Bell Tower Extra: A Room for Two (Part 2)
The Bell Tower of St. Barnabas - Extra
A Room for Two:
Part Two
Caleb set out to enjoy the peace and quiet left in the house with Gabriel’s absence. He curled up on the couch with The Arabian Nights again the next night and set to reading. And for a while, he very much enjoyed himself.
After a few days, he started to get uncomfortable.
The place was a little cramped for two, sure, but it felt strangely empty with just one. He’d gotten so used to seeing Gabriel’s face every day, he found himself looking for it wherever he went and feeling like an idiot for doing it. After a few days without hearing from Gabriel, Caleb swallowed his pride and took the initiative to make the call himself-a couple of times, but either Gabriel’s phone was off or the battery was dead, because it always went straight to voicemail. But he insisted to himself that there was nothing to be worried about. As each day passed without so much as a text message from his lover, he told himself that Gabriel was just busy, and when the week was up, he’d just come on back.
The week expired with no phone call and no Gabriel. This was more than slightly troublesome; Gabriel’s leave expired and it wasn’t like him to skip out on work. Since he still couldn’t reach Gabriel’s phone, Caleb tried calling the hotel Gabriel worked at to find out if he’d contacted them, but was informed that they would not give that information out to anyone but a spouse-an exception that made Caleb blush and hang up the phone in anger before he’d even processed why that upset him so much. Another day passed, and another. Still Caleb could do nothing but try to convince himself everything was okay.
He’s fine. Of course he’s fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s probably just staying longer out of consideration for his mother.
…And not calling to tell me about it out of lack of consideration for his lover.
Caleb was pacing in the living room, but he didn’t realize that he was.
Be nice, Caleb. Gabriel’s not like that. He’s not petty. He wouldn’t keep me on tenterhooks as revenge for my rejecting his advances. Maybe his phone died and he forgot the charger. And… and can’t find anybody else with the same kind of charger around. Or… borrow any other phone. …Or remember my number. No, it’s fine, Caleb. He’s probably just been delayed a little.
…That or he’s dead. One of the two.
Caleb let out a growl of frustration and clawed at his hair.
Calm down already! So you can’t reach his cell phone. Can you reach anybody who can reach him in person? You could call his parents.
Caleb stopped short and flinched. “Right, I could call his parents,” he began saying aloud, with a distinct tone of dread. “No way that could end badly. I’m sure they’d love to hear from me.” His face turned a little bit green. “But there’s not much else I can do, is there?” Hesitantly, he hunted through his contacts list for the number he was least likely to ever hear from and pressed call.
When the call went through and he heard the voice of Gabriel’s father on the other end, Caleb just barely managed to keep his voice from audibly shaking as he asked, “Hello, Mr. Willow, it’s Caleb. Is… is Gabriel, uh, there…?”
The answer was immediate and stony. “I would thank you not to bother my son any longer. He does not have time to waste on your little play-acting ‘relationship’ anymore. He is with Caroline. Do not call again.”
The dial tone buzzed in Caleb’s ear for a full five seconds before the shock wore off and he managed to shout uselessly into the receiver, “Who the hell is Caroline??”
Caleb was in agony the whole night. The next day, he asked for emergency leave at work, but he still hadn’t decided what he was going to do with it. If he went back to their hometown, where would he go? What would he do? He didn’t belong anywhere there anymore.
He was waffling over this choice when his phone rang. He rushed so much to pull it out of his pocket that he almost dropped it. By the time he got it right-side up and looked at the caller ID, his heart was thumping in his throat in anticipation. But the name on the screen wasn’t Gabriel’s.
He answered with a tone of bewilderment and slight disappointment he couldn’t conceal. “Now what reason would you have to call me?”
The voice on the other end immediately started yelling at him. “Caleb you need to get your ass down here right now!” It was his sister.
Caleb flinched and moved the phone a couple of inches away from his ear. “Ow.”
“What are you doing?”
“You’re asking me? You’re the one who called out of nowhere. I haven’t talked to you in over a year, Rachel.”
“That’s not what’s important right now.”
“What are you going on about?”
“It’s Gabriel!”
Caleb perked up immediately. “Gabriel? What about Gabriel? He’s not really dead, is he?”
“Dead? …What the fuck? Caleb, you-God, you idiot, if you’re that worried, why don’t you haul your ass down here already?”
“Easy for you to say, maybe,” Caleb began, a bit resentfully. “Dad still lets you into the house.”
