Chapter Thirty-Six

Gabby's POV

Imagine designing an arrangement of dominoes. It could be a complex picture, or simply a domino chain. Either way, you dedicate hours of effort into carefully placing each individual domino down, until your masterpiece is at last complete. You stand back and admire the creation with pride for a good while…. Then something comes along and ruins it. Something knocks into the first domino- a gust of wind, or perhaps a marble. Regardless, the dominoes topple one after the other. In a matter of seconds, all your hard work is for nothing.

Consider that an accurate representation of my relationship with Alfred.

At the start of the day, it wasn't about me: it was about my sister. I was patiently waiting in line for my breakfast when I felt an arm wrap friendlily around my neck. Oh joy, who was it today… "So I hear your sister's single now." Ah, Gilbert.

I nodded, peeling his arm off of me. "Mattie was so nervous, the poor guy…" I clicked my tongue at the memory, recalling the secret conversation Matthew, Francis, and I had had regarding Matthew's relationship with Caliegh. "He thought she'd hate him for friend zoning her. But lucky for him, she had the same intentions…." In fact, the two were currently at the table together, chatting casually over their plates of pancakes.

"Ja, ja, thought so…." Gilbert flapped his hand, his gaze somewhere besides my face. Had he even listened to me? Suddenly, his eyes were staring into mine. "I need you to tell me something."

"Mm." The line had moved up, so I turned and took a few steps up. Gilbert remained practically on my heels.

"How can I get Kay to like me?"

The question caught me off guard, yet at the same time, it wasn't the slightest bit surprising. The constant flirting and teasing Gilbert did to my sister… It was rather obvious that he had deeper intentions. That he wasn't just hitting on her, he was legitimately interested. "I mean, she's your schvester, so I figured you'd-"

"You don't have to do anything." It wasn't that I didn't know what makes Caliegh tick, although that is true. She's so impossible to read, even to her twin… Anyway, I could just tell that Caliegh harbored some affection for Gilbert, deep down. Her body language around him, the way she shoved him around and talked to him…

"How can you tell?" Gilbert asked, wide-eyed incredulously.

"Just take my word for it." Okay, Gilly deserved a better explanation than that…. "…I'll say this much. There were two reasons I knew she and Mattie wouldn't last. One, she hasn't been as… love struck anymore. I could just feel the love fading. And two…. She says your name in her sleep, Gilbert."

This certainly was news to him. His jaw dropped. "Like… How does she say it?" A nervous little smirk twitched on the corners of his mouth. "Pleadingly? Sexually?"

I laughed at that. Gosh, he looked so intrigued… "She just kind of murmurs it, I dunno. Point is, she likes you, and I can go on and on with why I know ."

He perked up, following me still as the line progressed. "Could you?"

"Nah." And I wasn't even joking. I just smiled, took my food, and strode off to pay with Gilbert gaping at me as I left.

Breakfast was completely normal. I sat nearly on Alfred's lap, the two of us feeding each other bits of our meals and sharing the occasional kiss. We held hands around school, sneaking off to make out in our favorite hallway. I didn't have a single feeling of foreboding in my system. It was around lunchtime that things started to head downhill.

"Excuse me, may I have a word?" Al and I stopped in the cafeteria doorway, glancing over our shoulders to face the person that this unfamiliar voice belonged to. It turned out to be some spectacled Asian boy I don't recall seeing before, holding a notepad and pen in his hand. He pushed his glasses up with the tip of the pen. "I'm from the Newspaper Club, and I'm doing an article on twins, triplets, and quadruplets. I've found quite a few triplets and twins, but you two and your brother and sister are the only set of quadruplets in this school!"

Alfred and I exchanged a dumbfounded glance, then proceeding to stare at this weird kid. "Uh, I don't have a brother," was my slow response. I mean, yes, I have Joey and Josh. But they weren't important right now.

That really seemed to catch the Asian off guard. "What? But…. Matthew and Caliegh are your siblings, correct?"

"Mattie's my bro, uh huh, but Caliegh is her sis. We aren't related," Alfred explained, one eyebrow raised.

The kid's jaw dropped. "Wait, but-! Then how are you two," he motioned at us with his pen, "acquainted, if not siblings?"

