The Heart of a Broken Soul

Of Mortgages and Fruit

A/N:Firstly, thank you to Dahlia Rose-Marie, medousaki, Venetiangrl92. Your reviews are greatly appreciated! :)

Secondly, I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter; I actually rewrote the whole thing, because I was going to have it go in a completely different direction, but I liked this version better, and then we had Internet problems; our service provider decided that 'because you pay us a billion dallors each month for ADSL2 Internet, we're going to cut you off because we're pricks.' So we had to fix that up... T_T

Anyhow, here be words.

When Gabby woke the next morning, she felt a sense of foreboding, as though something was going to happen. Something that she would not like in the least. No one was awake when she left for school, heavyhearted and fresh from rejection.

The halls were mostly empty, too, so Gabby waited for Lucy outside, in the shade of the tree they'd spent most of their school lives sitting under. They'd respectively named it Oscar.

Lucy didn't arrive by foot as she usually did; a sleek black commodore pulled up by the side of the road, and out jumped a beaming Lucy. She waved, shut the door and bounded up to Gabby as the car drove off. "It's nice, isn't it?" she enthused.

"The car, or your smile?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Both, I guess." She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "We did it," she hissed.

"You 'did it'?" Gabby raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah; we had sex."

Gabby scowled, rubbing her eyes. "I really don't need to know."

"In the back of that car."

"I am not listening."

"It was amazing," Lucy sang. She did a little happy dance.

"And what does your mom think of him?" Gabby asked as they headed inside.

Lucy hesitated, which was more than enough confirmation for Gabby. "You haven't told her, have you?"

"Okay, here's the thing; he's 21. Mom will kill me."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Gabby told her, as she thought miserably that Filip was 27. Even though they weren't going anywhere. She sighed.

"Gabby, come on. You know my mom doesn't think like that, and if she finds out we had sex then we're both dead. He'll get in a lot of trouble. Anyway; how are you and the Scotsman going?"

She'd been waiting for the conversation to turn to her and her lack of love life. She considered lying, telling Lucy that nothing had yet happened. But that would just make things worse. "He sort of turned me down," Gabby told her. "After we kissed."

"Are you serious? What so he kissed you, and then just decided that 'no, actually, I changed my mind'? What a prick."

Gabby shook her head. "It's not like that," she said. She couldn't tell Lucy about Filip's wife and kid. "He just... it was the age difference, really. I'm 16, he's 27. I imagine a few people would have some things to say about that, along with the law."

"Yeah, I guess," Lucy agreed. "But that's only if you have sex, right?" Then she laughed. "And I was worried about a four year gap. He's like, eleven years older than you!"

Gabby chuckled. "Yeah. I know."

"Sorry," Lucy said, cringing. "That sucks. You know, a lot. I'm sure you guys'll be fine. You're 17 soon, so then it's just a year's wait before the two of you can get busy." Lucy winked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Hey!" A breathless, bruised Jessica rushed up to them. The swelling on her face had gone down, but she still looked terrible. Gabby subconsciously rubbed the gash on her forehead. It ached. "I heard about Jeremy. Thanks!"

Gabby blinked, dumbfounded. "I... what?"

"He deserved it, he really did. The beating."

"Oh... that wasn't me," Gabby told her. "I'm not really a... fighter."

"Well that's the rumour going around, anyway," Jessica informed her.

"Great. Just what I need; rumours."

Lucy smiled. "At least people will be scared of you now," she said.

Gabby scowled. "I don't want people to be scared of me."

"Too late now."

Bobby and Filip were sitting at the table when Gabby arrived home. "Why aren't you at work?" Gabby asked, grabbing an apple.

"Finished early," Bobby said. "Gotta help Chibs with all this."

Gabby raised an eyebrow. "Help Chibs with 'all this' what?" She took a bite of the apple. It was bitter.

"Ah all this paperwork for the loan."

"Loan?" Gabby didn't like where this was going, and Filip refused to look at her.

"Yeah; Chibs got a house, as long as he get can a loan from the bank."

"A house? You're moving out?"

Filip glanced at her. "That's the plan. Can't live off Bobby forever."

Gabby nearly dropped the apple. Instead, she threw it in the bin, her appetite gone. "Well, that's great," she lied. "I'm gunna take a shower." She walked off.

If she hadn't have kissed him, maybe he wouldn't be moving out so soon, Gabby thought. She should have known it was a stupid idea when she'd done it. Of course it would make things complicated and awkward. He would have had to move out eventually, just like she would, but maybe he would have stayed a while longer if it hadn't have been for the kiss.

