Best Friend's Brother

Eight: My Tree

JAKE'S POV

My eyes slowly drift open to see a room that is definitely not mine. I'm laying under a soft blanket, and my arms are crossed behind my head. At first, I don't know where I am. I slowly gather my senses, and I recognize my surroundings. The walls are covered with posters from musicals including High School Musical, Hamilton, Six, Wicked, Glee, and even Les Misérables. There is only one person I know who would have a dorm like this.

Gabriella.

It's quiet, the only thing I can hear is my own slow breaths and the birds chirping from the trees outside. The window is open, and a nice breeze flows in. While sitting up, I realize Gabi is not here. My eyes snap to the open window. 

"Oh shoot!" I jump out of bed and race to the window. Of course, the first thing I think of is the worst-case scenario. 

I do that all the time, always jumping to the most horrible conclusions.

I peer my head out the window. Wincing, I glace down, hoping not to see a body in the bushes below. 

There is no one there. 

As I pull my head inside, I wack the back of my head on the lip of the window. As a reflex, my hands launch to my head, even though it did not hurt badly. As I stand, I see myself in the mirror across the room. My hair is totally messed up, and there are lines imprinted on the left side of my face from sleeping weirdly. But that's not what surprised me, what completely shocked me is that there is a blue, cloud-shaped sticky note on my forehead.

How did I not notice this?

I peel it off, surprised that it did not fall off already, and in Gabi's messy handwriting, I read the message upon it.

At CC; grabbing b-fast. STAY AT DORM! 

Love, G

As I walk past her desk, I drop the note on her books. I go into her closet, and squat down to reach the bottom shelf. 

For as long as I can remember, we have kept clothes at each others homes. We each have about a week's worth of clothes in their closet, because we crash at each others' place often. I have the whole bottom shelf in Gabi's closet all to myself. 

I pull a pair of ripped black jeans and a grey Star Wars T-shirt from the bottom of the pile. The jeans are ripped at the knee from when Gabi made me go to the rollerblading rink with her last winter. 

When I finished getting dressed, I stand in front of the full-length mirror, running my fingers through my gorgeous hair, trying to fix the bed-head mess. 

As I take a step back from the mirror, I hear the front door jolt open. A few seconds later, Gabi walks back into her room, with her hands full with two drinks, two muffins, and huge chocolate chip cookie. She opens her arms above her bed, dropping all the food onto the comforter. 

"I see your finally awake Sleeping Beauty." She laughs.

She takes her converse off, kicks them into the open closet, and plops on the end of the bed. She carefully peels off the liner on the muffin, then stuffs as much as she can in her mouth. 

"Mhm... So... Good..." Gabi mumbles with her mouth full. I sit crossed-legged on the head of the bed and grab the coffee cup that has 'Sleeping Beauty' written across the side. 

"Where are we going today?" I ask, setting the cup between my crossed legs, holding it up straight. I rip a corner off the giant cookie and stuff it into my mouth.

"My Tree." She replies, grabbing her coffee from off the travel holder. 

"Your... Tree?"

"Yeah." Gabi tells me. She stands up from the bed, and grabs her backpack. She flips it upside down, letting everything inside fall onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" I kneel, picking up her belongings, and stacking them on her desk. She walks to her bookshelf, studies it for a second, and then start to drop books into her bag.  

"Grabbing books, you stupid." Gabi drops her phone, wallet, and earbuds into the pocket, zips it up and throws the bag over her shoulder. With her coffee in hand, she starts to walk out the door.

I grab the muffin that Gabi did not devour, my coffee, and my phone, and slide on my shoes as well. I stuff my wallet and phone into my pockets, and follow Gabi out of the dorm.

"What do you mean 'Your Tree'?" I have to speed walk to keep up with Gabi, even though her legs are about four inches shorter than mine.

"Its. In. The. Park." She says, between slurps of her drink. She goes down the stairs, takings the steps two at a time.

"Okay? Why are we going so fast? Its not like the tree can run away."

"I don't want anyone to steal Fiyero from me." 

"Fiyero?"

"I named the tree Fiyero. You know, the boy from Wicked!" She grabs my hand, pulling me up to her speed.

After walking for many minutes, she stops.

"We're.... here!" She waves at Fiyero, like a tree could see her. She lets go of my hand, and starts running towards the tree. She circles to the other side of the tree, and stops in her tracks. 

Her face is bright red, and I can almost see the fumes coming out of her ears. 

Someone's sitting there.

I follow her to see a black-haired guy leaning against Fiyero.

"What are you doing to My Tree?" Gabi yells at him. He looks up from his book, at smiles.

"First of all, Pleasure to meet you too," He says in a thick British accent. "Second, I'm sitting and reading, and third, what do you mean by 'My Tree'?" 

"This is my tree." Gabi mumbles through her teeth.

"No, darling, this is the parks tree." He looks back at his book and continues reading. "The name's Ace by the way."

"I didn't ask." She spins around and walks away. She makes it a few steps and then stops again. She glares at a park bench where two people are making out.

"Geez, take that to the bedroom, please." I mumble, grabbing Gabi's hand to start to head back. She won't budge. She continues staring, and it looks like shes almost in tears.

"I should of known." She mutters, tearing away from me as she runs off. 

I look back at the bench confused. I study the people until I figure it out.

It's Camilla.

That must be what Gabi was mad about, right? She was mad about Camilla. Gabi wants us together.

I look back once again, and then gasp. The guy?

Greyson.