Generation 3: Chapter 6

 

🛑 This chapter is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18 🛑

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. . . GIBSON'S POV . . .

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I let out a long, heavy sigh as I starred at the large shelf filled of books before me, unable to choose anything to read as I worked my shift at the bookstore. It made me angry that Gareth has been such a nuisance lately, but at the same time, I missed talking to him a little. It isn't like us to go now two weeks without talking.. I admit I was a little over excited at Bennu's house on her birthday when I yelled at him, I meant a hell of a lot of what I had said to him, but I just wished I didn't say all of it.. It bothered me that he drove me to question my own actions towards him, but who else was going to watch out for him? He's completely reckless and inconsiderate. I just wish he'd be more appropriate when certain situations arose. 

Though, one thing that I have noticed about Gareth since we had our fight, was that he took a little better care of Jess and I didn't have to constantly be the one responsible for her anymore. I noticed I was tripping over her chew toys a lot less and he's been locking her in the crate more like I've asked him to do when no one's watching her. I've been contemplating whether or not to tell him to get rid of her since I seemed to be the only one taking care of her and I could spend my time doing much more productive things besides cleaning up after her and giving her attention I didn't want to give, but he's been getting better, I guess.. So, I'll still withhold my suggestion from him, but if it doesn't continue to get any better or he refuses to get rid of her should I mention it.. Well, maybe I really should move out then..

"Wasting time while on the clock, I see.." A feminine voice rang in my ears and I stopped starring at the bookshelf, looking to my right briefly to see my young coworker standing next to me. My expression didn't waver, giving her a blank stare and looking back to the bookshelf. I began to rearrange the books alphabetically according to the author's last name, "Why do you just space out all the time? You're useless, really.. All you do is sit around and read books and you couldn't give a crap about helping customers.." She continued and I could see her smirk from the corner of my eye.

"Shut it, Candace.. What the hell are you doing anyways? Talking to me and not working.. Now leave," I spat back at her, continuing my task.

"And that's another thing, you're constantly such a jerk. Do you hate your life or something?" She continued and I let out another sigh, though this time it was filled with irritation instead of my indecisiveness on choosing reading material. 

"I'm not nice to people whom I know have no idea what the word accolade means," I replied.

"..What..? See, what's your problem? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? I bet even if you woke up on the right side of the bed, you'd still be this mean and droll," she answered.

"Get out of my face and go bother someone else," I continued to try and get her away from me. I hated this girl, she was a Senior in High School and I could tell she was one of those cynical, bitchy broads that liked picking on others at her school who were less fortunate. I suppose she enjoyed doing it to her coworkers as well. But I saw passed the berating she did all the time and I knew that in her case, she was a girl who often got 'anger' and 'affection' mixed up in her small head, often thinking that whenever I said something mean to her, she took it as if I wanted to get with her..

Her voice grew quieter, "There's no one in the bathroom right now.. We can both not work at the same time but still be productive," she voiced suggestively and I looked to her again.

"That's disgusting. I'd never touch you like that anyways," I replied with a short tone and continued rearranging the books.

"What? Why?" She asked quickly, "What's wrong with me?"

"Where do I start.." I asked rhetorically, hearing her gasp a little.

"Oh my God, Gibson.. You're gay? That has to be it," she said a little louder than I would've liked, but I assumed she did it on purpose to make me angrier.

"I'm not gay.. Just because someone doesn't want to do anything sexual with you doesn't make them a homosexual. Just go away, Candace, go do some work for a change.."

"So, that guy that comes in every now and then to pick you up after your shift isn't your boyfriend?" She continued to ask and I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath and trying my hardest not to bash a book over her head.

"That's my brother.. Twin brother. We look incredibly alike, I'd think you'd at least be smart enough to have noticed that, but of course, you're still just as dense as I always knew you to be," I replied, opening my eyes after calming down a little and I walked away from the bookshelf I was working on, going around the corner to another to rearrange but my anger returned when I heard her following me. 

