I still love Faye

Gabriel clenched his teeth, feeling the enamel grind. He took a deep breath, relaxed his jaw. "You have two choices," he said, "you can leave on your feet or on a gurney."
Sten looked at him, and sneered, even knowing that he had no real choice in the matter. He slowly picked himself up off the floor where he had fallen, and limped out, cradling his jaw, which was already swelling. As he left, Gabriel scrubbed his face with his hands wearily. It was getting harder and harder to keep up the facade. He walked to the bathroom and washed his face, then looked in surprise when the water came pink off his knuckles. He hadn’t skinned them in quite some time, not since... ‘That shit ain’t gonna help me get better, best not dwell.’

Gabriel was tired. Losing his soul to a relentless grind of day-in, day-out stress, mostly caused by his workplace. He was a shift worker at a mine-site plagued by mediocre and lazy casuals. When he wasn’t fixing everyone else’s problems, he was drinking, smoking, or picking fights out-side of the cafeteria. He was probably the most senior man on the ground there, although due to his flash-pan temper he would never become a supervisor.

Heaving a sigh, he went back to his bed-room partition, and picked up the faded photograph from the floor where it had fallen in the scuffle. His hands lovingly smoothed a creased corner, and he placed it reverently on his tiny bedside table, before getting the broom from the corner of the dormitory and sweeping the glass fragments and broken frame pieces into the scoop. As he dumped the contents in the trash, a knock on the door made him raise his head. Another man walked in, features a twin to his own. ‘What happened? Sten is making waves down at the cafeteria about how you attacked him for no reason.’

‘Aw shit that asshole will say anything to cover his butt. Came in my room and started talkin’ shit, dickhead pissed me off. He was wanking on about my attitude, and then he fuckin’ touched my picture. You know the one. Had to get him out. I just, kinda lost it.’

‘She’s gone man, Faye left you for that slick cityboy financial wizard. Why the fuck is that picture so special? She was a cheating whore, you know she was a cheating whore, hell, the way you tell it, you kicked her out yourself.’

‘You didn't know her man!  Not like I did. She was... an angel. Gods above, she was like light and hope and all joy. I think of her with that prick and I die inside every day. I can’t stand it. But, that’s the last time she ever looked happy. The funeral was closed casket you know, she was... no longer fit for human eyes.’
‘She’s dead? When did that happen?’
Gabriel looked at his brother with empty eyes. ‘A long time ago. She wouldn’t come back to me you know.’