The walk back to his house was kept his mind busy, going over and over the situation again. By the time that he arrived home he realized that continuing to obsess over the events of the day would get him nowhere. He resigned himself to the fact that he had just gotten lucky with Ethan’s stepping in and was willing to leave it at that.
They lived in a quiet average neighborhood near the edge of town. His house was two stories tall and was made of brick, with red shutters and a nicely manicured lawn. Gabriel grabbed the main on his way up the driveway. He punched in the door code and stepped inside, neither of his parents were home yet.
He found Sean in the kitchen, scarfing down an apple.
“Hey,” Sean smiled. “How was your day?”
“Why do you always ask me that?”
“On the off chance that one of these days you might actually say that you had a good day,” Sean shrugged.
“I guess it wasn’t so bad,” Gabriel admitted.
“I heard that you stood up for some kid.”
Gabriel’s head snapped around at that comment.
“Tim’s cousin goes to Highland, he told me about your little scuffle this morning.”
“I’d hardly call it a scuffle,” Gabriel shrugged. “It’s just the same thing that David says to me every day, although it had been a while since he pulled off the whole shoving me into a locker bit.”
Sean turned red instantly and looked like he was going to crush the apple core that he was holding onto.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Gabriel winced. “Because I knew that you would react like that.”
“React like what?” Sean demanded.
“Like you are right now,” Gabriel sighed. “I’m the big brother I’m the one that is supposed to be protecting you, not the other way around.”
“You need the protecting more than me,” Sean protested. “And don’t let jerks like him get you down, you’re better than that.”
“I know that look, it’s the same look that you gave me when you found out that well...you know,” Gabriel winced. “I already told you that I would never try that again.”
Gabriel felt a little guilty that Sean or his parents brought up what happened last June. He shook the thoughts of guilt away and tried to alter the topic of conversation back toward Sean and something a lot less depressing.
“Still dating Kelly?” Gabriel asked, as he pulled up the fridge. He looked around for something and pulled out bowl of grapes.
“Yup,” Sean shrugged.
“You don’t sound happy about it,” Gabriel remarked, popping another grape in his mouth.
“I am!” Sean said. “But well…it’s just…I dunno, her friends are…”
“Shallow?”
“Eh…”
“Stupid?” Gabriel offered. “Vapid? Annoying?”
“You can stop now.”
“You started that conversation.”
“I just don’t see how they can spend so much of their time discussing stuff that doesn’t matter.”
“She probably feels the same way when you and your buds talk about sports,” Gabriel shrugged, eating another grape.
Sean shrugged again. “I guess so. I don’t think that I will ever understand them.”
“Men have been trying to understand women since the dawn of time,” Gabriel said, standing up. “And we still haven’t figured much out…other than they like chocolate and diamonds, beyond that I would say most men are pretty clueless.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Sean sighed. “Got any big plans this weekend? I think Tim and I were going to go check out a movie, you’re more than welcome to come along…mom’s probably going to make you drive us anyways.”
“Not spending time with Kelly?”
“Nope,” Sean said, shaking his head. “It’s a girl’s weekend. I don’t know what that means and I don’t think that I want to know what that means.”
“They are probably going to sit around and complain about all your disgusting habits.”
“They do that every day,” Sean said, making a face.
“Maybe they’ll talk about which boyfriend is the better kisser.”
“Wait…what?” Sean asked, practically spitting out his milk. “They don’t talk about that stuff…I mean that’s locker room conversation like what I talk about after practice…oh hell.”
“Sean,” Gabriel said, standing and clapping his brother on the shoulder. “You’re going to have to realize that women are the most mysterious forms of life on this planet, sure they chastise you about that kind of talk but from what I have heard, they engage in it just as often as men, except they keep better notes. And women don’t forget.”
Now Sean actually looked a little worried.
“Relax,” Gabriel smiled. “I’m sure you’re a great kisser.”
“And what if she thinks that I’m not?”
“Then you won’t hear about it, more likely she’ll just tell all her friends and they will just snicker behind your back,” Gabriel shrugged.
“Now you’re just messing with me, right?”
Gabriel just shrugged again and headed up to his room, he knew that Sean would spend the next hour or so chewing on that piece of information. In truth he had no idea if that really was what girls were like; although given what he had overhead in the hallways he thought he was pretty close.
He closed the door to his room and fired up his computer, signing onto Facebook. He didn’t even know why he kept it around, other than the fact that Sean would give him another lecture should he shut it down. He was about to log off when a message appeared on his screen. He had to read the name twice before he accepted it.
To: Gabriel James
From: Ryan Cloud
Message: Hey, just thought that I would say hi!
Gabriel shook his head, more than a little surprised that Ryan had messaged him. He assumed after their intervention earlier in the day they would never speak to him again. His fingers hovered over the keys while his brain attempted to figure out what to type.
To: Ryan Cloud
From: Gabriel James
Message: Hi, what’s up?