"Wait, so he's your brother? You're not together? ..Is he single?" She asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, he's single, but he has a new girl every few days. He'd do the exact same thing to you, too. Just spare yourself and don't even bother with the likes of him," I add.

"Aww, Gibby, is that you looking out for me?" She asked, seemingly smitten at the moment and I wanted this to all be over with already. She was so painfully annoying. I wasn't 'looking out' for her, I was more so trying to keep Gareth from having his millionth fuck while I hadn't gotten any in over a month.

"Do not call me that," I demanded harshly.

"See? You're always so mean.. Grumpy Gibby doesn't like making friends, does he?" She began to tease more and I had had about enough. 

I turned towards her and stepped closer until I was about a half foot from her face, "Listen closely you worthless, laughable little girl.. I have no interest in you, I have no interest knowing you, I have no interest in getting to know you, and I literally cannot imagine who else doesn't feel the same as I do.. It's literally that hard to believe that anyone would want to get to know someone like you at all. Lemme guess, you're popular at school but you don't know why. Is it because of your looks? Or is it only because you'll open your legs to any man - excuse me - boy that gives you even the slightest bit of attention? Did you used to be fat and ugly but once you matured, you took advantage of the stares that boys gave you? Lost weight, or actually went bulimic because of it just to fit in? Daddy must've been so disappointed as he watched you grow up, hell, maybe he even did a few inappropriate things to you when you were younger that made you into the girl you are now who wants any attention from boys that don't resemble your own father?" I watched as her expression twisted from shocked to immense disbelief at what she was hearing, though I could tell that most of what I had said was true to some extent.

"Why don't you just do the rest of the world a favor and save us from the trash that you are and stop wasting your time trying to find happiness or something that will fill that pathetic void in your life that nothing and no one wants to have the displeasure of being responsible for," I continued, starring into her eyes and I watched as tears began to form and fall down her cheeks. I gave her a tiny smirk before she ran off, sobbing and not even bothering to tell anyone she was leaving work, hearing the front door burst open and the familiar 'ding' the door made every time it was opened. "Well that was easy.. Why didn't I do that sooner?" I asked myself in anger, though I then brushed it off and looked towards the bookshelf, rearranging a few books I had noticed that were out of place and I was finally able to go about my day normally again.

I read a few books here and there for the next hour of work, but I couldn't find anything to keep my interest for very long. I had already read most of what I was infatuated with within my first few weeks of working here and I was running out of books. I wondered if I should quit here and work at a library, there was so much more to choose from, but the closest library was an hour away.. Sometimes I hated how remote and small this town was.

I started to remember our lives back in Bridgeport, remembering how calm the town was despite the roaring city and I even wondered how my Father felt now without living within the confines of his birth town.. He's lived there all his life, just like we had up until 5 years ago.. I questioned whether or not he was happy here knowing he was so far away from anything normal. He lived within the confines of the Mental Hospital and was surrounded by supportive staff and others that were experiencing similar disorders, yet I couldn't help but wonder if he felt alone now more than ever.. 

I started wondering how he could even do the things he had done, what drove him to be this way? From all of our views, he seemed like he was happy, a proud husband and father of four.. What could've drove him to do such things to his ex-lover and her mother? Did he have something against them or did he just lose his mind in their presence? I then began to wonder if it went back even further, when my Father was but a teen or child.. How did he live? I admit, the curiosity of it all was eating at me and I remembered that he had never really mentioned our Grandfather even once without a glint of hatred in his eyes. Why had I never thought to look into this more until now?

I rose from the chair I was sitting in and put the book I was reading away in its proper spot, going to the spiral staircase near the front of the store and ascending up the steps with slight haste to my feet. The upstairs was small and was more of an area where you could look up archives on paper or on the few computers that we provided for use. I snagged up one of the empty seats and began a search through all of the information we had within our database, as well as browsing through the internet to see if anything would pop up about the 'Dubois' last name that involved both Bridgeport and Lucky Palms.

