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♥ gabriel ♥

"Wait, you like Louisa?" An annoying voice questioned from behind me. His voice was tinged with an excitement indicating that I'd never hear the end of this.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

I groaned dragging my hand over my face. Prince ambled back into the room, a smirk plastered on his face as he leaned against the wall with his armed folded over his chest. "Called it. I knew something was going on between you two. Just how scandalous is this matter?"

Scandalous? Well, that would be the least suitable word ever. Shaking my head, I replied, "It's nothing like that."

Knowing it would irritate me, Prince jumped to a conclusion.

"Ah, I see. So that's the issue," he narrated as if he were an expert, his thick eyebrows drawn into a straight line. "You'd be devastated to learn this Gabriel, but a one-sided relationship isn't actually a relationship. It's called a crush."

It wasn't one-sided. Right?

My grey eyes looked at him in a totally fake excessive interest. "Oh really?"

His amber eyes twinkled as he nodded along. "Yeah."

"Mind-blowing."

"Definitely."

"I really didn't know that."

Well aware that I was taking the mick out of him, Prince continued to play along. "Well, they do say that you learn something new every day."

I rolled my eyes, looking at Arlo for help. In response, he shrugged his shoulders in impartiality and moved his blue eyes to look out the window as if it were a lot more interesting.

Very very helpful.

Running a hand through my messy brown-black hair, I exhaled in frustration. I could have sworn there was something between Louisa and I but she always seemed to switch up at the last moment. It made me question whether there was actually a connection or if I was just being delusional. I was shit at judging this sort of stuff.

Nah, there's definitely something there.

"Shut up, Parvais," I grumbled watching as his structured face contorted in distaste at the name. My lips twitched upwards as I raised an eyebrow, "Bet you regret telling me that."

"I really do," Prince admitted before narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "Also good try but we're not changing the topic. You're in a hospital bed. You have nowhere else to run so you may as well give up and start talking."

Dammit.

Trying to dodge the topic again, I weakly caught sight of the mini-fridge. Gabriel Reid never gave up.

"You know what it's time for? Another beer."

A smirk grew on my face when Arlo took the bait. He looked at me in bewilderment, snow coloured hair pulled backwards, "Gabriel, no. You're not having another. You shouldn't even be drinking at all. You need to recover-"

I don't know if it was because of the drugs that were sailing smoothly through my blood but Prince had somehow teleported like a fucking genie to the other side of the room. He clapped Arlo hard on the back before pushing himself up on the window ledge next to him.

An incredibly proud expression was on his face as he lectured on as if he were a sage giving a damn sermon. "My dear Arlo, you're too honest. Don't you see that you just walked right into Gabriel's trap of a distraction? Come on mate, you're smarter than that."

The shit-eating grin fell off my face faster than ever and my conscience burst out laughing.

Ahaha, sucks for you. Better luck next time, Gabe.

I gasped in exaggerated surprise, my peachy lips opening to reveal a flicker of my pearly teeth, "How could you accuse me of that? I wouldn't think of doing something so deceitful even in my craziest dreams."

That would have been a profound statement had it been true.

My dreams were pretty wild.

Arlo looked strongly offended that I'd manipulated him whilst Prince looked downright fed up of coaxing me to spill the beans. "Gabriel, now."

"Fine, you win," I blew out a defeated gust of warm air and flopped back onto the bed. "Ask away."

"Does she know that you like her?"

I looked at him as if he were stupid, "Of course not Princey. I haven't had a chance to speak to her since this incident happened."

Unfortunately, the cops here still hadn't figured out who was behind this stabbing. If they had, the fucker would be injured on the mattress I was currently bored stiff on and I'd be happy as Larry in a prison cell.

"To be frank, it is weird that she hasn't made contact since you woke up. Louisa's usually the type of person who stays glued to you even when you want her to go away," Prince commented, eyes going hazy as he probably thought of the time he almost drowned.

My face pulled into a weird expression when I felt a little sting that I'd never experienced before. He did have a point. I understood that Lou had to get back home but she hadn't even sent a message to check in with me. Did she even care?

Shut up, Gabe. Stop being so insecure and get a grip. You're a king.

To be honest, it didn't matter anyway. I knew far too well that relationships weren't for me.

I just hated the fact that Lou made me want to reconsider.

Prince seemed to have read my mind for he laughed and let out a joke, "Considering she quickly ended your call yesterday, it can't be going that well." He elbowed Arlo as if expecting him to join him in teasing me. "Come on, that was a good one."