“Look, get over it and get down here. Gabriel’s mom had a cancer scare, and she’s using it to guilt him into staying longer than he meant to. She’s got this girl staying over at their place right now and sticking Gabriel at her side every minute. She’s obviously trying to break you two up, and your just sitting there and taking it isn’t helping!”
“I don’t suppose this girl’s name is Caroline,” Caleb began blankly.
“How did you know that? Anyway, I know his mom should have gotten the biopsy results already, but she’s not telling anyone either way, so I think she’s using it as her excuse to try and set them up. And Caleb? Caroline’s a really nice girl. And she’s gorgeous. She looks like something out of a painting next to Gabriel. They’re fucking perfect together. So you’d better get down here before she snatches him away.”
“Why are you so much on my side now, anyway? You always took it better than the rest of the family, but you still accused me of ‘crimes against women’ for stealing Gabriel away, remember?”
“I don’t care how perfect this girl is, you’re my brother so you’re better. Besides, like hell I’m giving you to any guy other than Gabriel. Now get in the car!”
“Wait-where the heck am I gonna go?”
“Dad’s out of town. Your excuses are nullified. Come home, say hi to your mom and sister, and claim your boyfriend already.”
And Rachel hung up.
Caleb didn’t waste another minute. He had a bag packed and was in the car in half an hour. Starting the drive when he did meant he was going to arrive after midnight, but he couldn’t possibly have stayed put anymore.
He felt almost sick when he got up to the front door of his parents’ house seven hours later. His brothers didn’t live there anymore, and Rachel had just told him their dad wasn’t there. That should’ve meant there was nothing to be afraid of, but he just couldn’t shake that sick, sinking feeling as his eyes gazed up at the towering brown walls of the two-story house. When he’d started dating Gabriel five years ago, he’d only had the courage to tell his little sister Rachel at first, in the hopes that she would help him smooth things over with everyone else. And while she’d begrudgingly come around to his side and done her best to soften the blow to their parents, there wasn’t much either of them could do to win everyone’s acceptance. His senior year of high school, when his parents and older brothers were first told, was hell. And in all the time since he’d left for college, Caleb had spent less than two weeks at home. Just looking at the door now brought back the memory of the cold, disapproving looks and angry words that were all his father had left for him.
Slowly, shakily, he managed to raise his hand and knock.
Rachel opened the door shortly after. She had evidently been waiting nearby for him. Caleb looked down at his sister in surprise. Was she always that tall? He really didn’t see her enough-her silky black hair, bright eyes, and fair skin converged to make up a figure that almost looked foreign to him.
She too seemed suddenly overcome by shyness at seeing him in person for the first time in two years. “You look… well, considering,” she offered.
Caleb stepped in and put his bag down. “I’m going to go see Gabriel now,” he said, turning immediately around on his heel and poising to walk straight back out.
“Whoa there Romeo, hold up,” Rachel interjected, grabbing Caleb’s shirt. “It’s half past midnight. Unless you plan on standing under his window and throwing rocks, you’d better wait ’til one of those hours reasonable people are up.”
Caleb instantly deflated. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Rachel paused. It was always uncomfortable for her to see Caleb, possibly the brashest and most headstrong of her brothers, looking lifeless. Seizing upon an idea to cheer him up, she smirked slightly and began to joke, “But I suppose you could stand under the window and hope he’ll have insomnia and just happen to show himself. ‘Soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Gabriel is the sun’~”
Caleb took a playful swat at her. “You’re so lucky you didn’t make me Juliet in this scenario.”
She grinned. “You’re right, that’s all wrong. Let’s see-‘Gabriel, Gabriel! Wherefore art thou, Gabriel?’”
Caleb grinned back and tried to grab onto her shoulders to give her a noogie. She dodged him and continued,
“‘Deny thy father and refuse his matchmaking, or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll kidnap you myself’-”
“You little-”
“Don’t underestimate the sister of an English major!”
The two chased each other around the living room for a few minutes before collapsing in a laughing heap on the sofa.
Pausing for a bit to catch his breath, Caleb said, “Thanks, Rachel.”
“Hmm?”
“I never thought I’d end up laughing in this house again.”
Rachel grinned at him. “Well maybe you should just come back to visit a little more often.”
Caleb’s smile faltered. “You know how Dad is. It’s better if I don’t.”
“Rachel?” a voice called down the stairs. “Is he here?”
Caleb held his breath.
“…Caleb?”
He rose from the sofa and stood awkwardly in front of it as his mother came into view.
