15
Gabriel shuddered, his knees pulling apart. Will slid his hand in.
Gabriel’s breath hitched. Suddenly, Will was on his back and Gabriel was standing across the room. His laboured breaths and his arousal were obvious. Will lifted himself onto his elbows and saw the panic in Gabriel’s eyes. Will was too light-headed to feel any sting of rejection. Getting that far had to mean Gabriel wanted him. Tipsy, Will chose the reality where Gabriel desired him in return.
“Cassie and I have a good imagination.” Will shared a grin with him, letting Gabriel know he wasn’t going to press him about what had happened just now. “But yeah, that’s why I was holding her hand.”
Gabriel’s cheeks were flushed, and he was looking anywhere but at Will.
“And she was with me at the supermarket because she wanted to tag along.” Will stood and pulled his shoes on.
Gabriel looked wary of him as he approached.
“I should head home.” Will could see that things had gone too far for Gabriel, and he needed time alone. Or, he needed Will out of his house. Either way, Will was still pleased with himself for getting such a reaction.
“I’ll walk with you,” Gabriel said stiffly.
“It’s okay,” Will said. “I know my way there.”
“It’s the middle of the night. I’m walking you.” Gabriel got his jacket and joined Will by the door. He still wouldn’t look at him.
They got to the road and Will worried about Gabriel’s silence. “Did you bring Sarah to soccer?”
“Soccer?” Gabriel repeated.
“You were asking me before if there was a junior team for her,” Will reminded him.
“Oh, no. Not yet.” Gabriel shook his head. “Her mom has been too busy to drop her out this far the last few weeks. I’ll bring her next time.”
“Has she played it before?”
“Only at break time. Never with a club or anything official,” Gabriel said, his tense expression gradually becoming a smile. “She can’t wait.”
It only took a little more prompting from Will, and Gabriel was telling him all about his first meeting with Sarah, how she looked like a little Gollum when she was just born, and how she was the first person he really cared about. “She’s what bridged the gap between my sister and me,” Gabriel was saying as they stopped at the end of Will’s driveway. “Before her, I’d always been the youngest, and suddenly having someone in my life I could protect…it changed me. For the better.”
Will studied his soft expression. The door was in sight, but he waited before walking up the drive. “Thanks for talking with me tonight.” He faced Gabriel. “I still have no idea what I’ll do with my friend, but I feel a lot better than I did before.”
Gabriel offered him a smile. He hesitated, but reached out to Will and gently squeezed his shoulder. “I’m here to talk if you need me.”
“Thank you.”
“Goodnight, Will,” Gabriel called after him as he walked up the drive.
“Sweet dreams,” Will said back.
Will’s glowing feeling lasted until he got inside. His mom was at the kitchen table, arms crossed, and waiting.
Damn.
“Where were you?” she asked quietly. Her lips pinched tightly together, and her expression was one of barely contained fury.
Will gripped the door frame hard. “I went to practice volleyball,” he said. No way was he going to tell anyone he was in Gabriel’s house. That would cause trouble. “I missed training earlier, and it didn’t feel right.”
He expected her to lose the plot and yell. Instead, she nodded to the chair opposite her.
Will sat down, spying the clock above the fridge—it was 2 am.
“I wanted to tell you this at dinner with Leah, but you were gone.” She scowled. “You didn’t even tell anyone you were going out. You didn’t text. You didn’t reply to any texts—Will, this is ridiculous. I was worried sick about you. I had no idea if you’d been dragged off somewhere, got hit by a car, or, or—”
Will interrupted her rising volume with “I’m sorry, Mom.” A grounding was on the way. He could feel it. He didn’t blame her.
Mom closed her eyes, and he could see her mouthing numbers. She was calmer when she looked at him again. “I’m divorcing your father.”
Will blinked. It took a few moments for the words to settle in the air, and then another few for his brain to decode them. She’s divorcing Dad. He thought of how bad the fighting had gotten the past few weeks. He thought of how stressed his mom was all the time. He thought of how many beer cans were heaped up in the living room. And he was relieved. With Dad gone, his mom wouldn’t be on edge all the time. It would be like old times where she patiently helped him with his homework and—
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you smiling right now?”
“No…I don’t…maybe? Well, I mean, that’s good news, right?” Will floundered.
Mom’s expression turned to rage, and she leapt to her feet. “You are just as bad as your father!”
Will blanched. “What? Mom, I—”
“You’re laughing about this?” She roared at him, “ Do you think divorce is a joke? On top of it all, I have to deal with you coming home late every night, drunk and—”
Will got up, seeing hysteria in his mom’s eyes as she screamed at him. Will couldn’t even speak. He’d never seen her this angry before.
“Where were you?” She advanced. He stood still, terrified of the woman half his size. “ Where were you? ”
“I was at the old abandoned house down the road, Mom. I swear that’s all.” Will squeezed his empty hands, realising he’d left the ball at Gabriel’s house and had no proof.
“Who were you with?”
“I was alone.”
“You smell like beer.” She smacked his chest. “You lying little shit! You’re just like… that man.”
Will flinched away from her rage. His ears were ringing, and he missed a lot of the names she was screaming in his face. Her hands stung his chest, but the pain was far more emotional than physical.
“MADDY!” his dad roared.
Mom ignored him, continuing to scream at Will.
His dad stormed over and hauled her away. And then she was yelling at his dad, and he was yelling at her—and Will bolted for the stairs. He went to Leah’s room, but it was empty. Then he went to his own room and collapsed against his door, flicking the lock into place. He sank down so he was sitting against the door. He rubbed his face and saw how badly his hands were trembling.
Will sucked in sharp breaths. His vision was blurring around the edges.
He dug his buzzing phone out of his pocket and saw a text from Gabriel—alongside a lot of unopened texts from Jack and Mom.
Gabriel: You forgot this.
There was a picture of the volleyball next to his door.
Will blinked back tears and focused on getting his breathing under control. With shaking hands, he replied.
Will: Oops. Shall I run over for it?
Gabriel: Go to bed and get some sleep. You can pick it up tomorrow.
Will liked that he said he could pick it up, and not that Gabriel would drop it off. Will lifted himself up and shuffled to his bed, only getting his shoes off before crawling under the covers.
Will: I dunno. If I leave it there, it might end up with One Direction stickers on it. You’d destroy my rep.
Gabriel: I’m not the one with the stickers!
Will: Uh-huh.
Gabriel: Will!
The shouting downstairs ended with a slammed door, and the tears started again.
Gabriel: You asleep?
Will: In bed. Not tired.
The “read” icon appeared, but no reply followed. Will sniffled.
Will: M ind out of the gutter, Gabriel
Gabriel: It wasn’t in the gutter. If you’re in bed and not tired, what are you going to do?
Will read and reread the text. Had Gabriel really just sent that?
Gabriel: Mind out of the gutter, Will.
Will smiled. He sent back an embarrassed, blushing emoji.
Gabriel: :’)
Gabriel: Get some sleep already, you’ll be tired in the morning. Sweet dreams.
Heavy footsteps came up the stairs. His dad’s. He knocked. With a heavy breath, Will went to unlock it. Immediately, he could smell the beer on his dad’s breath. “Don’t worry about a thing,” his dad said, patting Will’s shoulder, but not once meeting Will’s eyes. “She’s having one of her moments.” With that, he turned and stumbled away.
Will’s eyes burned as a fresh set of tears threatened to fall. Since when did his dad reassure him about something Mom had said? It was never like this growing up. Dad was the bad influence. Mom was the one who kept them all alive. Dad was the scary one. Mom was the one who protected them.
He stumbled back to his phone.
Will: Sweet dreams. xx