FicWad

I stopped in the bathroom and splashed some water in my face before making my way to the cafeteria. When I got there Paul was sitting with his usual crew of morons in the back. He saw me and waved me over. I guess he wanted to me come sit with him. Yeah, uh thats not gonna happen. I stood in the aisle shaking my head at him until he got up and came over to me.

"What’s the matter babe?" He asks and the fucked up part is that he's serious.

“I just want to talk Paul.” I tell him and he sighed a little.

“Youre not gonna eat?” He frowned a little. I really wasn’t.

“Um not really.” I was just so sick from everything I had no appetite.

“Well you eat and we’ll talk.” He compromised and I felt my heart warm a little towards him. He really did care if I ate lunch or not.

“fine.” I sighed a little and I shifted around my crutch to try to get my wallet out of my purse. Then I realized I had no money in it anyway. “No, just… can we talk.” I started to get flustered and Paul reached over and stroked my arm a little to calm me down.

“Wait, whats the matter hmm?” He asked me and I sighed once more.

“I don’t have any money and Im not really hungry and even if I did I cant go up there like this-” I tell him all in one breath. I don’t know why I was freaking out. It was just everything that had happened and didn’t happen, it had me wound up so tight.

“Just go sit.” He points me over to his table. “Ill bring you something to eat.” He says as he started to walk towards the line.

“And we’ll talk right?” I called out after him but he didn’t answer me.

There was no way I was going to go sit where he told me to. So instead I went over to the larrys once more.

“Hi Steve. Hi Larry.” I tell them as I sat down. Steve gave me a polite smile. Larry looked at me like I was nuts, probably cause his name wasn’t Larry. “Oh hello other Larry.” I leant forward and waved to the guy at the other side of the table. He gave me more a look like oh god not you again…

"What the fuck Elle.” Paul suddenly appeared at the head of the table, holding some kinda tray. “Youre not gonna sit with me?” He was getting pissed.

“Um yeah I am. Now sit down Paul" I nodded for him to sit.

“Here.” He said like it was outrageous.

“Yes Paul, here now sit.” I tell him softly my patience was wearing thin.

Paul reluctantly dropped the tray in front of me and sat down.

"Okay Paul..lets just cut the shit already huh.“ I tell him and he leant back, stretching his arms up and resting them behind his head as he smirked.

“Eat.” He tells me and I frowned. “Eat and we’ll talk.” He wouldn’t budge.

“Fine.” I grumbled poking at the mush that was on my plate. It looked like macaroni and cheese. “You know this is orange right.” I tell him and he grinned a little as he dropped his arms down. He knew all about my resistance to orange foods. He did it on purpose too I just knew it. I forced a forkful in my mouth trying not to gag. “ok?” I tell him after I swallowed it.

“mmhmm.” He just kinda mumbled as he looked across the room. I couldn’t be bothered to even turn to see who he was looking at.

"So I'm being serious Paul. Youre gonna leave me alone from now on.“ I tell him very seriously. Paul shifted his eyes back on to me now.

"Why cause you ate some mac and cheese?" He said teasingly.

"No cause I say so." I said firmly folding my arms across my chest and Paul grinned. "You’re going to leave me alone from now on and Gerard too." I declared.

"And I'll do that because..." he was smirking at me.

“Because I don’t know what kind of fucking pictures you showed him.” I tell him and he laughed sharply. “But how soon we forget Paul.” I leant forward and whispered the next part at him. “I have a box of pictures too you know.”

Paul is frowning. "You’re fucking bluffing Elle." He mumbles.

"Bluffing..no I think not.." I smile. “You know me Paul. I never lie.” I remind him. He leant back from the table once more, I guess pondering what I just said. “So heres whats gonna happen.” I tell him softly. “Youre going to leave me alone. Leave Gerard alone. Leave his friends alone. Leave his fucking next door neighbor alone.” I waved my finger at him and he sorta smiled. “Cause if I find out otherwise youre gonna be sorry.” I tell him and he smirked.

“Oh yeah?” He said a little under his breath.

“Yeah.” I repeated louder. “You want to fucking play games with me, we’ll play. We’ll start right now. You go first.” I dared him.

