The Girlfriend

"Are we worried your dad won't love us if we don't feed him enough?" Sandy asked as we unpacked the car.

"Alright starting now, no more digs at my dad." Kirsten told us, as she pasted Sandy another bag.

"Oh honey, that wasn't a dig. Seth?"

"No..." Seth conceded, "but when you called him a heartless bastard, that was a dig." He smiled at his father.

"You sold me out!" Sandy pointed back at him before following Kirsten into the house with the shopping.

"See they're like puppets and I'm puppet master." Seth told me once his mum and dad were out of earshot.

"World domination to follow. So your grandpa he…" I stopped as I tried once again to pick up the bag of coal, "he basically owns Newport right?"

"Yes and much like yourself he comes from humble beginnings, you guy's probably hit it off."

"I burnt down one of his homes." I reminded him as I put the bag over my shoulder, "I don't see us sitting round the dinner table laughing about that."

"Yeah but it was an accident, he owns like a million of them, its probably not even on his radar."

"You're leaving too much up to probably here!" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Hey seriously," he patted my shoulder, in a manner I'm sure he thought would be reassuring, "don't worry about it. He let my mom run the company, now he's got a new girlfriend, he's very mellow." He smiled at me.

"Seth!" An older gentleman walked out of the house, wearing a striped T-shirt that was reminiscent of one that they'd wear in the navy.

"Hey!" Seth smiled at him.

"Hey!" the gentleman repeated pulling him into a hug.

"How you doing?" Seth asked him once he was free from his arms.

"You're still not a football player." He noted after looking Seth up and down.

"Ah yes, no but thank you. Uh, Grandpa meet my friend Alex." Seth said, drawing the attention to me and away from his scrawny build.

"You're the kid that burnt down my house."

"So the police tell me." I sighed putting down the bag so I could offer my hand, which he then ignored.

"Come on." Seth nudged him and he took my hand and shook it firmly.

"So you've got to see my pictures from Spain," he said to Seth, ignoring me once more, "and you got to promise me to go to Barcelona while you're still young."

"Alright." Seth shrugged.

"You want to take those and put them round by the grill?" He asked me looking at the bags of coal behind me.

"Yes what ever girl loves; heavy lifting!" I mumbled, throwing a bag on my shoulder once more whilst Caleb stirred Seth inside.

I carried the bag round to the barbecue, dumped it and looked watched the family reunion going on in the living room. Given his already, apparent distaste for me I thought I would just lay low in my room until dinner. As I turned however, I saw this beautiful blonde getting in to the pool. She simply stood there half submerged, glad only in a blue bikini.

"Hi." She smiled at me once she caught me staring.

"Hey." I shook my head to try and stop from staring, "Hey." I simply repeated when I realised I couldn't.

"I'm Gabriel... I'm with Caleb." She told me, gesturing towards the house.

Seth came walking over to me, I ignored him, not intentionally, but there was a half naked blond beauty in front of me, he was hardly top of my priorities.

"Oh my god that could be my grandma." He whispered in my ear. "That could be a sure fire way to get over Marissa."

"Uh huh." I nodded. "Want to get in the pool?"

"Sure." He nodded back at me before running back into the house.

I walked into my room and threw clothes around until I found the bikini that Kirsten had bought me. Upon finding the red top and the black shorts, I had insisted on her buying if she had to buy me swim wear, I got changed, grabbed a towel and made my way into the spa to be met by Seth momentarily after.

"Is it twisted to find my potential grandma really hot?" he asked me as we watched her float around the pool on a mat.

"Not when she looks like that!"

"Gabriel." I turned to see Caleb standing on the patio.

"Yeah?" she looked up at him.

"We're going to sit, drink some wine, catch up."

"Okay, do you want me to uh..?" she motioned as to getting out of the pool.

"Lie out in the sun, get some colour. Try to stay out of trouble." He said waving her off and walking back into the house.

"Can I join you guys?" she asked us after she'd swam over to the spa.

I looked over at Seth who seemed to have been struck dumb by her.

"Yeah, yeah come on and uh…" I gestured at the space in front of us but found my sentence lacking an end.

"Yeah, no yeah." Seth finished for me.

She jumped up onto the edge of the pool and slid her way over to us in the spa.

"Whoo, its warm," she said sliding in between me and Seth. "So what's up?"

"We were uh…" I struggled to find words.

