The Other Side of Envy: The Ghost Bird Series: #8 (The Academy) (7 page)

Gabriel grunted, getting up on his knees and crossing to the couch where my book bag was. He opened it, pursuing the contents, yanking out the clothes I’d worn yesterday. “Shit. Okay, whoever comes to get you, I’ll go back with you and sort some of your stuff. You’re mixing the wrong things.” A pair of panties fell out onto the floor. I blushed. Gabriel scooped them up. It was a black pair with a pink heart on the butt. He grinned, wriggling his eyebrows. “I like these.”

I hid my face behind my hands. “
Gabriel,
” I said in an embarrassed whine.

“Trouble.”

“Meanie.”

“And what the hell did you wear last night to sleep in?”

“Silas gave me a shirt to wear.”

“Oh.” He stuffed everything into the bag. “What you really need is a real overnight bag. You know, something with plenty of spare clothes and duplicates of everything so you can just grab it and go.”

“Do I need one? Am I going to have to get up and go like this a lot?”

Gabriel laughed, digging out my hairbrush and dropping the bag on the couch again. He crawled over to sit cross-legged near me. “Shit, you’re here now, aren’t you? I know this wasn’t planned.”

He was right. I’ve been on the move since I’d met them. It would be helpful to carry my keys and everything in a bag. Maybe a purse? It felt like an overnight bag would be better, something I could carry clothes and a few toiletries in.

Gabriel snapped his fingers, twirling them in front of his body and waving the hairbrush. That was my cue. I scooted until I was on my butt on the floor in front of him. He grabbed me by the hips until I was close in front of his folded legs and he started brushing out my hair, combing out the tips and moving up through it. “I don’t like this brush. You need a new one.”

“You can’t keep buying me new things,” I said, trying to keep my head still as his fingers smoothed through my hair after every brush stroke. “What’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t like it.” He finished combing out the tangles and tossed the brush away toward the kitchen. It slid against the tile and collided with the wastebasket near the fridge.

I leaned sideways to look at him over my shoulder. “Hey, you could have broken it.”

“I was throwing it away.”

“Gabriel...”

“Pipe the fuck down. I’ll get you another one. I’ll get you two.” He leaned his back against the couch. “What do you want from me, Trouble? I say I’m going to get you something, I’ll get it. I’m not talking out my ass.”

I sighed. It really wasn’t a matter of believing he’d get another one. I still wasn’t used to them spending money on me, and Gabriel often got the others to buy new things for me. Still, protesting was pointless. Gabriel always talked them into it. “Okay, fine.”

He grinned, and pushed a lock of my hair around my ear. It fell back across my face. “Let’s play some video games. I’ll show you how you can beat Kota.” He picked himself up, and knee-walked across the room to the entertainment center and scanned the shelves for a couple of Xbox controllers.

I sat back against the couch, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs. I still couldn’t think of a way to bring up the Academy, though. It was on the tip of my tongue to start. But each time I opened my mouth to do so, my heart jumped into overdrive and I couldn’t do it.

When he turned back, he stopped, tilting his head at me. “What?”

I blinked at him. “Hm?”

“Why are you sitting like that?”

My eyes widened. What was he talking about? “It’s comfortable?”

“Is it? The only time I see you sit like that is when you’re nervous. Stop being nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” I protested, but switched to sitting cross-legged. “Better?”

“Almost,” he said, scooting over to sit next to me. “I should make you sit on the other side of the room so you don’t cheat.”

“It’s too hard to cheat at video games. I still lose.”

“Because they end up sitting on you and tossing the controller away.”

I grinned, remembering when Kota did that. I held my hand out, and Gabriel gave me a controller.

We started out with one of the fighting games. At first we fought against each other like we’d done before, but later he figured out how to get us on the same team. That made things a lot easier as he’d explain which buttons did what attacks. He wouldn’t tell me before when we were fighting against each other.

I stole glances of him while he was playing. He had an angular jawline. His collar bones were attractive. He had wide shoulders, and a narrow waist. I’d overheard someone at school once call a rock star ‘grunge handsome’. I thought that described Gabriel pretty well.

When we got tired of the fighting game, we switched to car racing. The first few games he beat me easily because I couldn’t figure out how he was getting so many speed bonuses.

