FicWad

"So, how's school?" Alex's dad asked.
"Fine, a little boring."
"Your brother?"
"He's doing fine too."
"Frank?"
"He's doing good."
"And Hayden?"
"Great. We're trying to convince him to try going a week without energy drinks."
"What did he say about that?"
"That he doesn't want to." I replied smiling. "So how's buisness?"
"Pretty good. We've got a new client so we have to get them all set up."
"Hmm." I said nodding. I was still waiting for him to ask the question that parents can't resist asking.
"So what are you two planning?" he asked as casually as possible. There it is.
"We don't have any concrete plans. I got some Doctor Who seasons on disk and food and whatnot. We might go out if she wants to. We could play video games or board games. I don't know. Whatever she wants to do is most likly what we'll do." He nodded.
We walked down the hall and into the living room.
"Mikey! Mikey! Do you wanna play Uno?!" Hiro asked as soon as he saw me.
"Sure." Everyone except Alex (who was getting ready) gathered around to play Uno. Alex's dad was the dealer and soon we were all absorbed in the game.
"Take that! Plus four!" Hiro called out. I picked up al four cards then looked up and realized he didn't say 'uno'.
"Uno! Take two."
"Oohh! He got you!" Alex said as she walked in. Her red hair was tied up in an elegant bun with a ringlet hanging down. She looked like an angel. Her smile melted my heart. As always she was wearing mismatched socks. She had on black lace fingerless gloves and she had painted her nails silver. She had on red eyeliner that was smugged and her lips were a dark shade somewhere between purple and red.
"Where'd you get the dress?" Alex's dad asked her.
"Mikey got it for me! Isn't it gorgeous?" she said planting a kiss on my cheek. I blushed.
"You look amazing as aways." I said to her. She blushed a little.
"Thanks." she said smiling.
"Awex! You're so pretty!" Hiro said, running over to give her a hug.
"You really do look stunning." her dad said.
"The dress is really beautiful on you." her stepmom said.
"Uno!" Alex's dad said. The game continued with Alex cheering everyone on until Hiro beat all of us.
"Come on guys, lets get a move on! Movin' out!" Alex's dad called out doing a cowboy impression.
" 'Kay bye Mikes." Alex said hugging me and giving me a quick kiss. "Thanks again." she said smiling as she climbed into the car.
"Bye Mikey!" Hiro called waving.
"Bye bye!" Lisa called as she got seat belted in. I got in my car and pulled out of the driveway (I was blocking them) and then after they left I headed towards the flower shop.
"Hello, welcome Flora's Florals! How may I help you?" said a young brunette from behind the counter.
"I ordered some custom flowers. They were mostly unnatural colored roses. Dark purple, red, white, black, dark sapphire, light green, and teal."
"So you're the one who ordered these! They're really pretty. I remember seeing them and just thinking 'wow'. Are they for a special lady?"
"Yeah. She has an art exihbit at a gallery opening today."
"Well I'm sure she'll love them! Do you have any specific colors you'd like me to wrap them in?"
"Maybe black and white."
"Okay. Here ya go. Are you gonna ask her out?"
"What?"
"Are you going to ask her out?"
"Umm, no."
"Why not?" she asked tilting her head to the side.
"Because she might say no."
"Or she might say yes."
"Even if she did say yes it would most likely be because she didn't want to but said yes not to hurt my feelings."
"Whatever you say. Have a nice day!"
"You too." I said slightly confused. I left with the flowers and went back to the house. When I got there Gee was ready to go and had his stuff packed so he could go straight to Frank's house after.
"How does my hair look?" Gerard asked as he nervously paced.
"Fine." Gerard ran back upstairs into the bathroom to look in the mirror. "Gerard your hair looks great. I meant fine as in good." I called up to him.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"And my eyeliner?"
"It looks nice."
"Thank you!" he hugged me.
"Gerard are you okay?"
"Yeah. Why? Do I look sick?"
"No. You're just acting weird."
"What should I wear?"
"Something nice. I think it's semi-formal, whatever that means. Button up shirt, long sleeves. Maybe a suit? I dont know."
"Semi-formal: In Western clothing semi-formal is a grouping of dress codes, indicating the sort of clothes worn to events with a level of formality between informal e.g. lounge suit and formal. Historically there were both day and evening semi-formal dress codes, but this category is now seen almost exclusively in the context of evening wear.