She looked a little older than he remembered, and tired, probably because they’d woken her. Still, she smiled at him. Deliberately ignoring the awkwardness of the atmosphere, she walked straight up to him and hugged him. “Oh, my baby boy,” she began, sounding like she was going to cry. “It’s been too long.”
He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “Hey, Mom.”
The next morning came the moment of truth. Caleb declined to approach the Willows’ house next door, but instead leaned against his car parked in front of his parents’ house and watched. Rachel told him that Gabriel and Caroline usually went someplace by around ten in the morning.
Shortly before ten, the two emerged. Caleb felt a jolt of jealousy shoot through his frame when he looked at them. Rachel hadn’t been exaggerating-this woman was perfect. A scene out of a painting, indeed. Her hair was an even lighter blond than Gabriel’s, falling in picture-perfect waves all the way to her waist. She was wearing a light, summery dress that showed off long, shapely legs and a white sun hat that gave her just a touch of girlish innocence to accent her womanly figure. Her blue eyes were bright, her smile big and artless, her posture girlish and cute. And Gabriel, Gabriel standing right next to her, Gabriel giving her his arm, Gabriel looked like he was made for her.
In one brief, horrifying moment, Caleb felt like he couldn’t intrude on that picture. In that one moment, he knew he’d never match up to Gabriel the way that woman did. He knew they’d never look right next to each other. He knew his father and Gabriel’s parents would never forgive him for staying next to Gabriel even when he knew how wrong they looked together-and how right Gabriel and Caroline looked. She didn’t look like the type who’d push him away like Caleb did, either. He felt distinctly inferior.
That was the moment Caleb found himself stuck in when Gabriel turned his head and saw him.
Gabriel’s eyes widened in surprise, and he dropped Caroline’s arm. Caleb could see Caroline tugging at Gabriel’s sleeve and asking what was wrong, but somehow he didn’t hear her. He was stuck somewhere between relief and horror that Gabriel had seen him just then. Suddenly he wasn’t sure that Gabriel would be glad to see him.
His worries were blown away in an instant. The look of surprise in Gabriel’s features melted away into pure joy, and he started running towards Caleb. Caleb only had time to push himself of the side of his car before Gabriel reached him and threw his arms around him with such abandon that Caleb nearly fell over.
Gabriel began talking so fast that Caleb couldn’t quite make sense of what he was saying. Something about how he lost his phone-his father said not to use the house phone because talking about leaving would upset his mother-his mother insisted that seeing him spending time with Caroline made her feel better-he still didn’t know what the biopsy results were-they sure were being slow about it-he’d really been wanting to contact Caleb, but he kind of couldn’t-he’d asked Rachel to do him a favor and tell her brother what was going on-but he hadn’t expected Caleb to come all the way out here-
Caleb shut him up by grabbing him by the collar and kissing him.
He could hear a gasp in the background-Caroline, probably, though he didn’t care. Judging from how eagerly Gabriel kissed him back, he guessed Gabriel didn’t care either.
Something much more intrusive interrupted them then. “Just what do you think you are doing!” a horrified voice demanded.
Gabriel whipped around, and the two could see Gabriel’s father standing by the door, staring wide-eyed at them. He stomped up to his son, grabbed his arm, and started to pull him away.
Caleb stepped between them and separated them.
Gabriel’s father’s eyes flashed. “This is none of your business, Caleb. Come, Gabriel! You’ve horrified poor Caroline.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t manage to before he was cut off.
“Now you hold up just one minute,” Caleb started, trying very hard to keep the antagonism from his voice, and failing. “The only place Gabriel is coming is home. If he misses work any longer he’s going to get fired. Also,” here he narrowed his eyes on Gabriel’s father, “I don’t appreciate you trying to hook my boyfriend up with some girl behind my back. I know you don’t like me, but he’s not yours to do what you please with.”
“Don’t be stupid, boy,” Mr. Willow said condescendingly. “You don’t belong with my son. Take just one look at Caroline and try to tell me she and Gabriel don’t belong together. You’re standing in the way.”
“Wait, wait-” Gabriel attempted to begin, but he was immediately cut off by Caleb seizing his hand and declaring,
“I don’t care how damn perfect she is-I don’t care how good they look together-I don’t care how weird a picture I cut next to him-he’s mine and I’m not letting anyone else have him!”
While everyone just sort of blinked at him in shock, Caleb dragged Gabriel into his car and drove off.
[I may have a slight case of plot ADD. Anyway, enjoy almost-jealousy. Or, Caleb-possessiveness? Whatever you want to call it.]
