The City Calls to Her

Gabe walked into his house and took his shoes off at the door and hung his jacket on the back of the chair. He pulled a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and took a gulp from it. Mrs. Saporta stepped into the kitchen and peeked around at him.

"Rachel's upstairs in your room waiting for you. Ricky's at Dan's house and your father and I are going out."

"All right," Gabe said.

"Gabe, behave yourself," Mrs. Saporta said and gave him a knowing look.

"She's just a friend mom," he said and started walking towards her so she would leave already.

"I know," she said knowingly. She walked behind her oldest son.

"See ya mom," he said and started up the stairs.

"Remember what I said!" she called after him. He waved her off.

Gabe stopped outside his door and sighed. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. He couldn't remember the last time he got this nervous over a girl. She wasn't just any girl though. She was Rachel Douglas. She gave him butterflies in his stomach, made his palms sweaty and made his heart skip two beats at a time. He let out a breath he had been holding in and opened the door. He stepped in and shut it.

"Hey Rach," he said.

"Hey. I hope you don't mind me being in here," she said.

"No, not at all." Thank god I cleaned up the other day.

"Okay," she whispered as she got up and hugged him. He took in the smell of her hair. "So Nathan left this morning."

"Yeah? Sorry. Are you two going to do the long distance thing?"

"We decided not to. He was pretty blunt and said I'd probably cheat on him with you anyway. Crazy, huh?"

"Ha yeah, crazy." He ran his fingers through his hair and stepped away from her. She stepped towards him and kept the gap between them closed.

"I meant that he could have known such a thing," she said as she started to press herself against him. Gabe backed up and stumbled into the desk that was in his room. He knocked off a couple of things and they hit the floor with soft thuds. She took a step back.

"Uh..." Gabe said and cleared his throat.

"Gabe, how much longer are you going to deny your feelings for me?"

Man up Gabe. You've wanted her since the moment you laid eyes on her and now you got her. Just go for it.

Gabe took a step forward and put one hand on her lower back and the other on the back of her head. He pressed his lips to hers and guided her towards his bed. As soon as they hit his bed, they started ripping each other's clothes off.

"Gabe slow down," she said putting her hands on his chest to push him away a little. "Trust me, I want this just as much as you do but please slow down a little."

"Sorry," he said as he sat up. "I got a little carried away. I've just waited so long for you…"

"I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

"Okay," he whispered. She climbed onto his lap and pushed him back down. He turned over so he was the one on top.

"I love you, Gabe."

"I love you, too," he said just as there was a knock at the door.

"Gabriel?"

"Crap!" They both sat up and started gathering their clothes.

"Gabe, open the door!" His mom tried to open the locked door. "Gabe!"

Gabe opened his eyes and sat up. It was all a dream.

"Gabe, it's time to get up or you're gonna be late to school."

"Okay, I'm up," he said. He threw his blanket off and stood up before realizing he had an erection.

"Um, okay," Mrs. Saporta said and covered her eyes. Gabe grabbed his blanket and wrapped it around his waist.

“Can we just act like that never happened?" he asked his mom.

"For the safety of our relationship I think that would be our best bet," she said and turned to walk out of his room.

* * *

When Rachel walked into Music Theory, Gabe first turned red and then turned away when she sat next to him.

"I was looking for you this morning."

"Yeah I was finishing up some homework in the cafeteria." He still wouldn't look at her.

"You know, Jenni and I were going to go to the mall after school but she had to bail on me. Do you think you would want to go with me?"

As much as he wanted to say yes, he didn't. "I'm a little busy after school. Sorry."

"Okay," Rachel nodded her head getting the feeling he didn't really want to be talking to her.

The whole day seemed to go that way with him. He would either avoid her and give her short answers. It got to the point that she decided to just give up.

"Dude, what's your problem? You're like, never not trying to get in that girl's pants," Heath said after Rachel walked away from Gabe for the last time that day.

Gabe shrugged his shoulders. "It's nothing."

"What do you mean…" Heath imitated Gabe and shrugged his shoulders. "It's obviously something for her to look that frustrated and like she was ready to punch you."

"Look, it's no big deal."

"No big deal? It seems to be to her."

"I had a dream about her last night."

"And…"

Gabe looked at him.

"Oh," Heath said knowing what he meant. "Well it's not like she knows that."

"Yo dudes, what's going on?" Tyler asked as he stood next to Gabe.

"Well Gabe here is growing up."

Tyler looked at Gabe and then back at Heath and shrugged his shoulders not getting it.

"He had a certain kind of dream about a certain blonde haired beauty."

"Heath really? Do you gotta tell everyone?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Heath said and nodded his head.

"Gabe dude, it happens to the best of us. Don't sweat it. Besides, it's not like she knows," Tyler told him.

"That's exactly what I said dude. Gabe, if you keep giving her the cold shoulder, that dream will never come true."

"I kind of hope it doesn't because my mom came in to wake me up this morning and she totally caught sight of you know what." Both of his friends started to laugh in disbelief. "Yeah, very funny guys." Gabe shut his locker and rolled his eyes.

"I said it once and I'll say it again; it happens to the best of us. Besides, your mom changed your diapers. It's not like it's nothing she hasn't seen before."

"Yeah, that's exactly the thought I wanted to end my day with." Gabe walked away and headed to his last class of the day.

* * *

Gabe watched out of his bedroom window as Rachel got out of her new car. His eyes went wide when he saw Melody Bloom get out of the passenger's seat. Melody glanced over at Gabe's house before she walked to the trunk with Rachel. They were both talking and laughing about something. That wasn't a sight Gabe ever wanted to see.

* * *

"Wait a minute, you invited the Leone twins?" Gabe asked as he stared straight ahead at them.

"Well you see, not only is Rachel your friend but she's my friend too. If she wants to bring the person she's dating, then I'm not going to object to that," Rob said. "Regardless if you like him or not." Rob's parents were out of town and just like every other teenager would, he felt obligated to throw a party and invite the entire school.

"Whatever," Gabe said and took a drink of the beer he had.

"Dude, what's your problem? What crawled up your ass and died? Go find a girl and get a laid. You can even use my room."

"Fuck you."

"No, how about I coax Rachel away from Nathan for you?"

"Go to hell," Gabe said and walked away. He went into the kitchen and set his cup on the counter.
"You know, just because I'll be leaving soon, that doesn't mean you can move in on Rachel before I'm even gone," Nathan said standing beside him.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You think I don't know about the phone calls or the emails or the way you look at her, the way you touch her? You really think I haven't noticed that?"

"Maybe if you were treating her the way a man is supposed to treat his girlfriend, she wouldn't be coming to me," Gabe said getting merely inches away from Nathan.

"Don't think I won't fight for what's mine?"

"What's yours? She's a person, she don't belong to you." Just as Rachel walked into the kitchen, the first punch was thrown.