“Michael told me he thinks the project will take up a lot of my free time as well, but it’s so worth it.
Don’t you think?” Gabe heard Sophie say as he came back to reality.
Gabe felt flushed with anger again, but didn’t want to ruin this moment for Sophie.
“Yeah, of course.”
he replied.
Afraid he would no longer be able to contain his anger at Michael, Gabe turned to walk down the hall, calling over his shoulder.
“I better get to class; I wouldn’t want to be late.
We will talk later.”
“Gabe,” she called after him, but he kept walking as if he did not hear her.
Gabe was having trouble thinking straight.
All he wanted to do was march straight to Michael’s office and accuse him of the meddling.
A crime in which Gabe was certain he was guilty of.
Gabe knew what it would do to Sophie if she were to find out about Michael trying to keep them apart.
It would devastate her to know she was given that job in an effort to tear them away from one another.
Though he wanted to confront Michael, Gabe decided he would go to his Elementals class and try to suffer through.
“Hi there, Gabe,” Haim’s voice came from just ahead, down the hall.
As Gabe came closer, he saw Haim standing outside the door of a classroom.
“Hi, Haim.”
“How’s your first day of classes going?”
“Don’t ask.” Gabe returned.
“That bad?” Haim questioned as he laughed slightly.
As Gabe came to a stop in front of the classroom, he looked up at the door and double checked his class list.
“Are you in this class?” Gabe asked, hopeful.
“Yup.
Apparently everyone else overwhelmingly feels you can’t brute force yourself out of every situation, so they all pushed me into taking Elementals.
Waste of time if you ask me, I won’t use it.”
Haim replied, rolling his eyes.
“Oh come on, Haim, how about keeping an open mind?”
Gabe said with a smirk.
“Hi there, Gabe,” the small voice of Neru filled their ears as she passed by, waving at Gabe daintily with two fingers.
A moment later, she was gone.
“Whoa, wait a second.
Who was that?” Haim asked, giving Gabe an elbow to the side.
“Nobody, just some girl from another class.” Gabe defended.
“Oh yeah, some girl, huh?
And does Sophie know about this 'some girl’?” Haim heckled his friend.
“Shut up, Haim!
It’s not like that.” Gabe insisted as he started walking into the classroom.
“Come on; let’s get a seat before we’re late.”
While Gabe had to admit Neru was attractive, there was only one girl for him.
The remainder of the day's classes were a blur for Gabe.
His thoughts consumed by Sophie and her sudden tasking with cataloging the new runes from Iron Gate.
Gabe had only been aggravated with Michael after their conversation the other evening.
Now he found himself completely enraged over the idea that he was meddling in Sophie's and his relationship.
Gabe decided after his final class that he would go by Sophie’s room to apologize for his behavior.
When at last the bell rang, he scooped up his books and darted for the open doorway.
Neru had been in his final class as well, but he hadn’t paid much attention.
Neru called after Gabe as he rushed out of the room, “Bye, Gabe.”
However, her words fell on deaf ears.
He went on down the hall towards Sophie’s room in silence.
At last he arrived, but the room was empty.
After their tense meeting in the hall earlier, he did not want to be the guy who stalked her at work.
Gabe decided rather than checking in the library, he would find her in the dining hall later that evening.
Over the summer, Gabe had grown used to spending time in the Gardens where he and Sophie had shared that dance under the stars so many months ago.
It had become his go to place to clear his mind and find peace.
On this particular day, the place had seemed to have lost its charm.
Gabe bent over and picked up a smooth pebble.
As he stood again, he began to roll the stone between his fingertips.
He stared off into nothingness, replaying the past couple of days in his mind.
“Gabe?” The small voice rang out behind him as he was leaning over the bridge.
He loved to come and watch the Koi passing underneath, but their magic failed to capture his attention this evening.
When Gabe turned around, he saw Neru walking towards him grinning.
“Oh hey, Neru.
How’s it going?”
“Great, except this new friend I made completely ignored me in Artifacts class.” Neru jested as she came to rest next to Gabe, arms folded on the railing of the bridge.
“Yeah, sorry about that.
I guess I am a little distracted.” Gabe apologized with complete sincerity.
“I was kidding.” Neru replied, leaning forward to catch Gabe’s gaze in an effort to show him she wasn’t upset.
Gabe smiled at Neru.
With everything on his mind, he was having trouble deciphering sarcasm.
“Distracted huh?
Care to talk about it?” Neru probed.
“No, I’m fine.” Gabe quickly put her off.
“Oh, I understand,” Neru said.
“Well, you did just meet me.”
“That’s not it.” Gabe retorted.
“It’s just silly stuff.”
“I doubt that.
If it has you this perplexed it must be important to you at least.
Who knows?
Maybe talking about it will make you feel better.”
Gabe had never been the type of person to open up about his feelings.
Before he came to the manor, he had lived a life of secrecy and pain.
Even since coming here, he had only confided in his close circle of friends.
Something about Neru impressed him.
Her friendliness and persistence seemed to disarm him.
“Yeah, I guess.”
The two continued to stand in silence for a moment longer while Gabe debated if sharing anything with Neru would help.