"We-we…"

"We were talking about the uh…" I looked at Seth blankly who simply looked just as vacantly back at me. "I was telling – he was telling me about – we were talking about the thing!"

"So this birthday party for Caleb it's like a who's who of Newport," Seth just nodded at her, "should be wild huh!"

"You have seen Newport right!" I asked her disbelieving.

"I'm being sarcastic." She smiled gently at me.

"And you say I don't get sarcasm!" Seth laughed nervously. I simply opened and closed my mouth a couple more times. "Yes, we don't get a lot of that around here, slightly more since Alex moved in, but still not all that much."

"So who're you guys bringing?" she asked us.

"I would say no one really."

"And I would have to ditto that," I smiled glumly at her.

"How come?" she frowned at us, "Surely good looking teenagers like you?"

"Kids don't really like us round here." I explained.

"How come?"

"She's a dyke and I'm a dork." Seth said simply.

"Thank you for that one." I said, hitting him across the shoulder. Gabrielle simply watched us with her eyebrows raised. "I don't like being called a dyke." I said simply.

"I hate labels too." She said simply as she leaned back against the Jacuzzi wall.

"No offence but what do you know about labels?"

"'Cept for beautiful." Seth muttered besides me.

"More than you know." She smiled at us before pushing herself up and getting out. We watched her as she walked along the patio, grabbed her towel and walked into the house.

"So Marissa huh?"

"Marissa who?" I asked Seth.


The next day I was back at work. Donnie was apparently M.I.A after an incident with the police and so I was called in to help cover his shifts. It was bizarre, whenever any of the other members of staff had a free moment they were gossiping about what had allegedly happened. I on the other hand didn't care and so was consequently left to my own devices.

I was wiping down the counter top when I felt a figure standing over me. I looked up and found Gabriel looking back at me with a quizzical expression on her face.

"Hey." She smiled at me.

"Hey."

"Seth and Caleb are sailing. I've never seen two people more excited about boats." She shook her head. "Seth said you work here and I could use a cocktail."

"You'll have to wait around five years if you want me to serve it to you." I smiled at her and moved on to cleaning the next table.

"Right, you're not legal," she laughed. "How bout a cranberry juice."

"That I can do." I smiled at her, as I walked back behind the bar.

"Alright." She pulled out a mini bottle of vodka from her bag. "From the flight." She explained when she saw me watching her pour it into her drink. "I hate flying, you?"

"Never flown." I told her as I tied the bar.

"My first time I was fifteen, my mother sent me to Japan all by myself to do some modelling." I looked up at her from the glass I was cleaning. "I guess she figured it was easier then her having to get a job."

"Know that feeling."

"I've heard."

"So, uh, how'd the modelling thing turn out?"

"Well when your a teenager and your living in a house with a bunch of girls...no parents, things can get a little insane."

"Doesn't sound all that bad!" I muttered.

"By the time I got clean I was 22: retirement age." She continued oblivious to my comment. "You must think its weird, me with an older guy."

"Random change of topic. That was quite a tangent there." I smiled at her. "But I live in a pool house; I'm not really one to judge."

I watched her as she drained her drink. I got her some more cranberry juice for her to add her vodka to before asking:

"Yesterday… when you were talking about labels…" I stopped when I realised she was trying to suppress her laughter. "What?" I smiled at her.

"I just wondered how long it would take you to ask that question."

"Does it get an answer?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"When's the end of your shift?"

"Not for another three hours but I'm due a break."

"Get me some shrimp and join me at a table outside." She told me before she picked her purse up from the bar and walked outside.

"Okay…" I said slowly to nobody in particular.


I watched her as she picked up another bit of shrimp and dipped it in the sauce before popping it into her mouth. I simply lit up another cigarette before stealing a bit of her vodka and cranberry.

"So you're living in a pool house and then..." she took back her glass. "So what's next for you?"

I simply shrugged, took back her glass and downed it. "You're going to need another one of those." I told her. "I assume my next step will be getting it for you."

"In five minutes though," she smiled at me. "You're still on break." I simply smiled back at her, meeting her gaze.

A shadow suddenly fell over us, I looked up and found Marissa standing there.

"Hey." She tried to smile, but merely faltered as she looked between me and Gabriel. "You got a sec?"

I took another drag from my cigarette before nodding, she indicated for me to follow her to the edge of the peer to which I obliged and leant against the railing besides her.

"Who's she?" she asked after a while.

"Gabriel."

