Lethal. {manxman}

Chapter Four.

Arthur Mariano as our fabulous COO, Gabriel Franco

Lethal: Ch. 4

"Are you mad at me?"

I scoffed as my sister stopped me in the entrance of the the building. "No Melody. I'm just very peachy." I rolled my eyes as I continued on my route to work. "Please don't be mad at me, Eli." She pleaded with me as she grabbed my hand, halting me to a stop.

"I'm not mad. I just don't want to talk right now." I snatched my hands away from her, ignoring the gasp that had elicited from her mouth and continued on.

Mad? No. Livid, enraged, infuriated, full of anger? No. There were no words to describe the whirlwind of emotions I felt, the inner turmoil that was bubbling in within me. There was a peace within me before it became engulfed with darkness, and the rage was waiting to be exhaled.

Kind of like the calm before a storm.

"I'm not mad." I whispered to myself as I turned down the corridor. "I'm hurt. There's a difference." I finished that thought, knowing damn well that I was more than hurt. How could my own sister try to bring me back under the same roof as the very man I despised? She knew all too well the things he did to me when we were younger and she had the nerve to ask me not to be mad at her?

Fucking bullshit.

I had my hand on the knob that led to the office that Gabriel and I shared. I opened it slowly to see the man in question singing his heart out on his desk without a care in the world. "Go ahead and wake the dead, why don't you?" I muttered as I shut the door, rolling my eyes at the sound of 'Say My Name' drifting off the walls and into my ears.

"Say my name, why don't you?" Gabriel winked at me as he hopped off of his desk, heading over to mine. "I need you to go through these piles of drawings and tell me which one's should go to the next level." He stated as he smacked a file with drawings practically spilling out of it on my desk.

"Yes sir." I saluted him like he was the almighty God and got to work. I opened the file and sat back in my chair, grimacing at the first drawing I picked up. "This is ugly. Who the fuck decided to do this?" I glared at the mixed matched stick figures and donkeys splayed across the paper in bright, neon colors.

This person might have not had enough time on their hands but nonetheless, I continue to stare at it, finding the hidden meaning in all the ridiculous animals and their captions that were used to describe them. I titled the paper, trying to understand how did the use of animals contribute to art?

Then I got it.

If you can't be yourself, what's the point of living?

The donkey in the corner was hanging himself because he chose to express himself in a way that the other donkeys made fun of him for.

Deep.

I placed that in the pile of drawings that were to be published and continued on. "Gabriel, you're gay, aren't you?" I asked, not even looking up at the man. "Yeah. Why?" I could hear the tense hesitation in his voice, as if he was scared that I might have been a homophobic person here to raise the pits of hell upon him.

Fortunately, no.

"Interesting," I nodded with a smirk. "I have two dads." I stated. "My biological father's name is Dominic Kaylor and his husband is Nikolai Culkin. I met Nikolai when I was 4." I looked up at the frame of my parents sitting on my desk, smiling at each other. "Best thing that ever happened to me."

"You think their love story was something to be told?" Gabriel finally spoke up, a conflicted look in his eyes. "Of course. There was no love story like theirs." I sighed. "Hopefully, one day, we'll both have that too." I smiled at him and he smiled back but the look in his eyes saddened me.