Black Wing [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 12

 My heart was racing, I turned to see Gabriel standing on the porch in his pyjamas.

“Gabriel?” I said to myself, I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear me. I walked back over to him; he looked like he had just woken up, although he looked more beautiful than ever. His face looked youthful, not as tired as the last time I had seen him in the book shop. Gabriel’s pyjamas were comical, they were a pale blue, with pink stars scattered all over them. When I approached Gabriel, the first thing I said was.

“Nice pj’s” I laughed at my own comment, after all this time of thinking about what I would say to him, I never thought it would be that, Gabriel laughed along with me.

“Thanks” he said “What’s this?” he asked as he shook the present I had given him.

“Well, open it and find out” I said, my heart was racing. My nerves were bad enough on the way here, but now I knew he was opening the present infront of me, my nerves only got worse. Gabriel started pulling off the wrapping paper, inside was a leather box, I watched his face as he opened the box. Once I saw the smile on his face, I knew he liked it. It was a ring, similar to the one he had given me, only made for a man. On the inside of the ring was an engraving.

‘I love you more’

He looked up at me with a huge smile on his face, which created an even bigger smile on my face. This moment reminded me of the memory I had of my mother and father, looking at eachother across my bed, devoting their love for one another, which, in a way, was what me and Gabriel were doing.

All of a sudden his arms were around me, I felt his hand rub my back; it felt so loving, I didn’t want him to let go.

“You don’t know how much this means to me Amelia” he said, it sounded like he was crying. Gabriel didn’t know how much this meant to me too, a lot of things had happened over these Christmas holidays, and I needed him with me.

“I just wanted you to know how I feel about you, you mean everything to me, and I don’t want to lose you again” We were still cuddling, only now, it was a little bit tighter. My time with Ollie made me realise how much I needed Gabriel, how much I loved him; I knew I couldn’t be without him. The way Gabriel held me made it seem like he had been waiting for this moment a long time, for me to confess my feelings for him.

“Amelia, we need to talk” He then dropped his arms, and the connection we had made was gone. The way he had said that made me feel like something wasn’t right. That our world was going to come crashing down.

I expected him to be happy about our situation, to want to talk about ‘us’ and our relationship. But the way he said that made all that seem like a distant dream “Come in” he said, in the same tone.

Gabriel took my hand and led me into the house. I was surprised to see no Christmas decorations up, I can remember when I used to visit Gabriel at Christmas, he would have a lit up Santa on the roof of his house, reindeers in the front garden, his whole house could have landed a plane it was that bright.

It was like one of those houses you would see on the front of Christmas tree, it was amazing. Me and Gabriel sat down on the couch, there was an uncomfortable atmosphere in the air that I desperately wanted to push away.

“Amelia, there’s something I have been meaning to tell you” How could he do this? He was spoiling a perfectly good moment with horrible news, some people may have thought that I was overreacting, but I knew Gabriel, and I knew it was going to be bad news, just by the look on his face; he was looking down to the ground, my hands in his. Was he feeling guilty about something? Or was it something he had done when he was away?