FicWad

“So this is the shit part, as you can tell. If you had to sleep outside at night, I recommend staying as far away from this area as you possibly can. It gets pretty rough out here, even on days like this,” Gerard said, motioning to the shit’s street condemned buildings and cracked sidewalks. He learned into my ear as I turned to look, giving me an extreme case of the chills. “Always make sure you’re with somebody here, Lo. Bad things happen to good girls,” Gerard whispered, tickling my ear with his hot, coffee-and-cigarette scented breath.
I nodded, loving the feeling of Gerard right by my ear. “I won’t. Not until I’ve been here a while.”
Gerard backed away and nodded also, shoving his hands in his jacket’s pockets. I thought of how warm that jacket must be, and wrapped my arms around myself. My arms felt cold but comforting around me, and I shivered, sighing, trying to warm myself up.
“Cold?” Gerard asked, folding his jacket over itself and probably capturing any body heat that he may have been radiating.
I smirked, an angry gesture. “No shit, Sherlock. You’re a first class detective,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my words and shivers running through my body.
Gerard punched my shoulder playfully, smirking also. “Should I just postpone the tour until you get something to keep you warm?”he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
I shoved Gerard, scowling. “Just take me home,” I said, and immediately started laughing with Gerard at my unfortunate choice of words. “I mean,” I tried, wiping laugh tears from my eyes, “Please show me the way to your house.”
Gerard laughed a little bit more before talking. “Sure, it’s just right this way,” he said, taking a sharp left, back into the shit. We walked deeper into the shit, me walking close to Gerard and holding my breath.
“Ge…rard?” I asked, thinking I hadn’t knows Gerard long enough to call him ‘Gee’, even though he called me ‘Lo’.
“Hmm?” he asked, looking at me but still walking deeper into the shit.
“Do you live in the shit?” I asked, glancing around for a beautiful home amid this shit and rubble.
“Gerard laughed and spoke with his hands. He held up his index finger. “One, shortcuts are always through the shittest part of town, and two,” here he lifted his middle finger so his index finger wouldn’t be lonely, “I can tell you have already seen everybody else, and I don’t want to be beaten up by the jocks on a Saturday.”
I nodded as we crossed an empty road into a place full of big houses, fancy lawns, and cars that probably had less that one hundred thousand miles on them before replacing. “Damn, Gerard, which one is yours?”I asked, gawking at the mansions as far as thee I could see on this road.
Gerard laughed again, making me melt into the sidewalk and my legs hard to walk on. “Shortcut, my dear friend. Have patience,” he said, making my melt even more like a Hershey’s kiss in the sun as his ‘my dear friend’ phrase. I think I like him, God. Send\me a sign if you think it’s okay, I thought, looking at the blue sky clouding over.
“Lo…’Llo, Lo?”Gerard asked, bringing me crashing down to reality. We were standing in front of a house, one-story pink, surprisingly just like I imagines. It didn’t look as beautiful as I imagines, though, squatting in disrepair next to nicer homes.
I shrugged. “Just tell me you have tea,” I said, following Gerard up the main walk with weeds in the cracks to a faded black door.
Gerard turned to me and nodded, opening the door into a house that smelled so strongly of coffee I gagged. He walked over to my and patted me on the back as I stepped into the house, coughing. “Sorry,” Gerard said, rubbing my back, trying to get me to stop coughing. “I shoulda warned you about the coffee.”
“Geebear, is that you?” a nice feminine voice called out, and Gerard blushed as a pale blonde woman in a grey apron stepped out of a doorway, wiping her hands on a ratty-looking dishtowel. “Geebear, who’s this?
“Mom…” Gerard groaned as the blonde messed up his hair. “This is Lobar,” he said, fixing his hair with one hand and motioning to me with his free hand. “She, uhh…”
I sighed and held out my hand for Gerard’s mom to shake. “I’m brand new in town, just got here yesterday. I was walking around town, looking for a McDonalds, and Gerard came up to me and asked if I needed help. We started walking and talking, and he asked me if I wanted to meet you. I said yes,” I said, sounding so believable that Gerard kinda let his mouth hang open a little bit. “Please you meet you.”
Gerard’s mom nodded and smiled at me. “Ah, Geebear’s always been helpful. New to town, you say? Are you going to be attending Belleview High?”
I nodded, to answer both questions. “Staring Monday. I wasn’t able to see the school though. I had gotten cold and Gerard asked if I wanted to meet his family.”
Gerard’s mom’s smile widened. “Well, I’m Mrs. Way, but you can call me Donna. What about your parents, Lobar?”
“Work,” I said bluntly, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from spilling the beans again. “I never see them, since they always have some business dinner or party every night. The house we just bought is really mine.” There, as close to the truth as I could get without saying the truth.
Donna nodded, and put the dishtowel in one of the apron’s pockets. “Well, I’m sure you will enjoy Belleview. Where’d you move from?”
Gerard groaned and shook his head as I smiled at Donna. “New York, from a large house. My parents had a small business transfer, requiring us to move here. I like it here, but I think my parents will never get to see Belleview other than their commute.”
