Chapter 109

Bakersville High School

***

“How do you feel about your first day at your new school?” Louise asked as she straightened Gabriel’s clothes.

“I feel great,” Gabriel said and gave the biggest smile he could muster.

He was lying.

Gabriel was anxious. He was afraid, but he knew he couldn’t tell Louise that.

He was just a child, but he had learned early that Louise had many things that worried her and he didn’t want to be one of them. He didn’t know then what those things were, he just knew that sometimes when she thought he wasn’t looking, Louise would cry while looking out of the window.

They had moved during the school break. His parents had made the decision and he had hoped that as the only child they would at least ask him how he felt about it but they hadn’t. In fact, his father had called him aside and told him that it was because of him, because of how he always had a way of ruining things.

He had ruined their marriage by being born, that’s what he said, and that’s why they needed