After roughly an hour of searching and digging and digging even further, I finally found something that eventually lead back to my Father's trial, along with why and how he was sentenced. Reading the words from the article made me a little angered, reading phrases within the report that made my Father seem as if he was some crazed murder and they over-exaggerated a lot. Reading the article and even seeing an attachment of a picture of my Father's mug shot from when he was first arrested unsettled me a little, starring into his bottomless sapphire eyes that were both filled with regret and sadness, the skin around them red in irritation from either crying or getting no sleep at all. I began to miss him a little, thinking that Gareth and I should pay another visit to him whenever we got over this 'no-talking' phase of ours, but at the same time, he hasn't said a word to us the passed few times we've visited him when it was just the two of us. When visiting with Bennu though, I mostly just heard his voice faintly when he talked to her away from Gareth and I, but I just couldn't understand why he chose us to not share anything with. It hurt slightly when he did that.. I hated going there and trying to talk to him, only to watch his eyes avoiding ours and keeping his lips locked shut.

I tried to focus again and I began digging deeper into his past, trying to find out anything I could about his parents or where he lived or something that could help me better understand him. Finally, after about twenty more minutes of searching, I found a link that read 'Gas leak leads to a gruesome explosion, two dead'. With a hesitant click, I opened the link and the first thing my eyes were drawn to was a photo of two people I had never met, though the man and woman pictured both looked so much like my Father that I knew this story had to involve him somehow. I read the article, finding out the names of the couple and we shared the same last name, my eyes flashing over the screen as I read as fast as I could to take in all of the information quickly. 

"Are these my grandparents..?" I asked myself in a whisper, taking in more and more information and my eyes had finally read the one name I both feared and hoped to find.. "Marrick and Sadie Dubois, the only ones to parish by an accidental fire caused by a gas leak. Their three daughters, Hitomi, Anya, and Julia Dubois," my Aunts? "..Along with son, Jason Dubois, were not within the home when the explosion took place.." My heart was racing and I erased my history before completely shutting the computer down, sitting there and resting my chin on the back of my propped up hand. His parents died in an accidental gas leak? Was it true..? I couldn't read any more information about the whole thing, there wasn't much else to read, but it made me begin to wonder immediately if my Father may have caused that fire given now knowing his capability of taking a life. But.. No. How could he have done that to his parents? 

"Why am I jumping to conclusions.." I asked myself quietly, "It was an accident, nothing more."

I got up from the chair and pushed it back into the desk, standing there a moment in silence as I reminded myself again about what I had just read and unable to be sure what to think. I looked up to a clock on the wall, seeing it was a little passed 5:00 pm and it was passed the time I needed to have clocked out. I sighed softly and made my way downstairs, going to the front of the store and behind the counter so I could fill out my time card and leave. Before I walked out of the store, I remembered it was still raining and just before I walked outside, I reached into an umbrella bin and took a black one without being noticed. I opened the umbrella and held it up to block the rain, walking down the steps and standing on the sidewalk as I contemplated how to get home. I didn't want to call Gareth, no way in hell would I succumb to him and admit defeat just because I didn't want to walk in a little rain.. I could call Bennu or Bahiti for a ride, but I didn't want to be a bother to Bennu and I knew Bahiti didn't really like leaving the house anyways, so I tossed that idea out.. Ezra was too busy of a man for me to call and for him to actually answer and have the time to pick me up and drop me off, so I crossed him off of my mental list, too.. Well, looks like I'm walking home.

Maybe this was a good thing, maybe I needed even more alone time, especially now after what I had discovered today at work about my Father. Whenever Gareth and I would be talking again, I wondered if I should share with him the information I learned about our grandparents.. Would he even care at all? I thought back on the picture I had seen of them and I remembered my Grandmother being such a beauty, realizing now that she's where Gareth and I had gotten our blonde hair and I recognized the same sapphire eyes she had that she bestowed upon my Father. Her eyes were gentle and even just looking at her face for the short amount of time that I had, I could already tell that she was a kind person and I wish I had the honor of meeting her. My Grandfather, on the other hand, looked a little more menacing, even more than my Father could at his worst moments, like when he was yelling at us for something we did wrong. This man wore that expression permanently I could tell, and I was safe to assume that it was probably rare to see him smile, almost as if the man didn't have any emotions to begin with. His eyes are what I didn't enjoy the most, they reminded me of Gareth's eyes, but even Gareth had more life in his sadistic glares than this man.. My Grandfather just seemed so.. Disconnected with the world, unloving and uncaring though he was pictured with his loving wife.. Now that I thought about it once more, it was wrong of me to question my Father and I wondered if my Grandfather was the one to maybe start that fire, it didn't dawn on me until now how much more likely it was to be my Grandfather's fault after thinking about his picture once more and remembering how my Father seemed to despise the man. Was that the reason he hated him so much, or was there more to this than I know now?

