Forcing Myself to Love You
CHAPTER 4
I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews! They mean so much to me! I'll start it off with Gabe's plot, I guess!
Gabriel Duncan was trying his hardest to sleep, but he was just like his siblings... Lovestruck. He buried his head into his pillow and began thinking. He had so many dreams about this girl. She was so devious, it matched his personality very well. It was almost scary how much he had in common with her. And for the first time ever, he had saw her as a beautiful girl... Not a devious troublemaker he liked, but a very pretty girl.
It had been since the time he saw her in that dress. She was just asking for her flowers back, but Gabe saw too much beauty. He had been so lost in his mind. Gabe kept thinking about that night. He had never seen a girl look better in a dress.
Get out of my head! Gabe forced himself to try to not think about his crush.
Gabe had lots of crushes, but not one that matched him so well.
Through the night...
Gabe barely got any sleep. All night he was thinking about how much he wanted that girl. No, he didn't have to try to impress her. If he acted like his own self, she already thought he was cool. He thought of them as... Just frenemies. But he wanted to be more than that. He wanted to be her boyfriend. He felt too young to have a girlfriend, but it didn't matter. Lots of people in his grade were dating already.
"Gabe! Oh my gosh, you haven't got up yet?" He heard his concerned mother running up the stairs. "It's almost time for school!"
He looked at the clock, only to see that he had twenty minutes to get ready and be driven to school. Quickly, he brushed his teeth and jelled his hair into a fauxhawk hairstyle. He thought he could impress girls with it, and make his crush jealous, but she never seemed to care.
"Hurry it up!"
"I'm coming, Dad!"
He slid on ripped dark blue jeans and a flannel top and ran down the stairs. His brother and sister were glum, sitting on the couch, waiting for their little brother.
"Now your brother and sister might be late," Bob took a breath. "Good going, Gabe. Hey, buddy, did you even sleep last night? You look like you're about to fall to the ground."
"I-I'm perfectly fine," Gabe lied, trying to keep himself awake.
"Dude, you have a rough night, too?" P.J asked quietly.
"Yeah, I was thinkin' bout' this girl I like at school," Gabe said. "What kept you up?"
"Skyler." P.J said.
Gabe didn't want his love life to turn out like P.J's... He was miserable and always upset because of the girl leaving. His heart had been broken, and left stranded because of one girl. But this girl was like no other girl in the world! She was beyond special to P.J.
"She meant the world to me," He continued. "And now she's gone."
Gabe roughly tugged on a strand of his own hair. Thinking about losing love made him think of Jo. What if he waited too long and she fell in love with someone else? Someone who was obviously not Gabe.
"Come on kids, get in the car!" Bob Duncan ordered his children, rushing them. "I gotta drop you guys off, hurry it up!"
There was only fourteen minutes until school started. Bob started the car, going as fast as Denver's speed limit laws would allow him to in a school zone. He dropped Gabe off at Lincoln Middle School, and then dropped his older children off South High School. They got down from the car, basically dragging their feet across the ground.
"Teddy? There you are, girl!" Ivy exclaimed. "T, why haven't you answered any of my texts?"
"There's just a lot going on in my life." Teddy said.
Ivy, being her best friend, always wanted to know what her BFF-For Life was up to. And they promised never to lie to each other again, and always be honest. But Ivy wondered if her bestie was hiding something. And was it a big secret?
"Look Ivy... I wanna tell you the truth. It's killing me..." Teddy sighed. "Spencer and I are... Back together."
"Oh no." Ivy blinked for a second. Teddy and Spencer, back together? She hated Spencer from the moment he cheated on Teddy. "Ha, girl! This is a funny prank, right? You know what, you finally thought of a good joke to pull on me!"
"I'm being serious." Teddy looked her in the eye and spoke. "We're together again."
"You gave cheater-dog a second chance!?" Ivy cried, in complete shock.
Teddy slowly nodded her head, creating an awkward silence between the two best friends. Ivy didn't know what to say... She couldn't believe this was true news!
"B-but Derek & you are still together. It's on his BuddyPage." Ivy told her. "I just checked my phone for updates, and it still says Spencer is single, and it still says Derek is 'in a relationship with Teddy Duncan'."
