De-Lurking with a Fiction
Luke Campbell was your average troubled teenaged boy. He frequently fought with the other students and teachers and had landed himself in Juvenile Detention on more than one occasion. He was stubborn and apathetic and wasn’t afraid to take what he wanted. Except, of course, when it came to the tangle of too long limbs and awkward mannerisms that was Gabriel Gray.
Gabriel, for all tense and purposes, was a dork. His neatly combed and parted hair, his overly large rectangular glasses, and his modest, old-fashioned clothing could attest to that. Luke found it all too adorable. Yet, despite himself, he couldn’t muster the courage to approach Gabriel. He knew it was ridiculous to be too nervous to talk to someone so low on the social ladder, but he couldn’t help it. Though, it wasn’t like he was on the top rung. Hell, he might’ve been even lower than Gabriel.
Luke settled for watching Gabriel from afar. Like Luke, he didn’t seem to have any friends. He seemed to prefer it that way, too. Luke often found, not followed, Gabriel in the school library. He was sure that all of those books, which Luke accidentally read the titles of so he could check them out later, couldn’t be for Gabriel’s schoolwork. And when Luke glanced, not stared, at Gabriel in class, he noticed that the boy preferred to quietly take notes rather than enthusiastically participate in the lessons, like most other dorks did. Luke also watched, quite angrily, as his fellow classmates picked on Gabriel. He never tried to defend himself. Gabriel simply accepted being tripped up, pushed, hit, and, ultimately, laughed at. Then, after his antagonists moved on, Gabriel would gingerly pick up his fallen things and limp off.
Two years passed before Luke finally decided that enough was enough. He was finally going to talk to Gabriel. It was the end of their second class together when Luke decided to approach him. Gabriel always took his time packing up after class. Luke suspected he did this so that he could avoid his tormentors. Luke had spent two years standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom practicing what he would say when this moment finally came. All of that went to shit when walked up to Gabriel. “Um… hi,” Luke said lamely. Gabriel flinched and took a step back, no doubt expecting Luke to attack him. Luke’s reputation did precede him, after all. Luke frowned at Gabriel’s reaction, but he was not deterred. “Gabriel, right?” he asked, as if he wasn’t sure. Yeah, thought Luke, play it cool. Gabriel swallowed hard and nodded, tense. “I’m Luke.”
“I-it wasn’t me. Whatever it was,” Gabriel squeaked and threw a forlorn glance at the empty teacher’s desk. Luke blinked, confused. He hadn’t been expecting that answer.
“What? No! I’m not going to hurt you,” Luke said, trying to fight his embarrassment. Now it was Gabriel’s turn to look confused,
“You’re… you’re not?” Luke shook his head vigorously.
“No, I just…” Luke trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say exactly. He sighed, agitated, and ran his fingers through his slightly curly, reddish brown hair. This wasn’t turning out nearly as well as he had hoped. “I just thought that, you know, we could, like…” Luke had no idea where he was going with this and the way Gabriel’s thick eyebrows knitted together as his confusion deepened didn’t help Luke either, as it only served to distract him in a not entirely unpleasant way, “I mean, you always seem to be alone, so I thought, ya know, that maybe we could hang out sometime or something?” So much for playing it cool.
“You want to… hang out… with… me?” A brief flash of delight spread over Gabriel’s face, so quick that it could have easily been missed, before the expression was replaced with suspicion. “Why? Is this some sort of… trick?” Luke frowned again.
“No… I just… look, if you don’t wanna, you don’t have to. But if you do, just, like, meet me in the lunchroom, during, like, lunch,” Luke said, wanting to face palm at his obvious statement, but refrained. The first bell rang to signal the end of the passing period and Luke mumbled a quick, “See ya,” before running off to bury his shame in boring math equations.
When the lunch bell rang, Luke was the first one out the door. He wanted to make sure he was in the lunchroom before Gabriel. Luke told himself it was because he didn’t want the other to think Luke had stood him up, and that it had nothing to do with the uneasy excitement that settled in his stomach and which threatened to burst out of his pores. Luke chose a table that was easily visible from the front entrance and tried not to smile too wide when he saw Gabriel enter the lunchroom and scan the tables, no doubt looking for Luke. Gabriel spotted him and Luke’s heart jumped up in his throat. However, it sank when Gabriel turned to leave the building, only to soar again when Gabriel seemed to change his mind and strode across the room, expertly dodging the legs that tried to trip him up, to sit across from Luke. “You came,” Luke said, grinning. Gabriel nodded,
“Yeah, so if this is some sort of trap, could you get it over with quickly?” he said, his eyes pleading.
“Gabriel, I swear, this isn’t a trap. I just thought you could use some company, that’s all. Besides, I’m not exactly swarmed with legions of friends myself,” Luke said, gesturing at the empty table. Gabriel bit his lip, not entirely trusting Luke’s words, but trusting them enough to stay.
“Okay, so, um, what do you want to talk about?” Gabriel asked.
“I dunno.” Luke said and laughed, “Do you?”
“No,” Gabriel said, and couldn’t help the slight upward twitch of his lips. God, how Luke wanted to kiss those lips, but he kept a hamper on his hormones as the two ate lunch. Luke let his eyes travel over Gabriel’s body, taking him in. His eyes landed on Gabriel’s wrist,
“Cool watch,” he said. Gabriel looked down, slightly startled by his comment,
“Huh? Oh. Yeah. My dad gave it to me,” he said. Luke forced a smile, feeling a pang of jealousy. His own father much preferred giving him scars than gifts.
