Kisses after midnight (WICKED #0) | ✓

7

hope you're staying safe, angels x

WHEN JAY DIDN'T SHOW up the next day either, Gabriela decided it was time to go to his house and drag him out. So the third day when he wasn't in first period either, she excused herself and left the classroom. Sahar had insisted to come along and Gabriela would have refused, had it not been for the fact that she had called her personal driver.

So here they were, on a Wednesday morning, in the back of luxurious car while on their way to take a guy along against his will. Gabriela hadn't expected to be in this situation, but she supposed it could be worse.

"Nice car," she said to Sahar as she leaned back against the soft chair.

"It's electric," Sahar said with a dazzling smile.

Gabriela nodded in approval, before glancing at her phone when it went off. She hesitated for a second when she saw Mateo's name, but decided to ignore it then. He'd just want to help and skip class as well if she told him where she was going. There was no need to distract him with her problems when he was doing so well with his attendance lately.

"Have you been at St Joseph a long time?" Sahar said," I heard people don't survive a year tops usually."

"Weak people don't," Gabriela said," but unfortunately, yes, I have been attending St Joseph a long time. It's the third school I've been to, but it feels like I'm stuck in this one for now."

Honestly, to her parents it wouldn't even matter if it was the fifth. They loved her, she knew that, but it seemed like they had no hope for her from the beginning. Both of them had attended St Joseph as well, before deciding not to finish high school and elope halfway through. After their shotgun marriage they returned, when it was obvious a diploma was needed for almost everything in life, but the way they talked about it it seemed a bit like a joke.

It was like they expected her to do exactly the same. They never pushed her to study, to do anything, to build her future. For them it seemed like they would find everything okay and though she appreciated that they were supportive, most of the time it just felt like they didn't really care. Her future was already set in stone for them, but all she wanted was to shatter that in pieces.

She didn't want to live in her small town forever, didn't want the image of someone who would amount to nothing stamped on her. No, she just wanted to be able to give a good life to her parents and have one for her own, one where she would be able to do anything she wanted. Her future would shimmer in silver, instead of dull gray, and she'd enjoy her life, not just accept it like her parents had.

At first it had felt like that was almost too much to ask, but when it did, she had just learnt not to ask anymore. Hard work paid off, even when the sleepless nights and endless cramming drove her crazy sometimes. It had to, because to what end was she doing all this otherwise?

"It seems lively," Sahar smiled," I prefer it to Athena, really."

"You do?" Gabriela frowned.

"There's no bragging or power games here," Sahar shrugged," everything seems so simple. If you don't like someone, you fight them, if you don't want to do something, you don't. It usually is way more complicated, with all the connections and the influence everyone has."

"I suppose it seems simpler," Gabriela said," though I'd just like to go to a school where people take studying a bit more serious. Universities don't take kindly to a St Joseph alumna, unfortunately."

"Then they're stupid," Sahar said as she took Gabriela's hands in hers," I heard you're the best student in the school, Gabby, they'd be lucky to have you." She looked her in the eye then. "Wait, am I allowed to call you Gabby?"