Etched

Chapter 20

When I was a kid and my mom used to force me to go to bed early, I usually protested, considering myself to be a grownup and old enough to stay up late. It was a charm at the young age to act and pretend to be an adult. Little did I knew that when I'd actually be a grownup, I'd kill to have so much as a decent dose of a much needed slumber. These were my thoughts as I entered my office elevators today.

It's alarming how the schedule is shortening the hours of my sleep day by day and it is playing a major roll in exhausting me for almost the entire stretch of it, everyone can tell. The sad part is, I am unable to do anything to help it.

Who shall I blame though? My nightmares probably, but then over the years I've gotten to catch up sufficient hours despite their constant presence and as hard as the task was, I still managed it. Of course I am stubborn like that.

But recently, the cause has been much more than just them. If we were to reference about last week, I could've blamed Gabriel White and how he made his important goal to keep me busy and well if someone asks me why I couldn't sleep last night the answer would still be the same, but this time for completely opposite reasons.

The thought of him made me clench my eyes shut when all the memories from the day before crashed, showering me under them and bringing the familiar giddy feelings of the past twenty-four hours. It's surreal how Gabriel and I managed to transform from evil enemies to something strange.

Yesterday, at the beach, after being in a conversation with Gabriel, him and I sitting side by side on the sand, talking and mostly gazing at the wild waves. We almost lost the count of time. It was just the presence of him that was wearing out all the stress and tiredness that I felt. The easygoing air surrounding us was soothing and the feeling was indescribable.

There wasn't much to say on what we talked about, it wasn't some unraveling of secrets, as if it was even a possibility with Gabriel White being on the other side. It was basically just me being me, asking him random questions, here and there and his monosyllable answers.

I randomly asked his favorite movie and he stared at me as I was talking about something abominable and he hadn't known about any movie, making me gaze at him in astonishment.

He turned his head away, not seemingly bothered by my offensive gaze. That was all it took me to go in a deep rant on my favorite movies, from Disney to typical chicklits. I gave him a detailed explanation of each of the characters and what I loved about them.

When I was referring to the handsome princes or the romantic heroes, his expressions got a bit appalled but he quickly got them covered. If I didn't know him any better I would've thought he was jealous of them but hey, knock knock, we're talking about Gabriel White here and expressions and emotions have never been his form to execute let alone feeling things like these which don't even matter to him. 

It was while I was halfway explaining how Eugene stole Rapunzel's crown and then proceeded off with the further details of the story.

I'm an enthusiastic story teller, I love it when the audience is paying attention and understanding my excitement while I deliver the story to them in my best attempt. I use hand gestures, flailing them around to have a more descriptive scenario of the view to the hearing party.

Which is why, I didn't realize when I'd clasped his hand whilst explaining the romantic scene, I was practically squealing and I didn't pay much attention to it then but thinking of it now has me cringing big time. I didn't even bother losing the grip, I was just going with the flow and going as far as squeezing them to convey the heightening emotions I felt thinking about an animated romance tale.

He was gazing at me, not diverting his attention even in the slight, not even momentarily moving them to take in the vast ocean. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely interested in my rant or he was thinking of ways to strangle me or he had dosed off after realizing that I wasn't going to stop anytime soon.