“Seriously? Kill me now,” Sarah muttered under her breath.
I turned and looked over at Sarah, whose head was hidden between her hands on the table. While other tables were already talking and laughing and joking around, I just sat there and stared at Sarah. I couldn’t believe just how much she hated me. It was almost comical.
Placing my hands underneath my chair, I screeched it on over to her. “’Sup partner,” I said as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a one armed hug.
“Get off of me.” Her voice was filled with disgust and I knew she was kicking herself in the ass right now.
I kind of loved the fact that I annoyed her that much. There’s a fine line between love and hate and I knew if I played my cards right, I could get Sarah to like me. Maybe even love me someday. Pipe dream, I know. Or maybe it wasn’t because I remembered for a brief second I could’ve sworn she was thinking of our kiss at the party this weekend. “So, partner—” I started to say but Sarah cut me off.
Lifting her head up from between her hands she turned to me. “Look, Gabe. This astronomy class is a joke of a class for me. For me?” she pointed to her chest. “It’s an easy A and a filler. I don’t need you jerking around and making jokes. I need a serious partner, so please, I beg you…”
“You’re already begging?” I cut in. “Geez, all right, Sarah, you can be my girlfriend,” I joked.
Sucking in an annoyed breath, she slowly let it out. “I hate you.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Really?” she questioned.
Leaning in so we were maybe two inches from one another’s faces, I said, “Look, I’m not dumb. I know you don’t like me. However, I don’t think you hate me. You have to be a pretty vindictive person to truly hate someone. And you, Sarah Thompson? While you may be pretty and gorgeous and fucking sexy as hell, you are not vindictive.”
“You think I’m sexy as hell?” she whispered.
“Yeah. I do, babe.”
“I hate babe.”
“Now that? You can hate. You’ll slowly learn to love it.” I smiled.
“I doubt it,” she muttered.
Leaning away from her and resting in my seat, I said, “So. When would you like to go star gazing? You choose.”
Chapter 5
Gabe
“Where are you going, sweetie?” Mom yelled from the couch.
Releasing the door knob from my hand, I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch with her.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked as she sat up. Grabbing the remote, she pressed the pause button and turned to give me her full attention.
“I’m not smiling,” I joked.
Tilting her head, Mom smirked at me. “Quit bullshitting, Gabe Matthews.”
“Mom,” I joked. “Did you just swear?”
“What?” She giggled. “You can teach an old dog some new tricks.”
“Mom, you’re not that old.” I paused. “Uh, may—ouch!” I placed a hand on the back of my head. “Jesus, Mom.”
Smiling at me, she said, “That’s what you get, you monster.” Giggling at me, she stopped and got serious. “So, Gabe? Who is she?”
“Who?” I questioned. I was trying to play dumb, but my mom knew me better than anyone else. She knew the move I was about to make sometimes even before I did.
Wrapping her arms in front of her waist, she said, “Oh, come on, Gabe. You have a huge smile on your face. I haven’t seen that in a long time.”
“I’ve had nothing to smile about,” I blurted. Just as I watched Mom’s head duck down, I moved closer to her and wrapped my arms around to give her a hug. “Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that,” I murmured.
“It’s okay, sweetie. I know things have been pretty difficult for you,” she said as she wrapped her arms around me and rubbed my back.
Thinking of my dad, I nodded my head in her hair. “Yeah, they have.”
“And I’m sorry I haven’t really been there for you that mu—”
I cut her off. “Mom.” Releasing my arms from around her, I moved back. I could see tears filling her eyes and her bottom lip starting to quiver. “Mom, please don’t cry,” I begged.
“I’m so sorry, Gabe. I wish I was there for you when you needed me the most. But I’ve just been so broken about all of this,” she pleaded.
Wrapping her in my arms, I ran my fingers through her hair to soothe her. “I know, Mom,” I whispered in to her hair. “I know. I haven’t really been there for you all that much, either.”
“So we haven’t been there all that much for one another,” Mom said. Pushing off of me, Mom leaned down to grab a few tissues from the coffee table. After wiping her eyes, she looked at me. “How about we have a family dinner at least once a week? I miss my baby.”
Smiling at her, I nodded. “Yeah, Mom, that sounds great.”
“Great,” she said. She patted my hand. “I love you so much, Gabe. You’re my little boy.” She tilted her head. “Well, you certainly aren’t little anymore, but I still see you as the little baby your dad and I brought home almost eighteen years ago.”