Breaking Hearts and Breaking Bones Has Never Been So Romantic

Ryland leaned over, peering into the fish tank while I took a pinch of fish food and sprinkled it across the top of the water.

"So, have you named these dudes yet, Angie?" He asked, tapping on the glass.

"Don't do that, Ryland." I sighed as I brushed his hand away. "And no, I haven't named them yet."

Ryland stuck his tongue out at me and then straightened himself up before he reached over and ruffled up my hair with his long, slender fingers. I giggled softly and pushed his hands away with one hand while I used my other to each over and pinch his side.

"Hello," he said impatiently as he pulled away from me so that he was out of my reach, "that hurts you know."

"Good, next time I'll make sure to pinch you harder." I smirked.

"I outta trash can you." He said, and before I knew what was happening, I had been picked up and thrown over Ryland's shoulder with ease, and we were heading straight for the trashcan in the kitchen.

"Ryland," I laughed as I kicked my legs about, "put me down!"

Ryland responded by lowering me down, head first over the trashcan, and laughing wildly. "Doesn't this remind you of back in high school when me and your brother trash canned you?" He laughed.

"Ryland, I swear, put me down or else." I said giggled, finding the whole thing amusing because I knew that Ryland didn't have the heart to trash can me again. Back in high school, when Ryland and Alex had trash canned me my freshman year, I was able to make them feel extremely bad about it, and they swore that they'd never do it again. But, that didn't mean that they would still tease me every once in a while.

"You swear not to pinch me again?" Ryland asked.

"I swear." I laughed. "Now put me down before I get my brother to beat you up."

Ryland sighed as he began to put me right side up. "Angie, do you seriously think that in a fist fight, that you brother would win?" Ryland asked as he set me on my feet.

"Honestly, I think I can take both of you guys." I smirked.

"Oh?" Ryland asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." I replied. "You see this?" I asked, flexing my biceps a little to show him what little arm muscle I had. "That's all you'll be seeing before you get your ass knocked out."

Ryland let out a loud laugh and reached over, poking my arm with his index finger. "Can I see that again?" He teased. "I didn't quite catch it the first time."

"Shut up, Ryland." I laughed, hitting his stomach lightly. "You're a punk."

"You're a punk." He mocked childishly. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He said, reaching over to ruffle up my hair once more.

"Ryland, I swear!" I said, making a move to hit him again, but he wrapped his arms around me, pinning my arms to my side. "Ryland." I laughed.

At that moment, the front door opened, and Ryland and I both looked to see who it was, only to catch eyes with Gabe.

"Oh," he said offhandedly, looking back and forth between Ryland and me, "am I ... interrupting anything?" He asked, his cheeks flushing a light shade of pink.

I opened my mouth to reply, but above me, Ryland let out a snort of laughter.

"Definitely not." Ryland said as he released me.

I rolled my eyes as I stepped forward and offered an explanation. "Ryland used to pick on me in high school, and for some reason he thinks he still can."

"I don't think, babe, I know." Ryland said, ruffling up my hair one last time before he disappeared from the kitchen and into the hallway, most likely going to my brother's room.

"I swear, one of these days Ryland is gonna get it." I mumbled, reaching up to straighten out my hair.

"Well, when that day comes, let me know before hand so I can come watch." Gabe grinned as he set a couple of paper grocery bags on top of the counter.

I smiled softly as I pulled my hair up into a messy bun, and then leaned back against the counter, watching Gabe as he unpacked his groceries. One thing I noticed, was that there were absolutely no meat products amongst his food.

"You're vegetarian, Gabe?" I asked, causing Gabe to turn his brown eyes in my direction.

"Yes." He said softly, before turning his attention back to his food.

With that, a some what uncomfortable silence settled upon us and I reached up, rubbing that back of my neck. Gabe, Alex, and I have been in our new apartment for about a week now, and throughout that entire week, I had only seen Gabe maybe four times. He had either stayed in his room all day, or was out at Nate or Ryland's apartments. It seems as if we had only said a handful of words to each other this whole time.

Sighing softly, I straightened myself up and made my way past Gabe and into the living room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gabe glance at me as I passed him, but he let me go without another word. In the living room, I took a seat on the couch and grabbed my book, opening it up to the page I had book marked and picked up where I had left off.

Soon, the sounds of Gabe putting away his groceries faded away as I was absorbed into my book. After who knows how long, a figure came into my peripheral vision and I glanced up momentarily to see that Gabe had joined me in the living room, taking a seat on the couch across from the one I was sitting on.

"What cha reading?" He asked curiously.

I finished reading the sentence I was on and held the book up so he could see the title.

"Déjá Dead?" He asked. "Is it any good?"