A Room for Two:
Part Two
Caleb set out to enjoy the peace and quiet left in the house with Gabriel’s absence. He curled up on the couch with The Arabian Nights again the next night and set to reading. And for a while, he very much enjoyed himself.
After a few days, he started to get uncomfortable.
The place was a little cramped for two, sure, but it felt strangely empty with just one. He’d gotten so used to seeing Gabriel’s face every day, he found himself looking for it wherever he went and feeling like an idiot for doing it. After a few days without hearing from Gabriel, Caleb swallowed his pride and took the initiative to make the call himself-a couple of times, but either Gabriel’s phone was off or the battery was dead, because it always went straight to voicemail. But he insisted to himself that there was nothing to be worried about. As each day passed without so much as a text message from his lover, he told himself that Gabriel was just busy, and when the week was up, he’d just come on back.
The week expired with no phone call and no Gabriel. This was more than slightly troublesome; Gabriel’s leave expired and it wasn’t like him to skip out on work. Since he still couldn’t reach Gabriel’s phone, Caleb tried calling the hotel Gabriel worked at to find out if he’d contacted them, but was informed that they would not give that information out to anyone but a spouse-an exception that made Caleb blush and hang up the phone in anger before he’d even processed why that upset him so much. Another day passed, and another. Still Caleb could do nothing but try to convince himself everything was okay.
He’s fine. Of course he’s fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s probably just staying longer out of consideration for his mother.
…And not calling to tell me about it out of lack of consideration for his lover.
Caleb was pacing in the living room, but he didn’t realize that he was.
Be nice, Caleb. Gabriel’s not like that. He’s not petty. He wouldn’t keep me on tenterhooks as revenge for my rejecting his advances. Maybe his phone died and he forgot the charger. And… and can’t find anybody else with the same kind of charger around. Or… borrow any other phone. …Or remember my number. No, it’s fine, Caleb. He’s probably just been delayed a little.
…That or he’s dead. One of the two.
Caleb let out a growl of frustration and clawed at his hair.
Calm down already! So you can’t reach his cell phone. Can you reach anybody who can reach him in person? You could call his parents.
Caleb stopped short and flinched. “Right, I could call his parents,” he began saying aloud, with a distinct tone of dread. “No way that could end badly. I’m sure they’d love to hear from me.” His face turned a little bit green. “But there’s not much else I can do, is there?” Hesitantly, he hunted through his contacts list for the number he was least likely to ever hear from and pressed call.
When the call went through and he heard the voice of Gabriel’s father on the other end, Caleb just barely managed to keep his voice from audibly shaking as he asked, “Hello, Mr. Willow, it’s Caleb. Is… is Gabriel, uh, there…?”
The answer was immediate and stony. “I would thank you not to bother my son any longer. He does not have time to waste on your little play-acting ‘relationship’ anymore. He is with Caroline. Do not call again.”
The dial tone buzzed in Caleb’s ear for a full five seconds before the shock wore off and he managed to shout uselessly into the receiver, “Who the hell is Caroline??”
Caleb was in agony the whole night. The next day, he asked for emergency leave at work, but he still hadn’t decided what he was going to do with it. If he went back to their hometown, where would he go? What would he do? He didn’t belong anywhere there anymore.
He was waffling over this choice when his phone rang. He rushed so much to pull it out of his pocket that he almost dropped it. By the time he got it right-side up and looked at the caller ID, his heart was thumping in his throat in anticipation. But the name on the screen wasn’t Gabriel’s.
He answered with a tone of bewilderment and slight disappointment he couldn’t conceal. “Now what reason would you have to call me?”
The voice on the other end immediately started yelling at him. “Caleb you need to get your ass down here right now!” It was his sister.
Caleb flinched and moved the phone a couple of inches away from his ear. “Ow.”
“What are you doing?”
“You’re asking me? You’re the one who called out of nowhere. I haven’t talked to you in over a year, Rachel.”
“That’s not what’s important right now.”
“What are you going on about?”
“It’s Gabriel!”
Caleb perked up immediately. “Gabriel? What about Gabriel? He’s not really dead, is he?”
“Dead? …What the fuck? Caleb, you-God, you idiot, if you’re that worried, why don’t you haul your ass down here already?”
“Easy for you to say, maybe,” Caleb began, a bit resentfully. “Dad still lets you into the house.”
