Prologue

Looking through the windows of his soul, he saw her face even though he only heard her voice. It rang in his ears through all the static noise of the phone and bounced around within his mind. Nodding his head as if listening to the hypnotic beat of a favorite song, these were one of the moments when he felt closest to her. Ironically in reality she was miles away, a long drive away, over mountains, ditches, and an entire city if you took the right detour.

" Why were you doing that at lunch yesterday?" She asked.

" Doing what?" He asked.

" Looking at me, staring at me…I hate it, you know." She confessed.

"…I don't remember doing that. Are you sure it was me?" He replies.

" Of course I'm sure. How could you not remember?" She asked.

" 'How could I not remember?'" He repeats, annoyed.

" Wow, I am so incredibly sorry that I happen to be one of the few people who does not remember every moment that they lay their eyes on Nico Tyler." Broke his sudden sarcasm.

" …You make me sound way more narcissistic than I actually am, you know." She said with a fake moment of submissive defeat.

" No, I just didn't know that you thought so much of every moment that someone spends looking at you. I mean…your not that ugly, so this may come as a surprise, but…people tend to stare at people that aren't too ugly." Came the second round of sarcasm and truth.

These were the seconds of his life when he spoke words that held superbly disguised true thoughts about the human beings around him that he truly admired. Not ever wanting specific members of them to know how he truly felt, he would always say something that would be accompanied by an insult. This way, the listener would never let their mind spend three seconds on what he actually wanted to say, but would be too preoccupied with whatever loud, conspicuous insult that had tumbled into their ears. She would probably live the rest of her elegant life not knowing how beautiful he thought she was, how important her existence was to him, and what was number one on his 'To do' list for completing life.

" …You're an asshole." She retorted. Gabriel immediately hung up the phone and realized that before his burst of sarcasm, was a true mystery: Why did he not remember anything from yesterday?

Everything about yesterday was sealed in the words, Tuesday January 23. For that was all that his conscious could muster up and now he could suddenly recall other days that would forever remain a mystery to him. Blackouts. He wondered if that was the answer to the questions in his head.

Now he wondered why he had been looking at Nico yesterday and what else he had looked at yesterday. Yesterday was now one of the many days that were a part of his "blackouts".

His cell phone rang.

" Hello, this is Gabriel. May I help you?" He greeted politely.

" …Why'd you hang up?" Laurie scolded.

" If my memory's as good as I hold it to be, I remember someone using very nasty words." Was Gabriel's answer.

" …You're the one being the asshole, okay. I should've been the one to hang up and here I am calling your lazy ass, again." She said.

" Why are you calling my lazy ass, again?" He asked.

" I want to know…why you've been acting like two completely different people lately." She said, dangling a juicy piece of meat over his curious mind.

" What to do you mean?" He asked, obsessively interested.

" What do I mean? I mean why have you been skipping school? Why do you not call me late every other night anymore? Where were you on Saturday? Why do you have bruises and cuts on your face, hands, and arms? Are you fighting for money? How come you don't ask me to join you to visit your brother anymore? Have you even been visiting your brother? Are you in trouble with the police? Did you kill someone? Oh yeah, why were you checking me out yesterday?" She finished collecting herself smoothly at the end.

Now he was in the process of getting over the overwhelming feeling that had jumped him as he had taken in each one of her words. Slowly came the shock that was due to the fact that he realized that he had no idea what was going on and then came the fear. The fear of the unknown and man always fears the unknown.

"…Hello? Gabriel did you hear me?" Nico asked the silence.

"…."

"…." He was almost ready.

"…" Gabriel was almost ready to pretend to be ready.

" …Huh? Yeah…I heard you. I heard every single word." Sounding almost surprised.

" This is the part where you tell me what's going on, act like an asshole and ask me what's going on, or say that you have no idea and that you might be going crazy." She said.

He considered the options she gave him. Gabriel was not sure if he wanted to lie to her, be himself, or be honest. He figured that if he was going to trust somebody with his problems it would be her, but he wondered if he really wanted her to know about these problems. There was always the possibility that they were the results of a dormant mental disorder that had finally awoken. His brother was an abnormally brilliant sociopath who was now blind and one of his worst fears may have come true: it was genetic and his disorder had finally surfaced. Then there was the fact that his brother had been diagnosed with a disorder resulting from the traumatic experience of having witnessed their aunt and uncle's gruesome murder at the hands of a stranger by the name of Cold Ice, who may or may not exist, but then again the stranger may go by another name since it was so hard to understand his blind older brother's quick mumblings that stood for his speech.

" And when did you start wearing gold-yellow contacts?' Interrupted Nico. Always bringing him back to the current reality of now.

" Yellow contacts?" Gabriel repeated, he was doing a lot of that tonight.

" You were wearing them yesterday at school and I thought it looked a little wild, but actually they match your new bleached do." With those last three words his left hand went immediately to his hair, jumping out of his bed he ran to his bathroom mirror and saw his hair. It was bleached yellow or some sort of faded yellow that was almost white. His fingers ran through his short tight curls over and over again. His eyes in the mirror were still a light brown that could have been mistaken for red at moments. Violently opening up his cabinets and drawers he searched for yellow contacts and found none to his own comfort.

