The next day at school, I saw Jen and her gang in the hallway and did my best to avoid them. I failed miserably.
"Hey Ty. Have fun in the woods last night?" Andy said loudly, getting everyone else's attention.
"Yeah," Jen added. She turned her full attention on me, her lips turned upward in a smug smile. "How was your night?" The whole group laughed and I could feel myself begin to blush. Damn.
"I, I…" I began, so nervous that I couldn't seem to speak.
"We found each other," a new voice spoke. I turned to see the guy who had been in the woods. The one who had disappeared, and been replaced by the two wolves. He did not look like a high school student. "We hung out, had some fun," he continued, grinning at me. All I could do was look stupidly at him.
"Huh," Jen said. Her tone made me snap my head and look from the new guy to Jen. She looked angry and I could guess why. This guy was gorgeous and he had said he hung out with me. He also wasn't worshipping the ground that she walked on. Jen had probably never had anyone not absolutely love her on site. Even the people she was mean to, like me, seemed to like her. She really wasn't going to like me after this.
Turning from Jen, I realized that the new guy had asked me a question.
"What?" I stammered. I hated being shy.
"I said, do you want to hang out again tomorrow tonight, you know, but this time for dinner or something," he answered patiently. He obviously guessed I wasn't the brightest and at that moment I couldn't disagree with him.
"Sure," I answered, proud that my voice didn't shake. "Come by my house at seven?"
"I'll be there," he replied. As he walked away, he brushed past me and I heard him say, "I'm Gabriel by the way," and then he was gone. Wow.
I turned my attention back to Jen and was shocked to see her watching Gabriel as he walked down the hall.
"You know the new guy?" she asked me in disbelief. She obviously hadn't heard him tell me his name.
"Yep," I lied. I normally was a crappy liar, but this time even I believed it.
"What do you know about him?" she questioned.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because, I want to know what is wrong with him that he likes you." I heard the instead of me! that she had left off the end of that sentence. Uh oh.
Without waiting for me to answer, she lifted her hand and motioned for her pack of trendsetters and they abruptly left, leaving me staring after them, my mouth hanging open.
"Hey what happened?" Kevin asked. I jumped. I hadn't seen or heard him come up.
"Um, nothing, I mean that guy from last night was just here and Jen…" I trailed off, still not really believing it myself. I had to be dreaming, that was it. Only in my dreams would a guy like that, tall, muscular with sexy eyes and a nice smile, talk to me, me the geeky girl who liked to play sports and listen to play by plays of videogames my best friend, who was equally as geeky, had played the night before.
"That was him? Really?" he asked, drawing me back to reality once again.
"Yeah, that was him. Gabriel."
"Huh, he looks familiar," Kevin continued. He seemed to be concentrating on remembering, his forehead creased. A few seconds later, it relaxed. "Oh well, I'll remember eventually."
The bell rang, forcing Kevin and I to sprint to our next class, history. We arrived and sat down and the teacher began the lecture. I shivered. I felt like someone was watching me. Our desks faced away from the door, so I turned to look at it, but saw nothing there. I shook my head, ready to concentrate, but it never worked out. By the time the class was over, I hadn't retained any information and I still felt someone's eyes on me. I walked out the door with Kevin and saw Gabriel standing off to the side of the door. He was leaning back, eyes closed, with his arms crossed over his chest. Had he been watching me?
But even stranger than Gabriel watching me, was the fact that that gaze had felt exactly like the one from the night in the woods. What the hell was going on?