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Gabe Brooks

Gabriel Tyler Brooks, usually called Gabe, was a Black American drummer and baseball player from Portland, Oregon, born on February 14, 2001. He lived primarily with his father, Jamal Brooks, and grew up in a working-class household. He hated having a Valentine’s Day birthday and the attention, teasing, and romantic assumptions that came with it.

Gabe and Darren Ross had been best friends since tee-ball. Zoey joined their friendship in sixth grade during the 2013–2014 school year, and the trio remained close into adulthood. Gabe met Rachel Williams in January 2014, stayed friends with her for approximately three years before they began dating in high school, and later married her.

Gabe was naturally funny, observant, and easygoing. His apparent effortlessness was partly temperament and partly a practiced way of reading rooms, code-switching, and reducing tension as a Black boy in mostly white Portland spaces.

Early Life and Background

Gabe was born and raised in Portland. His parents were separated, and he saw his mother occasionally while living primarily with Jamal.

The Brooks household was working-class and modest without being defined by extreme poverty. Gabe did not have everything he might have wanted, but his home with Jamal was stable. Jamal’s shifts required Gabe to become self-sufficient: he got himself to school, made food for himself, and managed his time around his father’s work.

Jamal drove a TriMet bus. The union job provided stable employment and benefits, but it included early mornings, split shifts, weekends, and holidays. Dealing with the public required Jamal to remain calm and assess situations quickly. Gabe learned some of his own unhurried manner and attentiveness to other people’s intentions by watching his father work.

Jamal was particular about Gabe’s grooming even when money and time were limited. He made sure Gabe received regular shape-ups and edge-ups and that his hair looked neat and deliberately maintained. That practical care was one of Gabe’s early models for showing love through repeated action.

For Jamal, keeping Gabe’s presentation clean and intentional was also protective. He understood that other people could read a Black boy’s appearance as evidence of parental investment or neglect. Maintaining his son’s hair was a way of making that care visible in a world where Gabe would be judged through racial assumptions as well as through his own conduct.

Education, Music, and Baseball

Gabe was in sixth grade during the 2013–2014 school year and was one of the oldest students in his class. He was intelligent without drawing attention to it. His strengths included good instincts, close observation, reading subtext, and recognizing when an adult’s stated concern did not match the person’s conduct.

School placed Gabe in mostly white Portland spaces where he adjusted how he spoke and presented himself according to the audience. He could be the class clown and still follow the social and institutional dynamics around him more closely than many classmates realized. His intelligence differed from Zoey’s openly academic brilliance but was not lesser than it.

Drumming was a passion rather than a casual hobby. Gabe played drums in his middle-school band and had strong rhythm and instincts. Drumming also developed the quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination visible in his movement.

Gabe had played baseball with Darren since tee-ball, beginning around 2006–2007. He was a solid, reliable player and a good teammate rather than the team’s singular standout. Baseball mattered to him as a sport, a social world, and one of the foundations of his longest friendship.

Personality

Humor and Social Ease

Gabe was laid-back, sarcastic, and quick-witted. He often went with the flow and did not become preoccupied with minor problems. His dry, deadpan jokes made him the mood-lifter of the friendship trio, particularly when Darren’s seriousness and Zoey’s planning created too much pressure in a room.

His humor was both genuine expression and strategy. Gabe liked making people laugh, and his constant smile was not merely a performance. In unfamiliar or mostly white spaces, however, being funny could also make adults and peers read him as safe rather than threatening. With Jamal, Darren, Zoey, and Rachel, he had less need to manage that reaction; the humor remained, but it could sit beside seriousness and vulnerability.

Gabe’s relaxed manner could create misunderstandings. Other people sometimes read calm as indifference, and Zoey could become frustrated when he trusted that something would work out instead of planning for every consequence. Humor could also become a deflection when he needed to engage directly. He learned when to stop joking and name what he saw.

Observation, Care, and Repair

Gabe paid attention to posture, facial expression, tone, discomfort, and shifts in a group’s mood. His street smarts included recognizing the difference between genuine care and concern performed for an audience. He could identify that gap before Zoey, whose stable home initially gave her more reason to assume that adults meant what they said.

He cared about authenticity and disliked manipulative or performative behavior. With people he loved, that value appeared in steady presence rather than speeches. He showed up, listened, and adjusted his conduct when someone explained that he had caused harm.

Gabe did not always say the right thing, particularly during early adolescence. What distinguished those mistakes was his response: he apologized without treating the other person as oversensitive, asked what needed to change, and did not keep repeating the same behavior. That willingness shaped both his friendship with Zoey and his eventual marriage to Rachel.

Cultural Identity and Heritage

Gabe was Black American and grew up in Portland, a city where he frequently attended mostly white schools and played in mostly white youth spaces. He, Darren, and Zoey gave one another a place where Blackness did not need to be translated or explained, even though their families, class positions, and approaches to conflict were different.

