As Long as You Love Me (Previously Kiss and Tell)

Chapter 4 ♔ Getting Hot

The dump that was my car lived to see another day and so did I, after thinking I could expire from the embarrassment.

Manny, Gabe's cousin, was a professional mechanic and he charged me one third of the cost to replace my dead battery. There was a definite resemblance between the two but it was clear that Manny lived the harder life, and I didn't mean it because of the grease under his fingernails. It was in the way he was easier to laugh and enjoy the simple things in life, which included his fascination with the things that didn't work in my car. Meanwhile Gabe held himself with the arrogance of someone who hadn't wanted for much in life and thus, didn't have to look out for little nuggets of happiness or success. It just simply happened for him.

And now I owed him. Ugh.

The thought roiled on my insides as I walked up the lawn, heading for the machine shop at school where we were going to make the first manufacturing tests for our project. We'd divvied up the different systems of the car among the five in the group. Taylor had got the transmission, a guy named Tom who was an okay student was in charge of aerodynamics, another one called Brandon had the entirety of the loads calculation, Gabe had the engine and battery and I had the chassis.

I didn't know if I could trust the work Tom and Brandon had done, because I didn't recall them being in the honor roll like Jasper and Adrian, but the rest of us were going to kick ass. I couldn't wait until we had the car assembled and started testing and fine-tuning it.

"Liz, wait."

The annoying voice stopped me mid step. Glancing up, my eyes zeroed in on the bane of my existence and his girlfriend heading in a path that would cut mine. I scrambled to hide behind the thick trunk of a tree and wait for them to pass. The last encounter with Liz wasn't something I looked forward to repeating. I got that she was jealous, especially having a serial dater for a boyfriend, but there was no need to call me the names she'd spat in my direction or threaten with hitting me just because she suspected Gabe and I had an office affair. Her words, not mine.

Liz stormed across the campus with wide steps meant to leave him behind, but he caught up with a jog and tried to hold her hand. She slapped his away, though.

"No, I'm sick and tired of this," she screamed, as though the students milling about absolutely had to hear her drama.

It was a shame I didn't have any popcorn in my backpack.

Gabe ran a hand through his hair, dark brown and cascading all the way to his shoulders. He set his eyes on her under scrunched up eyebrows and I hated the devastation the look could wreak on a lesser girl. "Please help me understand why you're so upset because I'm coming up blank."

She threw her hands up in the air. "I want to spend time with you but I can't! If you're not in class you're at work with that bitch who keeps hovering around you. And now you have a project with her? You've got to be shitting me. Just come right out and tell me you're cheating on me with her."

My body vibrated with the desire to throw one of my safety boots right at her face. But I forced myself to take deep breaths and stay rooted in place.

"Again with that?" He released a sigh that deflated his posture. "I've invited you over and over to hang out at my place after class but-"

"But what?" she cut in, flipping her long hair behind her shoulder. "You want me to hang out with you at your family's place with your mom who absolutely hates my guts? Why don't you get an apartment I can crash at or better yet, why don't we move in together?"

The way his face contorted was a work of art. It was as though he was choking from eating raw garlic. "That's not true and if you came over more often you could see that."