Something was strange about her, but Gabe thought perhaps it was exactly those things that drew him to her.
“I know almost everything that is bothering me is probably myself reading into stuff and being irrational,” Gabe smiled trying to show humor.
“I tend to do that.”
“I’m sure you’re not that bad,” Neru said, giving Gabe a slight nudge.
“Take the tests for example, I studied all summer.
I skipped nearly all the social events going on so that I would be prepared when the time came for my tests.”
“And so you were.
Are you annoyed you had to give that all up?” Neru asked, pulling a strand of hair back from her face to reveal a confused expression.
“No,” Gabe quickly interjected.
“I didn’t mind any of that.
I was actually happy to do it all if it meant catching up to the rest of my friends.”
“So what’s the problem?
Seems like you nailed the tests.”
“You would think so, wouldn’t you?” Gabe asked, looking off into the distance again.
“Didn’t you?” Neru asked.
“That’s what it looked like to the rest of us.
I could have never come up with half the ideas you did.”
“Well, I thought I did really well, but then…” Gabe thought better of revealing his frustration with Michael to this girl he barely knew.
Instead he revised his statement.
“Then some friends pointed out that I could have done better.”
“Gabe, you can’t let a few friends make you doubt yourself.” Neru assured him as she reached over and took a comforting hold of Gabe’s hand, wrapping her tiny arm around his.
“Your test was to defeat the three creatures and you did.”
“Yeah,” Gabe said slowly as he considered her words.
“I suppose you are right.”
He thought, ‘
If you knew it was Michael that did not approve of my methods, I bet you would be saying something else right now.’
He remained silent about that detail, however.
“That’s all that has been bothering you?
That’s not so bad.” Neru said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Sort of,” Gabe replied, glancing over at her with a smile again.
“Oh my. Gabe, how much do you have going on up in that head of yours?”
“More than you would probably care to know.” Gabe added, looking down into the water, unconsciously picking at his cuticles with his teeth.
“Alright, spill it.” Neru demanded.
It was like a flood gate opening for Gabe.
He couldn’t hold back any longer.
“It’s not just one thing.
There are a bunch of little things really.
I start classes and my girlfriend doesn’t even care that she gets pulled out of all the ones we share.
Two of my friends that I consider to be the model couple are bickering.
Let’s not even get started with the fact that Baal and who knows what other demons, are trying to hunt me down and kill me.
I don’t even get…” Looking over at Neru’s expression, Gabe knew he had completely unloaded on her.
“I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to…” Gabe began.
“No, it’s fine.” Neru said, pulling Gabe closer in a reassuring way.
“I didn’t realize you had so much on your mind.
If I were the protector I am not sure what I would be feeling.
Nobody can blame you, not even your girlfriend.”
“Gabe!” Sophie’s voice shouted behind them.
Quickly they pulled apart, Gabe turning around to look at Sophie.
“Sophie, where have you been?
I was looking for you.”
“Yeah, it looks like you were looking real hard, Gabe.”
“What?” Gabe asked, confused by Sophie’s tone.
He considered telling her that she was full of nonsense, and then thought better of it.
“Whatever, Gabe,” Sophie said, turning to walk away in a huff.
Gabe glanced at Sophie, then Neru, and then Sophie again.
Lunging forward, Gabe took hold of Sophie’s arm and spun her to face him.
“What is your deal?
This is Neru. I met her in one of my classes today.
We were just talking.”
“Yeah, Gabe, I always talk arm in arm with guys I just meet.”
Sophie argued, pulling, trying to break free of his grasp.
“Are you serious, Sophie?
I’m sorry if I upset you.
I didn’t mean anything by it.” Gabe pleaded.
Sophie stopped struggling and turned to face Neru.
“Hi, Peru.
I’m Gabe’s girlfriend, maybe he mentioned me.”
“It’s Neru,” the girl replied, clearly annoyed by Sophie’s attitude towards her.
It was clear Sophie had mispronounced her name on purpose.
“Oh, so sorry, N-e-r-u.” Sophie added sarcastically.
“Gabe may have mentioned you.” Neru added with equal spite.
“Hey, Gabe, we’ll talk later.
I should really take off.”
“Okay, thanks for the talk.
Sorry about this.” Gabe told her.
At Gabe’s apology, Sophie crossed her arms, giving him a disgusted look.
Neru simply ignored her and walked away in the direction of the dining hall.
“Sophie!” Gabe yelled.
“What has gotten into you?”
“Into me?”
Sophie defended herself, giving Gabe a slight push.
“I come here looking for you and find you practically making out with some little twig of a girl.”
“Whoa?
Making out?
I was upset because of our fight earlier and she was trying to make me feel better.”
“Yeah, I just bet she was.” Sophie made no effort to hide her anger.
“Look, this is ridiculous!
I don’t see what this is accomplishing.
There was nothing going on.
I guess you can either believe me or not.”
Gabe had never seen Sophie become jealous.
He wanted to shake her back to reality, back into the girl he had come to care so much about.
“Fine, Gabe!
Whatever you say.” Sophie replied and then turned towards the dining hall; from her tone she was still clearly irritated.
“Let’s just go eat.”