Page 44 of Titan

What the…

We’d only said goodbye less than fifteen minutes ago, and here he was. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“Theia.”

His deep voice almost melted me into a puddle of goo right on the fucking pavement like some kind of lovesick fool. I swear I was going to give myself whiplash from my emotions this evening. They were all over the place.

“Um, hi, what… what are you still doing here?”

I could feel Gael staring at me. He didn’t move from my side. If anything, he held onto my arm tighter, as if he was guarding me against the man in front of us as Gil came to a standstill. There was no need for him to become an overprotective bear, but Gael had always looked out for me. And no doubt he knew this was Zayn’s brother. Fuck, I was going to have to explain what was going on to him. What a mess. First Enzo, then Remi giving me shit, and now Gael was about to lecture me too.

“I was leaving, but I got Remi’s text. I wanted to check if you were okay and that my brother didn’t upset you.”

“Oh… I’m fine.”

Gil didn’t look entirely convinced. He glanced over at Gael, then back at me.

“I’ll talk to him. Make sure he doesn’t bother you again.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I do.”

I shifted on my feet, expecting him to say goodbye now he’d checked up on me, but he didn’t. Every second that went by, it grew even more awkward.

“Well, we’re just going home, so… uh, did you want to walk with us?”

I couldn’t read Gil’s expression, but I could certainly read Gael’s. He looked like I’d lost my fucking mind. Well, I already knew that. When it came to Gil Villetti, I wasn’t remotely sane, but I was sort of okay with it.

“Okay.”

The fact he agreed had my heart racing in my chest. As if it wasn’t already going crazy from his mere presence.

I turned to Gael and gave him a pleading look when he didn’t immediately let go of my arm. He let out a little huff and released me before walking off in the direction of our building. Gil stepped up beside me and we moved off at a more sedate pace.

“Is he okay?” Gil asked after a minute.

“Yeah, he will be.”

“I hope I haven’t made things awkward. I just know what Enzo is like.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s going through some shit, so I wanted to make sure he didn’t give you a hard time.”

I waved a hand.

“No, it’s fine. I appreciate that, but he really didn’t do anything bad other than complain about you and Zayn.”

Gil’s eyes narrowed.

“What did he say?”

“That you were both crazy, Zayn is lecturing him every day, and you’re brutally honest about everything.”

He snorted and shook his head.

“Well, that’s nothing new. Enzo has always been overdramatic.”

I didn’t respond, unsure of what else to say. We walked in silence for most of the rest of the way. I wanted to reach out and hold his hand, but I didn’t. It wouldn’t be about comforting him like I had in the club when he was distressed. It was my selfish urge to get closer to him. One I had to curtail. It was getting out of hand.

When we got to my building, Gael was waiting by the door. He leaned against the building with his arms crossed. Gil turned to me, ignoring my friend entirely.

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