There was still about twenty minutes left to my walk home, but thinking about all of this new information made the time go faster. For how hard it was just to find the little information that I had today, I figured there wouldn't be much else I could find over the internet that I either hadn't read yet or didn't already know from experience, but I couldn't deny the fact that I was still extremely curious about it all.. I contemplated asking my Father about it the next time I saw him, but.. Would he be open to talking about it..? I wasn't sure. The only sure thing I knew about all of this was my Father hated his, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring something like that up.. What if he flew off the handle again? I've heard from Bennu that he's getting better, though there's obviously still something wrong if he still lives within the Mental Hospital. I sighed heavily, the thoughts of my Father weighing me down a little and I decided to stop at a pavilion to rest a little and get my mind off of the things I've learned today about our family's history.

I stepped up the stairs and walked into the pavilion, looking to my left quickly when I noticed I wasn't alone. My eyes began on a pair of dainty black cat-shoes, following up a woman's legs that were covered in black high stockings that stopped just under her thighs and a comfortable-looking burgundy dress with a small denim vest over her shoulders. Her hair was an extremely dark brown that came close to being pitch black, though subtle shines from the pavilion light told me it was her true color, uncolored and untainted. It was slightly curled and wispy as it laid over her shoulders and the majority of it was pulled in front of her right shoulder. Her face was speckled with cute freckles and her unique turquoise eyes stood out the most to me. Her Monroe was pierced and I'm ashamed to admit I stared at her a little longer than I should've, enough to let her notice and I grew slightly embarrassed, averting my eyes then and walking over to an empty bench across from her and taking a seat.

I closed my umbrella and set it next to me upon the bench, still avoiding looking at the woman across from me, but it was hard to accomplish such a task when I heard her speak up, "Let me guess, you're not used to seeing rain like this," She made small talk and our eyes met again. 

"Oh, uhm.. Yeah. It's odd seeing rain in such a hot, dry climate," I replied and I watched her nod.

"The climate is actually weirder to me.. I moved here only about a year ago and this is only the second time I've seen rain," she added with a cute chuckle that made my insides twist a little.

"Where did you live before here?" I wondered.

"Twinbrook, Florida. It rains like crazy there and I've actually been kind of missing it.. But, I enjoy this weather, now that I think about it. Kind of reminds me of home," she replied with anther hum of a chuckle and I smirked.

"What compelled you to leave it all and move here?"

"Well, my Dad died a little under a year ago and my Mom went a little bonkers. She turned into this huge control freak and I just couldn't live with her anymore, so I left. It was time I moved out, anyways," she retorted and I lost the little smirk I held.

"Oh.. My condolences," I said with a slightly remorseful tone, but she waved her hand gently in the air to brush it off.

"It's okay.. I've had time to get over it, he wasn't that great of a guy, at any rate," she added and I nodded in understanding.

"So, have you been enjoying it here in Arizona, despite missing this rain?" I wondered, trying to find reasons on why I was so interested, yet the more I looked at her, how could I not be? She was utterly beautiful and I found it hard not to keep my eyes on her, especially now that we've engaged in conversation. 

