FicWad

Chapter 18: They built you a cage of diamonds and gold

“This better be everything, I’m already late as it is. And remember, I’ll be gone until seven so you’re gonna have to walk home even if your legs break. Actually, then you should call a cab. Do you need money?” Gerard said, slamming the door of the car’s trunk shut. It was full of grocery and shopping bags.

They had been shopping for the last Christmas stuff they need, and groceries for at least the next week. The shopping trip kind of got long, and Gerard, who had a band thing, was so late it wasn’t even funny. He went to the driver’s seat, opened the door and looked at her questioningly. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah, no”, Gia answered, biting her bottom lip nervously. “I thought I’d just, you know, hang out here. At the mall. You know, for a little while and stuff...”

If it was any other teenage girl saying that, Gerard wouldn’t have given it another thought. But Gia never ‘hung out’ or even went to the mall without being practically forced. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah”, she shrugged. “You know, just a normal kid, hanging out at the mall with a friend... No big deal.”

“What friend?” he asked, but got his answer immediately when a boy of Gia’s age ran over to her.

“Hi Gia! Sorry I’m late, I –“ he stopped when he noticed Gerard standing there behind the car, and then continued: “Oh hi, Mr. Way... Sir... Dude...”

It took Gerard a moment to figure out where he had seen the kid before. But when he realized who he was, it hit him like a truck. So now Gia is going out and hanging out with the neighbor kid, whatshisface. Interesting.

“Uh, it’s not what you think...” Gia started, but realized that there was no point. So as a compromise she flushed bright red and walked off. Lucas glanced at Gerard one last time, kind of like a deer in headlights, but he ended up running after Gia.

Gerard just shook his head and got in the car. He should probably be happy that Gia has friends, but why couldn’t she pick someone of her own gender or even someone who doesn’t insist on her playing with their damn snake. He’d just have to follow how the situation develops and make conclusions on his own.

Gerard had been so wrapped up in his own little world for the past few weeks that time seemed to have flown by. Even when he was decorating the house or Christmas shopping or just spending time with his daughter, his mind was somewhere else. Work.

Of course with everything that had happened lately, all that drama and whatnot, it made him to just want to work on the new album, write lyrics, play music and just do what he did best. During his little drug-problem he was still of course into music and all, but the drugs and alcohol tend to take fun out of everything else. Now that he was clean, and he actually had some inspiration, all he wanted to do was work.

But he couldn’t just work.

Most single parents find a way to balance their time between home and work. Gerard never did. At home he had a daughter who he had neglected for almost ten years and who he really wanted to get to know more now that he could, but on the other hand there was music which he loved to make and play.

Gerard had found a way, though. It wasn’t perfect so it was only a temporary solution, but it’ll work for now. He’d just have to kill himself by doing work during nights and when Gia’s at school, and he’d spend the evenings at home. And to make everything up to Gia, he’d make this Christmas the best damn Christmas she’s ever seen.

And of course none of his stupid bandmates could ever understand what he was going through because they had no kids.

“You guys have no idea what it’s like to have a kid”, Gerard sighed and plopped down on the couch. They were supposed to have a meeting about the upcoming tour, but their manager was late, too.

Upon hearing his comment, Frank instantly announced: “I’ll take Gia!”

“Stay away from my daughter”, Gerard glared at him. “She’s already damaged enough as it is.”

“What do you mean ‘damaged’?” Ray came into the conversation.

“She was ‘hanging out’ with that neighbor kid at the mall. Can you imagine it? Gia with some punk”, Gerard explained.

“You mean Lucas?” Mikey asked, and when his brother gave him a mean glare, he continued: “What? She has a friend, what’s so wrong with that?”

“You don’t understand at all”, Gerard groaned and gave up trying to talk to them about this. He’d just suffer in silence and try to keep himself sane.

“Hey, I understand completely”, Frank said, trying to sound comforting. “When my dog started hanging out with the neighbor’s cat, I was like –“

“Frank, please don’t.” Gerard begged him not to tell this story again.

