It Takes Two | ✓

Chapter 3

Something touched Gabe's leg and he reflexively twisted onto his back and kicked out, then nearly fell out of bed when the sound of a dog's indignant yelp and the pain of his stitches scraping against the bedsheets hit him at the same time. He squinted his eyes open to see Trist standing near the end of the bed, leant over slightly towards his dog with one hand braced on the frame of the top bunk. He was watching Gabe with narrowed eyes.

He'd obviously just accidentally touched Gabe when trying to get his dog. And then Gabe had kicked the dog. Whoops. She didn't actually look hurt, fortunately, just startled and confused.

Trist raised his eyebrows in a way that felt like a challenge, then bent down and picked up his dog and carried her out of the room.

Gabe let out a long, slow breath. Well, now Trist had an actual reason to hate him, so that way great. But... Trist hadn't actually done anything beyond look annoyed. Adam probably would have lashed out reflexively just because he was angry and some of the guys at school who liked to harass Gabe would have leapt at any excuse to punish him, but Trist was at least coming at hating him from a different and so far less violent angle.

In an odd way, that gave it an entirely different kind of sting. When someone was cruel towards him it was easy to hate them back, and then the fact that they hated him as well didn't mean much. They were assholes. He didn't want them to like him. He didn't want them to hate him, either, but he wasn't really offended that they had a problem with him.

But Trist... Gabe didn't hate Trist. Not yet. He hadn't really done anything that bad so Gabe still wanted him to like him. And, okay, maybe part of that was because he was quite attractive.

Gabe hadn't eaten anything since he'd left the hospital yesterday so he was starving, but first he desperately needed a shower. Things were getting a bit crusty around his stitches and his shirt had started sticking to his back in a way that made him shudder.

A bit of that stickiness was blood, an examination in the bathroom mirror revealed. His dramatic wake up hadn't been great for the healing process. He hadn't managed to actually tear anything open, though, so it was probably fine.

The welcome smell of cooking pancakes greeted Gabe as he headed out into the main living area. A girl a few years younger than him looked up from the stove and smiled at him in greeting. The large, round glasses she wore seemed to dominate not just her face, but her entire slight form. Her ginger hair had been done into two long plaits down the back of her head.

"Good morning," she said, her words enunciated in a careful, exact way that gave Gabe the impression she was talking around a speech impediment.

"Hey." Gabe sat down on one of the stools that lined the living room side of the kitchen counter. "I'm Gabe. I'm guessing Alice told you why I'm here?"

Though, come to think of it, he wasn't sure Alice knew much about why he was really here. His dad must have told her something, but Gabe doubted much of it had been the truth.

She nodded. "I'm Bee. Would you like some pancakes?"

"Bee, I would love some pancakes."

Bee hadn't just made pancakes, she'd made an exotic assortment of pancakes. There was one with chocolate chips and one with blueberries and a plain one she topped with lemon juice and sugar for him.

"Uh... do you have any painkillers?" Gabe asked when she turned back to her cooking.

"Oh, sure," she said as she redirected her path to a drawer to the side of the stove.

"Thanks," he said. "I have a headache."

Which, now he came to think of it, was actually true. He just hadn't noticed until then because so many other parts of him hurt much more.