Kisses after midnight (WICKED #0) | ✓

14

SHE WAS RUNNING AWAY from him. Mateo sat baffled on the floor for a second, staring at her retreating back, before jumping up and chasing after her.

"Gabriela!" he yelled," wait!"

Shit. Had he jumped the gun after all? But she had tried to kiss him! Perhaps he had misunderstood -

"Fuck it," he whispered under his breath then, shaking his head as if to shake the thoughts out.

No use pondering about it. The only one who could give him a clear answer to all his questions was running in front of him after all. She was fast though. Where he got stuck in the crowd she managed to slip between the people and keep running, causing the distance between them to grow.

"Hey, Mateo," a guy grinned," what are you doing here?"

"Chasing Cinderella, apparently," he sighed.

His friend looked confused, but Mateo left him behind then as he just pushed a few people out of the way and started sprinting. They were down to the first floor now, but when he reached the end of the last stairway and looked around, he couldn't find her.

"There he is!" Chase called out, his voice slurring," the man, the myth, the legend. Come over here, dude!"

Mateo rushed over to him, grabbing him by his shoulders.

"Chase," he said urgently," have you seen Gabriela?"

"No clue," Chase said," why? Are you finally going to confess your undying love to her?"

When Mateo didn't reply, Chase's eyes widened.

"Wait," he said," have you already done it?" He flashed his teeth then in a bright grin. "Mateo Martinez, you scoundrel!"

"We'll talk about that later," Mateo said," I need to find her first."

"Did she run away from you or something?" Chase chuckled.

Mateo raised an eyebrow and Chase's hand flew in front of his mouth.

"Jesus," he said," I'm on a roll! Let me predict more -"

"I will hit you," Mateo warned.

"Okay, fine," Chase said," I'll help you, my courageous friend, out of the kindness of my heart." He looked around then. "I'm guessing Penelope knows where she is, so let's find her."

"How would she know where Gabriela is?" Mateo frowned," she was with me until just now."

"Dude," Chase said as he slung his arm around Mateo's shoulders," you're still young and inexperienced, I see. Women always know where their friends are, it's some kind of inbuilt GPS or something."

They started walking and Mateo shrugged Chase's arm off his shoulders, too busy with worrying about Gabriela to joke along right now. His friend didn't seem to mind, his eyes wandering through the large crowd. Though Mateo usually loved being surrounded by people, right now he wished for nothing more except to be alone with her. The need to yell at everyone to get out pricked under his skin, but he kept it in. This was no time for him to cause a scene.

"Hey," Chase said then," wasn't Sahar here too?"

Oh fuck. He had forgotten about that.

"Uhm," Mateo said," probably around somewhere, but never mind that."

"So she is here?" Chase said, his eyes lighting up hopefully.

Mateo rubbed his neck awkwardly, not sure how to reply. His initial decision had been to protect Chase from the heartbreak he would suffer tonight when he saw how close Jay and Sahar were, but was it up to him to do that? God, if Gabriela was here, she would've known exactly what to do.