Chapter 4 - Young Love (Posted November 6th 2010)
Waking up in Gabe's bed the next morning caused some confusion for me. Especially since we hardly spent any time actually on the bed until the nights activities came to an end. We never put our pajamas on either, so it was just us under the covers. It was nice to feel him next to me. I liked touching him. The little bit of soft pudge encompassing his body was adorable and sensual. The bed was very small, almost too small to hold the both of us, but that made the experience that much more intoxicating; we had to be close together in order to be able to fit on the bed. It was amazing how one person could make me have thoughts like this.
"You're finally awake." Gabe said, nudging me playfully.
"Uh huh." I said, resting my head on his chest.
He didn't say anything for a while. He just let me lie there on top of him, feeling his heart beat against the side of my face. I rubbed his sides, loving how the shape of his body felt in my hands. I decided at that moment that this went far beyond a crush. For me, anyhow. I'd loved him as my friend, and now I loved him as more than a friend. And I was pretty sure, by the way he was holding me and his heart was pounding, that he felt the same about me.
I needed to kiss him then. I started with his neck, then his chin, then finally his mouth. I could tell he'd been waiting for me to do that because of how passionately he responded.
It made me wonder if we really could be in love. I mean, we were both just high school students. Just finding ourselves. How could we know we'd found love already? But I figured it out. We were trapped at Tower Prep. Forced to become who we are deep down inside before we would have in the normal world with everyone else. Maybe we could find what we wanted here as well. I knew, if we ever made it out of there, I'd still want him. And if we had never kissed that night in the hallways, we would stay friends until we did escape. And it probably would have developed into this kind of relationship as we grew closer anyway. I've admitted I'm not a genius, but I figured this out because it was true that I loved him.
But I wasn't ready to tell him yet. I was pretty sure he felt the same, but not one hundred percent.
Classes were sort of a drag today. I just wanted to spend all my time with Gabe. And I was worried about things being awkward between me and CJ, but she was fine.
At lunch I was relieved to sit next to Gabe. It felt like we'd been separated for much too long, even though it'd only been a few hours and even then we'd been together in class.
"So..." CJ said from across the table.
"So?" I asked, confused. She moved her eyes back and forth between me and Gabe. Then I got what she meant. "Oh..." I couldn't help but give a little bit of an embarrassed smile.
She chuckled a little. "So you talked? You worked it out and you're..."
Suddenly my preflex kicked in and I felt Gabe jump up a second before he did, and as able to stand at the same time to see what was wrong.
"You told her!" he asked, scared.
Oh, right. I never got to that when we talked. "Yeah, but it's cool..."
"No!" he said in a duh voice and shook his head with eyes wide. "No it isn't. How could you do that?"
I stared for a second, unsure of what to do. "I didn't think..."
Before I could finish even thinking of what I wanted to say, Gabe stormed off. I guess I couldn't blame him.
"Sorry." I heard CJ say.
"It's fine." I said. "I should have mentioned I talked to you about it."
Suki's confused face finally became serious. "Talked to her about what? Is something going on?"
"Um..." CJ and I said.
"Maybe not anymore." I said, and went after Gabe.
Finding my way back to our room, I discovered he wasn't there. I looked in the closets. Under the beds. But there weren't many hiding places in our room, so he had to be somewhere else.
I checked bathrooms, knowing that if he wanted to avoid confrontation, he'd probably be hiding in a communal place like that. But he wasn't there either.
So I thought maybe he went to the room we all go to to talk about our plans and discoveries. And I was right. I walked in and there he was, sitting on the table with his back to me.
"Gabe?" I said, but he stayed quiet. I sat at the table, but he wouldn't turn around. It felt like before, when he was telling me he couldn't do this. Like it was happening again. "Gabe, I'm sorry I told CJ. She knew I was thinking about someone else on our date and I felt like it was ok to tell her how I felt about you. But I shouldn't have done that, I know. I was just so happy you were giving me a chance. I'm sorry I ruined it so soon." It was silent for a second, but then I heard Gabe sigh and saw him give his head a little shake.
