CHAPTER ONE SENIOR YEAR HIGH SCHOOL

You think you know someone after twelve years. Twelve years of heartbreaks, healing, and banana splits. Leo and Gabe had been best friends for twelve years, and Leo could recall an abundance of Gabe's ex-girlfriends, all the same basic cookie-cutter type. Leo always wanted to confront Gabe about his romantic tendencies, but deemed it best he leave it be. He thought he knew who he was, but he was wrong. Gabe always managed to find ways to change his perspective.

For example, Gabe had just recently broken up with Allie, a short strawberry blonde girl who spent most of her time talking to everyone, except Gabe, that was. Leo told him to just break it off with her, highlighting the fact that his girlfriend wasn't being very girlfriend-y. As the two boys sat side by side in the library of Lafayette High School, he realized that if he didn't say anything, the cycle would go on, and on, and on.

"Dude," Leo said quietly breaking the silence, not needing to look away from his book to know he was staring at Allie from afar.

"W-what?" Gabe stumbled on his words as he was caught.

"Stop grieving!" Leo raised his voice faintly. "You guys are not dating anymore. You need to understand that. We're seniors now, we can't be dealing with this kind of crap."

"Whatever." Gabe returned his gaze back to his book, but Leo's protests whipped him away from it.

"No, not whatever, you need to start moving on now. She," he pointed to Allie for emphasis, "is no longer yours, and she shouldn't have been in the first place."

Leo stood up to return his newly finished book back to the library shelves. Gabe stood and followed him.

As they stood behind the library shelf, Gabriel's focus never wavered as he continued to scope out Allie. "Yeah, I know, but," Gabe scoffed, unable to find the words to describe his situation, for there weren't many. "I don't know man. I just don't like the way she looks at him." He gestured toward Allie and her friends, congregating, joking, laughing, all events revolving around Justin. Justin was your average teenage boy, with an average car, an average GPA, and an average "boy band' haircut. Gabe didn't seem to see anything special about him, but apparently, Allie did, and that sent him beyond rage. "He's not even that interesting."

Gabe was alarmed as he heard no response from Leo, who was always piping into conversations with his own opinions. "Leo?"

Leo was staring at Justin, his head resting on his palms. "LEO!" Gabe whisper yelled.

"Oh, sorry. Hey, he may not be special, but he sure is a looker."

Leo smirked at Gabe's whining, and turned back to him. "Look, the point is you guys broke up. It doesn't matter whether or not you still like her, she's moved on, and you should be too."

Gabe sighed and walked back over to the table where they were sitting and grabbed his backpack. "Yeah, fine. I just don't want to deal with this right now." Leo could tell from his tone that was getting upset, but he wasn't about to let this subject go.

"Gabe…" Leo stated firmly as his best friend of twelve years began to gather his things. "You can't just run awa-"

"Watch me." Gabe's inflection was apathetic and angry. He slung his backpack across one shoulder and began to bound out the library.

"You know what?" Leo was fed up. He stood his ground and raised his voice, momentarily wondering where the librarian was. "You can. You can just run away and leave all your burdens on my shoulders. Just like you ALWAYS DO! You-you CHICKEN!" Leo was on the verge of tears as his vision began to cloud. As a result of his foggy eyesight, he hadn't noticed that Gabe stopped moving. He hadn't noticed him coming toward him with that cup of water in his hands, he just wanted to yell at him until he couldn't breathe.

Gabe, now a few feet closer to Leo, was waving a finger in his face. "Nobody, calls me," He threw the water into the air, projected toward Leo's face. "CHICKEN!"

Leo threw his arms up, as if that would help, as water seeped into his clothes and hair. The tears washed away from his eyelids and began to evaporate into wisps of gaseous rage. Leo was so mad he could barely hear the librarian barking at him and Gabe to go to the principal's office.

As he made his way to the main building, he contemplated the display that had just been laid out before him. He pondered how he had a newfound animosity for Gabriel. No, don't say that, he thought to himself, I'm just mad. Sure, Gave can be pretty infuriating, but I don't hate him, I could never hate him. Matter of fact, I think I lo-

"LEO!" Leo was snapped out of his thoughts as he crashed right into the glass door of the principal's office. He let out a squeak and rubbed his nose, his face now completely red, both from the door and from blushing.

The principal, Mrs. Winehouse, widened her eyes and opened the door for him. The two boys shuffled into the small office and took a seat.

"So," sat down, and crossed her legs, pushing her medium length auburn hair to one side,"one of you wanna tell me what happened?"

Both boys shifted their weight to one side of their chairs, facing away from each other. "Mr. Sinkowitz, do you wanna go first?" Gabe sent her a look lined with salt.

"Well," Gabe sighed and continued to tell her what happened. She nodded her head and asked a few questions, all without looking at Leo.

"Thank you. Mr. Martinez, did that sound about right to you?" Finally she turned toward him. He nodded and smiled faintly. "Good. Well, I think the best thing to do in this situation is to let you two work it out together, so I'm going to leave, and let you two talk, alright?" The boys nodded as she stood and left, slowly closing the door behind her.

Gabe decided to break the silence, considering the ordeal was mostly his fault. "Hey, um, I-I'm sorry. I was being stupid, you were just trying to protect me." Leo trained his eyes on the windowsill, refusing to move them from that very spot.

"Yeah…" was all that came from Leo. He knew he was sorry, and he was sorry too, he had yelled at his best friend, but he didn't want to get sentimental, in fear something may slip out."I'm sorry too, I guess…"

"You guess?" Gabe was prying, and he knew it, and he knew how much Leo hated it.

"Ok, I'm truly and deeply sorry." This time he looked at Gabe (to glare at him).

"Wow. Ok, sarcasm, so we're gonna do sarcasm, that's just great. Look, I'm not mad, let's just...let's just talk when we've mellowed, 'kay?" He stood, dusted off his jeans, and headed toward the door. "I'm Audi ."

"Wait." Leo stood up and decided he wasn't going to back down. If he didn't say this now, he would never say it at all.

Gabe turned around and smiled lightly. "Yeah?"

"I-I…" Leo stumbled over his words, trying to make this easier. Instead of saying anything, he jumped into Gabe's arms, holding him close, not wanting to ever let go.

Gabe chuckled lightheartedly and held him tight, letting him know he didn't need words to tell him what was going on, for he already understood. "I love you too."