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Castiel unlocked his front door and stood back, letting the brown haired blur that was an over-excited Sam Winchester into the house before him.
“Gabriel! Gabe, I got a gold star on my English work from Mrs Thompson!” Sam shouted as he ran up the stairs in the Novak household, waving the piece of paper in front of him as he burst into Gabriel’s bedroom without even knocking. The twelve year old sat up sharply from where he hadn’t been napping, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and looking over at the ten year old bouncing in the middle of his room.
“Didya? Close the door and come show me the thing then squirt.” He chuckled, kicking his legs off the bed to make space for Sam who did as he was told, dropping his school bag by the door and kicking off his shoes.
“Yeah yeah she said it was the best one in the class so I got a gold star see.” He shoved the paper against Gabriel’s chest as he sat beside him, legs swinging as Gabriel took the paper and rubbed his thumb over the metallic sticker with a grin.
“Well done kid! Wish I got gold star when I was in primary school. Now, what was this written about huh?”
“Jus’… read it.”
My Best Friend by Sam Winchester
My name is Sam Winchester and I’m 10 years old. My birthday is on 2nd May and dogs are my favourite animal. My best friend is called Gabriel Novak and he’s
11
12 years old. His birthday is on 1st April and this year when he turns 13 we’re going to have a big party! Gabriel’s house is two streets away from mine so when he wants me to come round and play he just walks round and asks my dad. My mum died a long time ago but it’s okay because my dad looks after me and so does my big brother Dean and so does Gabriel.
Gabriel looks after me in different ways though. Dad makes sure I eat dinner and that all my clothes fit (he says I need to stop growing so fast or I’m not going to stop) and he’s in charge of bedtimes. Dean makes sure that I get to school on time and that I do my homework and I brush my teeth every night though some nights he forgets to remind me but that’s okay because I remember anyway.
Gabriel doesn’t do any of those but he buys me sweets on Friday and he lets me sleep in his room when I sleep over (which is a lot) and he lets me sleep in his bed because the sofa is too small and he says the floor is too hard. He also lets me walk his dog with him even though he’s lazy sometimes and he doesn’t want to go out for a walk.
That’s about Gabriel not the dog. Max always wants to go for a walk.
Gabriel’s also my best friend because at the
carny canr
carnival last year he held my hand when I saw a clown without me needing to ask because I’m scared of clowns. He then took me out for ice cream to make sure I was feeling better.
Gabriel goes to secondary school now so he has a lot of homework and sometimes he gets sad over it because it’s too hard and he doesn’t understand so I ask him to tell me about it. If he can make me understand it then he can too. When he gets upset he sleeps but whenever I come round he wakes up and gives me hugs and tells me about his day even if it was bad. He says on his bad days I am the best thing in them and it makes me feel really happy.
Gabriel felt his face heating up as he read and he wrapped an arm around Sam’s shoulder, crushing the younger boy to his side when he finished reading. He placed Sam’s work down beside him, careful not to scrunch it because it was his gold star work and he hugged Sam as tight as he could, tight enough Sam squeaked.
“You deserve that gold star kid. In fact you deserve a gold star every day for just being you.” Gabriel grabbed his backpack then, rummaging around in the bottom for the sheet of sticker stars he had in there to mark off when he’d done his homework in his planner and he peeled a star off, sticking it to Sam’s nose. “It’s not gold, but now you have a star from me.”
*
Gabriel and Dean came to an arrangement. Gabriel would pick Castiel and Sam up from school every day from then on and take them to his house so Dean could go to his sports clubs without worrying about Sam. Without fail, every single day Gabriel was there on time (Dean was late sometimes, but Gabriel never) and he’d always have a coloured star to stick to Sam’s nose. As Sam grew up, going to the same secondary school as Gabriel he supposed he could tell Gabriel to stop it, because it was childish, but there was something about the glee in Gabriel’s face when he skipped over and stuck the star to Sam.
