The City Calls to Her

"What were you thinking?" Rachel asked as she cleaned up the blood from his face.

"I wasn't? Come on now, I'm damn near legally drunk. Drunks don't think."

"You're not a drunk. What was this fight about anyway?"

"Your douche bag boyfriend was acting like you belong to him. Like you're a piece of property and I wasn't going to let him talk about you like that. Fuck that!" Gabe almost yelled.

"Gabe, I'm standing right here in your face. There's no need to yell."

"Sorry." He lowered his voice.

"You don't need to do stuff like that. Really."

"I couldn't help myself. When I heard him talking about you like that, I just hated it. I hated him. Like, who would talk about you like that? You're so much more than that."

"Is that it?"

"No…" Gabe said in an unsure manner and looked around for a moment before shutting the bathroom door. Rachel looked down at the black and white tiles before she felt his hand on her chin and he slowly lifted her head to face him. As he stared into her blue eyes, she could swear she felt her heart skip more than one beat. When his lips touched hers, she let everything go and relaxed into his touch. Everything about Gabe was different from Nathan. It was a difference she liked a little too much. She felt a hint of disappointment when he pulled away. She slowly let her breath out. They stayed mere centimeters apart for another minute before parting.

"Sorry," Gabe apologized.

"No, don't be. I kinda...want you to do that again," Rachel admitted.

"I think I can do that." He kissed her again. This time she wrapped her arms around him and brought him as close to her as physically possible. Gabe pulled away and said, "Hold on." He opened the bathroom and peeked out. No one was around. He took Rachel's hand and led her down the hallway to Rob's room. He locked the door behind her. When he turned around, she was sitting on the bed waiting for him.

* * *

"Dude, where the hell did Gabe go?" Rob asked either of the other two.

"Last I saw was that he was with Rachel after the fight with Nathan," Tyler said.

"Yeah, me too," Tyler agreed. "That was so funny though." He referred to the fight.

"Did you guys see how pissed off Nathan was when Rachel wouldn't leave with him?" Heath asked and laughed as they headed upstairs.

Rob was headed up to his room to grab his laptop to show the others something he found on the internet. Just as he reached for the doorknob, the door opened. Gabe and Rachel walked out hand in hand. Gabe didn't even make eye contact with any of his friends as they walked out. The jaws of all three of his friends dropped when they saw Rachel and she was fixing the hair on the back of her head, trying to smooth it out.

Rob peeked into his room and saw that his bed was messed up. "Dudes, I made my bed this morning." They all started laughing with disbelief and excitement when Rob found a condom wrapper on the floor.

"At least they were safe," Tyler said.

"Yeah but that was still my bed," Rob said.

"They're just sheets, you'll change them and get over it," Tyler stated.

"Yeah, I will." Rob nodded his head.

* * *

Gabe flipped through his textbook trying to find the answer to the last question to complete his history homework. His three best friends stared at him. Gabe avoided any contact with them all weekend.

"So Gabe, did you like the party?" Rob asked.

"It was fine," Gabe said without even looking up from his book.

"The party was fine or Rachel was fine?"

Gabe stopped tapping the eraser end of his pencil on the paper and sighed. "The party was fine."

"And Rachel?"

"What about Rachel? There's nothing to say about her."

"Really?"

"Really. You guys aren't getting the details. Sorry." He shook his head.

"You'll say something eventually."

"Okay, here's what happened. I kissed her in the bathroom and then after that, we had sex in Rob's room. End of story." Gabe shrugged his shoulders. "See? Nothing to say."

"So what happens now?"

"I don't know," Gabe said as he realized that their actions may have jeopardized their friendship. It would explain why all his calls and emails went unanswered over the remainder of the weekend. "I think I screwed the fuck up," Gabe said as he quickly got up from the table and collected his stuff. He damn near ran out of the cafeteria to go find Rachel.

Rachel, Jenni and Melody strolled the hallway before class talking about their weekends.

"Oh Rachel, how was the party?" Jenni asked.

"Yeah, how was the party?" Melody seconded Jenni's question.

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "It was like any other party. You know, people getting drunk, people fighting, you know. Party stuff."

"Is it true?" Melody asked.

"Is what true?"

"Your boyfriend and Gabe Saporta got into a fight?"

"Yeah, it is actually."

"I'm not surprised."

"Why not?"

Melody flicked her hand in the air. "Oh no reason. Gabe can be such an asshole sometimes. It's rather amazing that someone can possess that much asshole-ness."

Jenni glanced at Rachel. "What do you mean? You and Gabe used to be friends?"

"Gabe Saporta is the biggest mistake I ever made. We dated for a couple years and around freshman year, when people, you know, start having sex, I wasn't ready so he broke up with me for that simple fact. I was young, stupid and still in love with him so I put out for him. He never got back together with me and then he went around telling everyone how easy I was."

"Are you serious?" Jenni raged. "What a jackass. Rachel, don't bother with him anymore."

"Rachel, you got something going with Gabe?"

"No, we're just friends. Really good friends."

"That's how relationships with him always start out. Trust me, get out of it now. Run." Just after she said that, Gabe approached them.

"Rachel, I think we should talk."

"She doesn't wanna talk to you," Melody said and stepped in between him and Rachel.

"I think she can speak for herself." Gabe's voice had an icy edge to it. He could swear he saw her quickly smirk.

"I gotta go meet up with Nathan. I'll see you guys later," Rachel told the girls and walked away. The girls made sure Gabe didn't follow.

* * *

Rachel carefully approached the edge of the creek and stepped out onto the first stone. The very moment school ended, her cell phone started going off. Three people kept continuously calling her: Gabe, Melody and Jenni. All three she ignored. She wanted to think for herself once without any biases. She needed to. It was her relationship with Gabe, not theirs. She was about to take another step when she felt her balance starting to be thrown off. Just as she started to fall backwards, someone grabbed her from behind and kept her from falling into the rushing water. She regained her balance and quickly turned around to come face to face with Gabe.

"You should be a little more careful next time. I've seen way too many people fall like you almost did."

"Sure, sure."

"So, what happened today?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked as they ascended the embankment and onto the bridge where they should have been in the first place.

"This morning. I wanted to talk to you about what happened over the weekend-"

"It happened. It won't be happening again. Trust me."

"Rachel-"

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No."

"Gabe…"

"Only Tyler, Heath and Rob know about it but that's it."

"Did you tell them that I was easy?"

"Where are you getting this from?"

"Someone told me you broke up with Melody because she wouldn't put out and once she did you went around telling everyone she was easy."

"That's pure bullshit! That never happened!"

"She seemed pretty convincing to me."

"Okay look, yes, Melody and I dated for a while. I didn't break up with her because she wouldn't have sex with me. That's ridiculous."

"Then why Gabe? Then why'd you break up with her?"

"Because she was screwing around with someone who was supposed to be my best friend." He looked out at the water before picking at a hangnail on his middle finger. "I don't date much anymore because of her. She breaks up every relationship I ever get by telling them that story."

"Why would she be saying that?"

"After we broke up, she tried to get back together with me but I said no. I wasn't going to be with someone I couldn't trust and so she concocted up that story and has been running with it ever since.”

"What about me then?"

Gabe turned to her and pushed her blond hair out of her face. "You're really something special. Please don't let what she has to say get in the way. I'm not that kind of guy. But if I have to fight off Melody like I do Nathan then by all means I'm going to do it." He leaned over and kissed her. Gabe wrapped his arms around her waist and put his head on her shoulder. Melody said he’d use that story.