Chapter 54

Bakersville Middle school

***

It was the last year of middle school. The rumors had long died down, both the ones that were true and the ones that were fake. It had been months since Gabriel had stepped in to defend Emily from the saga of the first kiss and the rumors that came with it and she had managed to go through it unscathed but so much had changed while still remaining the same.

Something had shifted in Emily. She couldn’t place it, but something had changed.

She had expected to be thankful to Gabriel for what he had done but she found herself thinking and feeling something entirely different. She found herself feeling and thinking that if Gabriel hadn’t taken on that mindless dare in the first place, she wouldn’t have had to be protected in the first place.

She found herself feeling and thinking that Gabriel was essentially protecting her from himself. She didn’t know how to feel about this. She didn’t know how to deal with this realization. As soon as it came, it did so wit