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Humiliating him.
Stupid.
Gabriel gritted his teeth. What an ass**le.
But when he reached out to grab the knob, to throw the door wide, he thought of Layne, the intensity in her eyes when she stood up to him.
Sometimes you cut right to the quick, you know?
It made him think of the hurt on Nick’s face when he’d laid into Quinn.
He’d been the one to f**k this up. Not Nick.
So he turned and locked himself in his room, burying his head under his pillow when he heard Quinn’s giggle through the wall.
CHAPTER 13
This frigging substitute had to go. Gabriel hadn’t even done the previous night’s assignment, and now she wanted to start every class with a six-question warm-up that she would collect and grade each day.
He might as well just kill himself right now.
It wasn’t like he could wrangle his thoughts into submission, anyway. He kept thinking about the fire.
Last night had been a fluke. Too many things could have gone wrong. Sure, he’d held the flames for a few minutes but he could have lost it. He could have killed that kid. Hunter. Himself.
He’d felt that kind of potential before.
But this had been different. Working with Hunter was like finding another level of control. It was nothing like calling elements with Nick, who always backed away from risk.
Gabriel scowled. He didn’t want to think about his twin.
Because thinking about the fight with Nick just made him think about the fight beforehand, with Layne’s father.
At least Layne wasn’t here yet. Gabriel wasn’t sure what to say once she showed up.
Taylor Morrissey swung onto the desk in front of him. Low-slung jeans revealed a solid six inches of tanned midsection despite the fact that temperatures had been in the low fifties every morning. Her hair spilled over one shoulder, but it just felt like such an act.
He kept his expression uninterested. “Hey, Taylor.”
She leaned forward, until he could see clear down the V-neck of her top. “Gary Ackerman said he saw you take the bus to school. What’s up with that?”
What was up with that was Nick being an ass**le. He’d taken the car while Gabriel was in the shower.
He shrugged and looked at the doorway. Still no sign of Layne, so he dragged his eyes back to Taylor. “My brother had to get here early. I didn’t feel like it.”
He caught movement from the corner of his eye and saw Layne push through the doorway, her head down. Turtleneck, jeans, hair in a braid. She didn’t look at him.
“Your brother, huh?” said Taylor. She smirked.
He couldn’t figure out her tone and he didn’t really care. He frowned at her. “What?”
Layne slipped into the chair beside him. It took everything he had not to look at her.
Taylor shrugged one shoulder. “You’re looking kind of, you know, tired today.”
She was implying something, but he had no idea what. He probably did look tired. It went right along with being tired.
“Yeah, well, we can’t all be paragons of perfection like you, Taylor.”
