The Heart of a Broken Soul
Of Cigarettes and Dimples
A/N:So there's been a few followers and favourites, which is always exciting :) I'm able to get two chapters up today because I'm very not busy, but production will likely slow. Anyhow, here it is; please review :)
If there was one thing Gabby was good at, it was taking her anger out on rocks. Specifically the larger ones, the ones that were big enough to kick a fair distance, but not so big that if it hit someone's foot, they would turn around and beat the shit out of you, because rocks that large didn't move on their own.
As she kicked her victim down the street, she thought of all the horrible things she would do to Jeremy and his mates if she ever got the chance. She'd skin them alive and carve obscene words into them as they squealed in pain. Or maybe she'd engineer some flesh-eating bugs and inject them with a needle. Oh, the things she would do to them if she could.
Of course, she'd never get the chance, so it was all she could do to keep her mouth shut, and pretend like anger was an emotion that was never installed in her at birth. She rubbed at her wrist, still sore from where Filip had grabbed it. Maybe she'd lump him in with Jeremy. He drank the tea she made for him every morning, and he'd started eating, but he still wouldn't talk, and wouldn't let her touch his wounds. Gabby suspected he'd been cleaning them himself, though, because they didn't look infected.
When she arrived home, the front door was unlocked. Her first thought was that Bobby was home, but he didn't finish work until five, and that was if the club didn't need him. She'd locked it before she'd left for school, told Filip that she'd be gone for the day and not to do anything stupid, because lord knows he was still that poor soul who didn't want to be alive.
Panicking, she bolted inside. "Filip?" she yelled, throwing open the door to his room. It was empty. "Oh, God..."
A search of the house yielded no Scotsman. Gabby tried to figure out where he could have gone. Unless he knew his way around Charming, which she highly doubted, he'd be lost. If he'd travelled left from the house, he would have hit the highway. Another left would take him towards town, but a right would take him away from Charming. Assuming that he'd be trying to get as far away as possible, Gabby shot out of the house, taking a left, and then a right.
She wasn't much of a runner, but when occasion called, well, it called. She gave up running after about half an hour, and instead jogged down the highway, cars zooming past, the drivers probably wondering what on earth could compel a teenage girl to run down a highway towards the middle of nowhere. All she could think about was the look on Bobby's face when he discovered Filip gone. Just gone.
After about an hour, Gabby finally spotted him, walking down the highway, smoke in hand, oblivious to the fact that an exhausted teenager was trailing after him like a scolded puppy. He was almost at a gas station. If he reached it, he would be able to get a lift, or even call someone. Gasping for breath, Gabby quickened her pace, and sprinted to catch up to him. "Filip!" she screamed.
The startled Scotsman almost fell over when he turned around. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open as he stared at Gabby. The cigarette dangled limply from his fingers.
"What... are you... doing, Filip?" Gabby managed as she gasped for breath. She leaned over, placing her hands on her knees to steady herself. "Where are you going?"
Filip just stared. "Did you follow me?" he asked after a pause.
Gabby nodded, unable to speak.
"Jesus..." Filip shook his head in disbelief. "Go home," he told her, before turning and continuing down the highway.
Determined, Gabby rushed after him, grabbing his arm. "Filip, please..." she began.
Filip's arm shot out, taking Gabby by surprise, and he smacked her in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. "Wha' do you know!" he screamed.
As shocked tears welled in her eyes, Gabby was aware of harsh laughter. Filip noticed it, too, and they both turned to see Jeremy and his friends staring at Gabby, enjoying the commotion. Of course; he and his buddies were going on a 'road-trip' to celebrate him getting his license. She'd be free of him for a week, but that wasn't long enough for her. As soon as he got back, he'd make her life miserable, and now he had just one more reason. Filip turned back to Gabby as the tears spilled down her cheeks.
"Nothing," she told him. "I don't know anything." And without another word, she got to her feet, gathered the remainder of her dignity, and started off back down the highway.
It took Gabby about twenty minutes to realise someone was following her. She didn't have the courage to check, but it had to be Jeremy. Now that he'd seen that commotion, he'd be dying to get his two cents in before he left for his road-trip. She sped up.
A few minutes later she heard heavy footsteps, and moments after that a cigarette grasping hand came into view. Gabby looked up to see a somewhat guilty looking Filip. "I don't smoke," she told him curtly.
Shrugging, Filip put the smoke to his lips, taking a deep drag. They fell into a silence that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, as they walked back. Neither of them spoke, not even when they reached the house and went inside. Filip retreated to his room, and Gabby set about cooking dinner. Even when Bobby got home and asked how Filip was, Gabby just said, "he's fine," and went about mashing the potatoes as though nothing had happened, and she wasn't dreading going to school a week from now.
