FG

Forgiving Gabriel

Saturday, December 26, 2009 / 4:54 AM

Chapter Four

{Rory}

Beep. "Hey, Rory it's Gabe. You know, Gabe Saporta. Well, as you know, or not, I'm back from my almost seven-week trip in Seattle and I've been thinking about that dinner we agreed to have as friends once I've come back. Call me back so I'd know when you're free." Beep.

I opened the door and entered to see the dorm rearranged, almost fully set up and decorated.

"Wow," I said.

"Hope you don't mind but I switched our rooms without asking. But yours may be bigger and mine would get less sun so I won't have to worry about melanoma," Pia said, fussing around the room, hanging a picture and making small adjustments

"Hey," I said.

Pia looks at me. "What?"

I pulled Pia into a warm hug. "Pia, you're my best friend and I love you. So, whatever happened in the past is in the past. I have something to tell you."

"I know that," Pia replied. "Okay, shoot."

"I met Gabriel. Gabriel Saporta. And we talked then I gave him my number," I said quickly.

Pia looked at me with her mouth wide open. "No way!"

Surprisingly, it didn't sound like a "God, I can't believe you!" no way, but it was more like a "Oh My God! You met Leonardo DiCaprio" no way.

I smiled, relieved. "Yes way! We are so outdated in music. Gabe is a celebrity now."

"Tell me everything. And I mean everything."

And so I did, starting from the listening-to-the-radio part to the voice mail.

"Call him back."

"No, Pia, I don't want to do that now. I just want to know what you think about this because you had a thing for him once. And I don't want that to ruin our friendship again."

"You just said what's past is in the past, Rory. It was just a stupid crush, I'm over it. I want Samuel now." Then she paused, slowly smiling and said, "Oh. My. God. You're not over him! No wonder you're afraid I'd get mad because you think there's a possibility tha--"

"No!" I can't believe this. "That's not true! I was just thinking tha--"

"Hey! I was just joking!," she said, laughing. "Look, I'm older now, I know that I can't control your feelings or his. I was stupid back then, I let Ivy get to me. You haven't dated anyone since the break up. You should call him."

"I guess I will," I said. "What's that?" I asked, pointing to the flyers Pia was holding.

"Flyers. I'm spreading the word. The professor died, remember? Can you help me do it too?"

"Yeah."

I exited my dormroom, alone and looked for an empty space on any of the nearby bulletin boards which are already crammed with notices, notes and advertisements. Then, three students enter the dorm hall. I recognized them.

"Okay, Sam, last building. please say that it's her room."

Samuel eagerly looked around. "Uh..."

Blond guy said, "And apparently, it doesn't look familiar."

They all walk in front of my dorm room. "Here. I'm sure it's this."

"Don't put your number, put Logan's," Pete said, indicating the blond guy.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"No thanks," said the blond guy, Logan, I think.

"Excuse me? What are you doing in front of my room?"

They all turned to see me. Logan, the blond guy, grins. "Okay, put my number," he said.

"So, you're Pia's roommate?" Samuel asked.

"Are you sure this is your room?" Pete asked.

"I'm sorry about the mix-up. My friend here means no harm. He just thinks that he has found his soul mate."

"There she is!" Pete and Samuel ran upstairs.

Logan turned to me. "We sincerely apologize, and we will now leave you to finish putting up your poster of... this really old guy." He looked closer to the flyers I had in my hands.

"Professor Xanders died last week," I explained.

"Okay, so were you and Xanders..." He paused.

"Sorry. 'Sjust you're putting a poster of him up in your hallway. You can see where I get the impression he's a little bit more than a teacher." He continued grinning.

I rolled my eyes, making Logan look surprised.

"You don't know me, but you don't like me." Logan smiled widely.

"I know you. I met you when you and your friends embarrassed Max like that."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Max? Yes, Max. I'm sorry. It slipped my mind. Of course I met you yesterday with Max. Nice to see you again..."

"Rory!" I exasperated. "Why do you always speak to people as if they're below you?"

