Gabriel swirled the last of his drink before swallowing it in a long gulp. "To love is to be taken advantage of." Natalie said. "That's why dad is weak. He loves mom too much. And she's too much in love with her son. And so she let in the disease. You."
"Wow, they really did a number on you didn't they?"
"I am completely in control of myself." She assured me, staring at me, emotionless. "You should leave."
"Nat!" Gabe pleaded moving towards her. "Baby sister, hey look at me," he takes the girls face in his large cold hands. She insists on watching the clock ticking behind his head. "I'm lonely. You're all I have now, please."
Natalie is shaking, minute tremors that Gabriel notices immediately. She blinks, her eyes brighter than normal. He gives her a soft smile.
"I never had a sister. I would have been a good brother too, dontcha think?" He gives her a breathtaking grin and she has a sudden pang of longing, imagining all they could have been. "Let me in. Let me stay with you."
"How?"
"Say my name."
The clock chimes midnight and she pulls away a little. "That's how you do it."
"Do what?" Gabriel cocks his head to the side, confusion an adorable look on such a handsome face.
"You get them to fall in love with you, make them feel comfortable. Loved." Natalie shakes her head and rubs the tears away with the back of her hand.
Gabriel's smile turns dark. "Well no one else is going to do it. Why do you cling to them like this?"
Natalie's eyebrows draw together. "I'm supposed to live."
"Oh don't give me that crap. You're supposed to take your shoes off at the door and you're supposed to be faithful to your boyfriend and you're supposed to listen to the adults. If you were supposed to live would it hurt like this?
Is life supposed to be the empty ache of your stomach because your mom forgot the groceries or the abandonment you feel when you walk home from piano practice because there was no one to pick you up?"
Natalie was backing up and Gabriel was advancing. "No one loves you, no one cares, and no one would miss you. You were a disappointment, a burden, an inch they wished they could scratch but you were just there."
"Stop it." Natalie murmurs.
Gabriel looks mean as he towers over her. "Do it, do it, do it." He was in her face and incessant and everywhere.
"Leave!" she shouted, covering her ears with her hands and sliding down the wall.
"Why do you stay?" he growled, each word enunciated. Like he couldn't fathom why she was punishing herself with every breath she took and let go. Natalie's sobbing filled the small room. Gabriel leaned over her, his words becoming inviting again. "Just come. End your pain. We can be together. Immortal. No more of this misery. No more." He drew her against his chest, her tears staining his purple shirt. "No longer alone. No longer invisible."
Natalie was warm. She felt peaceful. She liked the sound of that. Her anger and hurt melted away as she embraced her brother who smoothed away the anguish that had been her reality for nearly all of her life. She leaned her head against his and whispered one word. "Gabriel."
They found Natalie Goodman leaning against a wall in her bedroom a plastic bottle in one hand, empty and lidless. She was smiling.
Her brother had been right. No one came to her grave. Just Henry. And their father. And her piano teacher. And one time her mother. And Natalie when she was in the mood for regret. She knew that would have been enough, once upon a time but now she was immortal.
Gabriel would appear behind her and pull her away. He would tell her fantastic stories to distract her or reminisce if that's what she wanted. They were never-ending he'd say. Superboy and his Invisible Girl she'd think.