"Yeah, I've always been a fan of warm climates, it was hard getting used to such dry air, though, when I first got here. Florida is so much more humid, but I found I sweat a lot more there just because of the air than I do here," she replied with a humorous laugh at her own words and I couldn't hold back a quiet chuckle. She wasn't afraid to mock herself, she seemed like a pretty confident woman with her head on straight. I had a different view of her from when I first saw her. I've seen her shoes in a catalog I glanced through that came in the mail and I remembered seeing them worth over $250, knowing they were the designer pair just by the gold trim they had that all the knock off's couldn't pull off nearly as well. She had expensive taste which made me wonder earlier if she was a snob, but after engaging in a little conversation, I grew to like her the more she proved my first thought of her wrong.

The more we talked about unimportant things, the more I thanked myself for choosing to walk home today and take this route to go home. "Mind if I ask your name?" I wondered as I then watched her smile.

"I'm Hannah, and you are?" She wondered in return and it warmed me that she seemed just as curious to know my name as well.

"Gibson."

"Ooohh, unique.. I don't know if I've ever heard that name before.. Well, as a first name, at least," she added with a light giggle, "Do you have any siblings, Gibson? Any family here in town?" She wondered next and I froze a little. I took a quick moment to think of something, I wasn't comfortable enough yet to fill her in on my Father, and I even took it upon myself to not mention another key detail.

"My Step-Mother and Step-Sister live here, my Father has passed as well.. The two of them are the only family I have, really. What about you?" I don't know why all of those words were the first thing to come out of my mouth, but I didn't regret anything I had left out of the conversation, nor did I regret what lied about.

"I have a younger brother, but he still lives back in Twinbrook with my Mom. He wanted to move here with me, but there was no way in hell," she laughed softly, "He's such an ass and a huge brat. It's like he always needs to get what he wants or he throws a tantrum.. He's 20 years old and he still acts like a child," she continued with a smirk, shaking her head at the thought of him. It was weird seeing how much we had in common, even odder that I could relate to her having an unbearable brother, but I still kept Gareth as far away from our conversation as I possibly could.

The rain continued, listening to the raindrops hitting the roof of the pavilion calmly together and I then watched as she smiled warmly towards me and patted the seat next to her, "I'm waiting for the rain to stop before I head back home, might as well come a little closer so we're not shouting across the pavilion anymore," she suggested with a charming chuckle and I nodded in agreement. I picked up my umbrella and walked over to her bench, taking the seat next to her and we continued to engage in a conversation that helped us pass the time as well as learn a little more about one another. Sitting much closer now, I could finally fully appreciate her features and now I found it even harder to keep my eyes off of her. She was someone I could get used to looking at and talking to, I wanted to spend more time with her and get to know her even more than I did now, but it seemed our evening would be cut short when we heard her phone chime, watching her then taking it out from her denim vest pocket and she gasped softly when she had read what I assumed was a text.

"Oh, man.. I wish I could stay longer, but it seems that I need to work tonight.. Just when I thought I had the night off, too, something comes up," she sighs softly and I could tell by her expression that she genuinely didn't want to leave just yet. I watched her stand from the bench and put her phone away, "It was nice meeting you, Gibson," she said with a sweet smile.

I stood as well and without knowing fully what I was doing, I reached out and grabbed her hand gently, "Wait, Hannah.." I voiced softly, watching her turn around and I let go of her hand quickly and grabbed my umbrella off the floor, "Here, take it."

"Ohh.. No, I couldn't do that," she denied it politely and I shook my head.

"Please, you need it more, you wanted to wait for the rain to stop, but you can't now.. So use it, keep dry," I offered humbly and I saw her smile turn more appreciative, taking the offered umbrella.

"Thanks a lot, Gibson."

"Not a problem.." There was then a knot in my throat as I pondered my next words, "Uhm.. Is there any way I could get you to go out for coffee with me sometime?"

"Hmm.." She thought for a moment which made me a little nervous, I couldn't help but wonder if she was trying to think of a way to let me down easy or not.. "I suppose so.. I'll need to give you back your umbrella sometime, right?" She asked in returned and relief washed over me, nodding to her question and taking my phone out so I could add her into my contacts. 