Bob had been playing some game on his cell, and he wasn’t very interested in the conversation. But since Gerard was obviously troubled by this, he decided he should at least say something. “I think you can relax. Gia’s still only fourteen and she is far from stupid. It’s not like she’s going to elope and have sex with him the first chance she gets. I know you have some sort of weird obsession to keep her safe, but I think you can relax just a little bit.”

“Oh god”, Gerard gasped. “It didn’t even occur to me that she might like him.”

“That’s not what I meant”, Bob said, but his words were unheard as Gerard was already furiously dialing a number on his phone. Bob just rolled his eyes and took out his phone again to continue playing the game. It was much more entertaining than these idiots.

“She’s not answering”, Gerard said in horror after he had listened to the dial tone for a good five seconds. “Oh no. I just got her back, what if she got kidnapped by a gang of vicious rapists?” Right after he finished saying this, he heard a voice on the phone. But it wasn’t Gia’s.

“Hello?” the voice asked.

“Who are you?” Gerard asked suspiciously.

“Lucas.”

“Why are you answering my daughter’s phone?”

“She’s in the bathroom and left her stuff here. Why?”

“Just checking. So where exactly are you at?”

Mikey and Frank were sitting on Gerard’s sides, trying to hear what Lucas was saying.

“At the mall. And she’s coming back now so I have to go. But it was nice talking to you. Bye.”

He hung up before Gerard could say anything. For a moment he just sat there with a blank look on his face. Okay, actually he had that same dull look during the whole meeting. When he was asked something, he nodded, not even knowing what the question was. But he did realize that worrying did no good. Gia had spent nearly her whole life taking care of Gerard instead of having fun. She had never even had a friend. Gia did have people around her, just not the kind of people a normal kid needs. She must’ve been lonely.

____________________________

When Gia came back from the McDonald’s bathroom, she saw Lucas putting something into her bag.

“What are you doing?” she asked, getting suspicious.

“Your phone was ringing so I answered”, Lucas explained. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Who was it?”

Even if he didn’t say the words, Gia would have known the correct answer from the awkward smile. “Your dad.”

“Oh god. What did he say?”

“Not much. He didn’t sound too happy though.”

Gia sighed and popped a french fry into her mouth. While she was chewing it, she looked out of the window, dozing off for a moment.

“Can I ask you something?” Lucas suddenly asked, bringing Gia out of her thoughts. She looked at him and he had a thoughtful look on his face.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Where’s your mom?”

Gia was taken aback by the question, and she wondered why he would ask something like that.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to answer”, Lucas quickly added. “It’s just that... Well, did you know that there’s a rumor going around about you at school?”

“A rumor?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing bad, don’t worry! Well, I think it’s nothing that bad. But... I don’t know.”

Gia was getting worried. There has never been a rumor around her before. Why was there a rumor? Why were people talking about her? Because of Lucas? Suddenly she started to get uncomfortable to sit there with him. She tried to look around the McDonald’s casually to see if there were people staring and pointing and laughing at her.

“Well... What is it about?” she asked nervously after she was sure the woman with a baby carriage wasn’t looking at her disapprovingly.

“That your mom killed herself because of something your dad did. Also there’s another one that you have an eating disorder because you never eat at the cafeteria at lunch.”

“Wow”, she said, not sure how to react. These people who didn’t even know her were making such assumptions. “Well, my mom actually did... Uh, well, she’s gone. But the other stuff is so not true.”

“Okay. Sorry for asking.” He really looked like he regretted ever bringing it up, but it was too late now.

“So, exactly how long as this rumor excised?”

“A while.”

“And you didn’t tell me before?!” she shrieked. Now that she knew about this, she realized that people have been staring at her more at school and when she goes to the bathroom, all the other girls suddenly either stop talking or simply leave. It made so much sense. Or she was now just making it up because she got paranoid now that she knows about the rumor.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how you’d react! But don’t worry, it’ll be over before school starts again. The rumor about me lasted for like three days.”