Donna’s eyes turned sympathetic. “I’m sorry. Is the house paid for?”
“Sometimes,” I said, making sad my façade. “Their work has showers and beds, though, so it’s all up to me,” I concluded, looking at the ground. Back in New York, it was really all up to me. I sniffled, remembering the fact that I didn’t have a bed.
Donna patted my shoulder, making me look into her eyes. “Lobar, if you need a place to stay, our house is always open. Mind you, though, this one and Mikey are trouble and will eat anything if it doesn’t eat them first,” she said, poking Gerard with her finger.
I giggled. “Mikey… If I remember right, he’s a sophomore this year?”
Donna nodded, and I did my extreme happy dance in my in my head for getting the answer right, even though Gerard said nothing about his life other than the fact that he’s beat up by the jocks. “Like I said, though, Lobar, our home is open. Is your house ready to sleep in, with beds and running water?”
I smiled, surprisingly happy that somebody cared where I slept tonight. There’s one thing off my list of reasons to kill myself for, I thought, going on auto pilot and responding to Donna’s questions with semi lies. I can cross hat off that nobody cares. That was fast.
“So, Lo…” a voice said, and I snapped out of auto pilot back to attention, seeing Gerard smirk as Donna hummed from what I was guessing was the kitchen. “How’d the integration go?”
I punched Gerard in the back as he walked down a wood paneled hallway covered in pictures; some photographs, some drawings and paintings. I glanced at a few but was trying to memorize the house’s layout. Gerard walked to a door on the left side of the hallway and opened it, walking down stairs. I followed timidly, not wanting to fall in the darkness and break something. A light flicked, and I blinked, greeted by a messy room that smelled of coffee, cigarettes, and graphite. I inhaled that smell, liking it instantly.
“As you can see, I live in a basement,” Gerard said, flopping on an old couch that sent dust motes up into the air when he sat down. “I swear I’m a vampire sometimes…” he said, trailing and dusting off the couch. “Good lies, too, Lobar, up there with my mom? She believed every word, except the part about your parents being addicted to work…”
I nodded, only hearing half of what he was saying. All over the walls of Gerard’s room were drawings and lyric sheets, clearly all original. The drawings were of people and places, with perfect shading and filling, looking like black and white photographs. I saw more sketches, though, of cartoons, some original and some comic characters I recognized. The lyric sheets were sporadic on the walls, all of them feeling like they were holding something back as I read them. This was all on one wall, too, one small wall out of three, the other two much larger and still plastered with the works. “Damn,” I muttered, looking around the room and blinking, overwhelmed.
Gerard coughed, and I tore my eyes away from the art to his hazel eyes with some emotion I didn’t recognize. “Lo, I need you to tell me something.”
“What is it, Gee?” I asked, using his nickname.
“What’s the truth and what’s the lies?”
“Huh?” I asked, walking over to the couch and sitting down. “What do you mean?”
Gerard sighed. “I need you to tell me everything. You don’t have to worry about time, either, because you agreed with my mom to stay the night here tonight and tomorrow night as well.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair and settled back into the couch. “I need to know everything.”
I leaned back into the couch, sighing, and crossed my arms over my chest, looking at Gerard. “Timeline, I’m guessing?” I asked him, wishing I had my razor to slice my arms with.
Gerard nodded, leaning forward. “Everything from the beginning of it all.”
So I did. I told Gerard everything, from the first day of middle school, when the taunts began, to now. No director’s cut, no radio edits. Just 100% Angus Beef.
Four hours later, after tears, babbling, and mental slapping, I sat, head on Gerard’s chest, arms around Gerard. Night had fallen outside from what I could tell from the tiny window in Gerard’s room, but I wasn’t tired. I just felt empty. Telling everything and not replacing it can do a lot to a person.
Gerard put a hand on my head and began running his fingers through my hair, me looking up at his face. Gerard’s face was the picture of calm and peaceful, but his eyes told a much different story, the story of rough seas and mixed emotions.
“Geebear, Frank and Ray are outside,” interrupted out thoughts, and we both jumped, then started laughing at our skittishness.
Gerard stood up, and I did too, but my reason was to go help Donna. We walked up the stairs together, hand in hand, and at the top of the stairs I let go of Gerard’s hand, turning towards what I thought was the kitchen. I took one step forward, and nearly fell backwards. My eyes shot wide open as I fell, but I relaxed as I hit a strong pair of arms, the smell of coffee and cigarettes wafting to my nostrils. I looked up at Gerard, and they were showing signs of joy and contemptment.
“Bye, Mom,” Gerard called, still looking at me. “I’m taking Lo to meet the guys, too.”

I'm sorry this was only 1,967 words, y'all... I tried to make it longer, and it was 11 pages in my journal-workbook-thingie-mc-bobber-thing-that-I-write-my-shit-in, so I don't know how it was less than 2k words. Maybe the conversation... FYI, I hardly ever write a whole bunch of conversation, so this is rare. Don't get used to it. I like to put action with words.