"HIlarious. People will start to think you're the funny one in our group," I said dryly, my tongue darting out my mouth to lick the corner of my swollen lip that had doubled in size. A large scab was forming where one of the men busted it up.

A low chuckle escaped me when still Arlo didn't respond to Prince and instead took a sip of his coffee.

Coffee? Wait, where the hell did he get that from?

My eyebrows furrowed as I rubbed my forehead, wondering how on earth he had managed to get a piping hot espresso. These drugs really had me tripping. It was like living in a parallel universe in which I was constantly glitching out into sessions where I felt high as fuck.

Yeah, you're brain's definitely given you the middle finger and tootled off to some beach in Brazil.

That's something I'd defo be up for if I wasn't in the bloody hospital.

Feeling oddly defensive at what he'd said, I furrowed my eyebrows. "Yeah, well maybe that's because Louisa saw it was your caller ID."

Prince shrugged his shoulders, his light caramel skin glowing with mischief. "Sure."

Why was I even trying to explain myself? There wasn't much point considering this.

Apparently, Darling had been dating the douchebag named Logan forever: ever since she'd joined Forteaux. Even if I did stand a chance with her, it was impossible not to have some sort of attachment towards somebody you've been with for so long.

Time was the strongest knot that could bind you to an individual.

Dude, that's probably why you're so free and wild. Someone would be crazy to want to waste hours of their life with you.

After seeing the broken mess that lies crumbled under your seemingly perfect exterior, they would sprint in the opposite direction leaving you even lonelier than before.

"None of this matters anyway. She's happily engaged. I'll get over it. There are loads of other women on the planet."

But none like her.

Forcing a laugh and dragging myself from my thoughts, I grinned at the two of them before winking at the nurse who was placing a jug of water on my bedside table. Her face went tomato red and she spilt water all over it. Prince tutted when I broke into a killer grin and arrogantly murmured 'point proven' under my breath.

"It's fine, we'll clear it up," Arlo politely said to her. The nurse nodded thankfully and jetted out, intimidated at having been in a room with three very attractive men.

Only then did I notice that Arlo had skilfully hidden the empty cans of beer in record time before the brunette could notice. "You didn't close the door behind you, idiot."

"Yeah, Prince. You didn't close the door," I mimicked, my lips pulling into a self-satisfied smirk. My veiny hand rested on my stomach bandage as he glared at us.

"It's fine, she didn't see anything." His attention turned to the puddle of water on the floor. "Also Gabriel, you've got to stop doing that."

"Doing what? It's not my fault I look like a smouldering Greek God that people can't keep their eyes off."

"That's the third time I've had to put tissues on the floor to clean the spillage within four hours."

I snorted at him, my stormy eyes dancing with humour. "Yeah right, I might feel like I've downed a dozen bottle of Smirnoff but I'm not blind. It's Arlo who's been mopping it up, not you."

Prince crossed his arms, ignoring me as the cheeks stretched upwards in smugness. "Same thing."

The sound of a ping brought my focus to Arlo who was still sitting in the window ledge. He glanced at his phone, his fair eyebrows creasing deeply as he read a text message. Numerous emotions flickered through in face in the expanse of mere seconds. Surprise then confusion then curiosity.

"Everything alright, Arlo?"

He broke from his daze to nod seriously at me. "The stars seem to be favouring you, Gabriel. I just got a message from Talisa." My soft tree bark brown hair irritatingly falling into my face as I nodded.

"Louisa and Logan's engagement has been broken off."

For a good second, I was utterly stunned.

"What?"

Was he joking? The deadpan expression on his pale face told me otherwise.

Prince, on the other hand, barked out a short laugh, his hazel eyes glinting as he rubbed the flat and sharp base of his chin. "You lucky bastard."

I pressed my hand against my forehead which had suddenly got a lot hotter. Was I hallucinating? I wasn't into that manifestation psychic stuff but we had literally been talking about that.

"This is another one of those dreams, isn't it? Maybe I shouldn't have had that beer."

"Another one of those dreams?" The Egyptian boy let out a guffaw. "Mate, sounds like you've got it bad." To be honest, I probably did but I'd be dumb to tell them that.

When I had finally processed it all, my adam's apple in my throat bobbed up and down as I thought of her long golden legs and ebony hair. I felt another flicker in the centre of my chest at the thought of a girl with a distinct scent of earthiness and freshly harvested vanilla pods.

Uh, it's probably just heartburn or something.