“What was yours about?”

Lucas’ cheeks and neck got slightly red and he silenced his voice before answering. “That I was gay. I’m not though! I mean, you accidently look once in the locker room and boom, suddenly you’re gay!”

Gia couldn’t help but smile. How he got so embarrassed and awkward, it was kind of cute. In an ‘aww, look at that cute puppy’ –kind of way, though.

When Gia came home with a brand new shirt that said ‘princess’ on the front (Lucas swore it was awesome and that she should buy it for herself, but she figured that she could get it for Frank as a Christmas present) and the remaining of her bag of candy, all she could think about was – surprise, surprise – the rumor.

While it was partly true, she was still completely freaked out. Her mom did kill herself, but Gia knew for a fact that her dad had nothing to do with it, and the only reason she didn’t go to that stupid cafeteria was to stay out of people’s sight so that things like this wouldn’t happen. Well, obviously that plan backfired. She could only hope that Lucas was right and that people would forget about the rumor and start ignoring her again. Gia really preferred being invisible.

She headed for the staircase to go up to her room, as it was kind of late, but when Gia passed the living room she had to stop.

“What are you all doing here?” she asked.

Gerard, Mikey, Frank, Ray and Bob were all sitting on the living room. There was an ashtray and a couple of beer bottles on the couch table, but luckily none of them looked drunk.

“Oh you’re home, good”, Gerard said, standing up. “We should talk.”

In her mind, Gia thought: ‘Oh god no’, but out loud she said: “Sure.”

Gerard put out the cigarette he was smoking and then followed Gia up to her room. There Gia put the rest of the candy into a rather large jar where she put all the candy she didn’t eat (she was saving for a rainy day) and took out the princess shirt out of the bag. She showed the shirt to her dad.

“What do you think? I’ll give this to Frank as a present.”

“He’ll love it, I’m sure”, Gerard agreed.

“So what is that you wanted to talk about? Are we moving again? Are you on drugs? Did you kill someone?”

“None of those things”, Gerard answered. “And I’m a little insulted that you’d just jump to the worst conclusions.”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway. How have you been doing?”

Gia sat down on a yellow beanbag chair and smiled. “You sound just like the school nurse.”

“Just answer the question.”

“I’m fine”, she shrugged, wondering what exactly the point of this discussion was.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with that Lucas boy”, he said and obviously tried to sound nonchalant and casual.

“I suppose so. What about it?”

“Well, do you... like him?” For some reason it seemed like Gerard really didn’t want to have this conversation with her. It didn’t matter, Gia didn’t particularly like where it was going, either.

“We’re friends, of course I do”, Gia answered, tilting her head. What a strange question to ask. Of course she had to like him at least a bit, otherwise why would she even bother talking to him?

Gerard realized that she didn’t get what he meant, so he shook his head. “Nevermind. I just wanted to talk to you about... uh, something that might seem a little uncomfortable for you to hear about. And I realize that it’s still difficult for us to… talk about things, but I think, or actually I’m assuming, that the topic of this particular conversation is going to be more or less current very soon. I don’t mean now, but, in a few years maybe?”

The girl was staring at him and waiting for him to continue.

However, all Gerard could do is twiddle his thumbs and stutter. “Uh, well you see, it’s inevitable that... you know, some day you will... And I want to make sure you... uh, know, and... I’m sure you do! I still think we should talk because you know, if you don’t know... because you know, accidents happen! Otherwise you wouldn’t be here! I mean, oh shit, I didn’t...”

Gia’s eyes widened more and more as he rambled on. He was making no sense.

“Uh, so, do you understand?”

She shook her head. How could she understand when he can’t even speak without stuttering?

“Well... I’m glad we had this talk!” And with that, Gerard was out of the door. Gia heard him run down the stairs. She sighed, wondered how she could be related to him, and took out the book she was reading.

