A Leap in Time ~ An Infernal Devices Fic

He Isn't Gay, Tessa

"I am not a certified idiot—" 

"Lack of certification hardly proves intelligence," Will muttered."

Gabriel Lightwood did not enjoy school more than the next teenager, but he had to admit he was quite good at it. He averaged A-'s mostly, and was generally a good student and thought to be well behaved (if he didn't have a bit of a temper problem). He enjoyed History and English (though he thought some of the interpretations of books his teacher made absolute tripe) and was even a relatively good student at Maths, but the one subject he did not have the patience for and absolutely could not master was A Biology. He had taken it years ago and barely gotten himself through it with a bit more help than he wanted from his older brother, but now Gideon was gone at university, and Gabriel was left to suffer a more advanced version of the class he couldn't stand. He hated it, he loathed it, it made absolutely no sense to him and the idiot arguing with the new girl next to him was not helping his concentration on his lab.

He'd been sort of half listening to them for a while now, not quite eavesdropping (it was their own faults their idiotic conversation was being heard, he couldn't damn well help that he had ears, could he?), but getting the general gist, which made him only more annoyed. Apparently the nitwit harassing the girl, a weasley boy he had sort of 'known' since starting Secondary school named Jeremy, thought she was some sort of star or something and was absolutely intent on having some sort of damn argument with her as he was to annoy the living hell out of Gabriel who was quite literally right next to him and simply trying to finish the damn lab he'd been assigned. The teacher called a warning for 15 minutes. Gabriel looked at the two lines out of eight he'd managed to scratch down and seethed. He leaned in a moment, trying to

"Your music sucks you know," he heard Jeremy say. "I've heard it in elevators and on the tube, disgusting stuff, you know."

There was a pause. "Thanks for the compliment. I do my best to annoy innocent tube travelers," the girl responded, sounding as though she was repressing rage.

"Absolute lovey dovey trash. I don't even understand how you got-"

Gabriel had had just about enough with this. He spun his lab chair a 180 and clapped his hands together loudly, making Jeremy look up and meet his death glare. "Shut up, Jeremy, you worthless piece of snot. Haven't you got enough on your hands with your drug problem to have a harassment report too?"

Jeremy flushed gripping a pair of pliers in his hand tighter. "The hell you butting in for, Lightwood? You listen to her prissy music, gay?"

Gabriel let out an enraged half groan. "I don't know or give a damn about her music, I don't even know who she is. Just shut up so I can concentrate or so help me God I will strangle you to death." He flashed him a warning look. "Or does getting into arguments with helpless girls fill the hole in your self esteem that you lost when Tara broke up with you?"

Jeremy opened his mouth as if to respond, and flushed darkly before picking up his books and walking away.

"Well, that's a relief," Gabriel said darkly, turning back to his work, pretending not to notice the girl staring at him with the strangest expression.

He managed to scribble something down for every answer, but he still left the room in an absolute state of annoyance. So, it was that he was not the best to receive the first comment Tessa Gray had made to any of her new fellow pupils when she caught up with him after class.

"That really was rude of you to insinuate he was a drug addict," she said, suddenly walking beside him on his way out.

He looked at her. "Excuse me?"