↔IMPULSE↔

↔Graveyard Shift↔

Gabriel was pretty fucking bored.

Dory was spending the night at Gabe's which was always a good thing but he was talking non-stop about Nikki. Gabe forced a smile as his eyes lit up and he grinned like a fool.

"Gabe! Phone!" His little sister shouted. She pounced on the door and handed him the handset.

Who could be calling, Gabe wondered, the only people that usually called were Sandy's friends or Dory and occasionally Reese and Blake but Dory was still chattering away on his bed and Reese and Blake had their own problems.

A sigh, "hello?"

"Gabe?" The voice was male and familiar but not identifiable.

"Yeah," he responded, waving off Dory's question of who was on the phone. "Who's this?"

An audible smirk, "I'm wounded, I guess hanging out in a basement isn't memorable..."

Archie! Archie-freaking-Vaungh was calling him! "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't recognise your voice right away."

"We should fix that," Ba-dump.

"How do you even know my number?"

"Reese. What are you doing?"

"Hanging out with Doria."

Gabe could imagine him sitting on the cushy bar stool by Reese's phone, fiddling with the cord. "Then why do you sound absolutely miserable?"

Gabe felt a jolt, "I'm not!" He said defensively.

Archie laughed, "Saturday night, tomorrow, I'm going to pick you up at nine. Be ready." He hung up before Gabe could argue.

"Who was that?" Dory asked.

Gabriel laughed, looking at the phone in his hand. Sandy scurried in and took the phone before running off again like a startled cat. Dory was still waiting for an answer.

"A friend."

Dory looked at him, "which friend?"

"A new one."

"Huh. Anyways, tomorrow night, Blake invited us to go to get burgers with him and Reese after the movies. You in?"

Gabe shook his head which surprised Dory, "I have plans tomorrow night. You and Nikki should go somewhere else too, Reese and Blake need to work out their issues. It's been weeks."

Dory nodded, "you're right, it's been pretty weird. More importantly, you have a date tomorrow, right?"

"No," Gabe said. Dory wrapped his arm around his shoulders and laughed. He was way too close.

"Yeah, right. Plans on a Saturday night with a mysterious, new friend." Gabe could feel his freakishly warm body and how his frame shook when he laughed. Gabe hung his head in defeat.

He pushed Dory's arm off him and changed the subject back to his Nikki. It sucked but he didn't want to tell him he was hanging out with the elder Vaungh either.

The next day, Dory went home to shower and get ready for his outing with Nikki while Gabe did the same for his night with Archie. I wonder where we're going, he thought as he looked at his closet. He settled on dark jeans that made his already slender legs look almost girlish, it was annoying how small he was, especially compared to giant Dory, or lanky Reese, or agile Blake.

In eighth grade, Gabriel was hit by a car while crossing the street and broke his leg. He had surgery and rods and screws in his left leg now and he lost a lot of what little muscle he had, leaving him looking scrawny.