“Damn alright.” He grumbled. Oh my god. I did it. I won…

“And one more thing.” I stopped him from getting up. “You keep your friends away from me too.” I added and he smirked. “Im serious Paul. All of them, fucking Pete and Joe and especially Jeff.” I shook my head in disgust. “I swear to god I catch that boy looking at me one more time Im gonna neuter him.” I added and Paul gave me a peculiar look.

“Damn babe who have you been hanging out with all summer?” He sorta chuckled.

“Huh?” I looked up at him a little confused.

“You got vicious over the summer.” He shook his head a little at me. I tried not to smile. It wasn’t the summer. And I knew who it was. Nicky.

“just… please.” I waved my hand for him to leave already.

“Alright, you got your truce” He leant over and whispered to me. ”But if anyone asked I dumped your crazy ass.” he added before pecking a kiss on my cheek lightly.

“Whatever.” I grumbled and with that he was gone…

I spent the rest of lunch talking to the Larrys. I was beyond relieved to find out they thought Ms Roberts was wrong. Something about the butterfly effect. According to Larry 3, when you change one thing, it causes a domino effect- an alternate time line. Where people will behave differently based on the current new circumstances.

My mind shifted to Gerards behavior today. Maybe that’s what happened. But he loves me. Alternate universe or not he loves me, I’m sure of it.. I would just have to be more proactive in getting us together is all. There’s no way last night meant nothing to him.

When I got to art class he was already there. He was sketching something and wouldn’t look up.

“hey.” I tell him and he cleared his throat a little.

“Did you have a nice lunch?” He says with a weird undertone to his voice that I never heard before.

“Huh?” I scrunched my face as I sat down next to him.

“With Paul.” He added and I sighed a little.

“So you talked to Ray.” I said softly.

“didn’t I ask you to not do this?” He hissed softly at me as Miss Lee started class.

“Do what?” I whispered back at him.

“Put me in the middle.” He said and I couldn’t help but sigh again. That’s not what happened at all. I didn’t tell Paul to get back at him. I didn’t fuck Gerard to piss him off, or for math lessons from Mikey. I loved him. Why was this so hard…

After Miss Lee handed out the supplies, it started to get noisy again and I found myself once more trying to explain things to Gerard.

“for your information its over with me and Paul.” I tell him and he smirked a little.

“Yeah, I heard that one before.” He replies sarcastically.

“Well this time its definite.” I declared and he looked at me a bit curiously. I guess it was my tone. “He’s not gonna bother me or you or your neighbor-” I start to carry on and Gerard interrupted me.

“Mr Bernstein?” He says and I scrunched my face in confusion.

“Who?” I asked.

“My neighbor.” He says plainly and I shrugged. I didn’t know his fucking neighbors names anymore.

“I guess I dunno.” I looked at him as he started to laugh.

“Well, then why did you say it?” He asks and I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“I dunno I said a lot of shit to him you know me.” I shrugged and he looked me over a second before diverting his eyes back to his sketch paper.

“Yeah you do talk a lot of shit.” He said softly and I laughed as I nudged him.

“So were good?” I ask cautiously and he shrugged.

“I guess.” He said softly and I frowned a little. I don’t know if I was expecting him to kiss me or something. I don’t know. He was still kinda off and I didn’t understand why.

“Hey, you wanna come home with me?” I suggest and he paused a little from his sketching.

“I dunno last time you kicked me out.” He said softly still not looking up at me.

“I did not!” I protested.

“You did.” He replied finally looking up. I was smiling, he wasn’t…

“You said you had to go.” I reminded him. “But you want to stay tonight, stay.” I shrugged like it didn’t matter.

“Are you gonna be okay with that?” He had a very serious look on his face now.

“Um yeah.” I said cautiously. I wasn’t quite sure if we were having the same conversation here anymore.

“No I mean it. I stay, you know what that means.” He was giving me a hard look now.

“Um that Im your girl?” I suggested and no sooner then I said it did I wish I didn’t. What if that’s not what he was thinking.

“Yup.” He says and I exhaled a sigh of relief as he took my hand in his under the table. “and that means no more fucking with Jay or with Will or with Lia.” He added and I laughed.

“Lia!?” I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Im serious Elle.” He tells me and I nodded as he squeezed my hand tightly under the table.

“Yeah me too.” I replied. “This is what I want…” More then anything else in this world. This is what I wanted…