I lowered my book back down to my lap. "Yeah. You know that television show 'Bones'?" I asked, and Gabe nodded his head. "Well, this book is written by the forensic anthropologist who inspired the show."

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah." I said softly. "If you're into those kinds of books, you can read it after I'm done." I offered.

Across the living room, Gabe shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe I'll check it out."

I eyed him for a few seconds, seeing if he was going to say anything else, but he had adverted his eyes to the blank television, watching it intently as if it had been playing an interesting movie. I sighed quietly and turned my attention back to my book, quickly picking up where I left off.

"You want to go for a walk with me?" Gabe asked suddenly.

For the second time within two minutes, I set my book down and peered across the way to Gabe, who had since turned his stare back to me.

"A walk?" I repeated, making sure I heard him right.

"Yeah." Gabe smiled, nodding his head.

"But, it'll be getting dark pretty soon, Gabe." I said, glancing out the window to see that the sun was already close to the horizon.

"So," Gabe grinned, shrugging his shoulders, "let's get out there and enjoy what's left of a beautiful day. They say that it's supposed to rain tomorrow, and it won't stop until Monday or so."

"Well," I paused for a moment, glancing back out the window, seeing that it was indeed still nice out, "okay." I agreed. "Let me go get a coat real fast, and tell my brother where we're going."

"Alright." Gabe said, watching me as I bookmarked my page, set it back on the end table, and then climb to my feet.

Without another word to him, I made my way into the hallway, and to my room where I pulled a black zip up hoodie from my closet. I pulled it on over my maroon halter top, and zipped it up halfway before I went back into the hallway, and knocked on my brother's door.

"It's open." Alex called from inside, and I opened the door, only to find him and Ryland deeply absorbed in a game they were playing on Alex's PS2.

"Hey, Alex, Gabe and I are going for a walk." I said. "We'll be back later."

"Alright, Angie." Alex replied, never once moving his eyes from the television screen. "I love you, use protection."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "I love you too, Alex." With that, I shut the door and went back into the living room, to where Gabe was leaned over, peering into the fish tank.

"Ryland has been pressuring me to name them." I grinned, nodding to the fish. "But, it's going to take me some time to think of enough names for all of them." I said, laughing softly.

"I wouldn't be able to tell who was who if you did name them." Gabe smiled, straightening himself out. He glanced over at me, eyeing me for a moment. "You ready?" He asked.

As I nodded my head, he turned away and led the way to the front door, holding it open for me. I walked past him silently and went into the hallway, waiting for him to shut the door before we started down the hallway. Shortly, we were outside, taking in the smell of the Manhattan evening.

"So, where are we off to?" I asked, glancing up at Gabe.

"Not sure." He replied. "Want to go get some ice cream?" He asked.

"Sure." I said, laughing slightly.

Gabe smiled and nodded to his left. "There's a little café over here that my friend owns." He said. "We can stop by there."

I took his lead, and within a couple of minutes, we came to a stop in front of a small café that looked as if it were about to close.

"Come on, we got here just in time." Gabe said, opening the door for me and putting his hand on the small of my back, nudging me inside.

A little bell dinged as we stepped inside, catching the man who was cleaning up behind the counter.

"Hey Mike." Gabe greeted him. "Sorry, but we had a sudden craving for ice cream."

Mike laughed quietly and shook his head. "If you didn't have a pretty girl with you Gabe, you'd be shit outta luck right about now."

Gabe just laughed in response and guided me to the freezer where the various ice creams were.

"Do you want it in a bowl, or on a cone, sweetheart?" Mike asked as he opened up the freezer from behind.

"Um, a cone please." I replied.

"Alright," he said, grabbing a cone, "what kind of ice cream would you like, babe?"

I wrinkled up my nose as I thought about what I wanted before I finally pointed to the container of Rocky Road.

"Rocky Road please." I said.

"Make that two, Mike." Gabe added.

Soon, Mike handed my ice cream over to me, and a few seconds later he handed Gabe his.

"Alright, that'll be seven dollars even." Mike said, wiping his hands off on a washcloth.

"Seven dollars?" Gabe protested. "What'd you do, raise your prices?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders. "The company I buy my coco from raised their prices." He said. "I have to compromise somehow."

"Man," Gabe sighed as he handed his ice cream cone over to me, and reached into his pocket to grab his wallet, "I only have like five dollars on me, Mike."

"Gabe." Mike said raising an eyebrow as he watched Gabe put his wallet back into his pocket.

"Mike." Gabe mocked as he took his ice cream cone back from me. "Come on, can't this one be on the house?"

Mike shook his head as he folded his arms in front of him. Gabe frowned and leaned over, whispering 'run' into my ear. I looked up at him, trying to determine whether or not he was serious. However, he had turned his attention back to Mike.