“Must be nice,” he said forlornly, before realizing he had actually spoken when he saw the confused look on Gabriel’s face, “I mean, to always know what time it is!” he said quickly. Gabriel chuckled,
“The watch is broken. My father is a watchmaker and he’s hoping I will be too. He wants me to fix it.”
“Do you wanna be a watchmaker?” Gabriel considered this question for a moment,
“Sort of. All of the little pieces are kind of fun to work with. It’s like an intricate, little puzzle.” Luke nodded and smiled at him. He found the idea of being a watchmaker to be really cool. He always found clockwork to be so mysterious looking and, in Luke’s mind, anyone who could solve that mystery had to be special.
“I thought watchmakers were, like, extinct. Kinda like shoemakers. And bookbinders,” Luke said. Gabriel laughed and Luke had to smile as the butterflies in his stomach went wild.
“Yeah, it is kind of a dying art. People are too impatient nowadays. They don’t want to wait for their watches to be fixed. Or, for that matter, for their shoes to be made and their books to be bound. They’d much rather just go to the store and buy new watches, shoes, and books.” Luke shrugged as he finished his sandwich,
“Of course, they pay for it. All the new stuff is so crappy. They spend a fortune buying and re-buying crap every six months.” Luke thought it was a rather good metaphor for their current society. Always fascinated with the new trends, the immediate fixes, and not so much concerned with quality people.
“Consumerism has always been a great reflection of the current culture,” Gabriel said, as if reading Luke’s thoughts. Luke nodded in agreement.
“Could I see?” Luke asked, pointing at his watch. Gabriel nodded,
“Sure,” he said and took off the watch, sliding it across the table. Luke picked it up gently, as if afraid he might shatter it. The design was simple, but attractive. Luke especially liked how its face was black and the details were white, as if the clock’s colors had been inverted.
“What is… Sylar?” Luke asked, hoping he pronounced it correctly.
“That’s the brand. You know, like Rolex or Timex. It’s German, that’s why it’s so hard to fix. All the parts are so strange.” Luke turned it over in his hands before handing back to Gabriel.
“Do you know what’s wrong with it?” he asked. Gabriel shook his head,
“All I know is that it’s not something simple, like being over-wound or one of the gears being bent,” he said as he refastened the watch around his wrist, “So, um, what do you like to do?” Luke fidgeted. He wished now that he had listened to his mom when she tried to convince to play sports or learn an instrument, or any other of numerous things she tried to force on him. At least he’d be more interesting. All he ever did was fight, steal, and stalk Gabriel. Somehow, he didn’t think the other boy wanted to hear about any of those things.
“Not much, really. Lately…” Well, lately he had been in Juvie. He had just gotten out a week ago, “I’ve just been… playing videogames,” Luke said. Okay. He didn’t actually have any videogames. He tried his absolute best to avoid spending time at home, but playing videogames was something a normal teenage boy would do. Luke desperately wanted Gabriel to think he was normal, or at least not just a criminal. “I know, boring right?” Gabriel just shrugged,
“What videogames?” he asked.
Shit, Luke thought, what’s that one game everyone’s always talking about? “Uh, Mega Man X,” he said. He hoped to God that Gabriel knew shit about videogames.
“What’s that about?”
Fuck, “Um, a... large man who… saves… angels. Yeah. Angels.” Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“So, it’s a religious game?”
“No. I mean it’s just about angels. It’s not religious.” The last thing Luke wanted was for Gabriel to think that he was some sort of Jesus freak.
“Are you? Religious, I mean,” Gabriel asked.
“No.”
“Oh. Neither am I. My mom is though. That’s why she named me Gabriel.” Luke nodded, sympathetic.
“Yeah, my mom is religious, too. She tried to make me go to Church once, but I didn’t want to.” Luke left out the part about the screaming that ensued and his subsequent storming out of the house.
“Oh, does she try to force it on you?”
“Yeah, sometimes,” Luke said, realizing they were stumbling into dangerous territory. He really didn’t want to get into his home life with Gabriel.
“I just sort of pretend to be Christian so I don’t upset my mom.”
“Why? What would she do if she found out you weren’t religious?” Gabriel suddenly looked uncomfortable. He just shrugged,
“So, what other games do you play?” Luke didn’t press Gabriel to answer his previous question. Personally, he was glad to be off of the family subject. Unfortunately, he didn’t know any other game titles. Fortunately, the lunch bell chose that time to ring. Luke and Gabriel stood up,
“We should do this again,” Luke said and was pleased when Gabriel nodded in agreement. Luke stuck out his hand for Gabriel to shake and, after a moment’s hesitation, Gabriel grasped it. Gabriel’s hand was large and his fingers were long, and Luke’s hand was almost completely engulfed. Luke hoped Gabriel didn’t notice the blush that spread across his cheeks at the other boy’s touch. The handshake was over much too quickly it seemed, and they went their separate ways. All things considered, Luke thought lunch went rather well. At least Gabriel had agreed to meet him for lunch again. Luke felt so elated that he even attended gym class, which a class he often ditched.