By the moon, I swear

EMOTIONS

When the party was over and everyone had headed home, Amber stayed behind with every intention of setting things right. She owed it to Tristan, to Gabriel but most importantly to herself. She had just finished helping Gabriel clean the place when she asked him to join her on the table.

‘Amber, I understand if you are overwhelmed but I have wanted for so long to kiss you that when I had the opportunity I just couldn’t wait any longer. Please don’t be mad,’ Gabriel spoke first in his heart afraid, knowing very well where this discussion was heading. He had compressed his feelings for so long that they exploded right in front of everyone. Since the day he meat her. He knew she was special and wanted her in his life. He knew she sank herself short because of her past but in his eyes he saw a beautiful woman who had gone through a tremendous deal and still emerged strong at the end. A woman who he wanted to mother his kids.

‘I can never be mad at you Gabriel b…’

‘Good. Good,’ Gabriel cut her short releasing the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. For a moment he thought he had lost her. But know he saw there was hope. Hope for them. He looked at her and saw her battling with her feelings and understood all she needed was just time. So he hadn’t misread her at all. That was a relief to know. When she got out of the limo earlier she looked at him with such passion in her eyes that he almost came in his pants. Then it happened again when she was on the dance floor. When she was dancing with Tristan her eyes always captured his holding him still, then when she danced with him. The way she clung on him as if afraid he would let go. What set him off though was when she was blowing off the candles. She was looking directly at him. Even with Tristan by his side, he felt like only the two of them existed in the room. It was then that he took it as a cue to set their feelings known. He had tried to read her for so long and was grateful when tonight she didn’t see the need to mask her feelings.

‘How was your birthday?’

‘It was beautiful thank you,’ Amber responded. She was still trying to organize her thoughts. It was harder than she thought. She saw Gabriel only as a brother but he has come to be a very important person in her life and it wasn’t her wish to break his heart. He was a good man and has been there for her. She didn’t want to lose him. Her day had been beautiful so far and she didn’t want to spoil it. But then again she feared losing Tristan the more. She had just crammed up her courage when Gabriel’s phone rang and he excused himself to pick it.

Amber could see his whole body turn tense. Getting up from her seat she walked up onto him and hugged him tightly from behind. She didn’t need to be a wizard to know something was wrong. It was written in his whole demeanor. He would tell her about it in his own time when he was ready. For now it was time for her to be strong for him.

Gabriel felt at ease with Amber by his side. Somehow he felt part of his burden had been uplifted. He clung tightly to her hug afraid she would let go. He felt his face running pale as all color drained from him but that was still not as worse as he felt. He was shattered. Now he was alone. Completely alone. Suddenly he felt all energy withdraw from him and he fell to the floor tears running down his face. He didn’t care that he was crying before the woman he intended to woo. The truth was he was shattered in the inside and no amount of nursing can make him whole again. The Grief consumed him and all he saw was the end of his road. He was dead on the inside.

Amber just held onto him without letting go. He needed to know he wasn’t alone. She has been through her fair share of grief to know one. Gabriel was suffering and it tore her on the inside to know that there was nothing more she could do. If she could take away his pain she would have. It took close to half an hour before Gabriel calmed underneath her hands, his heaving having stopped. They sat in silence for the next hour him leaning onto her as she tightened her hold on him.

‘I’m okay now,’ Gabriel whispered in a hoarse voice breaking the deafening silence in the room.

‘I’m here. You are not alone,’ Amber replied not sure what more to say. She has been used to her being the victim but the whole heroine thing was still knew to her. She had a lot to console him with having gone through a lot herself and yet at that specific moment nothing came to mind.

‘I know. Thank you for being here,’ Gabriel turned to face her, ‘My dad....’

‘Shh,’ Amber whispered placing a figure on his mouth to stop him, ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me.’

‘But I want to,’ Gabriel responded his eyes pleading with hers. Amber just nodded her head giving him the go ahead, intertwining her left hand with his.

‘My dad died when I was small that was when my life crumbled. My mum sought refuge in alcohol and soon thereafter she became an addict. She used to hit me all the time to escape her pain but whatever I figured that I could take it and with time she could get better. Get back to her normal self.’ Gabriel sighed letting the past draw him in such that as he was telling the story he was relieving it all over again.

‘Nothing changed over the years. It just got worse. Then she got pregnant. I never really found out by who since by then she was known for her pro…. Prostitution. By then I was seventeen. One day when I came home from school I found her on the floor having given birth bleeding out. She was just crying saying that he took her babies. He who? I never really got to find out. I quickly called an ambulance but she died in my arms before they even got there. The police came later to ask questions. That was the first time I met Amos and since then we became brothers. Brothers by choice.’ Gabriel took in a deep breath gathering courage. The news might have sunk in but saying it aloud form his own lips would make it all seem so realistic. It is real. Wiping the fresh tears that raced down his face, he continued, ‘Anyway, Amos and I have been looking for them to no avail. Now…now he just called me to tell me that he found them. Dead. Burnt to a crisp. That all the search had led him to them. They are dead. Now I’m alone. I feel so empty.’ He admitted out loud to himself.

Without thinking of the repercussions of her actions, Amber crashed her lips on his. Her tongue burrowed inside deepening the kiss. It was a kiss of promise. Promise that she will never leaver leave him. Gabriel was taken by surprise by fist but soon enough he took control of the kiss turning it raw and s****l.

Amber took a step back and whispered, ‘I would never leave you. You are not alone you have Me.’ and she meant ever word of it.