"Come on, it's just seven bucks, Mike." Gabe tried to reason.

"Gabe, I won - "

Mike stopped himself short when Gabe grabbed a hold of my hand and took off running to the door. Before I

"Gabe, get back here!" Mike yelled after us with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Ahead of me, Gabe laughed as if he were a little kid, getting away with his best friend's favorite toy, and he shoved open the door, pulling me outside into the now dark evening. Behind us, I heard Mike laughing to himself, yelling something I couldn't quite comprehend. Gabe didn't stop running until we got to the end of the block and had turned around the corner.

"Gabe, you just made me steal an ice cream cone!" I laughed, nudging him slightly with my elbow, seeing as how he was still hanging onto my hand.

Gabe giggled wildly as he shrugged his shoulders and released my hand. "I'll stop by tomorrow to pay him back." He grinned.

"You're a goof." I smiled. "And a bad influence." I added.

"How so?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hello, stolen ice cream here." I said, holding up my cone before I took a bite of it.

"Oh well." He smiled before he began to eat his own ice cream.

After a couple of minutes of walking and eating in silence, Gabe spoke up. "So, Miss Angela, tell me about yourself."

I laughed quietly at the name he had referred to me by, and shrugged my shoulders. "What would you like to know?"

"Whatever you're willing to share with me." He replied.

I sighed softly and thought to myself for a few seconds before I spoke once more. "I can speak three different languages, not including English. I'm not fluent in them, but, I know a lot. Um ... I hate when my friends are sad, because I don't know what to say to cheer them up. Rudeness and ignorance are traits I simply despise in a person. I'm not a mean person, but I can be when I have to. I actually beat my brother up once when we were younger."

Gabe laughed loudly at my last sentence and turned his eyes to me. "That's so awesome." He laughed. "But anyway, continue."

"Well ... I love being outdoors. I'm scared to death of heights, although I do love flying in planes, and riding roller coasters. I'm a big fan of Anne Rice, and," I paused momentarily as I cleared my throat, "the Harry Potter series." I blushed. "I had plans to move to the west coast and open up an animal shelter or something along those lines, but, those plans was squashed when I got involved with my ex-boyfriend. Now, it seems as if I can't leave Manhattan. Not that I want to, its just ... " I trailed off, shrugging my shoulders.

"Do you still want to open up an animal shelter?" Gabe asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know anymore. I'm pretty content with working at the animal hospital." I replied. "But, maybe someday I'll open one up." I smiled.

Gabe nodded and returned a smile.

"So, mister Gabriel," I said, "care to share something about yourself?"

Gabe raised an eyebrow as his smile turned into a smirk. "Anything particular you'd like to know?" He asked.

"Alex mentioned that you were born someplace else, but he didn't say where." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Ah, well, I was born in Uruguay." Gabe said, nodding his head. "Then, we moved up here to the states. Um ... I had a band called Midtown before I started this one." He said. "I recorded the album by myself, and didn't get a group together until I actually had to tour. And, let's see here ... I love to dance, as you probably already know." He said with a little smile. "I speak Spanish, I'm a vegetarian, and I like to steal ice cream cones from cafes." He added with a hint of laughter in his voice.

I laughed softly and shook my head. "You're a dork, Gabe."

"I love to make people smile." He said, glancing over at me for a split second before turning his eyes down to the sidewalk in front of us. "Especially pretty girls who have pretty smiles, and a nice laugh." He added.

At his words, I bit my lip suppressing a smile as I turned to look at him. Feeling my eyes on him, he turned to me, his cheeks starting to flush a little, and he laughed nervously before adverting his eyes to the ground once more.

"You're a sweet boy, Gabe." I said softly. "How is it that you don't have a girlfriend?"

"I can be a jerk from time to time." He said quietly. "That, and, I just haven't found the right girl yet, I suppose. But ... I have to admit, things are starting to look up."

Not knowing what to say in response, I kept my mouth shut. After about a minute of silence, Gabe sighed quietly and reached over, taking a hold of my hand. As soon as his warm hand came in contact with my skin, I felt the goose bumps ripple up my arm, and spread across what felt like my entire body.

"Your hands are freezing." Gabe pointed out as he squeezed my hand, and then released it. "We should head back to the apartment, before it starts to get real cold out here."

I muttered a faint 'yeah' in agreement and quietly followed Gabe as we looped around the block, thinking to backtrack back to the apartment. Beside me, Gabe took a deep breath and let it out in a soft sigh. I couldn't help but feel a pinch of guilt nag at me as I ran things through my mind. Though I liked Gabe, and enjoyed being with him, I hoped that I wasn't ultimately leading him along.