"Call me," She confirmed sweetly before she left and I nodded with a smile. watching her leave the pavilion and she stood by the street for a few moments before being lucky enough to wave down a passing taxi. She pulled away in the cab and her fingers danced towards me as if waving goodbye and I continued to stand there smiling. I then made the realization that I'd be the one who would have to initiate everything, seeing as the only numbers exchanged were hers to me. This made me a little nervous, yet at the same time, it made me excited to get back into the grueling game of Dating. I wanted, no, needed to get back into it and I was happy to finally have someone else to focus on besides my brother, my family, or my ex. Well, I guess I wasn't off to a good start though, seeing as I've lied to her twice already, but keeping my Father and Gareth as far away from her knowledge as I possibly could was my best choice at the moment to make sure nothing could possibly ruin a potentially good thing.

I sat at the pavilion a little while longer, waiting until the rain died down more before continuing my short journey home. A lot has happened already today and it was more information I've taken in in such a short day that wasn't from reading a book. Telling my coworker to kill herself, finding out a lot more of my family history, meeting a new, beautiful woman.. More pros than cons, at least. My house came into view and I remembered all over again that Gareth and I still weren't talking.. I wondered if he was even still mad at me from two weeks ago, I was somewhat over it, seeing as he's been getting slightly better, but there was still some anger within me that I couldn't quite let go of yet.

I got inside to the cool, dry house and walked towards the living room, hearing Jess growling playfully and I walked passed the wooden screen that acted as a wall to separate kitchen from living room, seeing Gareth playing tug-of-war with her. I was surprised.. The house didn't smell like dog piss, there wasn't anything on the floors and the house was actually just as clean as I remembered leaving it. I hate to admit it, but I was impressed. I watched as Gareth glanced up at me quickly before returning to play with Jess, "Why are you all wet?" He asked and I was a little surprised to hear him say anything. Was he not angry anymore? 

"It's.. Raining out."

"You walked? Why? You could've called me," he retorted, still playing with Jess.

"It's okay, I'm glad I walked home," I replied.

"Oh, why's that?"

"No reason.."

Gareth let go of Jess's tug rope and we watched as she jerked at it at the wrong time, causing herself to fly away from Gareth with the toy still in her mouth and she fell down playfully on her back. Gareth laughed at her as I continued to stand there without so much as a smirk, "Oh yeah, some girl killed herself today.. Her name was, uhh.. Cammy? Caroline..?"

"Candace?" I corrected him and he nodded.

"Ah, yeah! So you heard already? Well, you must've.. Didn't she work with you or something?" He wondered and my lips twitched into a smirk, but it quickly disappeared.

"Yeah, she did.. That's too bad." I answered. Huh.. I guess she actually took my advice.

"Yeah.." Gareth replied, a moment of silence between us before he spoke up again. "Uh.. Are we cool, bro?" He wondered and I stood there a moment, briefly breaking eye contact. I suppose through us not talking, my words may have finally sunk in and it did seem as if he was trying to get better, at least at some things..

"Sure.. We're okay." I confirmed.

"I need a shower.." I voiced heavily, the entire day catching up with me now and I was suddenly exhausted.

"All right, do you wanna have a drink with me later?" Gareth wondered and I shook my head, turning around and walking towards the bathroom.

"Sorry, too tired.. Maybe tomorrow night," I replied, not hearing anything else come from him and I entered the bathroom.

I started the shower and made it a little warmer than anyone in their right mind would start it as, stripping down and stepping in, feeling the slight sting of the temperature hitting my skin. I refused to get out of the hot, standing there as I felt my body struggling to keep up with the pace I wanted it to run at. My skin started to turn a darker shade of pink as the water hit the same spots, a few minutes later and my body had gotten used to the water to the point where it was still hot but now completely enjoyable without the stinging. My mind was incapable of wandering, my body was the most calm it had been all day and I didn't want to bother myself with thinking, which sometimes turned into worrying over nothing. All I wanted now was to have a calm night compared to my already enriched afternoon. For the first time ever, I felt as if forgetting everything I had learned, even just for a few minutes, would benefit me more than being aware of it all at once.

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Original chapter written and posted on February 11, 2014