Erich - Ten

Erich

            I dreaded it all day. I knew I had tripped Gabe, and I knew I had done it on purpose. But in my own mind I was absolutely sure that I was the victim here. I couldn’t spend a whole night alone with Gabe, not to mention two nights a week for the rest of the term. I just couldn’t do it.

            What about my plan? How was I supposed to keep him at a distance now?

            I did nothing to prepare myself for the night ahead of me. I woke up in the morning convinced that I could scare Gabe into shutting his mouth for the whole night. By lunch, though, I was so tired of looking scary I just gave up. It wasn’t doing any good anyway. Gabe was still right there, like a pathetic shadow.

            At least he never said anything about the race. Something must have scared him out of confronting me. It had just been a snap decision to bring him down with me. I still wasn’t even really sure why I had done it. Not that I ever would have admitted it, but I actually felt guilty. Every time I looked at that little cut on his temple I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Guilt wasn’t something I was used to feeling, but I was pretty sure that was what it was.

            At nine o’ clock, we were all sitting in the dorm, smoking and looking over a Biology dissertation book as thick as a dictionary when Gabe looked at his watch.

            “Erich,” was all he said.

            I groaned and threw down my book. “S**t. All right, let’s go.”

            “Ha! Have fun!” Jim jeered sarcastically. “Lots of good you’ll do. I’m sure those zeppelins will see you up there and head right back to where they came from.”

            Gabe and I simultaneously told him to piss off. Hersch smacked him with his book. “Hey idiot,” he said. “Why don’t you make yourself useful for a change and help me with this essay?”

            Jim looked disgustedly down at the page. “We’ll never get it done with this s**t. I’m going to the library.”

            “Good luck there,” Hersch laughed. He looked at us. “Don’t you two have somewhere to be?” He was just as sarcastic as Jim. I just growled and trudged out the door with Gabe at my heels.

            Gabe didn’t say anything as we made our way to the commons. I welcomed the silence and couldn’t help but smile at the empty sound of our feet echoing down the corridor.

            In the commons, we found a prefect waiting for us. He had our provisions, which basically meant buckets of sand and water. They were heavy. I smugly carried four while Gabe struggled with two.

            The prefect led us outside to the fire escape, a ladder enclosed by a tubular shoot on the side of the main building. He then left us there without further instructions, and the two of us were forced to bring the buckets up one at a time (by which I mean, Gabe hoisted them off the ground and I climbed the ladder with one hand). Still, neither of us said anything.

            So it worked out that I got to the roof first. It was flat and wide, plenty of room to put space between Gabe and myself. I looked off into the darkness. I wish I could say there was some kind of beautiful, life changing view, but there wasn’t. Just a bunch of trees and the dorms to the left and right. Plus it was damn cold.

“Hey!” A small voice came from the wall below me. I looked over the edge, realizing that we were much higher than I thought, and saw Gabe dangling from the ladder. His arms were shaking a little, and I realized hefting the buckets had been hard for him (could I really be that much stronger than he was?). He groped helplessly at the ladder and I could tell he was too shaky to reach the top rung.

            Well, I wasn’t about to let him fall. It didn’t even cross my mind. A long time later, I would realize what a step forward that was for me, that I hadn’t even imagined going through with the decision that would have ended with Gabe becoming a bloody pile of broken bones. Instead, I reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him up to the roof.

            Then he did something that made me want to drop him. Right there, with his hand clasped around my wrist, his face an inch away from mine, he gave me that goddamn look. His eyes somehow managed to get even bigger and even greener, his eyebrows knit together and he blinked a couple times too many.

            Whatever that look meant, it made me so uncomfortable I considered jumping off the roof. Once he had both feet under him, I clenched my jaw and let go of hand.

            Gabe cleared his throat and looked down. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

            I didn’t say anything. I was already walking away from him. With three good strides, I was on the other side of the roof. I leaned against the chimney, hunched my shoulders, and prepared for the most uncomfortable night of my life.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I like this chapter. The two boys will have a hard getting along. I like the thoughts and the fear in this chapter. A strong ending to a excellent chapter.
Coyote

[Arianna]

i forgot how much i loved this chapter :)

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