FicWad

It was raining. The ominous black clouds above spat down rain like venom as Gerard walked along the gloomy sidewalk, shivering in his soaked-through jacket while the huge raindrops splashed up off the already saturated concrete, drenching his socks; a sodden converse shoelace trailed behind him like the tail of a rat. Gerard wiped away some of the droplets gathered on his nose with the back of his sleeve before returning his hands to his pockets and quickening his pace; he really didn’t want to be out here in this weather but unfortunately needs must – the gas station store was the only one open at this time and he needed to get some cash from the ATM to pay the landlord, who was now threatening to turn off the central heating, plus he really needed some more cigarettes.

He hadn’t meant to set off at this time, or in this weather, but he had tried to wait out the rain, fallen asleep for 4 hours and then it was 10pm and this was the only place open within walking distance of his apartment, which was quite unfortunate since, as many gas stations are, it was on a busy road so every time a car passed by a flood of filthy water splashed his way, and he couldn’t take the car because Mikey had it and he was out of town for the weekend.

Gerard nearly groaned with relief when he got to the store with its warm orange glow and warmer orange heater blasting hot air at him as he entered. The guy at the counter looked up from his magazine at him and half-smiled, “Some June weather, am I right?” He asked. Gerard nodded, dripping on the vinyl floor.

Going over to the ATM at the back of the store, Gerard struggled with his frozen fingers to remove his credit card from his wallet and insert it into the slot. He entered his four digits with his own shaking ones, groaning slightly at his balance – or lack of one- before selecting the amount and waiting for his cash to appear. Glancing towards the counter he noticed the cashier had moved from his spot and was mopping up the trail of water leading straight to Gerard.

“Sorry” Gerard said as the employee approached, after retrieving his money and card and returning it to his wallet.
“Hey, it’s not your fault,” replied the man, looking up from the floor, “you don’t control the weather.” It was true, Gerard didn’t.
Gerard smiled weakly at him, making his way to the shelves and spending longer than necessary browsing over the potato chips and cereal – he really didn’t want to go back out there. Feeling the cashier’s eyes on him, he eventually picked up a box of pop tarts and went over to the counter.

The cashier was pretty cute; he had a lot of tattoos, lip and nose piercings and hair which was dyed black judging from the smears of black on his neck and forehead; at least Gerard hoped it was dyed back, and he wasn’t just having a hallucination in which people’s colours and outlines bled into each other like he did when he was put on those strong pain meds at the hospital after falling down two flights of stairs while drunk and breaking his leg. Those days were behind him now though. The guy was also very friendly as Gerard paid for the pop tarts, and a 20 pack of cigarettes; helping him to pick up his change when he dropped it while trying to put it into his wallet.

It was then time to leave the shop and go back out into the relentless rain, Gerard had put back up his hood and was reaching for the door handle when the cashier guy said “hey!”

Gerard turned around and felt in his pocket for the receipt for his purchases, afraid that the guy in a strange and unexpected bout of memory loss was about to accuse him of stealing the box of pop tarts in the plastic bag hanging off his arm. The guy, however just said:
“Do you want to borrow this,” and was holding out a large pink umbrella over the counter.
“Err, are you sure?” Asked Gerard.
“Yeah dude, it’s fine,” the cashier came out from behind the counter and held out the umbrella to Gerard, who hesitantly accepted it, “I’ve got my car but you’ve got to walk home in this – hell, I’d give you a lift if it wasn’t still an hour ‘til the end of my shift, no-one should be walking in this”,
“Well, thanks, erm…” Gerard trailed off.
“It’s Frank,” the guy chipped in with a grin.
“Well thanks, Frank, I owe you one,” said Gerard, returning the smile, “It’s Gerard by the way.”

Gerard left the store and opened up the bright pink umbrella, it wasn’t his colour of choice, but on a night like this he really didn’t give a fuck, besides, maybe on a night like this he needed a bit of colour in his life.

*
“Hey Mikes, you know the guy who works in the store at the gas station?” Gerard asked, it was three days since the umbrella and Mikey had returned from visiting his girlfriend.
“That’s not very exact; Gee, if you’re talking about the gas station down the road, there’s quite a few guys who work there.” Mikey looked at Gerard over his coffee mug.
“His name was Frank, he has a lip ring.”
“Well, what about him?”
“He gave me an umbrella.”
“That’s nice of him.”
“Yeah. He seemed nice, I wish I’d got his number…”
Mikey rolled his eyes and sipped his drink.

A/N Hi, I know I've not posted a fic in a long time but I'm back! I don't know how long this will be but I just really wanted to get writing again, and I'm going to have plenty of time now most of my exams are over. Rates & Reviews are greatly appreciated, as always ^-^ - J.