Convulsions wrack my body. I’m choking on my own tears, caught between reaching for him. Holding him, because God, is he crazy? “Caleb?” I can hardly get his name out.
His head jerks toward mine. “Don’t talk to me like that! Don’t look at me like there’s something wrong with me. I’m trying to protect you and you’re too stupid to trust me!” His words slap me across the face. He grabs his head again. “Shit! I didn’t mean that. Just come with me. I’m telling you, YOUR MOM WAS RIGHT! Vampires are real and they’re after you!”
I collapse to my knees. Someone help me! I don’t’ know what to do. Why isn’t anyone doing anything?
“That’s about enough. I am calling the police,” Liz tells him. And she means it. She’s got her phone in her hand, and she’s waiting for somebody to answer.
Every part of me is screaming at me to go to him, that he’s in pain, but how can I believe what he says? How can I think vampires are real? Just like the LP, he’s taken my weakness and played on it.
Tears blur my eyes, but when the bell over the door jingles again, I can make out the figure standing there. Gabe.
“Abigail? What’s going on?” he asks.
Wierdly, all of a sudden, the man from the corner booth sits down. And Liz hangs up the phone. Maybe Gabe makes them feel safe, like he’s normal or something. But it’s odd.
Caleb turns toward Gabe and I stand, reaching for them both, hoping to stop the fight I know will happen. When I do, Caleb jerks away, his eyes murderous as they land on Gabe.
“Don’t talk to her!” He stands up straight, not holding his head like he had been as he stepped toward Gabe. “I saw you. I know what you did, but you can’t have her, you bloodsucking freak!”
Vamp freak. Abby you’re such a freak! I hate that word. Hate hearing it thrown around to attack someone else. Someone who’s like me, alone. “Caleb, stop it. Please just stop!”
“Don’t trust him, Kitten. Please…” His voice cracks. God, he sounds so hurt, like he really believes the craziness coming out of his mouth. But it’s crazy. He sounds just like Mom. I don’t want to believe him.
“You’re scaring me, Caleb.” I try pleading with him to stop, hoping he can hear the pain he’s causing me. I look at the man, hoping for help. He has an odd, spaced-out look on his face. Why isn’t anyone helping us?
“Abigail? What’s going on?” This time it’s Gabe who speaks, and what a mistake it is. Caleb breaks our connection and lunges for Gabe, punching him in the face. I try to pull them apart, yell for help, but still no one does anything to stop it. Caleb hits Gabe over and over again and for some reason, Gabe doesn’t fight back. He jerks a look over at me as if to say, “and you like this jerk why?”
Liz is standing frozen in the back of the counter, her eyes unfocussed. The man starts moving towards the door, their eyes like Liz’s. It’s so surreal. What the hell. Somebody has to stop Caleb from killing Gabe, so I run toward them. I don’t care if I get hit, I just need him to come to his senses. Caleb takes another swing right when I jump between them and his knuckles graze my jaw, but by some miracle, Gabe pushes me out of the way.
“Shit! Abby, I’m sorry. I would never hit you. You know that. Come here, Kitten. Please come with me.”
I don’t move. He’d almost hit me. I know it’s an accident, but I’m still shocked. And my heart breaks because I know how much he hates his father and I know, no matter what’s going on here, Caleb’s not like him.
He’s hurting… he’s in pain. I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe it’s the stress of being on his own, but whatever’s going on, it’s hurting Caleb as much as it is me, only in a different way. He reaches for me again and I’m going to let him this time. If only to calm him down, and hopefully get him some help, but he screams again. Grabs his head.
“Abby, I have to tell you something. I saw something tonight,” Gabe tells me.
Slowly, Caleb straightens from his bent over position. “Please…please don’t go with him.”
“Haven’t you hurt her enough?” Gabe asks him.
“Fuck you.” Caleb replies and I wonder what Gabe means. My wonder doesn’t last very long.
“Caleb? You did it?” Stacy Cavanaugh walks up to Caleb’s side.
I can’t breathe.
My chest aches.
It’s true. All along Stacy and Caleb were playing me.
“What the hell are you talking about? Get away from me!” Caleb looks at Stacy.
She laughs. “It’s over, Caleb. You played her, just like we planned. No need to pretend anymore.”
It’s all I can stand. I run out of the restaurant and make my way to my car. I open the door, lock it and cry. I know I should leave, but I can’t make myself drive right now. I love him and he never cared about me. Nothing was real. Nothing will ever be real again.