In response, my heart injected itself with steroids, jumped on the fucking treadmill and decided it wanted to run a 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt to prove that heartburn wasn't the cause of its excessively fast pace.

You absolute chicken, you ain't got any excuses now. Go tell her.

I felt myself break out into a nervous sweat at the thought of rejection and I wondered what I'd do if she turned me down. God, I'd be ruined. I shook my head

What the fuck was wrong with me? Ask a stranger on the street and even they'd know that I never felt this on edge. Especially not over a girl. I'd screwed around with countless women in the past and I'd never felt like this.

Maybe that's because you don't intend on screwing this one.

Well maybe you do, but not just that.

"Well, I guess this is your shot Gabriel," Arlo said, blue eyes flickering onto mine as he stood up and sat down in the armchair beside me.

I gave him a weird look as I thought about Arlo Kimberley's friendship with douchebag, "What's up with you though? I thought you were a cheerleader for Team Logan all the way."

The bony boy shifted uncomfortably as if unsure whether he was doing the right thing by supporting me. His moral compass was quaking.

"I am team neutral," he settled on proclaiming. "I'm on both on everyone's side. Tal said that it was Louisa's decision to end it."

"Louisa's?" I questioned. Things between Logan and Lou had to have been pretty sour for Darling to end the very thing she'd been so up for.

Well, it's not like Logan would end it considering how possessive he is.

"Yeah," Arlo confirmed. "I did notice that she was a little off so I'm not entirely surprised. And I completely support her decision like I always have in the past. But I'll also help Logan deal with it if he needs someone to talk to."

There was a question in his tone and for a moment Arlo paused as if wondering whether he could actually be there for both of them simultaneously.

"Besides, there's nothing to guarantee she'll be up for anything with you anyway. It's her choice. All I'm saying is you may as well try."

Images of Louisa flooded through my mind in overload as I let out an awkward cough. Ah crap, now they had expectations from me.

It's fine, you got this.

"Where are Talisa and Ashlei anyway?"

I'd briefly spoken to them in the morning but then Price had kicked them out saying it was boys only time. Thankfully, Talisa had seemed to move on from her grudge against me, probably in pity at the state I was in and Ashlei too somehow seemed less giggly.

"They've had to head back to London," Prince responded before speaking slowly as if I were an idiot. "In case you forget it's Christmas tomorrow. The 24th of December."

"Awh, how cute. Has Prince been counting down the days till he can put a handmade mince pie under the Christmas true?" I said, imitating a goofy five year old causing him to roll his eyes at me.

Sobering up, I looked at them in interest. "But in all seriousness, why are you guys still here? I appreciate you staying with me but you should probably head back to your family."

Both Arlo and Prince locked eyes for a moment as if communicating wordlessly again. They really needed to stop doing that. Slowly, Prince turned his head towards me, eyes glimmering with mystery as he pulled off the hood to his black hoody.

"Luckily for you, we've managed to pull some strings. You're getting transported home tonight, ready for Christmas in your sweet Nanna's house tomorrow."

"You're kidding me."

Arlo's lip flickered upwards into a half-smile at my reaction as he glanced at his watch. "No, we're not. The flight's in four hours." Flecks of meaningfulness and perhaps even a glimmer of hope whirled in his azure iris. "That will allow you to see Louisa in person, won't it?"

He was right.

The nervousness that I'd felt earlier melted away and became overcome by a strong hook of determination. I ran a hand through the dark tendrils upon my head, my senses overridden by the richness of her deep coffee eyes that held more words than any book could ever carry.

I'd always been terrified of emotions.

Life had taught me that love was a disguised killer; it attacked you from the inside, always succeeding on its mission to darken your view of the outside world until you turned into nothing more than an empty man.

And everyone knew that an empty man was far more toxic than any other carcinogen.

But something told me it was time to admire and fucking inhale the beautiful, wispy smoke that bled from the cigarette called emotions. It didn't matter if I ended up crazier than I already was if I had a woman who showed me that insane was okay.

I just hoped that the girl I had my heart set on felt the same way.

Our boy's finally (kinda) admitted it (:  A coincidentally accurate epigraph that I stumbled upon is attached lol. The next chapter is in Louisa's POV - it is going to be super intense since it is the climax of the entire novel and the part I have been waiting so long to write!

Things are about to get really serious so I hope you enjoyed probably the last humorous chapter of what-goes-on-in-Gabriel's-head, ahaha.

KiwiAndKoalas x

♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