"You didn't ruin it." he said, laying back and looking up at me. "I was surprised for a while, but CJ is our friend, and I think it was right to tell her why you couldn't go out with her."
"Really?"
"Really."
"So you're not gonna break up with me?" I asked, almost shocked myself.
"Of course not. Not over something so stupid."
"Are we gonna tell Suki, then?" I asked because she was our friend as well.
"Eventually." he answered. "But first, I have to ask you a favor."
"Go ahead." I said as he got up off the table.
"This might sound weird to you, but... well, it even sounds dumb to me, so I'm going to do it without asking."
"O... k..." I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Go stand over there somewhere and close your eyes."
"Stand anywhere?"
"Yeah."
So I stood in an open part of the room and closed my eyes. I heard some shuffling and then something was placed in front of me. Then there was what sounded like Gabe stepping up onto something, and his arms came loosely around my neck.
"Now you can open your eyes."
I did as he said and found myself looking right at him. He was at my same height. I glanced down and saw a small stepstool under his feet and laughed.
"Aaw, don't laugh. I'm so short, I just wanted to be your height when I kiss you."
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
Nothing, was apparently his answer as he gave me a soft, slow kiss.
"That was nice." Gabe said. "I wish I was taller."
"Don't tell me you're going to use the stepstool every time you want to kiss me." I said playfully, but was kind of scared to hear his answer.
"I don't want to have to always stand on the tips of my toes." he answered plainly.
And then I had an Idea. I stooped down a few inches and hoisted him up. I held him with my arms right under his butt. "Wrap your legs around me." I said, and he did. "How's this?"
"I feel taller than you now."
"See, we don't need a stepstool. I'll just do this."
"I like that idea." he said and we kissed again.
"Come on," I said, setting him down. "Let's go back to our room for a while."
"Alright."
We navigated through the walkways to get back. That way we couldn't be seen, and no one would interrupt us.
Once in the room, Gabe pulled me by my shirtsleeve over to the bed. He kissed me a lot, more than usual. We were almost undressed when we stopped, knowing we had a class soon, and caught our breath as we laid next to each other.
Quietly he asked me, "Do you think we'll ever escape Tower Prep?"
"Yeah, with the four of us working together." I answered, knowing that our teamwork would make us stronger. "But, you know, even though I want out, I'm sort of glad I was brought here. I made new friends and... now I have you..."
"I know what you mean." he said, playing with my hair. "Ian, when we do get out of here... will we still..."
"Why would you ask that?" I said, grabbing his hands.
"I don't know, maybe you just want me because you're stuck here, and once you're not stuck here anymore, you won't want me anymore."
"Is that why you want me?" I asked, not ready for the pain if he'd answer 'yes'.
"No! That's why I'm worried."
"Well that's definitely not how I feel. I want you because..." I knew what I wanted to say. And I knew I was going to say it, no matter how long I hesitated. I just had to get a good look at his beautiful, wide eyes before I said it. "I love you, Gabe."
He smiled the most adorable smile. His teeth peeking out from behind those thin, gorgeous lips. "I love you too, Ian."
That settled it for me. It felt like he saved me from something. From being alone in this place. Or in any place, really. And I already knew I would do anything to save him, and Suki and CJ too. Anything to get us out.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: ugh, i hate this story. I'm glad it's over. I only wrote this last chapter because I had it partially written and didn't want to leave it unfinished. I know, what an odd thing for an author with two old unfinished stories to say, but c'est la vie, mon amis. Anyway, I have a side-along with this that I wrote that I'll put up in a few days. It's mature, which is why it's being put up separately. It fits between chapter 3 (the previous chapter) and chapter 4 (this chapter). I'll probably be in a better mood once I write something good...