“Look, get over it and get down here. Gabriel’s mom had a cancer scare, and she’s using it to guilt him into staying longer than he meant to. She’s got this girl staying over at their place right now and sticking Gabriel at her side every minute. She’s obviously trying to break you two up, and your just sitting there and taking it isn’t helping!”
“I don’t suppose this girl’s name is Caroline,” Caleb began blankly.
“How did you know that? Anyway, I know his mom should have gotten the biopsy results already, but she’s not telling anyone either way, so I think she’s using it as her excuse to try and set them up. And Caleb? Caroline’s a really nice girl. And she’s gorgeous. She looks like something out of a painting next to Gabriel. They’re fucking perfect together. So you’d better get down here before she snatches him away.”
“Why are you so much on my side now, anyway? You always took it better than the rest of the family, but you still accused me of ‘crimes against women’ for stealing Gabriel away, remember?”
“I don’t care how perfect this girl is, you’re my brother so you’re better. Besides, like hell I’m giving you to any guy other than Gabriel. Now get in the car!”
“Wait-where the heck am I gonna go?”
“Dad’s out of town. Your excuses are nullified. Come home, say hi to your mom and sister, and claim your boyfriend already.”
And Rachel hung up.
Caleb didn’t waste another minute. He had a bag packed and was in the car in half an hour. Starting the drive when he did meant he was going to arrive after midnight, but he couldn’t possibly have stayed put anymore.
He felt almost sick when he got up to the front door of his parents’ house seven hours later. His brothers didn’t live there anymore, and Rachel had just told him their dad wasn’t there. That should’ve meant there was nothing to be afraid of, but he just couldn’t shake that sick, sinking feeling as his eyes gazed up at the towering brown walls of the two-story house. When he’d started dating Gabriel five years ago, he’d only had the courage to tell his little sister Rachel at first, in the hopes that she would help him smooth things over with everyone else. And while she’d begrudgingly come around to his side and done her best to soften the blow to their parents, there wasn’t much either of them could do to win everyone’s acceptance. His senior year of high school, when his parents and older brothers were first told, was hell. And in all the time since he’d left for college, Caleb had spent less than two weeks at home. Just looking at the door now brought back the memory of the cold, disapproving looks and angry words that were all his father had left for him.
Slowly, shakily, he managed to raise his hand and knock.
Rachel opened the door shortly after. She had evidently been waiting nearby for him. Caleb looked down at his sister in surprise. Was she always that tall? He really didn’t see her enough-her silky black hair, bright eyes, and fair skin converged to make up a figure that almost looked foreign to him.
She too seemed suddenly overcome by shyness at seeing him in person for the first time in two years. “You look… well, considering,” she offered.
Caleb stepped in and put his bag down. “I’m going to go see Gabriel now,” he said, turning immediately around on his heel and poising to walk straight back out.
“Whoa there Romeo, hold up,” Rachel interjected, grabbing Caleb’s shirt. “It’s half past midnight. Unless you plan on standing under his window and throwing rocks, you’d better wait ’til one of those hours reasonable people are up.”
Caleb instantly deflated. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Rachel paused. It was always uncomfortable for her to see Caleb, possibly the brashest and most headstrong of her brothers, looking lifeless. Seizing upon an idea to cheer him up, she smirked slightly and began to joke, “But I suppose you could stand under the window and hope he’ll have insomnia and just happen to show himself. ‘Soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Gabriel is the sun’~”
Caleb took a playful swat at her. “You’re so lucky you didn’t make me Juliet in this scenario.”
She grinned. “You’re right, that’s all wrong. Let’s see-‘Gabriel, Gabriel! Wherefore art thou, Gabriel?’”
Caleb grinned back and tried to grab onto her shoulders to give her a noogie. She dodged him and continued,
“‘Deny thy father and refuse his matchmaking, or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll kidnap you myself’-”
“You little-”
“Don’t underestimate the sister of an English major!”
The two chased each other around the living room for a few minutes before collapsing in a laughing heap on the sofa.
Pausing for a bit to catch his breath, Caleb said, “Thanks, Rachel.”
“Hmm?”
“I never thought I’d end up laughing in this house again.”
Rachel grinned at him. “Well maybe you should just come back to visit a little more often.”
Caleb’s smile faltered. “You know how Dad is. It’s better if I don’t.”
“Rachel?” a voice called down the stairs. “Is he here?”
Caleb held his breath.
“…Caleb?”
He rose from the sofa and stood awkwardly in front of it as his mother came into view.
