FicWad

I was sitting on the couch in the Way's living room when little Mikey come right up to my face and whispered, "Gerard told me you're sexy."

My eyes widened and I giggled, "Oh, he did?"

Gerard entered the room with two glasses of lemonade in hand and said, "What lie is Mikey trying to feed you now?"

Grabbing one of the glasses from him, I said, "Apparently, you think I'm sexy."

Gerard began to blush and he said, "Mikey!"

Mikey let out a high laugh and poked his brother's forearm. His hair was a little curly, and he had on a pair of glasses. It was just a mini version of the Mikey I was used to seeing in pictures and music videos, only this one was deffinetly more nerdier. He was so darn cute at the age of twelve.

"What're you lookin' at me for! I've just been standing here this whole time," Mikey defended himself, still grinning.

Giving me an emberassed smile, Gerard shook his head, then took a sip of his lemonade.

Someone entered the room. We all looked over to see Donna Way. When her eyes landed on me, her face dropped.

"Hello, Mrs. Way," I said, in my impress-a-grown-up voice.

"Hello, Hailey," she said, putting her hand on her hip.

"It's Amanda, mom," Gerard corrected, sounding upset with her.

"Can I talk to you, Gerard?" she asked. He nodded and followed her into the other room. Mikey and I sat there alone, awkwardly, listening in.

"You can't just go inviting people in," Donna hissed.

"Yeah, but mom, she's my... she's my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? You two are an item now?"

"...Yeah. What's wrong with that?"

I bit my lip and Mikey watched for my reaction.

"You know how the Matthews kids are. They're always getting into trouble. What are you going to do when she breaks your heart in a week?"

Silence. Gerard spoke up, "She's not who you think she is. She's changed, and she's not what I ever thought she was. So you give her a chance, like I did."

More silence.

I acted real interested in the sleeve of my sweatshirt when Gerard re-entered the room.

"Let's do something," Mikey whined.

I just wanted to be alone with Gerard right now, but I said, "How about kickball?" And smiled.

"I'm bad at kickball," Gerard said.

"Afraid you'll get your butt kicked by a girl?" I teased him.

He gave me a look and said, "Oh, please. Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Let's play!" Mikey said, standing up and grabbing my glass from my hand. He set it on the coffee table then grabbed my hands and, with all of his strength, pulled me off the couch.

"First we have to get a ball," I said.

Mikey held up his pointer finger, to say one minute, then soon returned with a soccer ball. "Good," I told him.

Gerard sighed. Mikey yelled, "Mo-om, we're going to go play at the baseball field!"

Donna came into the room. "Down the road?" She asked.

Mikey nodded.

"I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that..." she said.

Gerard told her, "It'll be fine. It's just down the road."

She looked at us, pausing, and said, "Why can't you just go out front?"

Sighing, Mikey argued, "But mom---"

She gave him a look and he stopped. "Let me just get my inhaler," Mikey said. As he walked away, he turned and said, "I call Amanda being on my team!"

Gerard sighed.

I giggled and looked at Gerard, all annoyed with his brother.

"Thanks. You guys don't have to include him," Donna told me.

I shrugged, "I don't really mind."

The corners of her lips went up, and she gave me her first real smile since we'd met.

"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" Mikey said, suddenly yanking on my sleeve. Donna laughed lightly and I laughed, too.

As we walked out the front door, Mikey started to sing, "Gerard's gonna lose, he's gonna lose so bad, it's gonna be so sad," and I ruffled his hair. Gerard brushed his arm against mine and rolled his eyes at Mikey.

"Let's get the ball rolling," Mikey said.

"How are we going to play kickball with three people?" Gerard asked, looking for a way out of this.

"Stop your whining and get on base," I told him, pushing him playfully.

"What base? We're in the middle of a road."

I took off my sweatshirt and threw it a few yards away from where I stood. "My sweatshirt is homeplate." Thinking, I looked over at a couple trashcans near the sidewalk and pointed at them, "First base," then pointed at the stop sign, "Second," and pointed to a car in front of their house, "Third."

Gerard walked over to my sweatshirt and stood, squinting from the sun.

"Be prepared to die, sucker," Mikey yelled from behind me. Gerard held up his hand to flip Mikey off, but at the last second stuck out his toungue.

I backed up then rolled the ball. Gerard's foot missed it by a fraction of an inch and Mikey let out a burst of laughter.

"Sun was in my eyes," Gerard said.

"Yeah, right," Mikey replied.

I rolled the ball again, and this time Gerard kicked it, causing it to fly up in the air well past the stop sign. He yelled, "Homerun!"

Mikey watched in amazement, then shouted, "You just got lucky that time, buddy!"