Ok, well that responded looked even lamer on screen than when he typed it out.
To: Gabriel James
From: Ryan Cloud
Message: Nothing much...just wanted to check on you and make sure you were ok, I know that David can be a real butt-head at times. You cool with adding me as a friend on here?
Had Ryan been in the room with him, he would have seen Gabriel’s jaw hit the floor. He was sure that this had to be some sort of a joke, right? He had never heard of Ryan acting like a jerk at school, in fact he was well known for getting along with everyone. He wasn’t one of those popular guys that seemed to alienate, well anyone.
To: Ryan Cloud
From: Gabriel James
Message: No, sure that’s cool man.
To: Gabriel James
From: Ryan Cloud
Message: Awesome! Have a great day!
And then Ryan signed off, leaving Gabriel sitting there staring at his computer.
What the hell was that? Gabriel wondered. He shook his head and went to his backpack to get his homework. For the next several hours, he worked on the various class projects that he had, most of them for his advanced biology class. He was about halfway through his history reading when there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Gabriel called.
The door opened and Gabriel’s father, Eric, peaked in.
“Mind if I come in sport.”
“Sport?” Gabriel asked. “You haven’t called me that since I was eight.”
Eric smiled. “I know, can I sit down?”
“Sure,” Gabriel said.
“What are you working on?”
“I was reading up on history, Mr. Brown has us doing hypothetical scenarios about World War II, like what if the Nazi’s won or what if we decided not to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.”
“Eh,” Gabriel shrugged. “I’d rather be working on my science homework.”
“Which is what?”
“I’m reading up on mutation and evolution as well as genetic enhancement,” Gabriel said. He turned his computer screen so that his dad could see it. “Within my lifetime we should be able to wipe out cancer and a whole host of childhood diseases by gene modification.”
“Sounds impressive,” Eric said. “Look, Sean told me about what happened at school today. I can call the school tomorrow; Highland is supposed to have a strict no bullying policy...”
“Don’t dad,” Gabriel sighed.
“This is what we were afraid of,” his father sighed. “Look, you know that you can talk to us about anything, right? Me, your mother, Sean.”
“Dad, really I’m fine. Some guys stepped in and made him scram, I really don’t think that he’ll be bothering me anytime soon.”
“All we want is for you to be happy.”
“I know.”
They both sat there in awkward silence before his dad stood up. “Well, I should go help with dinner.”
“Yeah, see you down there.”
Gabriel whistled softly as soon as his dad left the room. He knew that his father meant well but it seemed like every time that Gabriel got even remotely down everyone assumed the worst. He couldn’t fault them for caring but it was a little unnerving to think that they thought he could be upset but the smallest run in with a bully.
Dinner went fine, his mother only mentioned the incident once and then was quickly shut down by his father. Sean seemed to want to press the conversation but again, his father made it clear that they needed to move onto another topic of conversation.
“Gabriel?” Sean asked, poking his head in.
“What’s up?”
“Well, I think I got an even better idea than a movie…”
“It was my idea!”
That would have been Tim, Sean’s best friend. Tim Clark was about the same size as Sean; both were on the gymnastics team and had builds that showed it. However, Tim’s parents had adopted him from Korea when he was a young boy. Tim had brown eyes and a mess of shaggy black hair. Tim was a good kid but he tended to have a slight wild streak in him, which could land both himself and Sean in hot water on occasion.
“Ok,” Gabriel said, sitting up. “What is this brilliant idea of yours?”
“There’s a party going on down in Morton Park tonight…”
“No way!” Gabriel snapped. “Nope, not going to happen, negative…need I go on?”
“Aw, come on,” Sean whined. “All the cool kids are supposed to be there…”
“And you do know that Morton Park is probably in the worst area of town, right?”
As much as Gabriel hated saying that it was a true statement. Morton Park was located in the northern corner of the city, surrounded by areas that had been rife with crime for the past twenty years. Gangs ran rampant in that area, as did drug dealers, prostitutes and several other people of less than upstanding moral character. Not even the police journeyed into that area unless they were in force.
“First off Morton Park is near the border of what you call the ‘the worst area of town’,” Tim stated, making air quotes. “And secondly, there are going to be a ton of kids there and I doubt that anyone is going to mess with a gathering that size.”
“I still think that it’s a bad idea,” Gabriel said. “Mom and dad would flip if they found out.
“Then we don’t tell mom and dad,” Sean smiled. “Come on bro…”
“And what do we tell them?” Gabriel asked. “I mean sure it makes sense that you are gone…you have a social life but what about me?”
“We’re going to tell them that we are all staying the night at my place,” Tim smiled. “My parents are out of town and I doubt that your parents are going to check up on what my smiling face said.”
Tim was wickedly charming when he tried. When he got older, Gabriel knew that it was going to get him into some serious trouble, entertaining no doubt but trouble nonetheless.
