Zac pulled the door open and grinned cheesily,"Hey Gabbers." he said welcoming Gabriel into the house.
"What's up little man?" she teased tousling his hair and standing next to him so that he saw just how short he was compared to her.
"Stop it!" Zac whined,"You know, one day I'll be bigger than you and then I'll pick on you about your height." he said defiantly as he tried to make himself appear taller.
Gabbie laughed,"Well, until that day comes I'll continue to remind you how short you are everyday until you learn that my name is not Gabbers."
Zac grinned,"Okay Gabbinator."
"Oh Zac," she said putting her arm around his shoulder,"you leave me no choice but to kill you." she shrieked as she put him in a headlock and started giving him a noogie. Zac started to laugh as he tried to pull away.
"Woah," Tay said walking through the main hallway with a plate of raw hamburgers,"please refrain from all sexually explicit activity while in the presence of one Taylor Hanson." he laughed.
Gabbie let Zac go and walked over to Taylor,"What are you cooking?" she asked surveying the raw hamburgers. "Taylor, raw meat! My favorite! How did you ever know?" she gushed.
Tayor rolled his eyes,"Ike's out back talking with one of the suits from Mercury."
"Suits?" Gabbie swallowed hard,"Tay, you know I hate those guys! They make me nervous." she said as she looked down at her clothes. She suddenley felt incredibly inadequite.
Gabriel couldn't stand guys in suits, not since her fathers' death. She could remember them all. The doctor's that hid their suits under their white coats. The man at the funeral home who helped arrange the funeral and showed them caskets. It killed her to know that her father now lay in a box in the ground. All of the mourners at the funeral, all in their black suits. The way they got drunk after the funeral, and the way they smelled of cigarettes and liquor when they tried to hug her. They didn't even care in her eyes. She hated suits, in her eyes, all they brought was unhappiness.
"Don't worry, they are really nice." Taylor tried to reasure her with his million dollar smile.
"Actually you know what, I can't stay anyway. I promised my mom that I would clean the, uh, garage and I really should be going. I just stopped in to say hi. So, uh, tell Ike that I'm sorry to have missed him and give me a call later ok? Bye." she said in one breath before dashing to the front door and running off of the porch steps.
Taylor looked at Zac and Zac stared right back at Taylor. Then they both shrugged and headed outside.
Taylor walked past Ike,"Your friend just ran out the front door." he informed him as he walked towards the grill.
"Who Gabbie?" Ike asked confused as he bit into a pickle.
"Yup," Zac chirped,"she was babbling something about cleaning a suit for the garage or something."
"Gabbie...Gabbie!" Isaac called as he pulled up to the curb and rolled down his window.
She stopped walking and looked at him,"What?" she asked not wanting to stop. She just wanted to get home.
"What's up with you?" he asked his best friend,"I thought you were eating over. You told me that you could."
Gabriel didn't even have to look to see the disappointment painted on Isaac's face, she knew it was there,"Well, I know but..." she trailed off.
"But what?" he asked,"Come on Gabbie, just get in the car and come back to the barbeque with me. It will be fun I swear!" he pleaded.
"Ike," she whined,"I don't want to."
"Come on Gabriel!" he said impatiently,"You know I'd come to one of these for you, no matter what! I've always been there when you wanted me to be."
"No you haven't." she recalled quietly.
She could still hear his voice on the other end of the phone the night her father had died of cancer. He couldn't make it home from Texas, this time was it. He could feel it. He could always feel it she thought bitterly. But he sent love and sympathies from his family and himself.
Isaac must have been reading her mind,"Gabbs, how long are you going to hold that against me?" he challenged.
"What?" she asked looking at him, a tear forming in her eye.
He leaned back in the seat of his car and slammed his palm on the top of the steering wheel,"I couldn't be there for that, but you came through it fine. I mean you're here and you're okay. I spent a whole week with you. I think it's time that you just got over it." he mumbled.
"You know what Ike?" she asked staring at him in saddened frustration. "Sometimes I hate you!" she cried and then took off down the sidewalk in the direction of her home. After all, home is where the heart is. She hoped hers was waiting there, in perfect condition, when she walked through the door.
Beep
"Gabbie, it's Ike. Look, I'm sorry about today. You know I didn't mean all of that stuff I said, don't you? Come on, pick up the phone. Damnit Gabbie, I know you are sitting there, on your bed and hugging your carebear while you stare at the answering machine." his voice rang through the room.
Gabriel looked down at the tattered carebear in her arms. She quickly put it to the side and laid down on her bed.
"Just pick up the phone and let me apologize to you and not to some recorded message." he paused. "Fine! Don't pick up the damn phone! Call me when you're ready to grow up." he hung up.
"Damn you Ike!" she shrieked at the answering machine,"Screw you! I'm more grown up than you'll ever be in your entire life! I hate you! You are such an arrogant jerk!" she screamed until she was hoarse. Then she started to cough. She felt the flem rise up iner throat and she grabbed a tissue. She coughed into the tissue and upon pulling it away from her face, she discovered blood. She gasped.
"Mommy!" she screamed running down the stairs.
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