Minutes pass and I cry and cry. Tears wetting my shirt, but I don’t care. The pain is too much. I feel like I’m split in half. I don’t stop crying, even when someone knocks on the passenger window. I know its Gabe.
Hitting the button, I unlock the door. Without a word, he pulls me out, walks me over the passenger side and sits me down.
“I’ll drive,” he says. All I can manage is a nod.
We’re on the road in a matter of seconds. My thoughts are still back at the diner. Still with Caleb. “What did you do after I left?” Gabe mumbled something. I could have sworn it was, “cleaned up”, but that didn’t make sense. It had only been a few minutes, which definitely wasn’t enough time to clean the mess in the diner. “What?”
“Just let him know how I feel about him and what he did. That’s all.”
Fear spikes inside me. “Did you hurt him? I hate fighting, Gabe.” I don’t know why I care. He obviously doesn’t care about me.
But I still don’t get it. After Stacy came in and revealed their relationship, Caleb was still acting wrong. Why did Stacy’s words freak him out so much?
I feel Gabe’s eyes on me. Like my words shock him. “After everything you care if I hurt him?”
I can’t bring myself to answer. Gabe groans, but I ignore that too, and ask, “Where are we going?”
I feel guilty for bringing Gabe into this. He didn’t deserve any of it; Caleb’s anger toward him, my choosing Caleb over him. None of it. All he’d done is been a good friend to me. He’s being a good friend to me still.
“We’re almost there.”
He didn’t answer my question, but I let it go, too brokenhearted to care. I drop my head against the cold window and stare as we drive down the street Caleb’s cabin is off. Just the thought makes something squeeze in my chest.
We keep going and the road gets quieter. I know there are a few miles where there’s almost nothing at all and then you come into all the really nice houses in Karma. The part of town where Stacy lives. I’m not surprised Gabe lives here too. But for now… now, there’s nothing out here. A chill slides down my spine. I pull my feet up on the seat, hugging my legs to me, hoping he doesn’t realize I’m uncomfortable.
“I hate that I make you nervous.” Gabe’s voice is soft…the softest I’ve ever heard it.
For a second, I think about denying it, but he deserves the truth. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. I think it’s just the craziness of tonight.”
Gabe gives a quiet humph. “You should always trust your instincts. That’s one of the first lessons my sir—father taught me.”
My heart starts to accelerate. “Are you saying you’re going to hurt me?” I try and tease.
Gabe laughs a friendly laugh and I feel more comfortable again. “I don’t think I could ever hurt you, Abigail.” He pulls off the road to a place I recognize as the lookout point.
I’d brought Caleb here once, during the few weeks Gabe and I weren’t talking. Suddenly, I’m suffocating in the car. I push the door open and stumble away. There’s nothing but night, sky woods to the side of us. Out front, the lookout of the city lights. I feel so small here. If I’m honest, I always feel small. But I hadn’t recently. Not with Gabe as my friend and Caleb… Tears roll down my face again. “Why did he do this to me?”
A second later I feel Gabe’s arms wrap around me. I don’t fight them, but bury my face into his chest. “Why me? All of it, Mom, my dad, Caleb. Why does everything bad happen to me?”
I cry as he strokes my hair. “Shh. It’s okay. Don’t cry.”
“No, it’s not okay. It will never be okay!” I yell. “He used me. He wanted to make me look like a fool in front of the whole town. You don’t know what it’s like for me, Gabe. All the kids either tease me or look at me with pity because I’m the crazy lady’s daughter. I’m the vamp freak and I always will be And even to my boyfriend! I trusted him!”
I clutch Gabe’s jacket as the tears race down my face. I cry for Mom. For whatever is wrong with her to make her believe vampires are real. I cry for me because I’m lonely. I finally thought I left that behind me, but now it pushes down on me so heavy it steals my breath.
I cry for Caleb. The boy I love who I thought maybe could love me too. The boy who made me believe and then betrayed me. And even for the pain of his past. For what his parents did; no one deserves that.
Finally, I cry for Gabe. Dear, sweet Gabe, who is the best friend I’ve ever had. Who’s done so much for me and I don’t think he even realizes it. For all the hurt he’s endured too, but still here he is, holding me while I cry. There’s darkness in his eyes, his past, but no matter what, he’s one of the best people I know, and I don’t deserve him.
Gabe lifts my face, so I stare at him in the eyes. He looks so pained…so conflicted that the heart I didn’t think could break anymore, does.