As soon as he got downstairs, Gerard plopped down on the big, comfortable armchair, took a cigarette from the pack left lying on the couch table and lit it. After taking the first drag he started to relax.

“So I guess it didn’t go well?” Ray asked.

“It was horrible. But I think she got the point.”

“You sure?”

“No!” Gerard shouted. “I hate you Bob! Why did you have to say that and make me paranoid!”

Bob stared at him shocked. “What?! What did I do?!”

“I blame you!”

“Hey it’s not my fault you raised her to be like that!”

“I didn’t raise her at all!” Gerard protested and then everyone was quiet. Actually, it was starting to get a little too quiet. No awkward and stupid comments, no one laughing...

“Where’s Frank?”

Meanwhile, upstairs…

“And you see, because of the condom, the girl can’t get pergnant! Because if you get pregnant, you die. Oh, and then there are all these diseases you can get, like –“

In the middle of his sentence, the door burst open, revealing the panicked Gerard and Mikey.

“What are you doing?” Gerard asked.

Frank was sitting next to Gia on another bean bag chair with a paper on his lap. “Well since you couldn’t get anything done, I decided that someone had to teach Gia about what’s important. Now if she has sex with this Lucas boy and doesn’t get pregnant, you can thank me”, he scoffed. “You’re welcome.”

Gia rolled her eyes. “Okay, that’s it. Everybody leave! Except you, dad.”

“Okay but take this”, Frank said and gave her the drawing. “Keep it safe. It might help you in the future.”

She took the drawing, put it between her book and then put the book away while Frank and Mikey left. Her father remained in the room, standing by the door.

“I’m sorry”, he said as soon as she looked at him.

Gia shook her head. “For what? It’s fine. And you don’t have to worry about me; I’m fourteen, not stupid.”

“I know that”, Gerard said. “I just can’t help it. Look, it’s like… Ever since your mom died, you’ve been my responsibility. But I haven’t really been… responsible. You know? And I of course always wanted to keep you safe, but the truth is, I never really realized it before now. And if it wasn’t for you, I’d still be a drug addict.”

“Where are you getting at?”

Gerard groaned. “I just want to put you in a plastic bubble and keep you there until you’re 21. Is that so wrong?”

Gia smiled. “I think that’s illegal. And don’t worry about Lucas either, he’s a nice boy.”

“The nice ones are the ones you have to watch out for. And I know because I was once a nice boy too! I mean it, one second they’re nice and funny and whatnot, and then all of a sudden they develop hormones and just want to rip –“

“If you finish that sentence, I will disown myself! Dad, I think it’s kinda nice how you worry. But please tone it down a bit.”

“You couldn’t disown yourself. And I wouldn’t let you anyway, because when I die, who else could take all my crap?”

“Dad...”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll try to keep my paranoid thoughts to myself”, Gerard sighed, but he couldn’t help but ask: “So... What exactly did Frank tell you? And what was on that paper he gave you?”

Gia smiled. Frank’s explanations had been very straightforward, and his drawings extremely detailed. But at least someone’s comfortable talking about that stuff. At least someone doesn’t see Gia as a little kid.

_____________________________

The next day at school Gia stood by a wall outside of the school cafeteria, watching all these people walk past her.

They were laughing and talking, and Gia couldn’t help but wonder if they were talking about her. She shook her head and cursed Lucas who told her about that stupid rumor. She was fine not knowing and then he had to ruin everything. She’d much rather live in a lie than face the truth. Now she wasn’t sure if she should go eat in the cafeteria or not. If she did, everybody would stare and they’d know that she knew about the rumor and tried to prove it wrong. Then again, that was the point of going in, wasn’t it?

“What are you standing here for?” asked a happy voice behind her. Gia recognized the voice immediately and turned around to face Lucas. Speak of the devil. “Come eat lunch with us.”