The steaming heat of the shower did nothing for Gabby, and she got out just a downcast she'd been when she got in. She dressed, rubbed at her hair in a pathetic attempt to dry it, and retreated to her room. Stupid. Stupid.

Filip came into her room a while later. He didn't even knock or, if he had, she hadn't heard it. He had the kind of look on his face that most people reserved for when they found their cat flattened on the road, stinking of rot and accumulating flies.

Neither of them spoke for a while. "Ye know, I've been lookin' at houses for a while," he finally told her.

"So?"

"So it's not your fault."

Gabby shrugged. "I don't really care," she lied. She sighed. "Why did you kiss me?" she asked.

Filip blinked. He hadn't been expecting that question. He leaned against the doorframe, thinking. "It was a stupid thing to do." His words felt like knives to Gabby. He must have realised, because he added, "you're too young, Gabby."

"You didn't answer my question. Why did you kiss me back?"

"Because I wanted to," Filip told her. He thought about playing the wife card again, but realised it would be stupid to. He still loved Fiona, but he couldn't ignore his growing feelings for Gabby, either. "Do you even know how much trouble both of us could-"

"I'm not a complete idiot."

Filip sighed. He seemed to be battling with himself. He opened his mouth to say something, sighed, and closed it. Silently, he approached Gabby. He tangled his fingers in her hair, leaned over and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Gotta take these forms in," he said as he left.

Gabby watched him leave, confused. Was that some kind of answer? A kiss on the top of her head? was that Irish for 'yes' or something? Or was it 'no'? Gabby was just as lost and confused as she had been before.

There was a commotion by the road when Gabby finished school the next day. It wasn't the kind of commotion that was so blatantly obvious that its existence couldn't be denied, it was the kind that sent whispers and rumours around, where people stared, but tried to make it seem as though they weren't staring. Curious, Gabby wormed her way through the masses of students, some of who were also interested by whatever it was, others going about their daily business, to see what it was. When she reached the cause of the commotion, she wished she hadn't been so curious.

On the side of the road, there was a motorbike. And sitting on the bike, puffing on a smoke with a helmet dangling from the other hand, was Filip. He'd already spotted her. Of course he'd already seen her, because he was waiting for her. Gabby blushed furiously as she approached him, amid a new wave of whispers.

"Wh... what are you doing here?" she hissed.

As an answer, Filip tossed the helmet to her, patted the space behind him. "Get on," he commanded, flicking the cigarette butt to the ground.

It was either get on and hear the rumours the next day, or attempt to walk through the rumours now. Gabby shoved the helmet on her head and threw a leg over the bike. She wrapped her arms around Filip's waist as he revved the bike, then took off.

Gabby didn't pay attention to where he was taking her; all she could think was 'oh, God, what kind of rumours are going around?' so she was relatively surprised when the bike slowed down, and he parked next to a diner. It was one Gabby had never been to before, but it wasn't the crappy kind of diner that looked as though it belonged in a caravan park; it actually looked quite nice.

"You're taking me out?" Gabby asked, taking the helmet off. She hopped up from the bike, Filip behind her.

"Is that wha' you and yer friends do every time you ye go to a diner? 'Take each other out'?"

"No, because Lucy's a girl," Gabby informed him.

"Well wha' about the rest of them?"

Filip held the door open for Gabby as she walked in. "The rest of who?"

"Yer friends." They sat in the corner, opposite each other.

"Unless the boys at the shop count, it's just me and Luce," Gabby said with a shrug.

Filip didn't believe her. "Wha'? No other friends?"

Gabby shook her head. "A few kids talk to me, but they're not really friends."

"Oh..." Filip couldn't really think of anything else to say. Fortunately, the waitress came to take their orders, sparing Filip. When she was gone, Filip said, "ah, people are shite anyway. Ye've got the club, and Bobby..." he trailed off at that, and Gabby smiled.

"Yeah. The Jew who can't cook his own banana bread."

Filip chuckled. "Aye, that's the one."

"And you?"

"Wha' about me?" Filip asked.

Gabby dropped her gaze, picking at a thread on her jumper. "Do I have you?"

Filip was silent for so long that Gabby glanced up, just to make sure he was still there. He was, and he just stared at her, his expression unreadable. He tapped a finger on the table as Gabby waited for what seemed long an impossibly long time.

He finally opened his mouth to speak, a word barely audible. "Aye."