“Want to bet on the next game?” he asked as he dropped the controller into his lap. The sun was beating in through the window, so the room was getting warm. He stripped off the button up shirt he was wearing, tossing it onto the couch behind us.

“No.” Was he crazy? I never won their bets.

“Come on,” he said. “You’re getting better.” He leaned into me, tilting his head. He locked his crystal eyes on mine, making them big. His lip pouted. “Please?”

I sensed there was something he wanted. “What’s the bet?”

He flashed a grin. “Find out after the race.”

I made a face at him. “No fair.”

“Yeah, fair,” he said and he started the next game.

Inside the race, I tried my best just to win fairly, but Gabriel was keen on crashing his car into mine and making side-swipes in front of me to get my car spinning out of control. Then he started nudging my elbow.

“Meanie,” I whined as his pushing caused my car to crash into a tree.

“What?” he laughed, focusing on the game.

If I owed him a favor, it could be anything, and with Gabriel, he was too unpredictable. Cheating was going to be the only way to win.

I started nudging his arm with my elbow. He nudged back but kept ahead of me in the game. I moved from nudging to poking him in the ribs.

He laughed, letting go of the controller for a second to swat at my hands. When I kept poking, he caught my hand in his, causing both our cars to stop.

He held on to me, grinning. “What-the-fuck-ever. Who do you think I am? Victor? That little shit doesn’t work on me.”

He was challenging me to cheat better! I narrowed my eyes at him and pulled my hand back to start my car again, racing around his stalled car.

He caught up with me, too, but kept glancing over at me. I had a feeling he was waiting for my next move.

Using my hands wasn’t working. Letting go of the controller meant I had to stop racing. I wasn’t going to win that way. I tried to pretend I was focusing on the race, but at the same time, I slipped my sandals off my feet as if I didn’t want them.

When he managed to sideswipe my car to send it into a spin, I kicked at his controller until it was knocked out of his hands and fell to the floor.

“Fuck,” he said, and pushed at me hard enough that I landed on my side on the carpet as he scrambled for his controller.

I laughed, leaning over while propped up on my elbows. I toe-nudged him in the side and on his arm. When I was sprawled out on the floor, he could only reach my legs. Maybe sitting on the other side of the room was the way to win.

At first he tried resisting, but my nudging at him and being able to play at the same time meant I could get ahead of him. Soon I was zooming down the road, well out of his reach.

“Shit,” he grumbled, pushing my foot away. “Stop.”

“Nu uh,” I said. I poked him in the side with my toe as I aimed my car to collect speed bonuses before he could get there.

He lifted a hand up, bringing it down on my thigh with a slap. Even through the material of the jeans, it stung. “Trouble,” he called to me. “Watch it.”

“Now who’s cheating?” I said and stopped poking because I was already ahead.

“That’s not cheating,” he said.

“Oh?”

He laughed and reached a hand out, snatching my ankle and trapping me. I stretched out my controller away as far as I could so he couldn’t get to it as he held onto me. He crawled over me, positioning himself to sit on my hips and poked me in the stomach.

I squealed, slapping at his hands and wriggling under him. “No! I’ve almost won.”

“Not yet you haven’t,” he said, and he let go of his controller. He hooked his fingers at the hem of my shirt, and pulled it up just enough so he could trace his fingertips over my bare sides.

My lips split apart with a burst of giggles. I dropped the controller and then grabbed at his hands, hanging on. “No tickling!”

Gabriel’s crystal eyes lit up. He snatched up both of my wrists and hovered over me to pin them to the floor above my head. With his free hand, he traced my side. “What? Big, brave Sang Sorenson can’t stand her own tricks?”

I laughed until tears teased my eyelids. I wriggled hard against him. The cars in the game stilled. If he wasn’t going to win, neither of us was. “Stop,” I cried out. “I can’t breathe.”

He beamed then stopped tickling me but placed a palm against my bare side. When my laughing subsided, his face hovered inches from mine. His eyes traced over my face. My heart tripped over itself, and I struggled to breathe evenly.

“Gabriel,” I said softly. My mind was mush from laughing so hard and overwhelmed with him on top of me.

His smile warmed. “Sang.”

