Nightmare on Broadway (California Dreaming Sequel)

Chapter Eight

   “Have you got everything?” Gabes asked, carrying my holdall over his shoulder as we skipped down the front steps of his halls of residence. I held onto his hand tightly, as if it would mean I would never have to let him go, but I knew in reality that we both had to carry on with our lives. The past few months had been so hard, facing the fact that we were thousands of miles apart and that nothing could change that, not to mention that we had two and a half more years of this. 

   “Yeah, I think so,” I nodded, adjusting the baseball cap Gabriel had given me. “I don’t want to go back to studying,” I frowned and began stamping my feet like a little girl who was having a tantrum. 

   “I thought you loved New York City,” Gabes laughed and I hit him in the stomach, just making him laugh harder. 

   “I do love it!” I defended, pouting, “It’s the being away from you that I hate!” 

   “I am pretty awesome,” he nodded, wrapping his long, gangly arms around me. I pressed my cheek up against his chest and inhaled the scent of his aftershave which was plastered all across his t-shirt. 

   We walked to the campus parking lot and Gabes chucked my bag into the backseat of the Jeep before holding out his hands for me. I took hold of them and he grabbed me by the waist, lifting me up onto the huge bonnet of the four by four. I clambered up further on the smooth, black paintwork, and made sure the rubber soles of my sneakers gripped onto the car. Gabriel lifted himself up besides me and stretched out his long legs, crossing one over the other.

   “I miss being able to do this,” I confessed, as the darkness closed in around us. 

   “Me too.” 

   The air was becoming cooler, and the sound of the highway traffic was carried on the breeze, dancing in my ears. I hugged my arms around my torso and felt locks of hair begin to rise from my shoulders, whipping against my cheeks. There was a freshness to the air which made me feel nostalgic, not just for Beverly Hills, but for my home back in the UK. Cali was most unlike the smoggy, polluted atmosphere of New York, more tranquil, reminding me of my adolescence spent in Southern England. I looked upwards and moved my eyes across the night sky, trying to form shapes in the stars, a game I used to play on nights back home with Harry. 

   I let out an involuntary shiver and felt the hairs on the backs of hands begin to stand upright. I rubbed my palms across my thighs and tried to warm up my legs using the friction between my hands and my jeans. Gabriel noticed immediately and shrugged off his charcoal grey, Stanford hoodie, trying to slip it on over my long sleeved t-shirt. 

   “I’m fine, I swear,” I shook my head vigilantly. 

   “Come on,” he chuckled, “you know I have another five trillion upstairs.” He tried to reassure me and I slipped my arms into the sweatshirt, letting him wrap the jumper around me. “Anyway, now you can wear it in New York and tell everyone about your biochemist boyfriend slash hot, young porn star,” he put one hand on his hip and struck a pose, making me burst out laughing. 

   “And you know what Gabes?” I giggled, “You don’t even see how beautiful you are,” I admired, noticing the blush spreading across his cheekbones, even in this low lighting. “Look,” I pointed up at the stars, laying back against the windscreen and sliding my head across the glass, “it’s a bird!” I grinned, sliding closer to Gabes and pointing out the constellation I had formed. 

   “Nah, dude,” he disagreed, “it’s totally a cat.” 

   “No way!” I gasped in shock. 

   “Well, that one is definitely the CBS logo,” Gabes moved his finger across and gestured to a different part of the sky. 

   “Oh yeah,” I retorted, “I can see that.” I nodded, marveling at the immeasurable amount of space stretched out above us, a way in which anyone could imagine anything was up there. Imagination was what made life so interesting.