"Home!!" she laughed. "I don't want to go to home! I never want to go back there!" She leaned on him due to her knees weaken. "My god I hate it there. God I hate my life."

Gabriel frowned and wrapped an arm around her waist to help her stay upright. Why was she so upset? Did that talk with her terrible fiance end poorly? And what was he supposed to do if taking her home wasn't an option? It was all more than he was used to handling.

"I see... Well... I guess you could rest at my place until you feel a little better..."

"Yes!!" she cheered by lifting a fist into the air. "Party at Gabriel's house!" she just smiled at him. "You're so kind unlike him."

"Him..?" Gabriel murmured, though he was very sure he knew who she was talking about.  He shook his head and reminded himself they needed to get home. "How about we talk about that when we get to my place? You need to focus on walking right now.."

"Of course!!" she moved forward. "Let's go!" she walked away despite not knowing the way to his place. Iris then up tripped and falling down on her knees. She laughed.

Gabriel quickly followed her, helping her up and taking her hand. "We need to walk together," he said quickly.  He made sure to keep hold of her hand as they walked the rest of the way to his apartment.  Once they arrived her guided her to the couch, glad that it was still relatively clean of paperwork from tidying up earlier.

"Do you want anything to eat while we talk?"

"Nah! But thank you though!" Iris looked around and bounced on the couch. "Your couch is so soft! Can I spend the night? I don't want to go home." she gave him a puppy eye look.

Gabriel studied her for a moment. She was so very drunk that he wouldn't dream of letting her go home on her own, and accompanying her would take too long. So, it was just as well she wanted to stay.  This was the safest place for her.

"Sure. You can even take the bed. The couch is too lumpy and uncomfortable."

"Yes!" Iris said and threw her arms into the air happily. She leaned over and hugged him. "You're really sweet you know that? I mean we just met and you're letting me sleep in your bed!"

Gabriel stiffened, not sure if he should accept the hug or not. She was clearly drunk and a student, after all. But all he could really do was gently find a way out of her hug and pat her on the shoulder.  "I just want to make sure you're comfortable. You're my guest, after all," he answered.

He paused briefly, deciding if he should delve into her problem before finally asking, "So, what's going on?  Why don't you want to go home?  If you don't mind me asking..."

Iris made a frustrated noise. "If you must know! I talked to Beau about today. I stood my ground and told him we would be friends. He actually backed off. But our talk made me depressed.  I don't love him anymore The spark is gone. I only agree to marry him because my parents love him. I can't disappoint them." she then started to cry.

Gabriel stared at her, trying desperately to decide what to say. He was not used to his type of discussion. He was not used to talking about overbearing parents. His parents had never been in his life in a way that they would even try to influence who he would marry, let alone care either way. Still, he needed to say something...

"If you really feel like you don't love him, then you should break it off. Your parents can't influence your life forever. You'd have to deal with a loveless marriage far longer than they'll be around, and that wouldn't be fair to you." Gabriel wasn't sure if that was the proper thing to say, but it was the best he could do.

"But you don't understand!" she looked at him. Iris looked a mess. Tears were pouring down her cheeks. "I can't disappoint them!" she then threw herself around him and cried more until she fell asleep.

Gabriel frowned and awkwardly patted her on the back as she cried. He felt bad for being relieved when she fell asleep, but he just wasn't well equipped to help someone who was both drunk and upset enough to tell him all of their private problems.

He waited about ten minutes to make sure she was asleep before gently carrying her to his room.  He couldn't pull out the covers while holding her, so he laid her on top of the bed and pulled out the warmer one of his two spare blankets and laid it over her.

Once he was sure she was probably comfortable, he grabbed the other spare blanket and the pillow she was not currently laying on and headed back to living room to sleep on the couch.

The next morning Iris was slowly waking up. She moved around in bed and rubbed her face with her hands. She had a pounding headache. When she sat up, Iris glanced around the room. It took her a minute to realize this was not her room. Her eyes widen. Where was she!? Did she go home with someone!?

She started to breath heavy and ran all of her fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes and told herself to calm down. Iris then glanced down at her body. She had her clothes on. Wait a minute? She just had a blanket over her. She wasn't under the covers. Strange. Iris got out of bed and noticed her shoes were also still on. She slowly walked over to the door. What was happening? Someone took her home for some reason. She put her hand on the doorknob. It was slowly coming back to her. The headache was helping with that. She drank too much wine. Iris took a deep breath. That meant she was drunk and this person probably was actually trying to help her. There was no way this person would put the effort of putting her clothes back on if they did something. She couldn't have either since she was drunk. If she did her clothes would look sloppy. Iris finally opened the door.

She walked out and to her surprise she found Gabriel asleep on the couch. She smiled softly. There was no way he did anything to her. She walked over to him and rubbed his head with her hand to wake him up.