Was this too close now? I’d previously told Silas I’d be his girlfriend. Mr. Blackbourne said to get close to the others. How close would upset Silas? Did that mean I had to tell Gabriel to back off? I wished Silas had said something to the others to make it clear. If I wasn’t sure, they would know. My tongue glued to the top of my mouth. I was worried that telling Gabriel about Silas would hurt his feelings. I really liked Gabriel, too.

Gabriel leaned his head down, his lips found my ear. “You can’t look at me like that,” he said softly.

“Like what?” This had to be too close. He was kissing my ear. Silas wouldn’t like it. But then, Nathan kissed me, too, and I’d kissed North as well. Gabriel had once kissed my neck, but since then, he’d only kissed my cheek and now I was Silas’s girlfriend. Didn’t that make a difference? The conflicts inside me surfaced any time one of them got close or kissed me. I tried to let them guide the way, but it was hard not to consider their feelings.

“Looking all beautiful and terrified at the same time,” he whispered, his warm breath on my skin giving me goosebumps. His hands tightened around my wrists as he kept me pinned. His lips touched my lobe. “It’s those eyes. They drive me crazy.”

“Gabriel, I...”

“Trouble,” he whispered, his lips meeting my ear again. “Tell me to stop.”

I sucked in a breath, my spine tingling. Did he mean it? Why was he telling me to say no?

Why wasn’t I telling him?

He pulled back. His crystal eyes met mine. His hand at my side started gripping my hip. “Please,” he begged in a whisper.

I didn’t understand what he meant. He was begging me to tell him to stop? If he wanted to stop, he didn’t need me to tell him.

“Sang,” he said. His head dropped down, his lips met my cheek, kissing it. “You’re too good for me. You shouldn’t be here.” His lips traced across my cheek and he kissed my temple. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

I sucked in a deep breath. My eyes flittered to the ceiling, to the water stain in the corner. I had to tell him about Silas. This was too much. It’d be wrong to both him and Silas and they’d both be mad at me forever.

His kisses trailed over my cheek. I parted my lips to say something.

A woman’s voice shot through the silence. “Gabriel Joseph fucking Coleman! What the hell are you doing?”

Gabriel jumped, letting go of my wrists and backing up until he was sitting on top of my hips again, looking behind him. I propped myself up on my elbows.

A tall woman with bleached hair stood, staring at us from the kitchen. She wore tight shorts that barely covered her butt and a wrinkled halter-top that showed off her stomach. Her fingers were manicured with bold bright red polish. She was barefoot, bleary-eyed and shooting angry darts from her eyes at Gabriel. Then she turned to me and her eyes widened. “Holy shit. It’s a girl.” She dropped a hand over her heart, backing up a step.

Gabriel scrambled to his feet. “You scared the shit out of me, Pam.”

“I scared
you
? How do you think I feel? I walk in and you’ve got someone pinned to the floor like you’re gonna rape him.” She laughed, her eyes brightening. “
Her
. Sorry, sugar. All I saw were your feet.”

My cheeks were on fire. I stood up so I could better hide behind Gabriel. Amid my embarrassment and the chaos, I had a sudden lapse of memory. Who was this woman? His mother? They didn’t look much alike.

Then I remembered his mother was dead. This must be his stepmom.

“I wasn’t doing anything to her,” Gabriel said flatly.

“Is that why you had to pin her wrists to the floor? Haven’t I taught you better on how to treat a lady? You can’t hold them against their will.” She turned to me, her lips broadening her smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Really. I thought... well...don’t mind me.” She stepped closer, her eyes raking over my body. “But I can see why he did. Holy shit.” She looked me in the face again. “You are a girl, right? God, please say yes.”

“I am,” I said quietly. I hovered a finger over my lip, unsure of what to say.

“Pam, this is Sang Sorenson. Sang, this is my stepmom, Pam. And yes, she’s a fucking girl.”

“Thank the lord,” she said, and she stepped around Gabriel and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug. “Thank you, thank you.” She smelled heavily of cigarettes and perfume that got caught in my throat, but her hug felt genuine.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Gabriel breathed out, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Pam let go of me, spun around and landed a palm against his cheek. “Don’t you go taking the lord’s name in vain.”

I sucked in a quick breath and froze. Was he hurt? Did I need to call Mr. Blackbourne? What do I do? A flash of memory came through me of Nathan getting hit by his dad. I readied myself to tell him to run for it.