Working-class experience also shaped Gabe’s reading of people and institutions. He understood that a polite message or official expression of concern could serve appearances without producing material care. He did not treat that understanding as cynicism; he compared what people said with what they repeatedly did.

Speech and Communication Patterns

African American English was Gabe’s natural register with Jamal, Darren, Zoey, Rachel, and other people with whom he felt at home. He code-switched for teachers, unfamiliar adults, and public settings. He did so more often than Danny Ross and less vigilantly than Darren.

Gabe’s delivery was dry, quick, and frequently deadpan. “Man, come on” expressed exasperated affection, while sharper language appeared when he believed someone was being dishonest or manipulative. When a friend was frightened or hurt, the jokes dropped out of his voice and he became direct and steady.

Health and Disabilities

Gabe had bipolar disorder.

Relationship to His Body

Gabe loved the physical act of drumming. Music gave him pleasure and an outlet that belonged to him.

His ease in his appearance was part of why other people often read him as effortlessly confident.

Physical Characteristics and Presentation

During sixth grade, Gabe stood approximately five feet two inches. He was taller than Zoey but shorter and visibly smaller than Darren, who began the year at approximately five feet four inches with a much broader, heavier build. Gabe was lean, wiry, and compact rather than frail—all limbs and energy, with efficient muscle from baseball and drumming.

Gabe’s hair had a kinky, tightly curled texture. He wore it in a short, neat cut with a close fade at the sides and slightly longer curls on top. Regular shape-ups and edge-ups kept the low-maintenance style clean and intentional.

His face was highly expressive, and he smiled and laughed often. A full smile spread across his whole face, animated his expression, and was considered one of his most striking features.

Gabe moved quickly and loosely, with relaxed posture and an understated physical confidence. His drumming and baseball contributed to fast reflexes, coordination, and an ease in navigating crowded physical spaces.

Habits, Routines, and Daily Life

During middle school, Gabe’s ordinary life revolved around school, drumming, baseball, and time with Darren and Zoey. He managed his meals and schedule around Jamal’s shifts, attended baseball practices and games, and made room for drumming as an activity that was wholly his own.

He was comfortable sharing space without constant conversation. With close friends or Rachel, time together could consist of separate activities in the same room rather than planned entertainment or continuous talk. This preference made silence part of companionship rather than a problem to fill.

Family and Core Relationships

Jamal Brooks

Jamal was Gabe’s primary parent. His care was practical and consistent: he maintained stable employment, kept track of Gabe’s presentation, and made sure his son looked cared for despite an irregular work schedule and limited money. Gabe learned from Jamal that affection did not need to be performative to be unmistakable.

Gabe’s Mother

Gabe saw his mother occasionally after his parents separated. His daily routines and primary attachment centered on Jamal.

Romantic and Significant Relationships

Rachel Williams

Main article: Gabe Brooks and Rachel Williams

Gabe met Rachel in January 2014, when Zoey invited the newly transferred student to their lunch table. Curious about Rachel’s unusually formal speech, he asked, “So like… you talk real… formal. Is that just how you talk, or is that a California thing?” Rachel explained that she was autistic and that atypical speech was one characteristic of her autism. Gabe accepted the answer without argument. As he left, he called, “Later, California,” beginning a nickname that remained part of their relationship.

Gabe was not interested in dating Rachel when they met. He liked her well enough but was more interested in baseball, drumming, Darren, and being a kid. They remained friends for approximately three years before beginning a romantic relationship in high school and later marrying.

The pair’s outward differences did not require either of them to change personality. Gabe was socially easy, visibly expressive, and frequently joking; Rachel was formal, precise, quiet, and serious. His observational habits helped him recognize when she was becoming overwhelmed, and their years of friendship taught him what communication, food, plans, humor, touch, and amount of company worked for her.

Gabe avoided surprise dates, unannounced visits, and public romantic displays that made Rachel uncomfortable. He gave advance notice, accepted when she needed space, and could sit beside her practicing paradiddles or using his phone while she read. During group gatherings, he could suggest leaving without turning her overload into a public event. He listened when she talked at length about an interest, asked follow-up questions, and remembered the details.

When Gabe misunderstood Rachel or hurt her feelings, he apologized and changed his behavior. He did not treat autism as something to fix or expect Rachel to perform a more conventional version of affection. Their marriage grew from friendship, accumulated knowledge, and direct adjustment rather than grand gestures.