"Nice to see you again, Rory. You're looking well. Angry works for you," Logan said.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm just irritated by how you treated Max. It's how you said it."

"I'm sorry. What did I say that was so bad? I said hello and I think I said he made a kick-ass margarita"

"Just because somebody doesn't have money or a fancy family doesn't mean they're inferior to you."

"I agree."

"And just because somebody is a bartender at a party for you and your friends, that doesn't mean that you can talk to them like a servant."

I turned to walk away.

I had to admit, he looked amazing with his white button-up with the first two undone, his tie hung loosely around his neck, and slight-sagged khaki pants.

{Gabe}

Penbridge Building Room 3. Friday @ 7. Surprise me w/the restaurant. See ya!

I closed my cellphone and smiled to myself. We're really going to be friends.

Forgiving Gabriel

/ 4:49 AM

Chapter 3

{Rory}

2 months of summer later...

"I'm gonna go say hi for awhile then I'll help arrange the furnitures, okay?" said Pia, who had been my dorm mate since the first semester. We part ways and I then find myself standing at the UM courtyard directing two moving man to carry my sofa to the dorm room.

"Careful, if you stain that, my dormmate will hunt you down and kill you. I wish I was joking. Here, let me help you get the door," I said to them.

"Rory!" Max approached. Max and I knew each other when I heard snoring in the hallway and found him naked and sleeping on a hallway. I woke him up, offering him a blanket, we talked and became friends. Either it was a prank pulled by his friends or something else, I never found out why he was there.

"Max, it's great to see you!" We hugged. "So, are you living here?"

"Yeap, I'm living here." He nodded.

"Great! So am I," I said, noticing the impatient movers. I apologized.

"So, how was your summer?" I asked Max.

"Well..." he replied vaguely, "I met Nicole Richie, then spent the rest of the weeks showering."

I laughed lightly, holding the interior hall door open for the movers, then the dorm's.

"Hey!" Pia called out and walked over. She looked upset. "Guess what? Professor Xanders just died. Urgh! How am I suppose to ask his opinion on my paper?! Oh, hi Max."

"That's sad how did he die?" I asked.

Pia said, "The great man was brought down by someone's vagina."

"O-kay. Lose the details. Come on Rory, let's go get some coffee," said Max.

"Alright, see you later," I said to the very troubled Pia.

*********

"I mean, I always thought I looked a lot like my Uncle Jerry, and, gee, Mom seemed to really like him. My dad looked relieved when my mom finally told me," Max explained.

"He did not!"

"I heard him say "whew!". I guess I wasn't much of a son to him anyway."

"So what did you do over the summer?" Max asked.

I shooked my head. "Same thing everyday--lying on the swimming pool with my bikin-- Hey!" A student wearing a red jacket bumps into Max as he passes, purposely.

Max apologized but took it back mentally when the red jacket guy said, "No, seriously, you couldn't see me there?"

"Not everyone has to be staring at you, Pete," says Samuel. He and Pia dated for awhile once.

'Pete' was also walking with a blond guy and the bond guy's even blonder...girlfriend?

"Hey, I know you," blond guy said to Max. "No, wait-wait, don't tell me. I'm seeing a uniform of some sort."

"I've bartended for you -- for your parties," Max replied nervously. I was the only one who actually noticed.

Blondie nodded and replied to Max, "That's right, you're a talented man," then to me, he said, "He makes a kick-ass margarita."

Max chuckled. "Thanks, I guess."

"Well, it's good to see you again. What's your name?"

"Max. Uh, this is Rory."

Blond guy seemed to have this kind of face on all the time. The kind of cool and sarcastic Prince Charming look. He just cannot stop smiling. And the way he talks is just so business-like. "Hi. So, assuming your services are still for hire this year, your financial situation hasn't changed at all?"

"Nope."

"Good. Okay, I'll give you a call. Where are you living now?"

"Branford."

"Oh, excellent -- Branford. All right. Good running into you."

Samuel laughed. "Nice building."

Blond guy exits with the blonder girl in tow, his friends slowly following.

