Gael continued down the alley, toward Rosemary Street, where he knew there would be far fewer people.
He walked down Rosemary, and after a few blocks, the acrid smell of spray paint tickled his nose. He turned. Against the brick wall of one of the dirtier dive bars were huge block letters, dripping as if freshly painted: This, too, shall pass.
He stopped, stared at the words, soaked them in for a second. Then he shook his head, kept walking. Inspirational shit works a lot better, he mused, when your whole life isn’t already ruined.
In case you’re wondering, I was not simply trying to perfect my tagging skills and give Banksy a run for his money. I was trying to reach Gael by any means possible: whether that meant urging old ladies to give away flowers or hand painting inspirational quotes. If I could only give him a tiny ray of hope, I could help him move past Anika and—eventually—on to Miss Right.
Of course, I hadn’t anticipated a fatal flaw in my plan.
A dreaded enemy of True Love since the dawn of freaking time.
Ladies and gentleman, may I present my nemesis . . .
The Rebound.
it (accidentally) happened one night
Gael was only a few minutes from his house, walking in the road to avoid a mess of spilled beer on the sidewalk, when a girl on a bike suddenly whirled toward him. The bike’s front wheel hit his leg, his knees buckled, and he toppled forward, his hands rising to shield himself.
For a moment, he lay sprawled out on the sidewalk, clothes covered in the beer he’d been trying to avoid, and then he felt a hand touch his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Gael slowly rolled onto his side. Behind him, a black-and-red bike sat on top of a plastic takeout bag tied tightly shut. His flower was miraculously unhurt, stuck through the spokes of the front wheel like some kind of annoying metaphor for resilience.
Kneeling down next to him was a girl in a zip-up hoodie, Sriracha T-shirt, faded jeans, and Birkenstocks. Long, wispy blond hair peeked from beneath her bike helmet, which was covered with stickers of bands he’d never heard of. Her round cheeks were flushed red. “I can’t believe I just did that,” she said, her eyes getting all watery. “Are you okay?”
Gael pushed himself up to a sitting position and scooted onto the curb. “I’m all right, I think. What happened?”
“There was a cat,” she said. “Darted right across the street in front of me. I swerved to miss it, but you were right there.”
“Hit the human instead of the cat,” he said caustically. “Nice.”
Her face fell to a frown. “I really am sorry,” she repeated.
Gael instantly felt bad. It wasn’t enough that he’d publicly told his parents and Piper that he wished they’d all go away. Now he was snipping at random girls, too. Anika and Mason deserved it, sure, but the rest of the world? Not so much. He didn’t want to sink to their level. He wondered if he had already.
Gael brushed the beery dirt off his shirt. “I was just kidding. I probably would have saved the kitty, too.” His voice softened. “But you should look where you’re going before you swerve. What if there had been a car? You could have been wiped out.”
“I know.” She bit her lip. “I had a biking accident recently. I’m all out of practice.”
Gael ignored the ache in the back of his leg and the smell of beer emanating from the fibers of his T-shirt. “Eesh,” he said. “An accident? That sucks. Were you okay?”
The girl smiled genuinely, and he had a deeply na?ve thought, one that even he could tell was na?ve: She’s not the kind of girl who’d cheat on her boyfriend. “I’m fine, thanks. No bones broken, at least. But I guess I’m just a bit of a nervous rider now. I thought a quick ride to Cosmic would be no big deal, but I was wrong.”
A girl who liked Cosmic and wouldn’t cheat on him, he thought. Man, he had to stop this. Was he so messed up that he was projecting all his feelings onto the first girl he met?
(Yes, oh yes, he was. The Rebound is always a risk, but I hadn’t worried too much about it with Gael given that he’d essentially become a social recluse. But now, one walk home alone, and I was already on the defensive. Not to mention, the Rebound in question was also a Meet Cute. You know, when two people run into each other out of the blue, and suddenly everyone thinks it’s meant to be. Humans are experts at focusing so much on how they found someone over who that person actually is and if they’re truly the right one. Le sigh.)
While Gael was debating whether it was totally cliché to crush on the first girl he met after Anika, his stomach growled as if unaware of his internal struggle.
“You got Cosmic?” he asked timidly.
The girl’s gray eyes brightened. “You’re a Cosmic fan?”
Gael smiled wide. “Isn’t everyone? It’s the best food on Franklin besides Spanky’s, I-M-H-O.”