"That's the thing," Teddy began, her voice trailing away to silence.
"The thing?" Ivy squinted her eyes. Then she got her own clue. "You're cheating on Spencer yourself!? Is this to get back at him? I know he broke your heart, but it doesn't mean you have to become a school jerk!"
"Stop making predictions, and listen. Derek threatened me. I wanted to break up with him," Teddy began the story again. "T-then... T-then... Well, then he... He-he..."
"He what? No more stammering! Get with it, girl!" Ivy rushed her.
"He raped me." Teddy said.
"Now you've had sex twice?" Ivy's eyes widened.
"Twice?" Teddy asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Everybody knows about it, T! On Spencer's birthday, we all knew you were going to," Ivy giggled a bit. But her face turned back to serious. "This low-life loser hurt my best friend physically? I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind!"
"That's not necessary!" Teddy looked at the ground. "Well, it is, but still... Derek's tough, Ivy."
"No, T, this is serious." Ivy said. "This boy is hurting you. He's doing illegal stuff! It's against the law for crying out loud!"
"Well, Spencer and me were planning on talking to him about ending our relationship first." Teddy said.
"You can try, but if he does anything-Something will happen to that boy." Ivy smirked.
Teddy smiled at her best friend supporting her so much. She was glad she had Spencer, P.J, and Ivy all with her through it all... Problem was, if Derek found out that she had told 3 people, she'd practically be murdered.
"Hey!" Spencer exclaimed, and slid towards her. "You alright?"
"I'll never be okay." Teddy shook her head.
Spencer took a tight hold of her hand. "I'm with you, sweetie,"
He smiled and kissed her cheek. He was glad to be back together with the love of his life, but he didn't know how much drama he was getting into. Was being with Teddy worth supporting her through the 'event'? Well to Spencer, anything was worth it. Losing Teddy ripped his heart out. It was like someone had taped his heart back together...
But with a few cracks still left inside.
"I missed you so much," Teddy flirtatiously smiled, forgetting about everything that troubled her.
Then Spencer shook himself back to reality.
"Remember we were supposed to talk to Derek? I think it's time we do that." Spencer said.
Lincoln Middle School
8th grader Gabriel Duncan walked through the halls of Lincoln Middle School in Denver. He walked slowly and cool-ly, nodding at each pretty girl he saw, hoping to get their attention. He wanted to build up good popularity before he went to high school. Gabe was already pretty popular, but there's no such thing as too much popularity!
He walked by his seventh grade crush, Jade.
"Sup," He nodded.
Jade nodded back, basically as approval that he was cool in her opinion. But Gabe didn't like Jade anymore... He obviously had a new love interest. She wasn't the most popular person. She would be, if she wasn't so mean to people most of the time.
She was only nice to certain people. People she was friends with. Making new friends really isn't her thing.
"Hey Gabe," Jo greeted.
"Oh uh... Hi, Jo," Gabe nodded at her.
The thing is: Gabe already had a girlfriend. He was dating Heather Morris, the hottest girl in fifth grade. Problem is... Gabe didn't really like her anymore. Sure she was pretty, but he didn't have feelings for her.
"I gotta go," Gabe said, trying to make her jealous. "Heather's waiting for me,"
"Heather?" Jo's eyes narrowed down. "Which Heather?"
"Don't you know? Heather Morris. She's my girlfriend." Gabe said, laughing. "Who else would it be?"
"Y-you have a g-girlfriend?" Jo was clearly upset.
"Yeah, we've been dating for a while now." Gabe said. "Duh. Don't be stupid, stupid."
"Hey!" Jo yelled. "Stupid is your nickname, not mine!"
"Um...? Whatever. I'm gonna get going." Gabe said.
Heather Morris waved at Gabe. He smiled and nodded, walking towards her. He fixed his hair up, hoping people would say they're a cute couple, making Jo even more jealous.
"Hey, Gabe!" Heather smiled, holding his hand. "You remember our date tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, I do. The movies." Gabe smiled back at her. "It'll be just us."
