Chapter 44

ALEX

As soon as Carlos sent me the address where I could find Gabriela, I didn't hesitate for a second to leave. About an hour ago we stopped looking for her, well, at least me and Marcos because he had to go take care of his sister and I didn't have the slightest idea where to find her. It didn't take me too long to get there, mostly because part of the way I remembered it from the day I brought her to her grandparents' house.

I left the car in the first place I saw, which luckily for me was next to Carlos's car and I could see him a couple of meters away near some trees looking somewhere. "Is Gabriela not with you?" I asked, looking everywhere. "You arrived; I thought it would take longer for you to arrive."

"No, I knew part of the way from when I brought her to her grandparents' house. But where's Gabriela?" I asked again "There." He pointed and I followed the direction of his finger. I looked for a couple of seconds to make sure it was her; she was quite far from where we are and what I don't understand is what Carlos is doing here, he should be next to her.

"She moved further away a couple of minutes ago, she wants to be alone." He reported, "I don't care about that, I have to be with her." I was about to start walking in the direction she is when Carlos stops me, that simple action makes me turn around to see what he wants. "Hey, before you go to her, I want to tell you not to pay attention to anything she tells you."

"What are you taking about?" I asked, confused. "No matter what she tells you, don't listen, she drank half a bottle of this and not one hundred percent her." I stared at the bottle because it's weird Gabriela had a bottle of alcohol, she didn't drink as far as I knew and it's weird, she started now.

"She's terrible, go to her and see if you can convince her to go home, it's starting to get cold enough for her to be outside." He said and I nodded. "I'll take her, don't worry." With that, I started walking in the direction she is and when I'm a couple of meters away I could see she's in the water and if it's already cold outside, I didn't want to imagine what it's like to be in it, so I ended up speeding up the pace to get her out of there before she got sick.

"Carlos, what part don't you understand about me wanting to be alone?" she asked, annoyed. "And I don't care about that, you should know." At that moment she turns to look at me, I'm sure she didn't think it would be me who would be there, I still don't know how Carlos had found her, but at this moment it didn't matter, the most important thing is to convince her to get out of the water, if necessary, I would go into the water to get her out.

"What are you doing here? How did you find me?" She asked, "That's the least important thing, and I'm here because I told you I would always be there to support you, in good times and bad. Now you should get out of there because you're going to get sick."

"You should leave." Gabriela responded "I'm not going to move from here Gabriela. Get out of the water please, I don't want you to get sick." I insisted "And I don't care. You should go home if you don't want to get sick." she reported "I don't care about getting sick too." I assured her, "Alex, please…" she begged and I denied, because I'm not going to leave her the way she is right now. "I'm not going to leave."

"And that's why sometimes I feel like killing you, I'm serious. I want to be alone." She scolded "And I don't want you to be, let's go to the car and talk calmly." I asked, "I'm not going anywhere." Gabriela repeated, "Well, neither do I." I know she's not going to get out of there at all and would resist if I were to take her out, so I decided to sit next to her even though I didn't like the idea of having to go into the water. To my surprise the water wasn't as cold as I thought, I could say, it's even a little warm for winter. When I sat down next to her, I could see her eyes widen in surprise.

"What are you doing? You're going to get sick." She said, her eyes widening. "Same thing as you, besides, it's not that cold." I responded, shrugging my shoulders. "I know, the problem is getting out." My girlfriend replied, "Well, let's get out and go to my car, we'll be warm there." I tried "Well you should go."

"I'm not leaving without you." I told her, because if there's one thing I don't want, it's for her to be alone at this moment and with the cold would most likely she would get when she comes out of the water. "Alex, I don't want you to get sick." She insisted "And I don't want you to do it, I'm not going to leave until you decide to leave."

"Then let's go." Gabriela got up and started walking back the way I come a couple of minutes ago. Water is dripping everywhere and as soon as I got up, I realized what Gabriela said is true, now the cold is worse than before.

It didn't take me long to catch up with her and I was going to take her to my car when she turned in the opposite direction, which seemed weird to me. "Where are you going?" I asked, reaching out to grab her arm. "To my car, didn't you want me to go home?" She asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, but I'm not going to let you drive as you are if that's what you think."

"Carlos told you, right? It was because of him you found me." She said when she realized how I found her. "That's the least important thing and if he told me it doesn't matter, but I'm not going to let you drive, you can be sure." I told her, "I'm not drunk, I'm fine."

"Don't try to hide it from me, I know you're not." I responded "Alex, really, I don't need a babysitter." She protested, annoyed. "I'm not going to be your babysitter; I just love you too much for anything to happen to you." I said sincerely, "Won't you stop insisting?" She asked after taking a deep breath. "You should know I am."

