Damaged Beyond Repair by Kashmira Kamat (KittyKash) (best short books to read TXT) 📗

"Don't flatter yourself, as much as you want to become the captain of the Rowan blaming team, I can't let you. I can't allow anyone to do that. If there's anyone who takes the Blame Cake home, it's going to be me." I admitted.

It was high time people started to make excuses for my behavior. Cooper or Drew and now it was going to be Alana's turn. There wasn't anything any of them could do other than just control the beast I kept unleashing. They were just people I loved who got beaten up in the process.

"It was just the start of everything that I'm now. I was home schooled because I screwed up, you are not the reason I was expelled." I continued, "I don't regret anything I did for you back then. I did the right thing and that's what my father said. No matter how much I'd shamed him, he told me it was the right thing to stand up against the bad stuff, maybe my methods are wrong. But, I'm proud of what I did for the people I love."

"What if you got another chance, will you do it all over?" There was a new kind of spark in his jaded orbs, the respect that he had for me before was multiplied.

"Yes. I'll do it all over again." I admitted without batting an eye.

Gabriel smiled and nodded. "I'm sorry."

I gave him a harsh pat on the back. "Are you still flipping burgers at the restaurant?"

He choked a booming laughter. "How can you pull off a cheeky comment so politely?"

"Years of practice." I responded.

"Well, no I left that job last year after Alana left the job; I work at the Demon's Bolt as a bartender." He explained, "I like this job better, plus, the pay's good. They even gave me an apartment, the size of a matchbox. They call it studio apartment these days."

"That's good." I laughed. I was just glad to hear the new improvement. He wasn't the farm boy anymore. Studio apartment was better than acres of vacant land or grazing cattle. "Who looks after the animals?"

"My grandma." He said as he looked past me towards the peaceful sound of the laugher. I followed his gaze.

Alana appeared to be laughing and giggling as she pushed Minnie on the swing, the look on the child's face was priceless. The two were just lost somewhere, in their own little happy bubble. Elsa woofed at the two. She hated when people laughed so loud.

"I see what you see."

Gabriel's voice pulled me out of the spell. I turned to him, "what?"

"A beautiful, little family." He said simply, and returned his gaze back at them. "She loves you too much. So much that it's not even considered healthy."

"She is mine, Gabriel. It feels like a dream sometimes."

"You deserve it." Gabriel said. "Don't break her heart alright, or I'll break your teeth."

"You've been taking classes from Chez?" I asked. "And whose idea was this? The drawing, it's so fucking cheesy."

"Daddy.." Minnie came rushing towards me; I scooped her up in my arms. She noticed Gabriel staring at us. She turned to me, "Who is he, daddy?"

"Uncle Coop."

Gabriel appeared to be shocked; he blinked and seemed to have recovered from whatever that was occupying his mind.

"Gabe." That was Alana walking in our direction, her eyes searched Gabe's. Elsa followed her footsteps.

"Hey."

I couldn't help but notice the silent communication the two shared, she smiled at him. I was still supposed to work on my jealously. Gabriel broke the stare, "Demon's Bolt is the place to find me." I nodded as he continued, "Just drop by and we'll catch up on things we've missed over the years."

"Sure." I was yet to break to either of them that I had stopped drinking. Completely. Rowan and Johnny Walker Blue didn't go together anymore. Once it had been my best friend, now a mortal enemy, I constantly fought battles with.

We watched Gabriel slid inside a Honda civic, he honked once, pulled the car on the road and the white metal disappeared amid the greenery and the trees. It was time we moved onto our next destination which was going to be my father's house.

Elsa and Minnie piled up in the back seat while Alana started to open the passenger side door of the car, when I grasped her wrist and pulled her towards backside of the car, tugging her by the waist. She was stranded between me and the car. She circled her arms around my neck. I just liked to feel her arms around mine.

Alana laughed as she smoothed a hand down my back. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"You make life so much better for me. It's easy to breathe now. Thank you, Alana. I don't think anything I do for a lifetime would be enough to make up for it. Just don't ever leave me."

"I will never leave you, it's a promise."