5. Gabby
My phone rings as I dash down the stairs. I have to go back to my room, shower, and get to class, and I have a limited amount of time. I see that it’s my mom, so I put my earbuds in and answer it. “Hi, Mom,” I say.
“’Morning, Gabs,” she replies. “Did you just finish your run?”
“Uh, no. No run today.”
I can hear my brothers and sisters in the background, and it’s nice to know they’re safe and happy.
“Why not?” Mom asks. “You run every morning.”
“So, something happened,” I start. I don’t even know how to explain it.
Everything goes quiet on Mom’s end. “Are you all right?” she asks.
I can hear Jake”s voice in the background. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
I imagine Mom waving a hand in the air as she shushes him. “What happened, Gabby?” she asks softly. She knows me so well.
“Well, I went for my run this morning, and I might have sort of kind of pepper-sprayed somebody who got too close to me. Just a little bit.”
I get to the bottom of the stairwell and find a crowd of people standing there. One of them points at me, and the rest snicker. I look down. I’m dressed—no idea why they’re snickering.
“Pepper spray?” Mom says.
Suddenly, Jake takes the phone from her, and he growls in my ear. “Why did you pepper spray somebody? What did they do? I can be there in a few hours, Gabs,” he says.
I smile. “I’m fine. It was nothing. It was a mistake, actually. Somebody ran up behind me, and he got too close, and I spun around and blasted him in the face.”
“That’s my girl,” Jake says, and I can see him standing there smiling in my head. “Did he drop like a stone? That pepper spray I got you is stronger than the normal stuff.”
Don’t I know it? And Seth does, too. “Yeah, he went down pretty fast.”
“Good job, Gabs,” he says.
“Who the fuck did she pepper spray?” I hear Pop asking in the background.
“What’s it matter, Pop? He got too close, and she took him out, just like she’s supposed to.”
I can hear them bickering, which they do often. “Hey, Jake!” I yell.
“What?” he asks, clearly harassed by Pop’s comments.
“Can I talk to Mom again?” I ask. I have a limited amount of time.
“She wants to talk to you,” I hear him mutter.
“Hang on, Gabs,” Mom says as she goes to a quieter area. I hear a door shut. “Tell me what happened.”
“He scared me, Mom. That’s all. And I reflexively pulled out my pepper spray. I doused him in it. I thought we were both going to die from the toxic cloud of it.” I sniffle. “I can still kind of taste it in my throat.”
“Gabby,” she says with a sigh. “You did the right thing. Always follow your gut.”
“Yeah, but Mom…” I say with a grimace.
“What, Gabs?” she asks. I can tell I have all her attention.
“Um… It was Seth.”
“Oh, no,” Mom breathes out on a massive breath of air. “Not Seth.”
“Yep. It was Seth. He ran up behind me and tried to get my attention, but I thought he was going to grab me and drag me into the woods. It was Seth, Mom! It was Seth!”
“Well, is he all right?”
“He’s okay. I washed his eyes and face and put him in the shower, and he was walking around and could see just fine when I left him.”
“Wait,” she says. “You put him in the shower.”
“He couldn’t see anything, Mom.”
“Um… Did he happen to have clothes on at this point?”
“No, they were covered in pepper spray.”
“Gabby,” she says, her voice a warning like she used to use before she told me I did something wrong.
“He can see now, Mom,” I remind her. That’s what”s important.
“That wasn’t what I was going to say.” She hauls in a breath and blows it out. “After what happened at Christmas when you hit him in the face, and now this has happened, Gabs. That’s not a great record.”
“Don’t I know it?”
I walk past another group of people on the way back to the apartment, and I see someone lift their phone and take a picture.
“Mom, I have to go,” I say. “I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, Gabs. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I let myself into my apartment, and as I tug my clothes off to jump in the shower, I look at Seth’s shirt. I just walked all the way across campus in the early morning wearing Seth’s clothes. Now I know why everyone was staring. They think I was walking back after spending the night. Why else would I be in his clothes? This is bad. It”s really, really bad.
When I walk into my first class, a few heads turn, and I hear some snickers. Since there is not much I can do about it, I decide to ignore it, which is easier said than done.
Then I look up and see Seth sitting across the room. This is the first day of the new semester, and it’s the first time we’ve ever had a class together. He kicks the chair back next to him and motions toward it. I walk over and sit down gingerly next to him.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I whisper.
“Apparently, we fucked,” he replies in a murmur. He lifts his brow and stares at me. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I never meant for this to happen.” He holds his hands up like he’s surrendering to the cops.
I laugh. It’s loud and ludicrous and obnoxious. I cover my mouth as he grins at me. “Sorry, didn’t mean to do that.”
“You think this is funny?” he says, as he grins too.
“Hilarious,” I say, just as the professor walks in and settles behind the podium.
Seth reaches over and whispers in my ear. “I’ll make it right,” he says earnestly. “I’ll fix this.”
“Don’t worry about it, Seth,” I reply. I grin. “I suppose I could do worse.” I let my gaze jump from his eyes to his mouth and back. “I guess I just thought it would be better, you know? Something to write home about.” I bump his shoulder with mine. “Orgasmic!” I whisper.
“You suck,” he says as he bumps me back, but he’s grinning.
“You suck,” I reply as I bump him back.
The professor clears his throat, and class starts. I pay attention, although all I can think about is the man beside me.