Page 24 of Silent Damage

Be decent!

But if I start yelling about it, then I’ll give myself away.

That can’t happen—the last thing I want is to give Gabe the satisfaction of knowing that I want to walk over there and rip those boxers right—

NO!

Jesus Christ, this is a nightmare. I have to stop it.

I jump to my feet and close the distance between us. Gabe catches me through the window and spins. We’re face-to-face, and he looks at me wide-eyed while I sneer.

“Go to your room,” I demand.

Gabe swallows. His eyes trail to my lips, and heat washes over me.

When we lock eyes again, he shakes his head no.

“What?” I ask, absolutely gob smacked.

He shakes his head no again.

I point to his bedroom. “Get in there and draw or fucking knit—I don’t care what you do, just get out of my face.”

He leans against the counter, folding his arms over his chest and raising a brow.

“Don’t give me that,” I yell.

He smirks, and I nearly spontaneously combust.

“That’s it!”

I grab him by the arm and drag him to the bedroom, practically tossing him onto his bed and shouting, “You have a bedroom. I don’t. If you want to air out your stinky panties, DO IT IN HERE!”

I slam the door as I leave and fall onto the couch again, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Why did I come back here?

Why would I do this to myself?

***

The early morning light peeks in through the blinds, shining right into my eyes.

I hate mornings.

Especially when I spent half the night tossing and turning.

And not just because sleeping on a stone would be more comfortable than this couch.

I dreamt about him.

We were kids running through the woods, trying to find our fort, but we couldn’t. In my dream, I hadn’t destroyed it yet, so I thought Doug had come into the woods and torn it down. I was screaming. Shaking. We searched high and low. Finally, we found it, and when I looked inside, there was a twenty-year-old Gabe.

And that’s when I woke up.

I have to get out of here.

If I don’t find a job and make some dough to move out of this place, I don’t know what I’ll do.