My heart leapt into my throat when the door opened, only to tumble back into place when Gabi’s mother greeted me with a smile. “Good morning, Connor dear. How are you?”
“Fine thanks, Mrs Hannigan.” I pasted on a smile of my own. “Yourself?”
“Late for work, I’m afraid.” She lifted her handbag and car keys as she opened the door wide. “Come on in. I assume you’re here to see Gabrielle?”
“If she’s available.” I stepped across the threshold. “I wanted to say goodbye before I head off tomorrow.”
“Oh yes, how exciting.” Mrs Hannigan led me into the kitchen, her high heels clacking against the tiles. “We’ll be seeing you on the cover of magazines before we know it.”
“I doubt it,” I replied, shaking my head. “But we’ll see.”
Gabi’s photo hadn’t won the photography competition, though it received a ‘Highly Commended’. But it had caught the eye of an agent from one of Melbourne’s largest modelling agencies. A blur of interviews and interstate flights had followed, and within weeks they’d offered to represent me. My first job, for some designer fashion label I couldn’t remember the name of, would start in a few days.
The whole idea seemed preposterous. Me working as a model, with my fat lips and scrawny body. I’d joined a gym within a week of graduation so I could continue training without Law’s help, and the bathroom scales told me I’d continued to put on muscle mass. Even my extended family had looked shocked when they saw me at Christmas. They’d been full of compliments over my supposed transformation. The mirror told a different story. It didn’t matter if I had more curves, they did nothing to distract from the scrap of pasty white nothing I’d always been. If the agency didn’t put me on a plane back home after my first photo shoot, I would count myself lucky.
Mrs Hannigan opened the back door, popping her head through the gap. I listened as she murmured a few words to Gabi, who gave a sharp reply. The next few exchanges were in harsh, hushed tones. Then, silence. When she turned back to me, Mrs Hannigan’s smile held a touch of sadness. “I don’t know what happened to cause this rift between the two of you. Goodness knows Gabi’s been as tight-lipped as a toddler with a mouthful of lollies. But I hope you can sort it out.”
I nodded. “I hope so, too.”
She gave me a quick hug goodbye before heading off. After she left, I stood there for a long moment, hesitating, before I walked out the back door to the porch.
Curled up in a patio chair, Gabi clutched a half-empty cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other. She didn’t look at me as I pulled up another chair and sat down. I hadn’t been this close to her in what felt like forever, and the mere sight of her made my heart ache.
“Thank you for seeing me,” I began, unsure where to start.
She snorted, putting her things on the nearby table. “It seems I didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on my knees, my hands clasped tightly before me. “I’m leaving for Melbourne tomorrow. I don’t know if you know.”
“Of course I know,” she muttered. “It’s been all our mothers can talk to each other about for weeks.” Finally, she turned her head towards me. “Your mum is going with you?”
“Yeah, for a while at least.” A grin crept onto my face as I thought of the way she’d demanded to come with me, as if she’d expected me to put up a fight. I didn’t. The thought of moving to a new city in a different state, even for a little while, terrified me. “I think she’s worried I’ll end up in some porno or something if she’s not there to keep an eye on me.”
Gabi pulled a face. “I hope not, that sounds icky.” After a momentary pause, she added, “I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
I smiled at the lack of animosity in her voice. It was more than I’d hoped for. “Before I leave, I wanted to say how sorry I am, for coming between you and Lawrence.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad you did.” At my frown, she sat up straighter. “Connor, I’ve had a lot of time to think about everything that happened over the past few months. I’ve realised, Lawrence and I would have broken up eventually. He’s not a bad person and he wasn’t actually trying to hurt me, but he wanted something I could never give him. At least I realised it before I,” she paused for a second, looking away, “before I did something I regretted.”
I didn’t need her to elaborate to know she was talking about sex. Apparently, they hadn’t gone that far, after all.
“What about Frank?” I asked. “Are they still friends?”
She nodded. “I promised Frank, when Lawrence and I started dating, I would never do anything to ruin their friendship. I intend to keep my promise. Lawrence doesn’t come here to the house anymore though, and we haven’t spoken much since we broke up. That will have to change eventually, for Frank’s sake.” She hesitated before asking, “What about you? Are you and he…?”
“No,” I jumped in, shaking my head with way more vehemence than necessary. “I haven’t seen him since that night. Not even once.”
We sat in silence for a while, before she said, “Lawrence told Frank he’s bisexual a couple of weeks ago. That was a big deal.”
My eyes widened. “How did Frank take it?”
“He took Lawrence to one of those gay clubs in Fortitude Valley so they could check out guys,” she said with a vague laugh. “Frank started going on about how he’d need new wingman skills or something.”
I managed a smile, though the idea of Law going out to pick up guys made me feel queasy. Did Gabi have the same response? I could never ask her. “Does Frank know about—”
“Absolutely not,” she cut in, holding up a hand. “The only people who know what happened that night are you, me and Lawrence… and Sean,” she corrected with a grimace. “I needed someone to talk to, and I trust him not to tell anyone.”
I nodded in silent agreement. Sean was a good guy, and I knew he’d faced his own hassles last year when he came out as gay at school. He’d keep this to himself.
