. But hearing the people you once trusted call you a psychopath and beat the shit out of you wasn't exactly comforting.

"And right now, I see you as a really good friend. A friend I could chill with and talk to whenever. A good friend."

Jeez, Gabe. Might want to tone done the friend repetition a teeny tiny bit.

I just didn't want to hurt her. Especially if her feelings were genuine.

If she didn't take the hint now, I literally didn't know what else I could do apart from spray painting it on the side of the yacht. Thankfully, the gleam in her eye as she analysed me and hopefully processed what I had said was a good sign.

"That's fine, I get it," she said, pulling out an e-cigarette out of thin air. "We're on the same wavelength but you don't have feelings for me yet."

Well, she took that surprisingly well.

"Exactly," I said, the now intense heat of the sun on my shoulders hitting me as we fell into a silence. I'd been sitting out here a while.

I lifted up Talisa's wrist, slightly surprised at how slim her wrist was before glancing at the time. The cigarette slipped out from between her lips yet she quickly entrapped it in her teeth.

Only one hour and 10 minutes till brunch.

If I wanted to start doing exactly the opposite of what Logan had told me not to do, I'd better start getting ready now. Pushing myself up, I waded through the painful as hell net before bidding farewell to Talisa and walking back into my room.

The corridor in the dorm section had 7 bedrooms, each of us getting our own apart from Louisa and Logan. I'd noticed that every room had it's own lock, something that I was grateful for considering how pissed Logan would be at me once I was finished with him.

"...expecting something from you soon, Louisa. And it better be good considering you've had a good couple days to think about it. You go on and on about loving art and whatnot so it's time to see just how creative you've been."

My ears pricked at the voice of Logan coming from behind the large black door I was walking past. It has been carelessly left open an inch and as I stroke past it, I could see two figures standing in front of each other.

Nimbly, I took a step backwards to move out of sight before deliberately dropping my towel on the floor. If somebody saw me eavesdropping, I could just pretend I was picking it up.

"I've already told you, Logan," Louisa's voice said in a pacifying tone. "I've got something ready for brunch. In a couple hours time, it'll be all over the media and everything will be back to normal. Just don't do anything. Please."

Go back to normal. Don't do anything. What was that supposed to mean?

Louisa was hella mysterious and I was pretty certain that there were a thousand things she had buried under the sand. The matter of her fathers affair suggested her family wasn't as perfect as they were painted. Plus there was that time I'd seen her in bruises.

A couple beats of silence passed causing me to curiously take a step fowards to get a glance of what was going on. Louisa took a step towards Logan in her dressing gown before tipping her head up and pressing her lips against his. "Fine. Just make it big."

"Of course."

I quickly moved my head away, feeling like a creep for watching them.

Wow. That was just weird. And intrusive. What the fuck, Gabe?

Well I didn't know, did I?

Personally, I hadn't thought Logan's tone towards her had been pleasant but judging by that they were doing right now, Lou didn't seem to think so. Maybe my strong dislike towards Logan was just affecting everything I thought about him.

Yet as I bent down to pick up the towel, I couldn't help thinking there was definitely more than what met the eye in regards to Louisa and Logan.

Louisa always acting funny around him. Logan feeling the need to make a deal with Lexi to keep his authority over Forteaux. Him threatening me to stay away from Louisa.

Whilst I walked back into my room, I shot a final glance into their bedroom before accidentally locking eyes with a dark sepia pair. Logan's back was to me as they embraced.

Ah shit. Knew I was pushing my luck.

Louisa's eyes widened in shock as we held eye contact for a second. I broke away first, grabbed the towel and getting the hell out of there while muttering under my breath.

One thing was sure. Logan was definitely insecure and I was going to make full use of that.

I didn't know what Louisa had planned for Logan at brunch but I knew exactly what I was going to start.

Gabriel's aesthetic to the side (; In the next chapter, different characters storylines will tie together. Let's get the vote count up to 1000 before the next chapter, we're so close (: Thank you!

♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