Over the course of the next week, Filip's temperament improved, and he began to speak to Gabby, like telling her about that time when he was a medic for five months, and he had to cut someone's leg off because it had gangrene – a result of it not being cleaned for a month.
By the second cup of tea, Filip allowed Gabby to clean the wounds on his face, much to her relief, and she made sure they practically shined so much that gangrene wouldn't dare come near then. By the fourth, he apologized for the bruise on her wrist, and for almost shattering it, and for making her chase after him down a highway in a blind panic, only to have him yell at her.
Filip found his manners the day after, thanking her for her help and the tea, after telling her a story about how his mother used to beat him with a stick every time he forgot his manners; and on the Sunday morning when Gabby was making him his seventh cup of tea, he did something unexpected.
He put a hand on her arm.
While she was in the kitchen.
Outside of his bedroom.
Gabby let out a small scream as she jumped, stumbling into the dining table and almost losing her footing. Filip raised both hands in surrender as she tried to regulate her breathing and her heart. She swallowed. "You scared me," she gasped, still trying to breathe properly.
"Aye, I noticed." Filip watched her carefully, as though expecting her to keel over at any moment.
It was only then, in the light – Filip had refused to open the curtains in his room, telling Gabby that she 'don' need to see it' – that she realised just how attractive he was. She hadn't noticed on the highway because she was too upset with him, but now it stood out like a flower in the desert.
From his dark brooding eyes to his dimples and unshaven goatee, he was good-looking. The scars on his face were beginning to heal. They'd always remain there, but Gabby thought they gave him the appearance of having fuller cheeks, like a baby's. She blushed.
"I was just making drinks," she mumbled, and went back to the counter, busying herself with the drinks while trying to forget that she'd just compared Filip's cheeks to a baby's. "Um... si... sit down." She gestured towards the table. Filip obliged, watching her with poorly hidden interest.
"How old are ye?" he asked, lighting up a smoke.
"Me?" Gabby asked stupidly, even though they were the only two in the room. Filip simply nodded. "Oh. I'm sixteen. How old are you?" she retorted.
"I'm Twen'y-seven," Filip told her. "Nothin' special."
Gabby smiled, placing a steaming mug in front of him. Twenty-seven. That was only eleven years difference. Nothing she couldn't handle. "You know, I didn't think you'd ever leave that bedroom again," she admitted.
Filip shrugged. "I wasn' goin' to," he said, taking a sip of tea.
"Then why did you?"
"Because a pretty girl looks that much better in the sunshine."
Gabby blinked, dumbfounded. She could feel her face burning, but she was beyond caring. Had he just called her pretty? She didn't believe her eyes to tell the truth. Filip kept on drinking his tea as though he hadn't just caused Gabby's heart to stop, but she noticed a small smile playing on his lips.
"Mor... ning." Bobby stood in the doorway, as dumbfounded as Gabby, only he didn't take as long to recover. "You finally discovered how a door works, then," he said.
Filip nodded. "Aye. Took me a while, but I got the gist of it."
"That's good, then. You feel up for a ride? Rest of the club wants to say hello."
"You're part of samcro?" Gabby blurted out. They both glanced at her.
"A transfer," Bobby finally told her. "From Ireland," he added, because Gabby didn't look like moving any time soon.
"Aye, so I'll be stickin' round for a while," Filip said. "If that's alrigh' with the two of ye?"
Gabby shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't have a problem with that," she told him.
"You're welcome here as long as you need to be," Bobby told him.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Are you about ready? We may as well head down to the club now."
Filip nodded. "I'm set." He stood, pushing the empty mug from him.
"While we're heading in that direction, do you need a lift to school?" Bobby asked, turning to Gabby.
Her heart dropped. She'd been trying so hard not to think about it, and now she'd just been given a harsh reminder. "No, it's fine," she assured him. Like hell she was using any form of transport that would get her there earlier. "Luce is gunna pick me up," she lied.
Bobby nodded his approval. "I like that one. Nice girl. Alright, let's go Filip." Bobby slapped Filip on the shoulder.
"Aye." He nodded his head at Gabby, throwing her a smile, before heading out the door, Bobby in tow.
Gabby sighed. It wouldn't do for her to skip school, though the thought had crossed her mind; she didn't want Bobby barging in, making it worse. She knew he was only trying to help, but the last – and only – time he'd gone in, the bullying had gotten worse. Of course, if any of them knew she was affiliated with the SOA, they wouldn't dare mess with her, but she didn't like to use the club to solve all of her problems. She wasn't an old lady, wasn't even a relative of someone in the club.
Her father had been a member before he'd died, and Gabby and her siblings had been left orphaned. She'd been a relative of a member back then, actually had some standing. Now, she was little more than a charity case.