Chapter 5

Come the morning Gil drove to school like usual. Ludwig was a pleasant shade of green, clutching a bouquet so tightly Gil was pretty sure Ludwig was trying to strangle to life out of them.

Gil parked and got from the car, and Ludwig was still sitting there with his eyes wide, clutching the flowers, the green intensifying.

“Out of the car Luddy. Come on, she’s not a monster, she’s a pretty girl.”

Ludwig looked at his brother with a face that could only imply he rather face a monster than Felica. Gil hauled his little brother out of the car and into the building. He went to Liz’s locker with Ludwig, knowing that Felica was usually there.

Walking up, Ludwig saw Felica and dropped from green to deathly white and tried to book it in the opposite direction, but Gil firmly steered him the right way.

Ludwig stumbled forward but managed to talk to Felica and with much blushing and stammering, ask her out.

Gil leaned on the locker while Liz squealed with excitement. Felica said yes and she hugged Ludwig.

Gil laughed, his poor little brother looked like he was going to faint. When the two left, Gil looked at Liz. “So I talked to him, he was crazy about her.”

Liz nodded “The entire way home all she could do was gush about him and…” Liz blushed and looked down.

“She had more to say than just about Ludwig?”

She shook her head quickly. “Come on Gil, we best get to class.” And she walked off quickly without waiting for him. She had even left her locker open.

He went to close it when a piece of paper fell out. He went to stuff it back in but he noticed that it was folded like a note and had her name on it. It was creased like she had opened and closed it many times already.

He didn’t want to pry, but he flipped it over and his heart dropped like a brick. The only thing he bothered to look at was that it was signed, love Roderich.

The slime ball had written her a love note. Now that he saw who it was from he couldn’t leave it well enough alone. He took out his phone a snapped a picture of it, then tossed it back in her locker and slammed it shut, walking off to Chemistry in a very poor mood.

His mood only darkened as he recalled they had a quiz today, which he of course failed miserably. He knew he had failed even before he turned it in.

He hurried to English, not because he loved the class, but because he needed to show his two best friends the note.

Once he sat down Gil slipped his phone to Francis, who stuffed it in the textbook and pretended to read, while he scrolled through the picture and read Roderich’s note instead.

Francis cringed a bit “He is…quite the romantic…” he said quietly. The love note was like an entire Hallmark card collection had thrown up its most cheesy sappy cards and mashed it together into one revolting note.

Francis was actually quite the romantic himself and he had no objections to the note, but knowing what it meant for his best friend, he acted grossed out by it too. “Over kill, I don’t think Liz would like it. Don’t you think it’s too much for her?”

Antonio stole the phone and read it quietly before slipping it back to Gil. “He doesn’t have the guts to say it to her face. It’s only a note, what are pretty words next to brave actions?” he was really trying to be positive. If someone had given a note like that to Lovino, Antonio would have…shown them how they were mistaken. No doubt they would’ve been bleeding.

Gil was at his breaking point. Francis leaned in and whispered, since the teacher was walking by. “Why don’t you speak to him? He claims to be a gentleman right? Tell him politely to back off.”

Gil thought about it, but before he could answer their teacher scolded them for talking and they broke off to do their work.

Gil liked the idea of trying to get Roderich to back off, so after class he walked to the lunch room, knowing he usually passed Roderich there. And luckily, Liz was not on his arm. He grabbed Roderich and steered him down the hallway, into a corner.

The dark haired boy scowled and re adjusted his shirt and glasses. “What on Earth do you want?”

Gil crossed his arms and looked right into his violet eyes. “Back off Liz. I was here first. I…I like her. I love her.” It was strange to hear his own voice say thought out loud. Roderich didn’t seem impressed.

“Then it seems that you waited too long. Maybe you should have spoken up before I was here. Seeing that you failed, you clearly don’t love her enough to get over your own ego and cowardice. So I will not back off. You may watch me win her heart and die in envy each time you see us together, and I hope you remember this conversation Gilbert. I hope you remembered that you delayed too long and a better man took your place.”

With that, Roderich turned to walk to his next class but Gil had lost his patience. He grabbed his arm and spun his around, and with all his power swung and hit Roderich in the face with a vicious right hook. Gil had been in many fights, but he was pretty sure he had never hit somebody that hard. He sent Roderich stumbling back and into the cement wall, and with some satisfaction he saw he had cut the inside of his cheek. Roderich held his face and spit out blood. He’d have a nasty bruise for several days and his jaw would probably be sore too. Gil was considering taking a kick to his face but the prissy had actually stood up and came at Gil again.

