Strings Attached

Chapter 62

"How do you think you did?" Gabriel asks everyone after school on Friday as they file into the impala.

"I don't think I failed, at least," Garth replies.

"I think I did fairly okay for missing half the semester because I've been in the hospital so much," Castiel adds.

"I think I passed," Sam says.

"I failed," Dean announces. "I don't even have an excuse. I just failed."

They all laugh at his bluntness.

"Nice, Dean," Sam says sarcastically.

Gabriel claps slowly. "Bravo. Good for you."

"Thank you, thank you very much," Dean says in his best Elvis impression.

"Well, I'm in your boat," Gabriel tells him. "But I'll still pass all my classes, even if I do majorly screw up the final."

"Well, I wish I had your problems," Dean replies. "I'm not so sure about how this is going to go for me."

"I'm sure you did great," Castiel assures him.

"Probably not, but thanks for the vote of confidence."

For the rest of the ride, they discuss the finals and what parts they are pretty sure they failed at. Castiel is pretty sure that when Sam says he might not have done great, he means he got a B-plus, because he's a smart kid. He doesn't fail. Castiel, on the other hand, thinks he probably got around a B-minus on some of his finals, due to missing so much of his classes. He may have made up the work, but he couldn't make up the class time he missed.

Still, he is averaging somewhere between A's and A-pluses in all his classes, so even if he didn't take the final, he likely would have stayed on high honor roll, or possibly just normal honor roll. Either way, he's doing well, and he's confident that he's leaving the semester with good grades.

It only takes about half an hour of being home for Gabriel to decide to call Sam up. It's a half day at school, just like the day before, and spending all day doing nothing is not high on his to do list. When Gabriel gets off the phone, he walks over to Castiel, who's lying on the couch with his eyes closed.

"Sam's coming in a few minutes," Gabriel informs him. "You should see if Dean wants to come, too. We can have a party!"

"Just don't break anything," Michael instructs them. He's been sitting at the table reading a book since they got home. Why he wants to read when he could be doing anything else, Castiel will never understand.

"Ugh, fine," Gabriel replies. He shoves Castiel's phone in the younger boy's face. "Go. Text him. Or call him, whatever."

"I just want to take a nap," Castiel mumbles.

"Then I'll text him for you."

"You don't know my passcode."

"It's your student ID," Gabriel replies confidently. "Which is in your backpack, and I could easily hack into this."

Castiel groans. He didn't realize Gabriel knew that. "Go call him yourself if you really want him to come."

"Fine," Gabriel replies. "I'll call him and put him on speaker, and that way, you don't have to get up and you have no excuse."

After about a minute, the phone is ringing much louder than Castiel would have wanted it to. Why is speaker so loud? Finally, Dean picks up on what has to be one of the last rings.

"Hey, Cas," he answers, though it's clear his mind isn't on the conversation.

"Hi, Dean," Castiel replies. "Gabriel is having Sam up so I was wondering if you'd like to come up, too."

"I can't now, sorry."

Well, that isn't what Castiel was expecting to hear. He doesn't think he's heard Dean decline an invitation to hang out since they met.

"Alright," Castiel replies. "Well, I figured I'd ask."

"How 'bout tomorrow?" Dean suggests. "I'm doing something now, but I'll be free tomorrow if you are."

"Sure," Castiel approves. "See ya then. Bye, Dean."

"Bye, Cas."

The phone clicks, and Castiel knows that Dean hung up.

"Well, I was not expecting that," Gabriel announces. "What's he dong? There's no practice today."

"I don't know," Castiel replies. "But I'm sure it's nothing. You go have fun with Sam, and I'm gonna take a nap."

Gabriel groans. "Stop being antisocial!"

Castiel ignores him, using elementary school bullying logic. Maybe, if he ignores his brother, Gabriel will go away. Here's hoping.

Gabriel does go away eventually, but only once Sam shows up. He returns almost immediately, and though Castiel's eyes are closed, he can tell by the stumbling feet that Gabriel is dragging his boyfriend in the room.

"Hey, Sam, what's Dean doing right now?" Gabriel asks.

Sam hesitates. "It's... It's a long story."

"I literally just asked what he's doing," Gabriel reminds him. "It doesn't require a story."

"Well, if you just want to know what he's doing, he's doing research," Sam replies vaguely.

"Researching what?" Gabriel asks.

"That's the long story part," Sam replies.

"Then can you tell us the long story?" Gabriel asks hopefully.

"No, sorry," Sam replies. "It's, uh... It's not something I like talking about."

"Alright," Gabriel says, respecting his wish for privacy. Castiel is almost positive that Sam is the only person he does that for. "I just want to know, is it worth ditching Castiel for?"

"Definitely," Sam replies. "This is pretty important to him."

"Nothing is more important than Destiel!" Lucifer yells from some room far away.

"Shut up!" Gabriel yells back.

This starts a very annoying, long distance bickering, and Castiel decides to tune it out. As much as he loves his brothers, he also loves sleep, and that's his choice for the moment.