Are you sure it's semi-formal?"
"Nope. I think I should wear a suit, but..."
"I know, I know, you don't like suits."
"Exactly. But I don't want to be underdressed and embarass Alex."
"Well, I'll wear an all black suit with a red tie. That's classy enough, right?"
"Yeah." I went though my closet trying to see if I even owned a suit. I had one, but it looked like it was at least four sizes too small. I pulled out my black pea coat. Pea coats are fancy, right? I found a long sleeved, black, button up shirt. Button down shirts are classy! "Hey Gerard?! Can people black jeans to fancy stuff?"
"Uhh...How fancy?"
"Art-gallery-exhibit-opening-party fancy."
"I don't know. What's Alex wearing?"
"A dress. A strapless short dress."
"Then probably no." I groaned in frustration. I went into the drawer where I keep my pants and threw them all on to the ground. I immediatly threw any pairs of blue jeans to the other side of the room. I then threw all of my pairs of ripped jeans and bleach/paint splattered jeans to the far corner of the room. Then I threw my bright colored (red, neon, purple, rainbow, white, ect.) jeans on to the bed, they were followed by my patterned pants (animal print, checkerboard, american flag, ect.) except pin striped. I evaluated my left over options.
I had one black pair with dark gray pin stripes, three plain black jean pairs, and one pair of black slacks. If I'm not gonna wear a suit, I should at least wear slacks, right? I found a red tie. Ha ha. I'll match Gerard. We can be the Alex Fan Club.
"Hey Gee, do you mind if we match?"
"No. Wait, why would I mind?"
"I don't know." I looked up and realized that I had turned my room into a disaster zone with clothes strewn everywhere. I quickly picked up all the clothes and shoved most of them in random drawers.
After I finished, Gerard and I got in the car to get Frankie. About a quarter of the way there I made the horrible realization.
"$h*t!" I made an illegal u-turn and drove back to the house like a mad man. I raced into the house and picked upthe flowers and speed walked carefully, tryng not to drop the flowers. Soon we had pickedup Frank and had driven to the art gallery. There was a line of people waiting in line on behind a red rope. A big security guard stood at the door explaing to a lady with a toy poodle in her purse and a tiara that she wasn't on the list.
"I'm going to tell my daddy!" the lady shouted, walking away. Frank's outfit matched with Gerard and I. We waited in line. The person in front of us looked at us and immediatly turned away. When we finally got to the front of the line the security guard seemed amused by the fact that we expected to get in.
"Name." the man said.
"Mikey Way." the guy scanned the list and his eyes grew wide.
"Enjoy the party." he said opening the door.
"Thank you." Gerard and Frank went through the same process and soon we were all loking round in awe at all of Alex's work. She was in chage of decorating, so lots of the paintings were at odd angles and she had light blue netting drapped over the ceiling near the entry way, giving it an under-the-sea type feel. She had all sorts of Alex-like paintings. They were all pretty thought provoking and had a very raw emotion to them. I found myself unable to tear me gaze away from a simplistic one of a girl curled up, hidding her face in a corner. She looked small and vunerable and like she needed a hug. The walls weren't shaded and the whole thing was in black, grays, and white. One of the other insanely clever things she did was she made the lines for the corners out of words. Coming in from the left was Love, the vertical line was Perfect, and the one coming in from the right was Happiness.
"You like it?" Alex said from behind me, startling me. I turned around to see she was holding what appeared to be a martini.
"I do." I said smiling. "Is that...?"
"No," she said shaking her head. "sparkling juice." she said smiling.
"You did a really great job. I mean...Wow, just wow." I said, still awestruck as I looked around. "How do you come up with stuff like that?" I asked gesturing towards a painting that didn't seem sensical, but somehow. just from looking at it you could tell it meant something. It was like looking at another language. You know it deffiniatly means something, but you aren't sure at first glance what.
"I just painted what was inside my head, how I think, how things are when I think of them." I've always wanted a peek into Alex's head. I swear, I'd give all the money in the world for just one peek. I looked at the canvas again, but more closely. I could barely make out the small objects hidden all over the picture, but I could see them. I recognized a radio, musical notes, her favorite pair of shoes, candy, fruit, my Anthrax t-shirt, Gerard's lucky pen, Frankie's favorite guitar pick, Hayden's beloved Red Bull, instruments, butterflies, flowers, knives, birds, and bones. I couldn't tell if it all meant one thing, or a collection of things, but I could tell that Alex's unfiltered thoughts were in it, you just needed to look at it the right way.
