Chapter 6
Soul
I step out of the shower and look in the mirror, certain that my mom and dad are going to know what I have been up to as soon as they see me. I mean, I look different to myself, so I know my mom is going to be able to tell there is a difference in me. Ugh, she is going to kill me! I think with a shrug because I can’t change anything at this point, and I don’t want to. If I had to do it all over again, I would. Gabe was so gentle and patient. Granted, it was his first time, too, but he could have been only concerned with himself, and he wasn’t. He’s talking about planning for prom, and I’m planning for our wedding. How could I want anyone else? I stuff the last of my belongings in my bag and head to the front, where we get picked up, happy and sad. I missed home, but home doesn’t have Gabe, and I am going to miss seeing him every day. As soon as I round the bin, I come face to face with Ebony and Melinda, as soon as they see it’s me, they both scramble to get as far away from me as possible. I really gotta ask my sister what she said to her. I don’t have time to think about that anymore when I hear my mother’s voice, and I see her and my dad here already. They are one of the first parents to come, figures. I wave excitedly, hurrying over to them to be engulfed in my mom’s arms and then my dad’s.
“Look at you,” my mom says, pulling me back to her again.
“You look different somehow,” she cocks her head to the side, and I struggle not to fidget under her glare.
“Maybe almost drowning aged me,” I say.
“It certainly aged your mother and me,” my dad says, pulling my mother”s attention off me.
“It wasn’t intentional, Daddy,” I say, genuinely feeling bad for scaring my parents.
“Well, let”s get on the road, we have a long drive,” he opens the back door for me, before putting my bags in the trunk. As I climb in the backseat, I look over to see Gabe, standing there looking at me. Pausing, I mouth, I love you. He says it back, and I get in the car smiling from ear to ear. As soon as we are all settled, my dad pulls off, and I look back at the camp that changed my life this summer and the boy who holds my heart until I can’t see either of them.
Today is the first day of school, and I am hoping it hurries up and goes by, Gabe called me last night and said he had a surprise for me today but wouldn’t tell me until today. He kept his word, and he has been writing me like crazy. I get a letter a day, sometimes two. Every once in a while, he’ll call, and we always plan it so I can be the one who answers I still haven’t told my parents that I have a boyfriend. I can’t wait to see Angie, she and her family went down south for the summer, so I haven’t had my crazy best friend with me. My parents aren’t too keen on Angie’s mom, since her mother doesn’t believe in that organized religion mess. Her words, not mine and not Angie’s. But they couldn’t do anything but fall in love with her when they met her. I take another look in the mirror, double-check my hair, grab my book bag, and head to the bus stop.
“Girl!” I hear and turn to see Angie running towards me. I run to meet her, and we hug like we haven’t seen each other in years instead of months.
“We got so much to catch up on!” I tell her.
“Yes, we do! Should we have a sleepover this weekend?”
“Oouu, yes, let’s do that!” I tell her, grabbing her hand and walking into the school.
The morning is dragging by. Lunch can’t come fast enough. Thankfully, Angie and I have the same lunch period. Finally, the bell rings, and I am out of my seat before my teacher can get any words out of his mouth. I head straight to the lunchroom so I can get ahead of the crowds, I get my tray and load it up for me and Angie. Whoever gets to the lunchroom first makes sure to grab all the good stuff for the both of us. I pay for the food and head to our table, have a seat, and wait for my friend and it’s not a long wait.
“Boy, the next time you touch me, you are going to draw back a nub!” she tells Darnell. Darnell has been in love with Angie since kindergarten, and she wants nothing to do with him.
“Is it just me, or is today creeping by? I can’t wait until we graduate so we can go off to college together. Oh, did you hear about the new boy? I hear he is fine as hell!” Angie says in one breath as she sits at the table.
“Girl, take a breath,” I say, laughing, pushing the tray towards her.
“Yes, it is creeping by. And what new boy?”
“I don’t know who he is. Actually, he looks like your future husband,” she says, popping a fry in her mouth.
“Like Gabriel?”
“Yep, I mean, I have only seen him in pictures, and you be stingy showing them to me even though we are best friends,” she brings up the same old argument, but I want to keep that me and Gabe have between us.
“I am not being stingy,” I say around my fry. “Don’t start this again.” We get into the same argument we love to have, and we eat, that is, until I felt hands blocking my eyes. At first, I started to cuss whoever was touching me out. I don’t cuss often, but I will if I need to. And then I felt it, I felt him, and I damn near knocked the table over, standing up to see with my eyes what my body had already confirmed.
“Gabe,’ I breathe out.
“Soul,” he smiles, pulling me into his arms.
“Gabe, the Gabe?”
“Gabriel,” we both corrected her.
“Excuse me, Gabriel,” she sing-songed.
“What are you doing here?”
“That was my surprise, we moved here.”
“Here! In Willowbrook?”
“Yes, babe. Here in Willowbrook,” he says, pulling my chair out and sitting down beside me.
“Sorry, Angie, this is Gabe, I mean…”
“Gabriel,” she says with me. “I know.”
“Yes, this is my Gabe.”
“We partly moved in yesterday, but I couldn’t not come to school today and see you.” We talked, and just like on the weekends, when time flies by but creeps by any other time, lunch flew by. When lunch was over, he walked me and Angie to class seeing that we had class together.
“We definitely have to do a sleepover this weekend,” she writes on the paper to me.
“I guess so, huh? Now more than ever,” I write back. We didn’t pay any attention to whatever the teacher had to say, and before long, we were off to our other classes. When the last bell rang, I was out of the door and running into a chest. “How did you get here so fast?”
“I was called to the main office. Instead of going back to class, I came here. After all, I am a new student. It’s easy to get lost,” he says with a grin.
“Gabe, you’re here!”
“I am, and I am only a few streets over from you. I am within walking distance,”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Walk home with me?”
“Walk?”
“Yeah, with me. So we can talk, I just want to be with you.”
I nibble my lip before saying, “Okay.” Neither parent should be home, but if they ask, I will simply tell them I missed the bus. Angie bounced up to us, and we walked her to her bus, watching as they pulled off. He took my hand, and we began the almost two-mile walk home.
“How are you here?”
“My father took over Pastor Steele’s church, Lighthouse WCR, over on Reynolds St. It was an opportunity to take over a larger church, so of course, my father jumped at the opportunity, plus our church would be a good spot for a new pastor since it is a smaller seasoned congregation.”
“I guess I better tell my parents I have a boyfriend, there is no way I can keep this a secret with you being here.”
“Do you want me to be there with you?”
“Nope, don’t think it would help. At all.” I tell him, laughing.
“If you change your mind,”
“Okay, I will keep that in mind.”
“When will you tell them?”
“Soon, why?”
“I wanna take you out, and I can’t do that if your parents don’t know about us.”
“Well, I guess it’s no time like the present. If I think the mood is right, I will tell them tonight.”
“You don’t have to rush, tell them when you feel comfortable. I get to see you every day now. I can wait.”
We talked the rest of the way, and those two miles went by like it was a couple of steps and not a couple of miles. But that walk became a regular thing.
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