The Lost Coast: The Second Book To Land Of Storms

XVIII

It was late afternoon and Gabriel was walking along the beach looking for Walter's boat. He needed to talk to him. Gabriel felt guilty about how he left things with Walter last night. They both had things to work out.

"Walter! Walter!" Gabriel called.

He had been all over town looking for him. He checked the pub, the market, and the ocean (which was the first place he looked). Well, the last one was because he wanted to swim. Gabriel couldn't find Walter anywhere.

"Walter! Walter! Walter!" Gabriel yelled even louder.

Gabriel looked out to the sea again. He saw a dot off in the distance. When he looked a bit closer he realized it wasn't a dot. It was Walter's boat.

Why did he leave? Was it something I did? I never ment to hurt him. Gabriel thought.

He planted the staff in the sand. Then ran into the water. He had to catch up to Walter be for he went out too far. With out his fins there was no hope of catching him if he got out to open sea.

"Walter! Walter! Walter!" Gabriel yelled.

He hated no being able to swim as fast as he could with fins. He now knew that he had strong feelings for Walter. He hated to be separated from him. He continued to swim. Walter must have seen him because he grabed the helm and turned the boat and lifted the sails.

"Gabriel!" Walter called as he helped Gabriel in the boat. "What the bloody hell are you doing!?"

"You just left! No warning! Not so much as even a letter!" Gabriel shouted with emotions he didn't know he had.

Walter ploped down on the deck of the boat. His eyes shifted downwards, away from Gabriel.

"I just couldn't face you. I didn't know if you felt the same way. If you didn't, I couldn't bring myself to stay an listen to you say it." Walter admitted.

"I don't know what I feel. I just know I would miss you terribly if you left." Gabriel said.

"What do we do?"

"You turn the boat around and we go from there." Gabriel said.

Walter went to the upper deck and took the ship by the helm. He soon adjusted the sails. Neither of them said a word for the ride back to shore. They both considered there words carefully. When the boat stopped, they were scared to speak.

"I'm sorry." They both said at the same time.

"Gabriel what are you sorry for?" Walter asked.

"For leaving yesterday, I didn't know what to do. I've never really had a friend or something more to that matter." Gabriel said.

"It's fine. I just didn't know how else to tell you how I felt." Walter moved closer to Gabriel.

Walter held Gabriel in his arms, the two embraced. Walter laid his lips on Gabriel's. Walter's hands moved and touched Gabriel in places he didn't know were sensitive, or were they sensitive because Walter was touching them?

Walter pulled away and opened a small door that lead to a small lower deck of the boat. Gabriel followed into the compartment. It was just big enough for the two of them to be close together.