" What the hell are you doing? Why all the noise?" Nico asked. He'd forgotten the phone that he'd pretty much held glued to his right ear with his right hand. Turning around and shifting his weight, he heard the crack of the loose tile near the bathroom doorway. He really needed to fix that; he'd been promising himself for weeks that he'd fix that soon.

It bothered him still that he just now realized that he'd woken up nine in the afternoon to answer the phone and that he did not remember bleaching his hair. The many unknown things he might be doing during these 'blackouts'. Gabriel thought of the possibility that he might need medical help, but his pride wouldn't let him. Asking doctors for help would mean admitting that he might be crazy or something. A conclusion he would never accept, he was fine and had everything under control.

Chapter 1

Gabriel awoke in the darkness of a bed to find his body covered in cold sweat, a nearby air conditioner had been obviously set too high yet his body still burnt like a furnace, he could feel the fires of his and another's body heat. He opened his eyes and looked around only aided by the illumination of a nearby lamp in a far corner of the room.

She smelt real nice, her sweat and breath were like perfume to his nose even though he tried to push away the sexual attachments to those quick observations. Facing towards him and taking comfort from her nakedness in his, he moved the silky hair to reveal none other than Nico. A scream erupting from his mouth would have been an acceptable response yet he only sighed and shook his head not towards her, but himself. Gabriel was no player even though he had no noticeable difficulties when it came to becoming more than friends with members of the opposite sex, but he'd never had sex before. He'd pictured doing it plenty of times and already had a list of women he fantasized about, but never would he have ever thought that he'd start off at the top of his list. It shocked him to find her like this, so near him, yet he felt he would have it no other way. Her so close to him, both in their shameless forms, her taking refuge in him after what must've been the most intimate act of their lives.

Nico Tyler, 17 years old with silky black hair that she never really appreciated (she was under the belief that brunettes and blondes always looked better), deep brown perfect eyes, pink lips that one would think only angels had, and a slender and complete body that was just not appreciated by her. The sick psychological trauma today's media bombarded on today's young women, making them think that they are anything, but beautiful unless they drop a third of their current weight. She was not the smartest young woman to walk this planet, but she was definitely performing a lot better than Gabriel when it came to academics. She wasn't very athletic besides the occasional visit to the gym (mandatory due to media brainwashing) and had always loved playing volleyball even though her parents had repeatedly forced her to take up tennis because it was preppy looking. Her favorite color was green just like Gabriel, they shared a favorite ice cream flavor: mint chocolate chip, favorite movie actress: Angelina Jolie, and apparently a mutual attraction for one another.

The light from the lamp shown a dim and perfect light that set a mood that heaven couldn't mimic. Without even knowing it, Gabriel found himself brushing her hair behind her ear from her face and tracing her nose and lips with tender movements of his fingers.

" I can feel that you know…." Gently whispered Nico who shifted her weight to make herself more comfortable. She then with her left eye peeked a bit to catch his loving stare.

" Please tell me I'm not dreaming…" He uttered slowly snuggling up closer to her on the pillow they now shared, his hand resting between them until it was grasped by hers.

"… you're not dreaming." She said with a smile.

This moment should last forever or at least that's how he felt. Never had he felt so content and right. Right meaning that he was now breathing in one of the few moments of perfection of life that few would ever experience.

" Can you please take them off?" She begged in the cutest way possible, and 'clueless ness' suddenly seized his face until he realized what she might mean.

" You know you have the most beautiful eyes...I don't understand why you'd ever want to cover them up with those wild looking things." She continued caressing his cheek. Gabriel was still entranced by the setting and still felt as if he were in some wonderful dream. She must've meant the yellow contacts.

" Am I still wearing them?" He asked for more reasons than she may have understood at the moment. She nodded biting her lip and then out of nowhere she pulled the blanket higher and rose to sit up on top of him and clutched at the blanket to cover her nakedness. Nico looked at him from the deep brown beautiful windows of her soul and quickly leaned down to gently his lips, drawing back after biting his lip softly.

" Wow…that was nice." He retorted after feelings his lips with his fingers and then quickly flung her playfully off her and rose above her as he leaned in between her legs and held himself up with his arms. Nico's fingertips went up and down his arms and she shook her head before saying, " …always thought my first time would be with someone a little more bulky." Which was followed with a laugh and a drawing of the blanket over them as they began wrestling under the sheets.

A minute later, they were panting not from another round, but from their childish wrestling that was now building up their next wind for round four. Their heads peeked out from under the sheets and they gazed at each other. Gabriel had no idea what time it was, what was happening outside these walls, and cared none about the problems that haunted the corners of his mind. For now he took happiness in the fact that he had somehow ended up in one of his life's most perfect moments.

" Do you love me?" Nico asked as the playful mood began to subside to the ferocious desires that began to spring back into action within them.

" Do you?" Gabriel asked mockingly, wondering if she would finally admit to loving herself in a narcissistic way that he assumed all women were born with.

"...I love you." Nico answered.

Reminding Gabriel why he'd die for Nico, fight God for her, go to hell for her, destroy the world for her, and even steal the moon for Nico if she ever wanted it.