Page 49 of Trigger Discipline
Swallowing back what he wanted to say, he gestured to Blake. “And what? You were some kind of hoodlum?”
Blake sobered a little. “No, nothing that exciting. I was more like…” he trailed off, looking at the ground between his boots. “At first, I was that weird kid. Before I learned that people didn’t really want me to know things they didn’t tell me. After middle school, I just became that quiet kid. The one no one really remembers. Just a picture in a yearbook.”
Gabriel had a few kids like that in his classes. He just assumed they had other friends or interests. “That must have been hard.”
“Not as hard as having a girl you were friends with start to ignore you because you told her she should stop stuffing her bra.”
“Hard to come back from that.”
Blake made a face. “That was a fun parent-teacher meeting.”
Gabriel hadn’t had many of those. He was a middle-of-the-road kind of student. A few good friends, passing grades, didn’t really get into any trouble. Not like his sister, who wasa star student. Class President, member of almost every academic club she could reasonably attend, 4.0 GPA, she even volunteered to help after school. A star so bright, Gabriel got lost in the shadows.
And it was hard not to in his family of overachievers. They loved him. They just had nothing in common.
“You never did tell me about your parents,” Gabriel finally said, turning to meet Blake’s green eyes. They looked darker in this light, more like the ocean than spring grass.
“To be fair, you didn’t tell me about yours,” Blake pointed out, crossing his arms to rest on his knees.
“Well, we don’t all have superpowers.”
“Ah, yes,” Blake drawled dryly. “The powers of noticing. Right up there with flight and super strength. Let me get my codpiece and cape.”
Privately, Gabriel thought Blake would look pretty good in tights.
“They were good parents,” Blake continued. “My mom is a force. She bulldozes her way through everything, including my father. Which is fine. He was born with a spine made of jelly.” Blake’s lips twitched in an aborted laugh. “But he…he’s so smart. Like, not in a college degree way, but in a way that he just knows a little bit about everything. He loves to learn.”
Gabriel thought back to when they were at the communications tower. “Trains, right?”
“That’s his favorite. But all sorts of things. Weapons, engineering, aeronautics…anything he can find a documentary on.” Blake swallowed dryly. “Everything except people. Which worked out, because my mother is a master manipulator. Not in a bad way. She’s just charming. She can walk all over you and you’d end up thanking her.”
He swiped at his eyes quickly, like he didn’t want Gabriel to see the shine in them. Blake turned away from Gabriel, hiding his face in the darkness.
“Were you close?”
Blake shrugged. “I don’t know. Yes? We love each other, but we didn’t understand each other. They didn’t know what to do with me, so they just didn’t. Let me raise myself. Or at least, that’s what I thought, but…” he trailed off, his voice hitching. “It’s so stupid, but I always thought that one day we’d figure it out, you know? Have this big conversation about everything, and I would look back on my childhood and realize they were just imperfect people doing their best. And that they loved me. We’d apologize, and it would be cathartic, and now it’s just…” his voice cracked, and he didn’t continue, his shoulders crawling up to his ears.
Gabriel didn’t think; he just slid over and wrapped an arm around Blake. He came easily when Gabriel pulled him close, shoving his head into his shoulder to hide his wet lashes. Blake clung to him, fingers wrapping around his plate carrier as he fought back tears.
There were a million things Gabriel knew he should say, all straight from the placating playbook. But they were meaningless. They’d fall from his lips like coins into a fountain, well meaning but ultimately nothing more than a wish.
“Where are they?”
Blake sniffled. “Florida.”
“Not a lot of military bases in Florida,” Gabriel said, keeping his voice neutral.
After a minute Blake nodded, recognizing what it was Gabriel wasn’t saying. He clung to Gabriel for a long moment before sitting up a little, swiping at his eyes, and resting his temple on Gabriel’s wet shoulder.
“Maybe they’re holed up in Disney World.”
“Oh god,” Gabriel chuckled. “Can you imagine being stuck in one of the rides? Waking up to those lifeless animatronics just staring you down?”
Gabriel couldn’t see Blake smile, but he felt it.
They got quiet then, but it wasn’t bad. Gabriel took the time to just enjoy the feel of Blake leaning on him. He waswarm and solid. Present. His hair tickled Gabriel’s cheek, and if he closed his eyes, he could pretend they were anywhere else. Two people just getting to know each other, nourishing the tender flicker of a relationship, or whatever it may be. In that quiet hallway, with the outside world far away, it was just a moment.
It was the kind of thing Gabriel used to chase at the bottom of a bottle. A single moment of peace. Of quiet. Of contentment and acceptance. Of something that can't be manufactured, but he’d unexpectedly found it in a dark, warm hallway.