This is way out of my comfort zone, Gabriel thought, as he found himself following Aaron. What if they don’t accept me at their table? As if he had heard his thoughts, Aaron turned his head around, and said “Don’t worry, they won’t mind you joining. And you can sit next to me, if you want.”
Gabriel felt himself let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “I’d like that, actually. Thank you.”
They finally reached Aaron’s friends, and a few people greeted Aaron. Eventually, their eyes landed on Gabriel’s small figure next to the tall boy, and a girl asked, “who’s this?”. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, her perfectly symmetrical face upholding an inquisitive expression. Gabriel thought he heard an aggressiveness in her tone, but he discarded the thought.
He opened his mouth to speak, but Aaron was quicker than him and replied in his place. Gabriel felt grateful for that. “This is Gabriel! He’s eating with us now.” Several people smiled and gave him a “hello”, and just like that, everyone resumed to their conversations.
Well, except for that one girl, who was calling over at Aaron to come sit next to her. She had saved him a spot and was currently batting her eyelashes at him. Oh. His girlfriend? Aaron walked past her and smiled, “Sorry Jess, not today. I promised to sit next to Gabriel.” Her smile dropped, and so did Gabriel’s stomach.
“No, no, it’s okay, you can sit next to your girlfriend. I’ll just sit- over there” Gabriel gestured towards an empty spot further down the table, secretly hoping Aaron would say no to her, and hating himself for even proposing to sit in a seat surrounded by only strangers. The girl-Jess- smiled at those words, and moved her bag off the bench and onto the floor. “It’s all settled then! Come on, Aaron.” She patted the seat to her left. “I’ve made space for you.” Gabriel felt his pulse quicken. Please say no, please say no, please say no-
“I said not today, Jess. I don’t want Gabi to feel left out.” Gabriel sighed in relief, yet tensed a little when he saw the look on Aaron’s face. He seemed annoyed. Is it because of me? Then, Aaron turned to face him, smiling, and Gabriel almost thought he had imagined the frown. He smiled back, then turned to Jess. She was frowning at him more then he ever thought was possible. Gabriel shot her a weak smile. Then, she turned to Aaron, and beamed at him. How does she do that? Moments ago, she looked like she was going to behead me. Did Aaron even see ?
“Alright then! Have fun with Gabi.” Gabriel flinched when he heard the nickname. He didn’t like it when it came out of her mouth.
———————————————————————————————————————————
In the end, they did have fun. Although Gabriel usually hated the social scene, he felt surprisingly comfortable with Aaron, so much he ended up actively participating in the conversation, even when some of Aaron’s friends joined in. They all seemed really nice. Especially one girl, Fred. He’d briefly met her at the party already, and today he could safely say he wanted to befriend her. I so need to tell Sofi about today. She’s gonna be so proud.
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