Page 104 of Bad at Love

“Wh-what are you talking about?” He glances at the clock, then back at me, face full of sleep.

“I was out forhoursand you’re just here sleeping like everything is fine? What if something happened to me?”

“I don’t understand what’s going—”

“You didn’t know where I was, didn’t know who I was with, and you just went to sleep like you didn’t even care. Likeyoudon’t care. What if I didn’t come home at all, hm? Would you have called in the morning? How long for me to be missing before you’d try to find me?” I run my hands down my face, spinning in a circle. “Why does no one give a shit about me?”

“Storm, I do care about you,” he says, putting his hand on my arm.

When did he get out of bed?

“Obviously you don’t. You’re just like everyone else in my life. Everyone else who has left and doesn’t fucking care!”

I don’t know why any of these words are leaving my mouth. I have no idea why I’m yelling at him or taking out my anger on him. Hell, I don’t even know why all this stuff is bothering me when it’s never bothered me before.

“No,” he says firmly, shaking his head. He takes a step closer, putting his hands on my arms. “No, that isn’t true. I care about you.”

“Then why didn’t you text me!”

He holds my gaze, sighing. “I thought you needed to be alone.”

“I don’t ever want to be alone! Never! I’m tired of being alone. I’ve been alone my entire life.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I don’t want to be alone,” I repeat, my eyes blurry, and completely hating it. Hating myself and what I’m doing.

Gabriel puts his arms around me, pulling me against him. I rest my face in the crook of his neck, allowing his body heat to seep through my clothes and into my skin. I grip his waist, rocking my head from side to side.

“You’re not alone,” he whispers. “I’m here.”

Before I know it, I’m sobbing against him like a child. All the while, he whispers to me that everything will be okay.

“It’s okay, Storm, I’m here. I’ve got you. You’re okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

I want to believe him. I really want to fucking believe him, but I don’t know if I can.

Chapter Forty-One

Gabriel

“Are we going to talk about last night?” I ask as I put Storm’s plate in front of him. He’s avoided me most of the day. When I woke up to shower, I expected to find him still in my bed when I got back, but he was gone. Didn’t take long for me to realize he moved to his own room. He hid in there all day. It’s dinner now, and it’s the first meal he’s eaten today.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he says.

He’s been different ever since I asked him about us. Last night was the worst of it with his breakdown—something I was not expecting to happen. It’s been obvious to me that Storm has some unresolved issues, but I have too many of my own to worry about his. Also… glass houses and all. But it’s glaringly obvious now what his issues are.

He told me about leaving his mother. There is guilt there because he feels like he abandoned her, and when he did, she almost died. She’s hardly here now, only being kept alive by machines. With everything Storm went off about last night, it tells me he has abandonment issues. Putting together all I know about him, I’m guessing it started with his father, who isn’t in the picture. Maybe step fathers, too? Grandparents? Friends? Anyone, really. Maybe everyone. I don’t know how deep his pain runs, and I doubt he is ever going to tell me. He’s very good at keeping his issues at bay. I want to help him the way he helped me. Problem is, I don’t think he’s going to let me.

“Look, if this is about what I asked you, we can just forget about it, okay?”

“What are you talking about?” he asks, frowning.

“About us or whatever. Just forget it. I didn’t mean to freak you out. Just pretend I never said it. People do it all the time.”

He scoffs, digging into his food.

“This isn’t about that,” he grumbles.

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