She looked a little older than he remembered, and tired, probably because they’d woken her. Still, she smiled at him. Deliberately ignoring the awkwardness of the atmosphere, she walked straight up to him and hugged him. “Oh, my baby boy,” she began, sounding like she was going to cry. “It’s been too long.”
He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “Hey, Mom.”
The next morning came the moment of truth. Caleb declined to approach the Willows’ house next door, but instead leaned against his car parked in front of his parents’ house and watched. Rachel told him that Gabriel and Caroline usually went someplace by around ten in the morning.
Shortly before ten, the two emerged. Caleb felt a jolt of jealousy shoot through his frame when he looked at them. Rachel hadn’t been exaggerating-this woman was perfect. A scene out of a painting, indeed. Her hair was an even lighter blond than Gabriel’s, falling in picture-perfect waves all the way to her waist. She was wearing a light, summery dress that showed off long, shapely legs and a white sun hat that gave her just a touch of girlish innocence to accent her womanly figure. Her blue eyes were bright, her smile big and artless, her posture girlish and cute. And Gabriel, Gabriel standing right next to her, Gabriel giving her his arm, Gabriel looked like he was made for her.
In one brief, horrifying moment, Caleb felt like he couldn’t intrude on that picture. In that one moment, he knew he’d never match up to Gabriel the way that woman did. He knew they’d never look right next to each other. He knew his father and Gabriel’s parents would never forgive him for staying next to Gabriel even when he knew how wrong they looked together-and how right Gabriel and Caroline looked. She didn’t look like the type who’d push him away like Caleb did, either. He felt distinctly inferior.
That was the moment Caleb found himself stuck in when Gabriel turned his head and saw him.
Gabriel’s eyes widened in surprise, and he dropped Caroline’s arm. Caleb could see Caroline tugging at Gabriel’s sleeve and asking what was wrong, but somehow he didn’t hear her. He was stuck somewhere between relief and horror that Gabriel had seen him just then. Suddenly he wasn’t sure that Gabriel would be glad to see him.
His worries were blown away in an instant. The look of surprise in Gabriel’s features melted away into pure joy, and he started running towards Caleb. Caleb only had time to push himself of the side of his car before Gabriel reached him and threw his arms around him with such abandon that Caleb nearly fell over.
Gabriel began talking so fast that Caleb couldn’t quite make sense of what he was saying. Something about how he lost his phone-his father said not to use the house phone because talking about leaving would upset his mother-his mother insisted that seeing him spending time with Caroline made her feel better-he still didn’t know what the biopsy results were-they sure were being slow about it-he’d really been wanting to contact Caleb, but he kind of couldn’t-he’d asked Rachel to do him a favor and tell her brother what was going on-but he hadn’t expected Caleb to come all the way out here-
Caleb shut him up by grabbing him by the collar and kissing him.
He could hear a gasp in the background-Caroline, probably, though he didn’t care. Judging from how eagerly Gabriel kissed him back, he guessed Gabriel didn’t care either.
Something much more intrusive interrupted them then. “Just what do you think you are doing!” a horrified voice demanded.
Gabriel whipped around, and the two could see Gabriel’s father standing by the door, staring wide-eyed at them. He stomped up to his son, grabbed his arm, and started to pull him away.
Caleb stepped between them and separated them.
Gabriel’s father’s eyes flashed. “This is none of your business, Caleb. Come, Gabriel! You’ve horrified poor Caroline.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t manage to before he was cut off.
“Now you hold up just one minute,” Caleb started, trying very hard to keep the antagonism from his voice, and failing. “The only place Gabriel is coming is home. If he misses work any longer he’s going to get fired. Also,” here he narrowed his eyes on Gabriel’s father, “I don’t appreciate you trying to hook my boyfriend up with some girl behind my back. I know you don’t like me, but he’s not yours to do what you please with.”
“Don’t be stupid, boy,” Mr. Willow said condescendingly. “You don’t belong with my son. Take just one look at Caroline and try to tell me she and Gabriel don’t belong together. You’re standing in the way.”
“Wait, wait-” Gabriel attempted to begin, but he was immediately cut off by Caleb seizing his hand and declaring,
“I don’t care how damn perfect she is-I don’t care how good they look together-I don’t care how weird a picture I cut next to him-he’s mine and I’m not letting anyone else have him!”
While everyone just sort of blinked at him in shock, Caleb dragged Gabriel into his car and drove off.
[I may have a slight case of plot ADD. Anyway, enjoy almost-jealousy. Or, Caleb-possessiveness? Whatever you want to call it.]