Rachel recognized in Gabe’s love the fierce, practical devotion she had grown up watching between her parents, Jon and Chrissie. Jon had built a life with Chrissie that honored her as a whole person rather than accepting institutional judgments about what she could be or treating her disability as something to love around. Gabe likewise saw Rachel beyond her reputation as the quiet, unusual girl and adjusted his behavior without making her feel broken. The couples’ dynamics were different; the familiar pattern was acceptance expressed through daily, practical care. For Rachel, being seen and chosen without a demand to become someone else was a model of love becoming part of her own adult life.

Friendships and Social Connections

Darren Ross

Main article: Darren Ross and Gabe Brooks

Gabe and Darren met in tee-ball around 2006–2007. Their friendship included summer practices, inside jokes, teasing, and comfortable silence. Darren trusted Gabe’s lightness because it did not require him to deny fear, illness, or trouble at home.

During the 2013–2014 custody crisis, Gabe noticed Darren’s exhaustion and fear without forcing him to explain before he was ready. When Darren experienced a panic attack at baseball practice after Danny did not answer his phone, Gabe crouched at eye level, guided his breathing, and offered to remain with him until he was steady. He treated Darren’s fear as understandable rather than ridiculous.

Gabe also recognized why a message from Dana Ross after Darren’s asthma hospitalization felt performative. He told Darren, “Man, fuck that noise. Don’t answer. You know they don’t mean it.” When Zoey wanted to assume better intent, he added, “Zo, you don’t know their parents like we do. Trust me—if Darren says it’s fake, it’s fake.”

After Danny became Darren’s guardian, Gabe joined the community that helped the brothers move into their new apartment. He carried a lamp balanced on his head, turned boxes into a competition with the other children, and jumped on Darren’s mattress with the baseball team. He remained part of Darren’s life after Danny died in 2022.

Zoey Thomas

Main article: Gabe Brooks and Zoey Thomas

Zoey joined Gabe and Darren’s existing duo in sixth grade. Gabe’s spontaneous, relaxed approach often clashed with her preference for timelines, structure, and a defined plan. Darren frequently understood both positions and helped them hear one another.

Early in the friendship, Gabe sometimes called Zoey “bossy,” including as a joke in front of other people. Zoey objected because the word carried a racialized and gendered weight for Black girls. After Darren explained why the label was harmful, Gabe listened, stopped using it, and changed his behavior. The conflict deepened rather than ended their friendship because he treated repair as something he had to do.

The friendship remained close after Darren and Zoey began dating in 2016 and eventually married. Gabe was not displaced by their romantic relationship; he remained family to both of them and part of the adult trio around their son, Daniel James “DJ” Ross.

Danny Ross

Gabe knew Danny as Darren’s older brother and eventual guardian. He saw Danny continue caring for Darren while sick, exhausted, and financially limited and respected the difference between that conduct and the concern Darren’s parents performed during the custody case. Gabe’s support for Darren therefore also included respect for the brother who had raised him.

Later Life

Gabe’s friendship with Darren and Zoey continued after the two became a couple, married, and had DJ. He and Rachel also carried their middle-school friendship into marriage.

When Danny died suddenly in 2022, Gabe supported Darren alongside Zoey. He had known both brothers during the custody and move-in years, which gave him firsthand knowledge of the relationship Darren was grieving. Gabe’s presence after the death continued the same friendship pattern he had established as a child: he stayed without demanding that Darren perform recovery for him.

Memorable Quotes

“Hey, hey, breathe, man. You good?”

(Spoken to Darren Ross during a panic attack at baseball practice.)

“You’re not dying. It’s a panic attack. Breathe with me. In. Out. In. Out.”

(Spoken while helping Darren regulate his breathing at baseball practice.)

“Okay. That’d freak me out too. You want me to sit with you a sec? We don’t gotta move ‘til you’re steady.”

(Spoken after Darren explained that Danny had not answered his phone.)

“Man, fuck that noise. Don’t answer. You know they don’t mean it.”

(Spoken to Darren after Dana sent a performative message during the custody case.)

“Zo, you don’t know their parents like we do. Trust me—if Darren says it’s fake, it’s fake.”

(Spoken to Zoey during the same conversation.)

“So like… you talk real… formal. Is that just how you talk, or is that a California thing?”

(Spoken to Rachel on her first day at the Portland school in January 2014.)

“Okay. That’s cool. I mean—not cool like it’s cool, but like… yeah. Okay.”

(Gabe’s response after Rachel explained her autism and speech pattern.)

“Yeah, well. I’m not most people.”

(Spoken after Rachel thanked him for asking rather than staring or making assumptions.)

“Later, California.”

(Spoken to Rachel at the end of their first lunch together, beginning his lasting nickname for her.)

“Oh shit, my bad. I didn’t realize. I won’t do that again.”

(Gabe’s direct apology after an early misunderstanding with Rachel.)

“Want to hang out tomorrow? Thinking we could get food and then just chill at my place. Let me know.”

(A typical advance-notice invitation to Rachel.)

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