Just Desserts

Chapter 23

NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to the lovely Cassandra McClellan who is always commenting on my story, asking for the next chapter the day I post it. Thank you Cassandra, your comments make me smile and they are what help me continue this story till the very end.

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Sam

I brought my tray over to the lunch table, sighing as I sat down. I felt like such an ass. Gabriel was just trying to be nice and I completely brushed him off.

"Sam? Sam?!" Jess yelled, finally getting my attention.

"Yeah.. sorry... what?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I've been calling you for the past like, five minutes." she replied.

I shook my head, inwardly cursing myself. "Yeah. Sorry... I was just thinking about something." I replied. I looked up and my eyes met Gabriel's. I just stared at him, his face showing no emotion and I felt even worse. I turned away, a slight blush rising to my cheeks.

I was so embarrassed and rather upset. Gabriel didn't deserve to be treated the way that I had treated him. He was too nice for that.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dean look between Gabe and I, a thoughtful look on his face. I closed my eyes, hoping that he wouldn't see anything wrong because I didn't want to talk about it. However, I knew Dean was smarter than I gave him credit for and he probably noticed something was wrong the moment I walked into the cafeteria. I just hoped he wouldn't say anything about it now.

I stared at my food, playing with it, not feeling very hungry all of a sudden.

I saw Dean sigh, relief flooding through me when he turned to talk to Cas instead of questioning it.

I felt Gabe's gaze on me, but I couldn't meet his eyes. It got to the point where I felt really uncomfortable sitting there and I excused myself to go to class early, not feeling comfortable enough to sit through the last few minutes of lunch.

Throughout the day, Gabriel would stare at me as well as Jess and Dean. Cas would try to talk to me at every possible moment, but I refused to talk to him about Gabriel.

Before I knew it, the end of the day came rolling around the corner and I tensed, not quite ready to confront Dean, who I knew would ask me about Lunch.

Then, of course, I remembered that I had to go to the auditorium after school for the play.

I was momentarily excited before I remembered that Gabe was also in the play. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal or anything, but since he was the other lead role, that meant we most likely had to practice together today.

Though it was a slight relief to not have to talk to Dean about everything quite yet, it still sucked.

Of course, since my life sucked, Dean was waiting outside of my class for me.

I tried pushing past him, desperately trying not to talk to him, pretending I didn't see him, but he wasn't stupid and we both knew that he knew I saw him.

"Sam! I know you saw me. I know you can hear me. Stop!"

I halted, reluctantly turning to face him with a sigh.

"What's going on?"

"Gabriel and I had a fight." I replied, shrugging it off.

"So, what happened?" he asked again and I scoffed. It appeared as though that was the only thing in his vocabulary at the moment.

"Well, I saw some kid being beat up when I entered the school this morning and I jumped in to help. Jodie came in moments later and sent us to the nurse's. Just my luck, it seemed that it was Cas and Gabe was really worried about him."

Dean raised his hand to stop me for a moment and I paused. "What do you mean 'Just my luck'?"

I blushed, turning to the side to hide it from Dean. "Um.. I was just referring to what would happen later." Dean nodded, accepting this answer, gesturing for me to continue. "So Gabe came in and was fussing over Cas when the nurse left to go get ice packs. Then he came over to me and... I don't know why... but I flipped out at him. I told him to just take care of his brother and leave me alone. Then he turned away and we haven't said a word to one another since. Now, I have to go face him for the practice."

"It can't be that bad can it?"

"I suppose not." I replied. Dean looked a littler nervous for a moment before he turned to walk away, promising to come back later. "Oh and Cas is okay!" I shouted, smiling as Dean paused, shoulders tensing slightly as he turned back around.

His face was set into a mask that, to anyone else, would appear nonchalant, but I could tell that he was slightly flustered. "Why would you feel the need to clarify that?"

I smiled at Dean knowingly. I have seen the way that Dean looks at the boy, a pained and loving look on his face. He obviously cared greatly for the young man, wanting to be more than just friends, but he was dating Lisa and that was presenting a huge problem for him and his emotions.

"I know it sucks, but maybe you should talk to Lisa about how you feel so that she doesn't find out on her own because we both know that will tear her apart."

Dean's mask fell when he realized it wouldn't do anything to keep it up if I knew already. A blush rose to his cheeks and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, obviously at a loss for words. "Maybe you should do the same with Jess. Until then, I won't say a word to Lisa." Dean muttered.

I was shocked, standing stock still, the words not quite registering in my mind.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

It was Dean's turn to give me a knowing smile as he turned and left, for real this time.

I stared at Dean's retreating back, pondering what he had said. Maybe I truly did like Gabe, enough to do something about it given the chance. It was clear enough that not talking to Gabe for even half a day had distracted me enough to ignore everyone which wasn't like me at all.

If that were the case, then I definitely needed to talk to Jess about it some time, but that wasn't.

I like Jess. I'm in love with Jess. I don't want to date Gabe. I just feel bad for making him feel unwelcome, for hurting him.

Even as I thought about it though, I knew it wasn't quite true, but I decided to ignore it.

Dean

As I walked away from Sam, for good this time, I heard him mutter something.

"Maybe, I do like him.... I don't know..." Sam sighed, turning to head off to the auditorium and I smiled slightly, knowing that this was what Sam truly wanted.

I had seen the way they had looked at one another, how hurt they both seemed when they weren't talking.

Besides, I'm pretty sure that Jess is gay, even if she doesn't know it yet. If they broke up, Sam could go date Gabe and Jess could go find some nice girl to settle down with.

Perhaps Charlie. They seemed friendly enough already and Charlie definitely liked the girl.