The first bell rang, and that meant there was two minutes left till it was time for class. Heather started flirtatiously into Gabe's eyes. He knew he had to make eye contact... He looked back at her, smiling and staring.
"I think I should get to class," Gabe said, letting go of her hand.
"Bye!" Heather exclaimed.
She felt like she was losing Gabe. And she actually was. Before he could leave, Heather walked in front of him and kissed him on the lips. It was her first kiss, so she didn't know if she did a good or bad job... Gabe was stunned. He got his first kiss! But it was from Heather... Not Jo.
"I like you a lot, Gabe," Heather said, smiling.
His lips still tingled from the kiss. Her lips were soft, but they weren't the lips he wanted. Gabe smiled at her. But this smile was real. It made him wonder why he didn't appreciate Heather more.
"I like you a lot, too." Gabe said, still smiling.
He waved at Heather, and began walking to his class. Now all that was on his mind was that kiss. His friend Ben caught up with him. He had been near them when they kissed.
"You kissed Heather Morris?" Ben grinned at his buddy. "That's tight, bro!"
"She kissed me." Gabe refused to be happy about it. "And she's my girlfriend, of course we're gonna kiss someday."
"But Heather's like the hottest girl at school, man!" Ben exclaimed. "You kissed that sexy girl! You know how cool you're gonna be for kissing Heather? Having a girlfriend is one thing, but kissing her is another."
"It ain't that big of a deal, Ben. Now back off, dude," Gabe snapped, annoyed at his obsessiveness. "It's just one kiss. I've kissed a girl before! It's nothing new,"
"You told me you never kissed a girl before," Ben said, confused.
"Whatever! Just stop obsessing over something so small!" Gabe gave his friend a small shove.
Ben was still chuckling as they walked to class together. Gabe rolled his eyes. And his mom thought he was immature. Look at Ben! But Ben was a popular guy, too. Even though he refused to show that he was excited about his first kiss, Gabe still was thinking a lot about the kiss. All through class, too. Did he actually have feelings for Heather Morris now? She used to be just a crush! Gabe thought he liked Jo... And he did, but he didn't know he had some actual feelings for Heather.
He was lucky his homeroom and first period teacher hadn't asked him any questions, or thrown in a pop quiz over the weekend chapter they were supposed to read. Gabe never read that crap.
Was this going to turn into one of those weird love triangles from all the movies and stories? He didn't want to do this! He didn't want to have to pick which girl to keep. He already had Heather, so he could keep her if he wanted to continue being with her... But Jo. She wasn't his, and she was going to probably move on someday.
Gabe knew Jo had a crush on him once, but he didn't know if she still did. Teddy had found out that Jo had some feelings for him in the fifth grade, when Gabe was crushing on Heather. Nobody thought that Gabe would end up together with Heather in eighth grade, though. But Gabe's popularity went up as he matured.
"Come on dude, it's your first frikin' kiss!" Ben exclaimed. "Aren't ya a little happy about it? Plus Heather's so hot and you should be beyond happy it's with someone as hot as her."
Gabe shook his head, and took his seat in the classroom.
"Just shut up." Gabe rolled his eyes.
Ben decided to back off, because he was starting to look angry about it.
"Let's go." Teddy mumbled quietly, holding Spencer's hand. She was nervous. There are no good words to describe what Teddy Duncan was feeling. She was practically squeezing his hand as they walked down the hall together. Teddy was scared for Derek's reaction. What if he fumed seeing her together with Spencer? What if he punched Spencer right in the face?
"W-what if h-he hurts you?" Teddy asked, still mumbling in a way.
"Relax, Teddy," Spencer said, trying to calm her down even though he was just as nervous. "I can handle myself; I'm not letting him pick a fight with me for this. He won't hurt me."
The words relaxed Teddy's brain for a second. The minute before, her head was aching and almost about to burst. Sometimes Spencer was like... Like a relaxing pill. He was hard to swallow, but was relaxing once done, and she felt much better after Spencer was "swallowed". Closing her eyes, Teddy approached Derek, who was slamming his backpack into his locker.
"What the hell are you doing with my girlfriend?"