NATARA

PART NINETEEN

"I mean man, where is your mind at? You keep sucking at every level. If you don't want to play just say so." Gabriel sighed throwing the PlayStation in his hands at the side and lay back on the couch.

"I just feel fucked up nothing else, I just thought this would help me calm down. Am sorry if I wasted your time." The friend of Gabriel turned to him and patted him understandingly on his shoulder.

"No worries man I got you so do you want to talk about it?" Gabriel looked at the paused game on the screen and wondered if he was to talk where would he start from?

He can't say he knows his family has been hiding bones and skeletons in their closet, that's so family thing and he can't let it out to the guy sitting beside him.

He can't say it's about Natara because he would be called crazy again and be convinced of having a crazy demeanor about the girl that doesn't exist.

So he turned to him and shrugged. "No need to bother you, man, am just going under a lot of stress for school work and Dad wanting me to take part in his work on the weekends." He said sounding bothered to sell the stress facade.

The boy leaned in the seat and sighed. "I feel you, man, I mean coach is been bugging us like crazy with the next season playoffs on the line in two weeks and adding school work like you just said." He itched his teeth together pausing through his words.

"Man, that's no way for a young teen to lead life at just our young age."
Gabriel was nodding his head, searching in his mind for a reply when he felt his phone ring in his shorts pocket.

He reached for it lazily thinking that it was his father and wanting the line to cut itself but as he got the phone in his hand and saw a young girl, he quickly slid to the reply button.

"What is it keilla?" He said getting on his feet and walking to the back of the room to freely talk to the only person he finds stand-able these days.

The call went silent for some time, Gabriel had to move it away from his ear to check if she was still there, and when he confirmed she was still there, he pulled it back to his ear.

"I need your help Gab?" He jumped on his feet hearing what the girl had to say.

"What? What happened? What is wrong? Where are you?" Bombarding Keilla with a tone of questions made her want to collapse to anywhere she could find. She didn't want to go through this again not with another person she knew, not even with another sister of hers.

She managed to pull herself back together and said to Gabriel. "You know the dinner called chef's burger?"

"Yeah, I think it's a few minutes drive from here."

"Can you get here now?" She said and Gabriel was nodding. "Please?" She added in a small cracked voice and it made Gabriel wish he had powers of teleporting, flying, or somehow something to get him to her quickly like in a second.

Gabriel sighed because he also didn't know how he'd grown a soft spot for Keilla in just the minimum time they'd spent together. He just knew he now cared about her.

He looked at his friend. "You need to roll man." The boy stood up from his seat because he also knew something was wrong the moment Gabriel answered his phone.

"What happened? With whom were you talking to on the phone."

"It's none of your damn business man, let's just go."

He turned to rush the boy out but did not leave himself there.

They walked out of the house and he turned to his friend.

"Caleb," he called and he turned back to look at Gabriel. "Thank you man for bouncing over."

He shrugged and sent a wink his way. "I got you, messed up boy, anytime."