"It's beautiful." I said as I looked at the bright colored swirl that dominated the canvas, looking splattered and rough.
"Thank you." she replied. Her eyes sparkled as she looked into mine shyly. Suddenly, joy spread across her face. "Come on, I want to show you something." she said, taking my hand and taking me to another room of the exhibit and stopping infront of another painting.
It was of two people, a guy and a girl, lying on the grass together. The grass was painted startlingly clear and realistic, but the people were blurred. The guy, had hair that was brownish blond and the girl was a red hed. Their eyes were closed and they looked peaceful and happy. I felt myself smile. I glanced over at Alex to see that she was looking at me, waiting for my response. I wasn't sure what to say.
"I love it." I said smiling. She smiled in response. We stood there for a few minutes in silence, looking at Alex's painting.
"You want something to drink?" she asked smiling.
"Sure."
"What would you like?" she asked. There seemed to be something mischevious behind her smile.
"Umm, whatever you're having I guess." I replied. "No salt." I added as she walked off to get it. I heard her muffled giggle as she dissappeared into the group near the little bar they had set up.
"Mikes!" Gerard said startling me. "You gotta see this!" he said, toting me to another exhibit room. "Oh My God, Mikey! Aren't these the coolest!" Gerard gushed about a bunch of manga and anime drawings, sketches, and paintings. They were really good, but was worried that she wouldn't be able to find us. "Look! She even did one of me and her!" I looked and sure enough there was one of Alex jumping on to Gerard's back giving him a hug. It was really cute. I felt a little jealous, but she painted me and her so my jealousy faded after about two seconds. "Look! She did me and Frank too!" he said pointing at one him and Frank with coffee cups. They were sitting at a table talking, but if you knew what you were looking for, you could tell there was a hint of attraction between the two of them. They really did make a cute couple. I got over the whole weird factor of one of my life-long friends and my brother dating within a week of them telling me. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it, but oh well. They're happy together and that's good. There was also one of Hayden in the bathtub from our sleepover. There were some though, that weren't as happy. One had a little girl clutching teddybear cowering in fear as a large, demonic shadow with glowing red eyes loomed over her. Another was a black and white drawing of a crying young woman with a crumpled up piece of paper in one hand and a gun in the other. The gun was pointed up as she held it under her jaw, eyes closed, ready to end her suffering. There was one of just a bloody razor blade. There was another of a skeleton hanging in the wind from a tree via noose. There were also plenty of happy scenes too. Weddings, small children at Christmas, kids at a birthday party, a kid opening a present box and finding a puppy. There were fairies and waterfalls and flowers. But still the sad ones were stuck in my head, but that's what emotional, good art does right? It sticks with you. Gerard was still babbling about the technique and shading, inking v.s. using markers, ect. and generally having a bit of a love affair with the drawings when Alex walked over.
"Oh my God Alex! You have to show these to my grandma! She'll LOVE them! They're FANTASIC! Why didn't you show them to me before?! I love this one with the girl and the monster shadow! Did you ink these ones by hand, or did you use a tablet to draw them on the computer?"
"Thank you! Some of them were with the tablet, some of them by hand." she said blushing.
"How'd you have any time to hang out with us when you were doing all these?" Gerard asked. I had been thinking the same thing. I don't think that even if I had her talent I could have done all this.
"Well you guys know I'm an insomniac. When I'm awake and no one else is is a good time to paint and draw or write and read; so that's what I do."
"What do you write?" I asked. She blushed.
"Well...sometimes I keep a journal, other times I write stories or fan fiction." A journal? I couldn't help but wonder what was in it. I could instantly know what she was thinking. I could instantly know if she likes me. 'Mikey, you already know she doesn't. Why confirm it?' the little voice in my head said.I knew it was right, but I ignored it. "Hey Mikes, I got your drink." she said smiling as she handed me a martini glass.
"Is that a martini?" Gerard asked. Alex giggled.
"Nope." I responded, taking a sip.
"OMG, you two match!" Alex said. Gerard and I smiled.
"Yep." Gerard said.
"Hey guys! They have Red Bull!" Hayden said as he made his way through the crowd.
"Hayden!" Alex exclaimed, running to him and giving him a hug.