the mighty fall

<div align=center>William frowned, "two years older than you..." His brow furrowed ever so slightly, "Gabriel is five years older than me..." Though in actual fact, at the moment it was technically six years. Gabriel had turned twenty six in October, whereas Bill was still seventeen, his birthday was in February. Age has been what had put William off in the first place, Gabe had told him he hadn't cared several times, but that still didn't close the gap. William was trying to decide when would be a good time to talk to Gabe about all this, tomorrow perhaps, or maybe he'd call him. There's no point calling him, he'll wanna come find me anyway.

"Anything else?" William asked, a confused sort of look crossing his features, "well..." He took a breath and looked away, "how do you know..." Bill paused again, crossing his legs underneath him and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "if you're... Uh.. In love or not?" He asked, slowly, sheepishly. "And by all means I'm not saying that I am." He stammered, of course he wasn't he was only seventeen, it's not like he was going to stick with one person for the rest of his life. Besides, first relationships never work out.</div>

<div align=center>William laughed, he knew Micheal didn't like Gabriel, and to some extent he understood why, they were so different from each other... He wished they didn't hate each other so much, it made him upset. He felt bad for spending time with one and not the other, Gabriel got so jealous and Micheal merely distrusted him. William sighed, he didn't really know what to do about Gabe and Micheal, he wondered if they'd always hate each other or if this was just a fleeting thing for now. He hoped it was the second, but a little voice in the back of his head told him he was wrong.

"I'm not going to dump him." Bill answered softly, laughing a little and cocking an eyebrow. The boy sighed again, "he's really not a bad guy, y'know..." He mumbled, and it was true, he did try his best, but sometimes he didn't really understand what William was saying, or how he felt sometimes. "He's just... He's just stupid." He told him, smiling a little. "I... I like him too much to want to dump him..." He blushed again, and hid his face in his hands, "and sometimes I get angry and think I hate him, but then he does something cute and I don't feel like that anymore..."</div>

<div align=center>Bill smiled, he was happy to have someone willing to protect him like that. He thanked Micheal, and gently patted him on the top of the head. Gabriel was sweet deep down, no matter how much he tried to pretend he was the opposite, William could read him like an open book. The thing he always remembered was when he'd fallen asleep on him the day they'd met, he'd bothered to carry him all the way back to his dorm and put him to bed. He could have just left him there, but he didn't, and Bill was thankful for that. He'd probably have ended up getting sick if he'd been left outside.

He did want to talk to Gabriel though, he wanted to ask him some things, and besides, things needed to be cleared up between them. Bill had pushed him away and that was the last thing he wanted to do, he didn't want to do that yet, but maybe he should have stayed instead... William shook his head, what had happened had happened and he couldn't change that, he could apologize but he couldn't change it. "He's a good boy really." He mumbled, stifling a yawn, "thank you for not, y'know, dropping him from the top of the school."</div>

<div align=center>"Bah," William batted a hand at Micheal, laughing. "He wouldn't thank you for that, I prefer my boyfriend alive, I'm afraid." He smiled softly, he was feeling much better, though he wasn't sure he wanted to go on a flight, not today, it was cold and William perhaps should have been in bed. All he could think about was Gabe and it was irritating him to some extent, there were other things to think about, weren't there? So why was his mind so insistent on wandering to him? He couldn't understand it, though it was probably because he still felt guilty about all of this.

He wondered if Micheal was going to yell at Gabe if he came across him, though then again he wasn't so sure they would come across each other. Something had happened between the two, neither had said anything about it, but William knew. He could feel it when he talked about the other to either of them. The boy sighed lightly, he couldn't fix it and he wasn't going to try. At least Micheal was willing to protect him from things like that, and he was glad that he'd taken the time to explain all of this to him, too.</div>

<div align=center>William shook his head, it was best not to discuss Gabe anymore, William couldn't stop Micheal from hating him, so there wasn't all that much point trying. He accepted the fact he was only being brotherly, though and he was only trying to look after him. The boy yawned, the offer of sleep was incredibly tempting, he would have liked to do that, he hadn't been sleeping all that well anyway, bad dreams had been bothering him recently, and he was under the perpetual fear of sleeping for a long time at the moment. He didn't like having bad dreams, he'd always wake up confused and scared, he could never remember what he'd been dreaming about, only that he had been scared.

He wouldn't have minded watching a movie, he wasn't all that picky with movies as long as they weren't scary. The boy was a fan of Jurassic Park in particular, he'd already bored Gabe for hours talking about dinosaurs, though. He didn't really want to do the same to Micheal, once William started talking about something he really liked, it was incredibly difficult to shut him up again once he started talking about something, and therefore he could ramble for hours.</div>