"Oh," I heard her say quietly.

"Look," I turned round to face her, "are you here for a reason? Its just I have to get back to work."

"I… I…" I raised my eyebrows at her, "I just want to know how long you're going to act like this towards me." I simply shrugged. "I mean we were friends."

"And you want that again?" I asked her, throwing my cigarette over the edge of the peer.

"I… I just-"

"ALEX!" I looked over and saw my manager standing in the doorway.

"I have to get back to work." I told her, leaving her standing by the edge of the peer trying to figure out what it was that she wanted.

"Who was that?" Gabriel asked me as I past her.

I looked back at Marissa still standing there, looking out at the ocean.

"No one." I told her, before heading back in to work.


"Why are we here?" Seth asked me as we sat on the floor of the living room playing video games.

"Where else would we be?" I asked him, as I shot down one of his men.

"Don't know," he shrugged, "just figured we'd be on the peer right now."

"And what? You'd be on your board, I'd be on my bike, we'd bump into Marissa and Summer have a really awkward conversation and then quickly leave?"

"Sounds about right." Seth sighed as his last man was killed by one of mine.

The doorbell rang as he loaded up a new game.

"Hold that thought." I told him as I stood up to answer it. "But never fear I shall beat you in just a moment." I called out to him as I opened the door. "Oh." I said when I saw it was Marissa on the doorstep.

"Not the best greeting I've ever received." She sighed.

"What do you want?" I asked, arms folded across my chest.

"I…" she stopped as she looked my posture up and down, "I…"

"You're making a habit of this, coming over to me and then stuttering." I sighed at her.

"Will you quit being such a bitch and listen to me." She snapped.

"I would if you ever had anything to say."

"Forget it." She waved me off and walked back down the drive.

I slammed the door behind her and walked back to Seth.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"No one." I told before going to the fridge, I pulled out a bottle of Diet Coke before heading out to my room.


I sat quietly at dinner, pushing my food around my plate whilst the others talked around me. Even if I had wanted to talk to anyone I wouldn't have joined in, Seth and Caleb had been talking about sailing for over three-quarters of an hour.

"That was delicious Kirsten." Gabriel said eventually, pushing her plate away, letting me know it was safe to stop pretending that I was going to eat anything.

"Well thank you." Kirsten smiled back at her. "I order from them all the time." She laughed as she started clearing the plates.

"Less time at work, more time for cooking." Caleb laughed with her.

"Yeah because there is just no place Kirsten feels more comfortable than in the kitchen."

"What're you talking about? Mom can't even make cereal." Seth questioned his father's comment.

"Thanks Seth!"

"I love you mum." He made some so of face I can only imagine, he thought was meant to be cute.

"I love you too." Kirsten imitated Seth's 'cute' face and indicated for him to help her clear the table.

"You have a quick wit Seth, amazing you're not better at skirt chasing." Caleb smiled at him from across the table. Seth merely shrugged as he got up and picked up the remaining plates.

"What about you, Alex, how are you a skirt chasing?" Gabriel asked me, as she slowly slid her bare foot up my leg.

I spat out my drink. I squirmed in my chair. I looked at her in a way that did nothing to hide my surprise.

However, no one noticed as Caleb had just as quickly pushed his chair back and stormed into the kitchen after Kirsten. Tuning out his homophobic rant was easy though, I simply relaxed into Gabriel's touch.

"I can be." I eventually smiled back at her.

"SHE'S A GAY JUVENILE DELINQUENT KIKI!"

Sandy stood up hurriedly, "I'm…" he pointed into the kitchen, "I'm going to help Kirsten out… with the dishes." He quickly added, clearly hoping to ignore the fact that Caleb was shouting about me. "Why don't I pull Seth out of there and you three go hang out in the pool house."

"Yeah." Gabriel nodded as she too stood up just as Caleb's yelling started onto the topic of the house I'd burnt down. "Alex," she smiled at me, "you going to show me to your room?"

I pushed my chair back and moved around the table, she'd opened the French doors already and was half way across the back yard. She waited for me at my door, which I opened for her and simply watched as she made herself comfortable on my bed.

"You joining me?" She asked.

"I-"

"Fuck!" Seth whistled into my ear, "I may have overestimated the you and my granddad getting along factor."

"You think?" I asked him, before going over to the countertop and picking up one of my books and sitting down besides Gabriel.