*
When Sam hit 12 the star moved from his nose to his cheek, and on some days it wasn’t even a star. The last Friday of the month was a cat, and the second Tuesday was a smiley face. Gabriel wasn’t sure if Gabriel did this all on purpose, but the fact of the matter was Sam noticed it happening, so it meant a lot to him. Sam started coming home from school and peeling off the sticker, pressing it onto a little pocket diary he had. Sometimes he’d need to cover it in sellotape to make it stay stuck to the page, but he did that willingly. He never missed a day’s sticker.
*
It was the day of his 16th birthday at the routine changed. Gabriel was 18, off at sixth form to study music and performing arts, but he made sure that he would, as he’d done for the past 8 years, come back to the high school to get Sam and Cas, and give Sam the sticker. Sam had had a bad day, low grades and a rejection to prom just made him feel like nothing in the world was ever going to go right. The other issue he had was that whilst he looked forward to seeing Gabriel and adding to his collection of stickers in the little diary he had (he’d stashed the full ones in a box under his bed), he had the biggest crush on Gabriel. He’d known this since he was about 15 and he just couldn’t stop it. The worst part? Gabriel just seemed to still see him as a child. The ten year old boy who’d called him his best friend in an English essay and gotten a gold star.
He saw Gabriel swaggering over and he waved, right as some of his friends slapped him on the back and wished him a happy birthday.
“Give yourself a birthday present and just tell him okay?” Charlie hissed in his ear before ruffling his hair and running off to join Jo and Kevin a little way down the road. Gabriel strode over, pressing a golden star to Sam’s cheek and Sam laughed brightly, hooking Gabriel’s satchel off his shoulder like they always did. Sticker, satchel, sweets, home. That was the routine. Though this time? The routine was dropped there.
Gabriel stood on tiptoes, hand he’d used to put the sticker on Sam’s face cupping his other cheek, lips brushing over the tiny little star before a lollipop was held up for Sam to take. Sam took it, but he couldn’t stop staring down at Gabriel who’d just kissed him on the cheek. Gabriel winked, winked at him before linking their elbows.
Instead of home however they headed to an ice cream parlour, Gabriel sliding some money over the counter for two sundaes, one of which he handed to Sam with a bow.
“For my best friend of course. Got your gold star, got your ice cream, got your essay…” Gabriel pulled the English essay from his pocket, Sam’s jaw dropping.
“You kept that?”
“Damn right I did squirt! Nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. And it started off the sticker thing, so I didn’t wanna throw it. Didn’t think you’d mind.” Sam shook his head, he didn’t, but if Gabriel kept it, did that mean…?
“Hey, Gabe?” Gabriel pulled his spoon from his mouth and hummed, eyebrow cocking. A tiny dribble of ice cream on his bottom lip made Sam smile and he leant over the table, tongue flicking it out to lick it off before kissing Gabriel softly and slowly, just as perfect as he’d imagined it would be.
“Holy s hit Sammoose…” He breathed once they parted and Sam just rolled his eyes, kissing him again quickly.
“I don’t need anymore gold stars Gabriel. I mean, I love them, god knows I do but… if ‘m honest? You’re the only star I need in my life. And…”
“Yes Sam, I’ll be your damn boyfriend.”
“Stop reading my mind you nerd. ” Gabriel laughed and they kissed again over the melting ice cream. Gabriel being Gabriel though did not let those go to waste.
*
On Sam’s 18th birthday they went and got matching gold star tattoos on the insides of their wrists, both giggling the whole time despite the pain. That was also the day that Sam showed Gabriel the diaries with all the past stickers in, and Gabriel swears he didn’t cry that day although Sam knows better than that.
*
Gabriel never did stop the sticker tradition, though it did slow down somewhat. It’d be one a week on his face, often a Friday after work, but he’d always find one on the post-it note in his lunchbox. Sam would cut off that piece of the post it and sellotape it in his diary. No way he was missing a day.
*
It was 10 years later when Gabriel walked down the aisle to meet Sam at the other end, and no one in the room was surprised when Gabriel reached up and stuck a gold star sticker onto Sam’s cheek. Everyone was surprised however when Sam did exactly the same thing back to him.