"Excellent shirt," Pete said to Max and the to me, "I can see what you see in him."

"Don't be an ass, Pete," said the blond guy.

Pete laughed and said, "Me? Never. I'm a friend to all people, large and very, very small," then walked to catch up with blond guy and the others.

"I hate those guys," Max said.

I shook my head.

{Gabe}

"So you think I should really give her a call?" I asked Alex, my best bud since high school. We were there for each other all the way. From nasty breakups and music making--we sure had a lot of that in common.

"Yeah man, listen, I really have to go now, Lisa's coming over tonight and I haven't seen her for a month so..."

"Alright man, go have some fun. If you know what I mean," I raised my eyebrow and gave him a soft punch on the arm. "Let yourself out."

I took my cellphone and dialed Rory's number. It directed me to her voicemail: "Hey, it's the fabulous Rory! I'm kind of busy with furniture now so please leave a message!"

Right, I remembered she said something about her next semester.

"Hey, Rory it's Gabe. You know, Gabe Saporta. Well, as you know, or not, I'm back from my almost seven-week trip in Seattle and I've been thinking about that dinner we agreed to have as friends once I've come back. Call me back so I'd know when you're free."

I let go of my breath. What did I just do?

Forgiving Gabriel

Friday, December 25, 2009 / 1:55 PM

Chapter Two

{Gabe}

"So, how are things? Anything new lately?" I asked Rory as we settled at the outdoor of the diner. She was wearing a white cardigan over her shirt and skinny jeans with silver flats.

"I got a scholarship each from Yale, Columbia and Harvard. Going to Yale had been my dream and I achieved it." She took a sip from her coffee.

"Yeah, I remember how you used to work so hard," I said, smiling.

"I'm having my final class later and then I'm going to get all my stuff out after. Then move them back in again after summer for the next semester. Oh, and my roommate's Pia, by the way. You remember Pia, right?"

I laughed lightly, "Ohh, yeah that Pia. You told me that she had a thing for me right? That was why you guys weren't friends after she had found out that we were together? So you two good now?"

"Well...after she heard that we, um, broke up, she was there for me. If you're wondering why we're consequentially roommates, that's because she requested for it. Or was it bribe? I'm not sure." She smiled.

We looked at each other for exactly one minute. I was just observing her face, noticing how much she hasn't changed. I guess she was doing the same. She had her brown hair cut to shoulder-length which reminded me of Rachel McAdams.

"So...You're now the famous leadsinger of Cobra Starship, huh?" she asked when she took her eyes off of me (or my face) to get her plate from the waiter.

"Well, at the age of eighteen, right after the whole school thing ended, you knew I was planning to go to music school in Los Angeles, right? Well, one day after like, a week of being in the school, I went across a bulletin board and saw these guys requesting for a leadsinger for their band. I went to their dorm and they told me all about it. Less than two months, I became the leadsinger, the bassist and the lyricist for a punk band called Midtown. Our first single was a hit. We got some help from a guy who owned a recording studio."

She nodded.

"I then quit the band after exactly fourteen months and formed the famous Cobra Starship."

{Rory}

Gabe and I chatted until it was time for me to go. I was really enjoying myself. It was like the Gabe I knew three years ago. We agreed to make plans for dinner once he comes back from his tour around Seattle after summer as friends.

He was my best friend. I just hope we would get to know each other again.

I highly doubt my feelings for that guy. After all, he was my first love.

Forgiving Gabriel

Saturday, December 19, 2009 / 3:16 AM

Dear Readers, I editted this whole thing out a bit. I advice you to reread the whole thing in case you get confused ;)

Chapter One

{Rory}

"...So listeners, that brings us to our next...."

It's past noon. Meaning that it's the afternoon. It's weird how these roads only become traffic-choked at night. That's what I love about New Haven.

It is a Friday morning, and as a soon-to-be journalist for the Time Magazine in Connecticut (I hope), here I am feeling rather stupid breathing in and breathing out slowly, dreamily and blissfully, drinking coffee from Starbucks in my car which, is parked outside Yale while the radio is going on. There is only three hours left till my final class and I cannot wait to leave till the next semester.