"When I left they were all yelling about the business though, so I don't think you're the top of his list of grievences." He settled himself down on the floor beside my bed and pulled down the Game Boy I'd been playing on earlier. "Jesus Alex," he sighed at me, "this game sucks."

"Its one of yours." I told him not looking up from my book.

"Well I'm going to get one of my decent ones." He told me getting up again.

"Don't go through the kitchen." I told him as he walked through my door. "So, he always yell like that?" I asked Gabriel, nodding towards the kitchen, once I was sure Seth was out of earshot.

"Pretty much… he's the boss and…" she crawled along the bed closing the gap between us "…every relationship is a business relationship to him."

"Even yours?" I asked her, dropping my book to the floor.

"He'll only ever really loved one woman and she passed away years ago…" she told me as she slowly climbed on top of me, "now he's just looking to stay entertained… keep from being bored… but aren't we all." I looked up at her as she ran her hand along my thigh. "I am so bored." She finished softly.

I leaned forward and took her bottom lip between mine and slowly ran my tongue along the gap between them. She leaned closer, moving her hand along my side. Her hand touching the bare skin beneath my top sent shivers along my body. I ran my hands up and down her back, trying to pull her closer as we continued tasting each other.

"GABRIEL!" She suddenly shot up and looked towards the main house. "WE'RE LEAVING. NOW!"

She got off the bed, straitened her dress and sorted out her hair. "Back to the office." She sighed at me, before walking out of my room towards him.


I was on one of the reclining chairs by the pool, my earphones plugged into my phone, simply relaxing in the sun thinking about all that had happened the night before.

I couldn't get Gabriel out of my head; the way she'd kissed me, the way she'd touched me, the smell of her perfume filling my nostrils. And yet all the time I thought about her I couldn't shake the annoying voice in the back of my head that told me I still liked Marissa.

I was getting bored of it by this point though. Sure Marissa had given me plenty of signs she liked me back, but she'd given me more signs telling me that she didn't want to take it any further. And yet all I could ever think about what it would be like to kiss her again, to touch her, to feel her naked skin against mine.

When I shut my eyes I saw her coming over to me, every time she would phrase it differently but the end result was always the same; her lips on mine.

Seth pulled out one of my earphone, I opened my eyes and saw him standing above me.

"I've been talking to you for like two minutes now."

"I had my music on." I told him simply.

"Yeah," he nodded, sitting down on the end of my recliner, "I noticed. So," he smiled at me, "you thinking about Gabriel?"

"I- I- I- don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh really…" his smile only grew wider. "Okay, Alex, let me present exhibit A to you she opted to forgo sailing to go to the Crab Shack."

"Not everyone likes boats, you know."

"Okay lets take it to exhibit B here… She was mad dogging you for the entirety of dinner last night."

"She was?" I sat up quickly, foolishly giving myself away.

"Ha!" he pointed at me. "So you going to tell me what actually happened or do you want me to continue guessing?"

"Come on kids get ready, the caterers are here its time to get ready." Kirsten called out to us from the kitchen door.

"Okay," he said to his mother though completely ignoring her "I would like some answers."

"We kissed, felt each other up." I shrugged, trying to make out like it was no big deal.

"What?" He was leaning so close to me that I saw his pupils double in size. I merely shrugged again, before swinging my legs round him so I could stand up.

"You're granddad can't find out." I told him before going into my room.


"You're not at the party." Gabriel told me as she entered my room without so much of a knock first.

"You noticed." I smiled up at her from my bed.

"What you reading?" She nodded down towards the book in my hand as she slowly closed the gap between us.

"Tender is the Night." I told her simply, folding the page down before placing it besides me on the bed.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald." She smiled at me, joining me on the bed, placing a leg either side of mine. "Don't look up at me surprised, I read."

"I never doubted that." I smiled back at her, as I slid my right hand up and down her back. "Just surprised you'd rather be in here than out there celebrating your boyfriend's birthday."

"Why would I, when the company's so much better in here." She said simply before pushing me down and kissing me once more.

I didn't complain or even try to protest. Instead I ran my tongue back along her lower lip before gently biting down upon it. She kissed me harder still as she slowly started to play with my nipple, her hand almost trapped between my breast and my bra.

"Alex I-"

We both looked up to see Marissa practically running out of my now open door.

"Who is she?"

"Marissa." I told her before asking her to leave.

I'd finally worked out what Marissa had been trying to tell me.


R&R, thank you. Circus.