The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

46 | insane was okay

• [ i n s a n e   w a s   o k a y ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

"Wait, you like Louisa?" An annoying voice questioned from behind me. His voice was tinged with an excitement indicating that I'd never hear the end of this.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

I groaned dragging my hand over my face. Prince ambled back into the room, a smirk plastered on his face as he leaned against the wall with his armed folded over his chest. "Called it. I knew something was going on between you two. Just how scandalous is this matter?"

Scandalous? Well, that would be the least suitable word ever. Shaking my head, I replied, "It's nothing like that."

Knowing it would irritate me, Prince jumped to a conclusion.

"Ah, I see. So that's the issue," he narrated as if he were an expert, his thick eyebrows drawn into a straight line. "You'd be devastated to learn this Gabriel, but a one-sided relationship isn't actually a relationship. It's called a crush."

It wasn't one-sided. Right?

My grey eyes looked at him in a totally fake excessive interest. "Oh really?"

His amber eyes twinkled as he nodded along. "Yeah."

"Mind-blowing."

"Definitely."

"I really didn't know that."

Well aware that I was taking the mick out of him, Prince continued to play along. "Well, they do say that you learn something new every day."

I rolled my eyes, looking at Arlo for help. In response, he shrugged his shoulders in impartiality and moved his blue eyes to look out the window as if it were a lot more interesting.

Very very helpful.

Running a hand through my messy brown-black hair, I exhaled in frustration. I could have sworn there was something between Louisa and I but she always seemed to switch up at the last moment. It made me question whether there was actually a connection or if I was just being delusional. I was shit at judging this sort of stuff.

Nah, there's definitely something there.

"Shut up, Parvais," I grumbled watching as his structured face contorted in distaste at the name. My lips twitched upwards as I raised an eyebrow, "Bet you regret telling me that."

"I really do," Prince admitted before narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "Also good try but we're not changing the topic. You're in a hospital bed. You have nowhere else to run so you may as well give up and start talking."

Dammit.

Trying to dodge the topic again, I weakly caught sight of the mini-fridge. Gabriel Reid never gave up.

"You know what it's time for? Another beer."

A smirk grew on my face when Arlo took the bait. He looked at me in bewilderment, snow coloured hair pulled backwards, "Gabriel, no. You're not having another. You shouldn't even be drinking at all. You need to recover-"

I don't know if it was because of the drugs that were sailing smoothly through my blood but Prince had somehow teleported like a fucking genie to the other side of the room. He clapped Arlo hard on the back before pushing himself up on the window ledge next to him.

An incredibly proud expression was on his face as he lectured on as if he were a sage giving a damn sermon. "My dear Arlo, you're too honest. Don't you see that you just walked right into Gabriel's trap of a distraction? Come on mate, you're smarter than that."