FicWad

Weeks passed, slowly, and in a blur of highs and lows, hours of restlessness and then overcompensated sleepiness. Gerard and Landon slowly worked through all of the drugs they could find, huffing, snorting, smoking, and once, Landon even talked Gerard into shooting up a bit of glass, just to try something new. Landon’s face became gaunt, and the beginnings of light stubble adorned his face. Gerard dropped pounds, his skin waxen and stretched. They were like two lovers, but instead of sex they opted for something more definite, more satisfying.
The day after Audrey had left, though, Gerard noticed. He noticed for the first time how the bathroom was beginning to mold, how the food in the refrigerator was dwindleing. But as soon as Landon came around the corner, offering another few hours of numbness, Gerard turned away from his thoughts, and followed. Yet the thought of that girl with the brown hair still thumped around in the back of his mind.

A week passed. Two weeks. A month.

“Landon! Hey, I’m back!” Gerard called into the apartment as he sauntered through the door, setting some paper bags full of food down on the table. And now, Gerard thought, we have food. The apartment was silent.
“Landon?” Gerard called out again, an unsure edge finding it’s way into his voice. Gerard began walking back to the bedrooms and bathroom, dank and messy, the oily substance beginning to build up on the sink matching the greasy state of his black hair. Upon leaning into Landon’s room, Gerard stopped, his eyes growing wide. Amongst the trash and spoons and rolled up dollar bills, Landon laid on the floor, unfinished line next to him, his lithe form caked in stale sweat.
“Landon!” Gerard repeated, rushing over to the still, blond man. Placing his fingers on Landon’s neck, over the place where a pulse should be, Gerard found nothing, only a chill washing over him. Landon had no pulse. He wasn’t breathing. Panicking, Gerard stood up, quickly, stumbling over the clothes strewn over the floor. He packed his belongings, hauling an old canvas bag he’d found out into the main room.
“Why the hell did I even come to Chicago?” Gerard said to himself. All he had wanted to do was get away. He was never really looking for State Street, like he’d told Audrey. He’d just been looking for an easy exit. Only now was it clear that there was no such thing.
Shutting off the lights in the apartment, Gerard made sure he’d gotten all of the clothes that he had bought for himself over the last few months, and a packed the food he’d bought, (Landon wouldn’t be needing it), and got on a bus. It was time to find Audrey, and get out of the city for good.


After three days, Gerard no longer had money for the buses, but had gotten a hold of his younger brother, Mikey, who had come down with a car for Gerard. The black haired man, drove around aimlessly, looking for the girl he should’ve taken better care of from the beginning.
One night, in an act of desperation to feel better without the drugs he’d been in withdrawal from not taking, Gerard drove around on a street he knew he’d find a hooker or two. By now, he had decided that Audrey must be safe, maybe back with her sister, or with a friend. But something in the back of his mind felt responsible for all of the shit that had pushed the fragile child to the edge and made her jump off.
Turning a corner, Gerard saw the first girl of the night. She was smaller, young looking, with long brown hair, and a short, tight dress. Looking uncomfortable, she waved at him, in an attempt to look confident and sleazy. Gerard pulled his car over to the curb. When he saw the prostitute up close, guilt crashed over Gerard as she said,
“Gerard?”
“Audrey! Get in!” she looked apprehensive for a moment, not sure if her pimp was standing within the vicinity, but after she took a look around to see no one, she hopped into his car, and Gerard sped away, anxious to tell how sorry he was, and how they would find someplace for her, out of Chicago. Before the morning had come, they were on the interstate, with a full tank of gas and too much to say to each other.
“I’m so sorry, Audrey.” Gerard said, his voice quiet and guilt ridden.
“It’s alright.” Her cell phone rang, (they had snuck into the ware house where she had been held, and had gotten her things back), and Audrey flipped it open, seeing a text message from Lucas, one of hundreds filling her inbox. It read:

audrey? Where are you! Please call me.’

Audrey smiled and dialed his number and someone immediately answered.
“Audrey?”
“Hi, Lucas.” She smiled, as Gerard kept on driving away from the hell that was the city.
“Where have you been! I thought they killed you! When are you coming home?” Lucas fired questions at her, and she answered them all, telling her story, so both Gerard and Lucas understood.
“I’m not coming back, Lucas. I’m going to stay with Gerard and his brother.”
“I’ll miss you,”
“I’ll miss you to, Lucas, but I can’t live with the memories.”
“I understand. I love you, and I’ll talk to you later.”
“I love you, too. Bye.” she hung up the phone. The sun was rising now, turning the horizon pink and yellow, while the moon and stars retreated into the west. More and more cars were starting to pass theirs, and the radio played softly, a lullaby consisting of the Bauhaus and the Misfits. Audrey dosed in and out of sleep, still in her dress, until the first stop, where Gerard handed her some of his own clothes, jeans and a black t-shirt. For Audrey, things would never be normal, traveling through all of the painful memories and the loss of Landon. But at least with Gerard, Audrey had some hope of finding a place where everything could feel better again.



FIn

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i am soooo sorry this totally sucks. i wanted to make the ending completly epica nd beyond amazing, but....dont have it in me right now. so maybe i'll eventually rewrite it, and it will sound a hell of a lot better. right here, this is just kinda the general jist of what hapen, not a lot of detail/

but regardless, this story is finished, and i'm excited to start doing some one shots and poems.
so long to landon and all of the other characters (for now)

-gini (oh yea, and you shuld comment too!)