Mint and apricots

39. How to cure insomnia

Finally, a slightly more energetic slap startled Sam, who sat up abruptly, as if he had just been pierced by an electric shock. An instant later, however, he tightened his eyelids and took a hand to his temple, as if suffering from a powerful pang of headache.

"G-Gabe," he mumbled when he was able to open his eyes again and to outline the contours of the figure that had crouched in front of him. "Where... what... oh my God, I'm so sorry."

Realizing the situation, he tried to cling to the side grate with his closest hand to stand up, but his sleeping muscles combined with the effects of the cold weather made him stumble and Gabriel had to intervene so that Sam did not fall with his butt on the steps again.

"Hey, hey, hey. Easy, cowboy. How is it that you are always in such a hurry?" Gabriel teased him with an apprehensive smile, continuing to hold his arm even when Sam was finally in a standing position. Then, observing him while the boy looked around with a dazed expression, he studied his face: "How long have you been out here, exactly?"

"I... I don't know," Sam stammered, shivering at the first gust of wind. "Since eight a.m., maybe? Eight thirty?"

Gabriel pursed his lips in an expression that would have made someone laugh, if he hadn't also appeared so worried. It was half past ten in the morning and the temperature was ideal for snow.

"And where is your coat? You surely didn't come here dressed like that, did you?" Gabriel went on with a raised eyebrow, while he handed the house key to Claire and motioned for her to open the door.

Sam didn't seem able to find any peace, he just kept moving and looking for handholds that would have kept him standing, and Gabriel didn't feel like letting him go just yet. To be honest, to Gabriel it didn't look like Sam's mental faculties were in the best of shapes either, he was so agitated. Or maybe the oldest just hadn't gotten used to that boy's shame levels yet.

"I-I went out to go for a run and th-then I... I ended up here," Sam justified himself, uncomfortable in his own icy skin. "I wanted... I th-thought we could talk a little bit."

Moved to pity by the increasingly evident chills that were taking control of the boy's body and by his eyes, which at that moment looked exactly like the ones of a puppy who had been abandoned on the side of the road, Gabriel rubbed Sam's arms with his hands in an attempt to grant him some warmth while his sister tried all the keys in the bunch with an obvious doom.

"Of course we can talk," he tried to reassure him mildly. "But when you realized that I wasn't here, you should have called or texted me and waited for me somewhere warm. A bar or something. God, you're frozen", he commented, intensifying the rubbing even though Sam's cheeks were already colored with embarrassment.

"I don't... I don't have your number," the youngest boy stuttered, looking down while he let Gabriel do his best to tame his chills. "S-sorry."

Gabriel fell silent and called himself an idiot in his head. He hadn't given Sam his phone number, really? How could he have been so imbecile?

"Don't apologize," he then begged Sam with a regretful sigh, while his sister finally managed to make the lock click with the right key. "You are the one in this state, I am sorry. Come on, let's go inside. We need to warm you up."

When Sam tripped on the threshold, Gabriel's arm ran around his shoulders to support him. The oldest of the two men had just decided that he would not have let him go until he was sure Sam would not fall with his face down, when Claire stepped in front of them after diligently closing the front door behind their slow steps, leaving the freezing cold outside. Her curious gaze, complete with a sly smile, fixed on Sam.