Alex Gaskarth singing "Careless Whispers" with some other lame singers is faded out as the DJ strikes out.

"Hi, this is DJ Stark live on-air in 104.3 FM. I have Gabe Saporta--"

Did he just say Gabe Saporta? The Gabe who had been mine since the ninth grade--which in fact, made me lose my best friend after she found out that he liked me when I didn't have any idea that she had a huge crush on him--and he who dumped me on prom night after having sex with me by telling me some crap about long distance relationships and pursuing his music career?

I had always thought that it was the end at that very moment when he broke up with me.

"Hey Ror, have you thought about us? About how I'm going to music school for sometime in Los Angeles? I mean, it's more then a fifteen-hour drive, wouldn't it feel like it's a burden to have to go all the way there to visit me sometimes?"

"What do you mean?" I replied. "Don't we both have to play our parts in the visiting thing? And it's not like we're not gonna call each other or anything."

He stood up and said softly, "I'm sorry Ror, what I really don't know how to explain this, maybe i will in the future, if we actually see each other again in the future--"

"Huh?" At that moment, I was beginning to feel insecure.

"I want to break up with you. I need time. And concentration to think about music. And I think you do too with writing." He dared not look me in the eye. Something was troubling him, but he didn't know how to explain it.

I was a strong girl. I didn't cry. I took my clothes and went into my bathroom. That was the last time i ever saw or heard from him.

I didn't wallow at all. I just didn't attend the graduation ceremony or party. I wanted everyone to think I was depressed so that they'd know what a jerk Gabriel was. I stopped using the internet to prevent myself from viewing my or his Facebook pictures with both of us in them. But who knows, maybe he deleted them after he reached home that night?

Who would've thought that Pia, my ex-best-friend-when-I-was-with-Gabe, would come rushing to my house after she had heard about the break up and ask if I was alright? Things were looking good after that, Pia became my best friend again and we still are now.

"--the lead singer and primary creative force behind the band Cobra Starship here beside me and he's doing an interview about his latest hit "Good Girls Go Bad featuring Leighton Meester."

He must have come back earlier than I had thought.

And then I did the stupidest thing I vowed I'd never do.

{Gabe}

"Well, we thought that it would be perfect for Leighton Meester 'cause it's kind of already like her character in Gossip Girl--the perky girl with the bad streak. At first you know, it's like really awkward for me to tell her what to do on the video because I love Gossip Girl and her in it. And that's scary," I replied DJ stark.

Being on air for the first time is so weird. Not the kind of nervous-weird. I never thought that Good Girls Go Bad would be a hit. I checked the clock on the wall behind me while the DJ continued to talk because I really want to get out of here so badly. You do not know how hot it is in here.

"So how did you feel during the making process of the music video?"

"We basically, wrote a verse together and also wrote the bridge together so there's just a lot of back and forth between me and her in the song. I think we worked out okay. How 'bout that?"

"So do you think Leighton prefers singing or acting?" he asks again.

"I don't know if she can choose between them, you know, the favorite of what she's talented in and which she would want to do more, or what she loves more. She's just very good at those two things."

"Okay I guess we're done here, it's me and Gabe Saporta signing out. I'll be coming back later at two so here it DJ Himmel taking over."

***********

I walk out of the radio station or whatever you call it with a fake smile plastered on my face, wondering how I'm supposed to get away from this place and to Alex's house when everyone is so busy? Even Rob, our bouncer is busy, too.

And then I heard it from behind: "Gabriel."

No one calls me Gabriel anymore. Then it hit me.

I turned around and looked at her unsurprisingly, and said cooly, "Hey Rory,care to give me a ride?" like the real cool Gabe Saporta would do when he finally meets his ex-girlfriend aka first love.

And like the real diplomatic Rory, she smiled the smile i loved and said, "Alright, I have two more hours left. Why don't we catch up?"

I nodded and smiled warmly.