Was he serious? Al and I had our fingers entwined together, and depending on how long this guy was following us, he had probably seen us share a kiss or nose-nuzzle. "We're dating," I said, disgusted at the idea of being in a relationship with my (nonexistent) twin brother.

"Where I come from, incest is perfectly normal," the kid replied, giving a little tilt to his head. Ew… He bowed. "Sorry for the mix up…. Have a nice day!" With that, the little weirdo sped off.

We both stared after him, a little dazed. "That was so…"

"…weird," we finished in unison. …just like I always do with Caliegh… Oh, God. This sudden feeling in my chest was not a good one.

Shaking our heads, we headed to the lunch line in silence. There was this awkward vibe surrounding us the whole time: something that never occurred between us, the two most talkative Americans in the school. Our hands slipped down to our sides upon entering the cafeteria, and when Alfred headed off to get a hamburger, I decided I was suddenly in the mood for pizza. So I headed to the line farthest away from where my boyfriend stood.

What the hell was going on?! It didn't even make sense. So that stranger thought Al and I were siblings, so what? Yeah, of course that would leave us feeling awkward at first, but it was the type of thing we'd normally just grin and laugh off a couple minutes later. I hoped things would have sizzled back to normal by the time we sat at the table, and they almost did. We smiled at each other upon sitting down, and had a brief little silly conversation… But I could tell something was wrong. Our smiles and voices were too insincere, too forced. I don't even know how bad it would have gotten if Francis hadn't drawn me into a conversation that lasted the entirety of the lunch period.

As per our regular routine, Al and I met in his dorm to play some Xbox. I sat in my usual beanbag chair, Alfred sat on his, and we kissed for a little bit while we waited for the console to turn on. I felt my heart drop when we pulled away to sign in, my body going numb: it was the blandest kissing session we had ever experienced, and the awkward atmosphere made it clear that we both knew it. If I had known that that would be the last time my lips would touch Alfred's, perhaps I would have paid it more mind.

We didn't even chitchat as we started up the game, like we usually did. I wanted to, but…. I just wasn't in a mood to talk. That wasn't anything too abnormal, I always had those days…. But the fact that Alfred was being quiet was really concerning. "We playing online?"

The sound of his voice made me jump. "Oh, uh, I was thinking we could just do co-op."

He flashed me a grin; his usual grin. I melted with relief. "Cool by me."

At that point, it was normal for us to not communicate with each other. We were too busy applying commentary and focusing on killing each other. It stayed like that for a good 10 minutes, and my discomfort was settling in the back of my mind, when Alfred suddenly directed his words to me. "…Gabby, we're bros, aren't we?"

My fingers froze on the controller, causing my character to drop defense and die immediately. I couldn't care less. There was something in Alfred's tone, some uncharacteristic seriousness, that revealed an underlying meaning. I could feel the dominoes beginning to topple.

I drew in a deep breath and paused the game. "…Yeah. We're bros."

Alfred smiled sadly at me, creating an expression that didn't suit his bubbly personality. He set his controller on the floor. "Man, what are we doing…. We gotta quit while we're ahead, before one of us gets hurt, y'know?" Yes, I knew exactly what he meant. We said we were in love, but truly, we both knew we weren't…. If we were, the thought of breaking up would be unthinkable. So, we needed to end it before one of us did fall in love.

"We should be just friends," I murmured. …wow, was it natural for a breakup to be so… painless?

"Nah, that won't work." Oh. There's the pain. The aching only doubled when Alfred grinned at me. "We can't ever be 'just friends.' Nah, we're best friends. BFFL's. Bros. Just like we are now, minus the make out sessions!"

A tiny smile twitched at the corners of my mouth, my heart swelling back to its regular state. "Yeah, that's true." The atmosphere seemed to lift as we both grinned at each other, returning to our game. I won in the end, 3 out of 5.

Yes, all the dominoes fell, destroying our romantic relationship. But… All the dominoes- the friendship and events we put into our relationship- still remained. Even though they were all fallen, doesn't mean they don't still make a neat little pattern. There's still just as much substance to our relationship… It just has a different title, now.