"Ok, but I'll get your whole car wet." My girlfriend replied, "I don't care, all I want is for you to be ok." she turned in my direction again and, in a few minutes, we were next to my car. I could see Carlos's wasn't there, which seemed weird he left her alone, he would never leave her as she was no matter how many people, she's with, but I stopped giving a thousand thoughts. I went to the passenger side and opened the door for her, she got inside, I closed the door and went to the pilot side.

As soon as I was inside, I turned to see her, I knew she's not well, something is wrong with her and I would like to know what's happening to her, I hate seeing her like this, I wanted her to be the same Gabriela as always. "You could at least change your face; I don't like seeing you worried." She asked, "You're not fine, and if you're not fine, I won't be fine either."

"You shouldn't worry about me so much, after all, I'm the same or worse than Paula." She assured and I quickly denied, because that's not true at all. "Don't say that, it's not true." I stated, "Yes, it is, if I look out for my siblings more.... I could have avoided what happened to them."

"Don't blame yourself, you're a great sister." I insisted "A great sister, as you say, would realize what was happening... the worst thing is I let myself be convinced by Marcos." she whispered the last bit "What are you talking about?" I asked "I had a feeling something would happen... He convinced me nothing would happen to us.... I told him it wasn't because of us that I was afraid, it was something else... and he convinced me nothing was going to happen... I'm the worst sister they can have."

At that moment she started crying and I didn't hesitate for a millisecond to hug her. If I already hate seeing her sad, I hate her crying much more, she has already suffered too much for the twenty-one-year-old she is.

"No, you're not beautiful, you're the best of all." I tried to make her see "You won't convince me otherwise Alex, but I appreciate it anyway." She said with a small smile, "Ok, if I don't convince you, your siblings will do it as soon as you get home."

"I'm not going to go home." She stated "And where do you intend to go then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Anywhere but my house." she responded, shrugging her shoulders. "But they're worried about you."

"And my siblings must hate me for what happened to them, it was my fault." She continued "Of course not." I denied, "Of course, Paula went after them because she knew that would affect me." She snapped. "But that doesn't mean it was your fault." I tried to make her see "Yes it was."

"So, you're staying at your grandparents' house?" I asked after a few minutes of silence. "No, I don't want to see anyone in my family." She admitted, closing her eyes. "So, are you going to tell me where you're going to spend the night?" I questioned, getting more and more worried about her. "I'll find something, I can go to Marcos' house."

"Due to the hours, it is, I don't think he'll be awake considering there's college tomorrow." I said, even though he's most likely awake waiting to hear something from Gabriela. "Well, I'll see." Gabriela said, shrugging her shoulders. "What if you come to my house?"

"I don't want you to have problems Alex, your mother already hates me enough without giving her more reasons to hate me twice as much as she already does." She admitted and I denied, because even though I didn't care, luckily for everyone, my mother isn't home. "My mother had to leave for a business trip, there will be no one at home."

"I don't want to bother Alex." She insisted "It won't be a bother, plus you'll have to take a shower if you don't want to get sick." I responded "Whatever, sometimes I hate you're so pushy." I could see a small smile on her face which made me take up almost my entire face. During the way we didn't talk much, she's still immersed in her thoughts, which were probably about her being a bad sister, which is totally false.

As soon as we arrived at my house, we got out of the car and I headed towards the door until I realized Gabriela is next to the car, I approached her and took her hand to make her come. Luckily for me I had left the heating on and it would be fine with short sleeves. I took off my jacket and held her hand again because apparently, she wasn't planning to move much, I guess because of how cold she must have been. I approached her and kissed her on the forehead, I could tell she's frozen so I decided it's better for her to go take a shower. I took off her jacket and led her upstairs.

"I'm going to get you some clothes to wear, I'll be back now, my queen." She didn't say anything, but I knew she heard me. I went to my room and grabbed one of my sweatshirts and some pants and returned to her who had approached the door frame. "Here." I said, handing it to her and I don't really know how, she gave me a smile which made me put another one on my face.

"I'll go to the kitchen to make something for you to have dinner." I said "I'm not hungry." my girlfriend quickly responded, "But you have to eat something, so don't argue anymore. I love you, beautiful." I whispered, with almost no space between our lips. "Me too."

We kissed and I went to the kitchen to make something for dinner and to think about what I could do to make Gabriela the same as before, because something would occur to me to make her happy again. Before I started doing anything, I sent Marcos a message to let him know Gabriela is fine. He asked me how I found her and I answered it was Carlos who had found her, which was totally true. We exchanged a couple more messages and as soon as we finished, I started making some dinner, I just hoped I didn't burn down the kitchen because I'm really bad at cooking.