I Stand Alone (Nathaniel)

[Gabriel Cole]

It was a late Thursday night, and people were more than ready for the weekend to arrive. Just one more day. A back door to a small bar suddenly flew open, the handle smacking into the brick wall loudly and echoing in the alleyway. A young man was suddenly shoved out into said alleyway, his black button-up ruffled and his hair askew as he stumbled and struggled to find his footing. After a few heart-stopping moments, the boy did manage to teeter on his toes and stop bumbling about. Gabriel spun around, just in time to catch his acoustic guitar that just so happened to be tossed through the air right at that very moment. He staggered back a little from the impact, his back making contact with the other wall of the alleyway. The dark-haired boy glared heavily at the much buffer man who had just thrown him out of the bar. What the hell? He had just been singing a song, it's not like he was endlessly screaming profanities at the crowd or anything. Sure, his song may have been a little bit too depressing and dark for some of the viewers, but really now! They didn't have to f*cking kick him out for it! All they would've had to do was ask him to perform something else, and he would've obliged gladly just for a little cash! Dammit. Gabe huffed, royally pissed, and watched as the security of the little dwelling shut the door in his face. Well, so much for that opportunity.

Pushing himself off of the wall, the tall brunette looked over his guitar. Thankfully, no damage had been done. Gabriel rolled his eyes, then suddenly realized something. The case. The guitar case. Where was it? The young man looked around the alley. Had the stupid watchman not thrown it out with him?! Gabe was about to go up and slam his fist on the back door when his eyes suddenly caught sight of a very familiar looking material. His eyes darted to the item. Of-f*cking-course, it just had to land in one of the puddles in the alley. Seriously? Gabe glared up toward the sky for a moment before he walked over to the case. It was undeniably soaked. The young man let out a long, irritated sigh. Of course. Of course this had to happen. Everything bad always happened to him. Even after he tried to escape everything that could really get to him anymore, he still managed to find something to just screw that whole escapade up. Figured. Gabe reached down and slowly drew the guitar case upward, watching with a grave bleakness as water cascaded down its sides. The boy took a deep breath. He needed to stay calm. It's not like the case wasn't expensive or anything, ohhh nooo, it was worthless! Ha, as if! Gabe was tempted to just throw the thing to the ground and leave it there to rot, but he really hated to part from the item. He had had it for quite the number of years now.

Letting out the slightest groan, the boy let his head hang for a moment as he stared at the case. He knew that the water wasn't going to "fatally" damage the case (he had had his fair-share of run-ins like this before), but he really didn't feel like cleaning up the mess the puddle-water was bound to leave. And, thanks to the case's old age, there was probably water leaking into it as well. Wonderful. Gabe shifted a little in his spot. He didn't want to set his guitar down... But he would have to if he wanted to even attempt to start cleaning up the case... Furrowing his brow in frustration, the young man sent a death glare to the back door of the bar before grabbing both his guitar and his guitar case. One hand was nice and dry, and the other was getting wetter by the second. The dark-haired boy glanced around, his grip tight on the two music-oriented items. So... Where to go now was the problem. He would need somewhere relatively dry and safe to place his guitar down at so he could get to work on his case. Though, such a place as that was not available at this time of night in this area of the city. Typical. Ugh, damn it all. Gabriel sighed again and started to walk towards one end of the alley, his hair still messed up and his shirt wrinkled. He might as well try to go and find somewhere to fix this, even if it meant he just ended up walking all the way home.