FicWad

(Gerard’s POV)

About two weeks had passed since Valerie had broken up with me, and I was still feeling as crappy about myself as I had then. The weekend seemed to be a blur even as we met with the guys in charge of Reprise Records. I gave them my full attention and helped finalize a few things with them, but when I was alone all I could think about was Valerie. It really did hurt me to see her like that, but what made it worse was that I’d made her react like that.

“Gerard, you have to patch things up between the two of you.” Mikey insisted at school the Monday we got back from New York.

“Mikey, I can’t. Every time I try to come near Valerie she turns around and goes the other way.” Sadly, that was the truth. Valerie had taken to sitting away from me in class, and for lunch, she either sat by herself or avoided the cafeteria entirely by spending lunch in the library.

“Then you have to think of another way to talk to her and explain to her what was going on.”

”That’s the problem, Mikey. I have no idea why that girl came up and kissed me the way she did.” I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed.

“I think I can help you guys.”

Our eyes all turned to the speaker. She was a new girl at school, and she was sitting at our table at Katie’s invitation. She was about Mikey’s height, she had a round face and thick black hair that complimented her dark eyes. She was wearing black eye makeup, dressed as your typical punk girl complete with a piercing in her left nostril.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I just know something about what’s going on that I think you’d like to know about.” She held out her hand. “By the way, I’m Alicia. Alicia Simmons.”

“You’re not related to Bianca Simmons, right?” Frank asked after she was introduced to us.

“God, no!” Alicia shuddered. “She and I have the same last name, but I swear to you we’re not related.”

“Oh, good.” I breathed a sigh of relief, and I’m sure everyone else did. “So what did you want to tell us?”

“That girl who kissed you, Gerard…she wasn’t acting on her own.”

“What’re you talking about?” I asked.

“I overheard Bianca talking to one of her friends in the girls’ bathroom. What happened was that she knew that the girl who kissed you had a crush on you, and the girl was a freshman. Did Bianca feel that she had a score to settle with you or something?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “Bianca got into a small fight with our friend Valerie, and she pushed Valerie against the wall one day in gym class.”

“Valerie hit her head pretty badly.” Bob added. “Bianca got suspended from cheerleading, too.”

Frank’s face suddenly paled. “Does that mean…”

Alicia nodded gravely. “Yeah. Gerard, Bianca found this freshman girl and paid her to go break you guys up in revenge.”

“Oh my God…” Katie put her head in her hands. “That bitch…”

“No wonder Bianca’s been acting really stuck-up lately…” Ray murmured, stunned as the rest of us.

“Oh look, the little emo boy has me all figured out.” We looked up to see Bianca standing there, smirking, and I should point out the entire cafeteria was watching. “Doesn’t matter, though. The point is, my plan worked perfectly. I don’t think your little slut is going to come back to you, so why don’t you go kill yourself over this?”

“Go to hell, Bianca.” I growled.

“Aw, look, he actually swore. That’s so cute!” Bianca laughed harshly. “What’re you gonna do now? Slit your wrists? Overdose on prescription drugs?”

The next thing any of us knew, Alicia had shot up out of her chair and slapped Bianca hard across her face.

“How dare you!” Alicia yelled. “You can’t just go around thinking you know everything about everyone! And don’t you dare take self-harm lightly, either! I had two really close friends before I came here, and you know what happened to them? They died, one from overdosing, the other from slitting her wrists until she bled to death! Yeah, they looked like me, but there was so much crap going on in their lives and they couldn’t take it anymore, including being taunted by people like you who don’t take the time to understand others! Just because some people who look like me have done those things doesn’t mean we all do! You have a lot to learn about respecting people, Bianca Simmons. It’s gonna save your ass one day.”

For a minute, it looked like Bianca didn’t know what to say. Finally, she just rolled her eyes and left. Everyone else was staring at Alicia in awe.

“Alicia, that took guts!” Mikey gasped.

She shrugged. “Yeah, but I was just telling her the facts, straight up.” A small smile then graced her lips. “And I think someone wants to talk to you, Gerard.”

I turned around and to my shock, I saw Valerie standing there.

“I saw the whole fight.” Those were the only words she said before she left.