“And why would mom and dad believe that I was staying over with you guys?”
“Because I’ll charm them into believing it,” Tim smiled again. “Come on, you aren’t going to be doing anything else tonight aside from sitting around sticking your head in a book.”
Gabriel wanted to come up with an argument against what Tim had said but he didn’t have one readily available. Mostly because what Tim was saying was completely true. Even with his ability to talk his way into or out of anything, Gabriel still wasn’t sure that Tim could pull it off or whether or not he would even go through with taking them all down to the park.
“Guys…”
“Great!” Tim said, clapping his hand together and rubbing them. “I’ll go rehearse my little speech to your parents. Oh and you might want to actually pack a bag, I don’t imagine that we’ll do a lot of sleeping but it will look more convincing.”
Gabriel wanted to protest but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to mount a defense good enough to get either his brother or Tim to change their minds.
“You’ll have fun,” Sean smiled.
“Sure, just assuming that we don’t get robbed, beaten up, or killed,” Gabriel groaned.
“Have a little faith.”
Gabriel groaned again and slumped down in his chair. His night was about to get a lot more interesting and he wasn’t entirely sure that it was a good thing. He was ok with his life, as boring as it seemed on occasion. At least he knew that would be safe and not getting drug off to some park in the middle of the night. Gabriel shook his head, he hated the fact that Sean and Tim had talked into something so easily. He stood, went to his closet, and started looking around for his sleeping bag.
CHAPTER 2
Ethan Blackburn was not a patient person. He preferred action instead of talk and standing around doing nothing was not something that considered himself overly skilled at. He sighed heavily, turning to look at the others on the rooftop with him. He had been pacing around for what seemed like hours, in reality it probably had been only a handful of minutes
Currently, he was standing on the roof of a rundown building in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. It was a haven for those that defied the law and had it not been for the fact that he was here on a very specific mission, he would have had a good time rounding up some drug dealers and other less than desirable human beings.
“You need to relax.”
Ethan rolled his neck; he could feel the muscles tensing with annoyance. He checked his watch again and let out a long sighed. That prompted an eye roll from both Cody and Ryan.
“I don’t do the whole relaxing thing,” Ethan snapped. “I do the whole save the day thing…I doubt that he’ll even show up. He’s stupid, but I doubt that even he is that stupid.”
“Aye, but he is greedy,” Cody tossed in, looking through his goggles again.
“I’m still not seeing how you can pull that off every day?” Ryan sighed, shaking his head.
“And what’s that?” Cody responded.
“This,” Ryan gestured toward his friend. “You’re one of the best shots on the planet, you’re like Legolas with that thing yet you continually manage to pull off the dork card.”
Cody shrugged. “It’s not easy mate that damn wig gets pretty itchy.”
“Aw but you look so cute with long hair,” Ryan swooned, batting his eyes at the young Irishmen.
“Oh, toss off,” Cody responded, sticking his tongue out.
“Yeah, you two are real mature,” Ethan grunted.
Both Ryan and Cody ignored that comment.
Again Ethan could feel his frustration building and the banter of his two teammates did nothing to improve his mood. He cracked his knuckles, rather loudly despite the expansive space of their surroundings.
“Do you have any idea how bloody annoying that is?” Cody snapped.
Ethan just shrugged
.
“You know, you could just use a gun, right?” Ryan asked, referring to the bow on Cody’s back.
Cody shrugged. “Do you have to ask that question all the bloody time?” Cody growled, through clenched teeth. “I happen to like the thing and you know that specialized payloads have saved your arse more times than you’d admit too.”
“I think that goes more to the fact that we aren’t entirely human,” Ryan shrugged. “And all those wonderful skills that have been drilled into us since we were kids.”
“Or I just rock and you just suck.”
“Ladies,” Ethan said, halting his pacing. “Do me a favor and shut the hell up.”
Ethan found it oddly amusing that most of the fantasy tales told about vampires, werewolves, magic, demons, and other things that went bump in the night were written off as nothing more than fiction. If the world only knew that all those things and more existed, life would be more interesting.
But that would also incite a panic like no other – knowing that there were monsters out there that the forces of nature could be magically controlled by a select few. No, that would be anarchy. Nations would clamor for control of those individuals, rush to figure out how they did that and in the process probably plunge the world back into the dark ages.
As much as Ethan would have liked to have thought that society had moved beyond the ability to discriminate he saw it firsthand every day in school. All you had to do was look at the way Gabriel was treated; he had no magical abilities, he wasn’t a different species, his only crime was being attracted to the same sex. And yet, for as much as tolerance was preached throughout TV, books, and the web he was still virtually ignored.
Ethan fiddled with the gauntlet on his armor, running a hand over the smooth metal surface. The armor was black, made of interlocking metal plates. He idly picked dust out of a bullet hole that had appeared in the chest of his armor, which had been easily stopped by the dense yet lightweight material.
The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon Page 2