“Gabriel!” I shout, struggling down the steps.
He keeps charging forward as if the rain’s drowned out my voice. A knife twists in my stomach as my mind catches on a memory of my screams being drowned out by the downpour of gunshots.
“Gabriel! Please, stop!”
Finally, he freezes as I step onto flat ground.
He glances over his shoulder, exhaling.
What do I say? I don’t even know what the hell is happening between us.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
He spins. “Leaving.”
“No, not right this minute. With me.”
His eyes flick away for a moment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We broke up.”
My heart thumps with the rhythm of the rain. “No. You dumped me in a text while I was lying in a hospital bed. Don’t you think we should talk about that?”
He flinches but immediately covers it, leaving me wondering if I even saw it at all. My hair’s soaked, a few strands sticking to my face.
“None of it matters.”
It matters to me. All of it matters to me.
“Why?”
He lets out an exasperated exhale. “I’m just not feeling it, alright?”
What the hell does that even mean?
“You were feeling it just fine before I wasshot.”
He shrugs and shoves his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, and now I’m not, okay? Just go home.”
When he finally meets my gaze, his expression’s cold. Gone is the boy I knew. No sign of the kindness I’ve gotten used to this summer. Only indifference. He’s not my Gabriel; I don’t know this man.
“So what? We’re just done?”
“Ash—”
“No. Fuck that! I love you.” I step forward.
He can’t just decide when we’re done. I know what we felt this summer. It can’t just be over like this.
I try grabbing him again, but he pushes me away.
“I don’t know what you want me to say; I don’t want you here.”
I rear back like he’s slapped me. Shaking my head, my words come out choked. “You don’t mean that.”
“Yeah, Ash. I do.”
The world stops spinning around me, or maybe it speeds up. I’m not sure. All I know is, I can’t breathe. Or think, for that matter.
“No. No! You’re lying.”
