When Delinquent Meets Delinquent ✓

WDMD [39]

"What happened to you?" I asked Gabe.

He was lying on the long couch in the living room, a bandage wrapped around his injured torso and plasters on the scratches on his forehead. His fists were also bandaged as they had fresh cuts and blood dripping from them.

I had done quite a good work even though I had zero knowledge on anything related to medicine. Those emergency classes really helped.

"Where's Levi?" He ignored my question.

"School. He's writing exams. Now what happened?" I demanded, taking a seat on the floor and facing him.

Gabe sighed. "There's no escaping this, is there?"

"Not a chance."

Slowly, he adjusted his lying position on the couch to a sitting one, hissing in pain throughout the process.

"Easy, Gabe."

"So where do I start?" He asked, preparing himself to have the longest amount of words leave his mouth in a night.

Gabe wasn't much of a talkative. He hated long talks even though we chatted. Moreso, he hated explaining his actions or his whereabouts or even being the person initiating a conversation, especially when it's only him talking and the person listening.

"You can start by explaining why you ditched school," I answered without hesitation.

"You've been thinking about this for a while now, haven't you?"

"Yup. How could I possibly let that slide?"

Gabe let out a sigh then ran a hand through his jet-black hair. I noticed how his hair fell over his forehead and stopped directly above his left eye.

"I went to visit my dad."

Silence.

The thick silence enveloped us and only the second hand of the clock hanging on the wall was the only sound to be heard, accompanied by the cricking of crickets outside.

"Your dad?"

If I do recount the years I have spent with Gabe, he never once mentioned anything about his dad. Hell, he never even mentioned the word 'family'. He gave off the vibe that he wasn't a family person. I never even dared to bring up the topic about family whenever we talked because his attitude always changed. Either he didn't answer me, got angry and stormed off or gave me one of his cold looks.

If he eventually contributed to the conversation, his response was always terse. He never opened up so I didn't bother to talk about that again.

"I guess this was gonna come out one way or another."

"What happened to your father?" I asked, unsure of if he would answer me or shut me out like he always did.

"Remember the time you asked me if I was ever scared of anything?"

I nodded. That was two years ago when we had become closer. Gabe had been caught vandalising school property by a teacher. The most feared teacher then, Mr. Coyl. When I tell you that Mr. Coyl was one harsh teacher, believe me. Even teachers feared him and at some point I actually thought the principal was also scared of him.

His punishments were so painful that I was even careful whenever I was playing a prank. Luckily, I was never caught until Gabe was caught red-handed.

I tried pulling Gabe along with me to escape the wrath of Mr. Coyl but he stood his ground and faced the teacher.

Gabe said some really mean things to him and threatened him and eventually said something to him that made Mr. Coyl pale. The next day, we heard that Mr. Coyl had resigned. Students were overjoyed and I could see the looks of relief on the teacher's faces. But I couldn't shake off the thought of what Gabe had told him.