I almost cry at the very thought of getting over to it by myself. Gabe huffs at my whimpering and slings the bag over to me on his way through to the guy’s locker room. I hear the shower cut on and I guess I have about ten minutes to heave myself off of the ground.
I need every second I can get.
I decide that being friends with Gabe might end up harder than it’s worth if he insists on making me train every morning, but once I finally scrape myself off of the ground, he takes us over to the dining hall and we eat together in a pleasant sort of silence that neither of us want to break.
It’s shocking to me how many students know and love him, and I spend half the time we’re eating being introduced to someone new who’s stopped past the table to talk to Gabe about some sporting bullshit. I’m polite but not friendly because, honestly, my circle is already looking a little too big for my liking. I was happy with just Sage but now there’s Sawyer and Felix and Gabe and, fuck, Atlas, whose messages are still the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I read before I fall asleep every night.
I can’t afford to have all of these people to miss when I leave them behind.
I make excuses to Gabe about needing to get assignments finished and he walks me back to my dorm without questioning the sudden shift in my mood. When I get back to my room, I text Sage and Atlas with the same story about studying and then I spend the rest of the day messing around on my phone and trying not to lose my goddamn mind over being trapped here with all of these people I’m starting to… need. Fuck, I need them all. I need their friendships like nothing ever before and I’m completely screwed.
I finally force myself into cracking open my textbooks in the afternoon and then I crawl into bed when my eyes feel as though they’re bleeding around midnight.
I’m woken at four in the morning by my phone ringing.
I ignore it, because fuck whichever one of my Bonds is trying to ruin my week by waking me the hell up right now. I roll back over on the shitty, tiny bed and then shove a pillow over my head when the phone starts ringing again. I know better than to ignore it, I know they wouldn’t be fucking with me like this and there’s probably something major going on, but after the training with Gabe yesterday, I’m freaking exhausted.
The thumping on my door that starts ten minutes later isn’t as easy to ignore.
I might murder whoever the fuck is here.
I spring out of the bed and rip the door open, ready to spill some goddamn blood, only to find Gabe standing there, panting and freaking the fuck out. I forget my fury at the wake-up as I take him in. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, every inch of his golden skin gleaming in the glow of my shitty bedside lamp.
He’s freaking magnificent.
A few of the doors down the hallway open, scowling girls popping their heads out to glare at me like it’s my fault Gabe has shown up like a raging goddamn bull in a china shop at the ass crack of dawn.
“Where’s your phone? Why the hell didn’t you answer it?” Gabe croaks but I’m too busy trying to restart my now very broken brain to reply, all of my usual sass and sarcasm just freaking gone thanks to the sight of him, and as he brushes past me to stalk into my room, I notice his bare feet. My brain might not be at full function but something does click for me.
He shifted and ran here.
“What’s happened? Fuck, Gabe, what the hell is going on?” I shut the door and lean back against it, trying desperately not to look at him as he paces around, eyeing everything like he’s expecting to have to defend us both against an entire freaking army that’s lying in wait behind my shitty, cracked mirror.
“Twelve Gifted were taken tonight. Three of them were from this building, heading back from a party and taken outside. North said your GPS hadn’t moved but… I had to check for myself.”
Fuck.
Fuck. This is getting out of hand, if they don’t let me go soon then I’m going to