Roderich had clearly never been in a fight in his life, because when he swung Gil easily stepped to the side, and then he swung again, connecting this time with the nose. He broke Roderich’s glasses and based on the torrent of blood and the scream, probably his nose as well.

By now the fight was clearly over. Gil’s fist hurt and had a shard of Roderich’s glasses in them, and Roderich was not in a hurry to get back up again. Nobody had heard him scream and nobody was coming. Gil scowled down at him. “It’s your fault. I came like a gentleman, you decided to give me lip. So you get a busted lip.” He walked off to the bathroom and texed with his left hand, asking Francis to come from lunch to help him out.

In a few minutes both Antonio and Francis came, they looked at Gil’s hand, which was thrust under the running water. He was bleeding and had the glass shard still in his hand. It was in the space between his knuckles of his middle and index finger. He hadn’t unclenched his fist for that very reason.

Antonio sighed “I thought you were just going to talk to him.”

“I did talk to him.” Gil snarled at him “Now will somebody please get this out of my hand?”

Francis had tweezers and Gil wasn’t even going to ask why. He really didn’t want to hear about how important perfectly groomed eyebrows were, again.

Francis held his wrist and gripped the glass and pulled it out successfully. Antonio offered up some gauze and tape, which had had in his backpack from the soccer season.

While Antonio stopped his hand from bleeding all over the place, Gil explained everything that happened.

Francis shook his head, knowing just how pleased Liz would be to hear Gil bloodied up the guy who was writing her love letters.

The answer was not very pleased.

Antonio finished with his hand and said that Roderich hadn’t been in the hall when they walked down, and the blood had been cleaned up.

That put Gil’s nerves at some ease. He really didn’t want to be suspended or expelled, that would have just been a pain in the ass and he didn’t want to deal with that. It seemed like they may have taught some manners at whatever hellhole Roderich came from. No whining about fights, take it like a man. For that, Gil almost liked a single molecule of him, but then the rage came and he went back to hating every fiber of the freak.

Francis looked at the time on his phone. “We should leave and get to our next classes. Gil you…might want to find Liz and tell her the story before he gets there.”

Gil figured he was probably right. Liz liked getting the stories first before the rumors would spread. So he went to go see her, he walked up the stairs and leaned against her locker, knowing she would come to it by the end of her class.

Gil only had to wait a few minutes before the bell rang and she walked over. Usually he wasn’t there, so his presence was a red flag. Liz wondered what he could have possibly done this time. She had a gnawing worry that he may have found something out. They had no secrets. Well the used to have no secrets from each other…she had kind of kept quiet about some things recently.

“What is it Gil?’ she asked when she got close. She noticed his wrapped up hand and the pained expression on his face. “Did you get in another fight?” she demanded.

He looked down sheepishly “Well I did punch a kid in the face. Twice. But it wasn’t really a fight since it wasn’t very challenging…” he smirked a bit

Liz gave him a harsh glare and he could tell right then she was not about to take this very well.

“I punched Roderich. I broke his glasses, and the glass was in my hand.” He just said it to get it over with.

Her eyes burned intensely and that was one of the few times Gil was actually a little worried about her hurting him. She might have been smaller than him but she could pack a hell of a punch when she wanted. He knew that first hand.

She didn’t have anything to say for a long while. The bell rang but she didn’t seem in a hurry to make it to her next class. Finally she looked at him and said in a small voice “Gil that was really awful of you.”

Then she turned and walked away, going down the hall and rounding a corner, leaving him all alone.

He hung his head a bit. His stomach twisted and his heart felt heavy. She was beyond angry at him. Not angry enough to ruin their friendship thankfully, but angry enough where she wouldn’t speak to him for a few days.

That wasn’t the worst of it though. He knew that she, without a single doubt, liked Roderich back.

He knew he had won the physical fight, but he had lost the prize. He had lost what he really wanted, and now he knew in a short time, Roderich would have it.

Without even knowing, Liz broke Gil’s heart. She picked another guy without knowing her best friend was hopelessly in love with her. Gil hung his head and sighed, walking away slowly to his next class. No surprise he got yelled at for being late and he took it quietly for once. He felt numb all over and hollow. He didn’t pay attention to anything else all day, he didn’t hear anything. Gil was totally destroyed and he just wanted to go home and be alone, where he could break down without consequence.

Gil got to his car quickly after the final bell, he barely waited for Ludwig. Felica drove Liz home too, of course she had heard the story already. Girls were really damn quick with spreading the news around.

Ludwig was real quiet when he sat down in the car. Gil drove home, in no mood to try and break the silence.

This day took number one on his worst day ever list thus far.

Sorry I'm an awful person. It's ok it only gets worse! Never fear though, it might work out well.

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