Words [Riley Matthews]

07 ~ school supplies

The new school was nearly upon the Miller family. Knowing that school was only a week and a half away meant that it was time to go shopping for supplies.

"Oh, we wouldn't mind take Gabriel with us," Topanga Matthews said. "Riley and Gabriel and Maya are the same age, aren't they? We can take all of them with us."

"Are you sure?" Grant asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Topanga said. "We don't mind at all. Right, Cory?"

"Yeah, we wouldn't mind," Cory said. 

"Great," Grant said. He turned to his older two. "I guess Justin, Emma and I can get going, right guys?"

Justin nodded and Emma just shrugged.

"C'mon, let's get going," Grant said.

Justin and Emma followed their father out of the Matthews apartment to start shopping for school supplies. 

Gabriel stood awkwardly by the door, waiting for Topanga and Cory to say when they're going to leave.

"We'll head out as soon as Maya shows up," Riley said. "I'll text her now and see where she is."

Her parents agreed to this.

"Gabe and I will be in my room," Riley said.

"Keep the door open!" Cory called as the two headed to Riley's room. Gabriel left the door slightly open after the two entered Riley's room.

"How do you like New York so far?" Riley asked as Gabriel sat next to her by the Bay Window.

"It's alright," he said.

"You don't seem to really want to be Maya and I's friend," Riley said. 

"I'm not used to this," he responded. "My friends back home... they're not like this."

"How they were like?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I don't know how to describe them. But they weren't like you and Maya."

"In a good way or a bad way?"

"I don't know," he said. "I'm still trying to figure it out."

Riley nodded. 

***

Soon, the Matthews along with Maya and Gabriel went school shopping. Auggie wouldn't leave Gabriel alone. He would follow Gabriel everywhere he went and won't be quiet. It bothered Gabriel, but he didn't want to come off as a jerk or insensitive to Auggie so he just let Auggie talk and talk.

Eventually, Riley jumped in and told Auggie to leave Gabriel alone.

"Thanks," Gabriel said.

"We can tell you were getting annoyed," Maya said.

"Yeah," Riley agreed.

The Matthews, Maya and Gabriel spent some time shopping for school. Everyone except for Maya and Gabriel bought new clothes as well. Maya bought some clothes but not much. Gabriel didn't want the Matthews to spend more of their money on his so he didn't get anything. He knew that his father will take him to buy clothes. 

"Are you sure you don't want to buy anything?" Topanga asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said. 

Gabriel can tell that the Matthews are a nice, loving welcoming family. They'll happily let anyone into their home and everything. They reminded him of his mother, who will go out of her way to make sure that anyone she encounters is safe, welcomed, and would feel at home. It hurt to think about her, but he knew one day, he'll learn how to live without his mother. 

After school shopping, Gabriel thanked the Matthews and went to his apartment. He dropped all of his supplies onto his bed. He didn't bother unpack his things just yet.

"Gabe!" he heard Grant call him. "You home?"

"Yeah!" Gabriel responded. "I'm in my room."

"Great!"

After that, Gabriel didn't hear his father or his siblings until dinner time. Gabriel didn't really mind. He would much rather be left alone in his room and write than deal with people. 

"You okay, Gabe?" Emma asked him. She had entered his room to talk to him.

"I'm fine," he said. 

"Do you want to come to my room and watch How I Met Your Mother?" Emma asked.

"No, thanks," Gabriel responded.

"Alright, we can watch Star Wars or Captain America?" Emma suggested.

"Umm...." Gabriel thought about it for a minute. "Alright."

As much as he didn't want to watch a movie or do anything in general, he knew that Emma wanted to hang out with him for a little, so he agreed to watch a movie or a TV show with her. They started to watch Captain America: The First Avenger together. That movie has always been a movie that they always watched together. It was either that or any Marvel movie in general. They would bond over the movies. It brought them closer. Everything had changed since their mother died. 

Many thoughts passed through Gabriel's head as he and Emma watched Captain America: The First Avenger. They got to the part where Steve Rogers was fighting Red Skull in the ship before it crashed. Every single one of those thoughts consisted of memories of himself with his family before his mother died and thoughts of what could never be.

A/N:

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I felt like this chapter was okay. It feels like it was a little rushed, but this is a filler chapter. I had just remembered that I didn't update so I quickly came here and started to work on the chapter. 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. We have one more chapter until part one ends and we start part two. There will be in total of two parts in Words I think. I might change my mind about how many parts this book has, but for now, it'll be two parts.