“Us?” Gia asked nervously when he took her hand and started to drag her towards the lunch line.

“Yeah. You can meet my friends!”

The cafeteria was slowly filling with people while Lucas assured her that his friends weren’t going to eat her or something and that for sure there would be room for her too at the table and that she should give him her coke because he’s just awesome.

Eventually they survived out of the food line and Lucas had made sure that Gia took all the food she could so he could eat everything she didn’t want (because he is, and I quote, “a growing man with a healthy appetite and an incredible mass of muscles even though they aren’t that visible right now”).

Gia followed him to a table by the wall of the cafeteria. Two people were sitting there.

“Hey guys, this is Gia”, Lucas introduced and sat down. “Gia, you can sit down. They’re not gonna bite you.”

“Oh, but I just might”, a boy with bright green eyes, spiky dark red hair and all black clothes, grinned. He looked very intimidating in his black leather jacket even though he smiled brightly to Gia.

“That’s Danny. Don’t worry, he was born retarded, he don’t mean no harm”, Lucas explained to Gia.

The other person was a girl. Unlike Danny, she looked very nice. She had long black hair and brown eyes. “I’m Sherry”, she said and looked so friendly and content that Gia relaxed without even noticing it. To Gia, she was like a saving angel that just descended from heaven to bring peace to the world.

On the other hand Danny was making her really uncomfortable. He was staring at her so intently that she swore he was trying to blow up her brain or something.

“Danny, stop staring at her”, Sherry hissed and pinched the boy.

However, her words (or pinching had no affect). “Is it true that you can stay awake through a whole history class?” Danny asked curiously, still staring at Gia like she was made of gold and diamonds.

“Uh... Yeah”, Gia answered.

“That’s amazing! What else can you do?”

Lucas glared at Danny. “Are you calling her a dog? Gia, are you going to eat that pizza?” He was already done with his food.

Gia put the pizza slice from her plate on his. And in the end, Lucas ate half of her food and Gia got to know Danny and Sherry better.

She completely understood why Lucas and Danny were friends. Even though they mocked each other and bickered a lot, they were still the same. Though Lucas didn’t have that intimidating ‘bad boy’-aura, thank god for that or Gia would have been scared to death the first time he spoke to her after that history class.

As for Sherry, Gia didn’t really understand how she ended up hanging out with these two boys. Sherry wasn’t at all shy though, she was chatty and very outgoing, so maybe that’s why.

But Gia was happy. She was happy because she got to know two more people from this school. And it wasn’t horrible. They didn’t stare at her like she was from outer space (well, Danny stared at her, but in a different way), and they didn’t tell her to go away or say other hurtful things either. In fact they told her to go say hi to them if she ever saw them anywhere. Not that Gia intended to, she was far too shy, but it was nice to know that she had the possibility if she ever wanted to.

Gia shut the door of her locker and started to wrap a scarf around her neck. She liked it when it was cold, but she couldn’t risk getting sick. Missing school was a pain, even though there was only three days left of it before Christmas break and six until Christmas.

“Hey Gia, wait up!”

She turned around and smiled to Lucas who ran up to her. “Hi. What are you still doing here?” The school hall was empty besides the two of them. Gia had stayed for about a half an hour to do homework for two one very simple reason. She had forgotten her house key and Gerard had a band thing until evening.

Plus, even if he was home and she could get in, she couldn’t do her homework there. According to Gerard, who had recently gotten an overdose of Christmas spirit, homework was the most depressing thing in the world and he couldn’t have depressing things in the house during such a wonderful time, never mind Gia’s education because god forbid, why would she ever want to go to college?

“We had the last practice for the Christmas play”, Lucas explained. He was in the drama club. His teachers and Tina thought that he needed a hobby to keep him away from trouble, and he was forced to become an “aspiring actor”, as the club leader called them. Another reason to hate Tina.

“You don’t even have a part in the play. You do the lights.”

“Everyone had to be there. I don’t really know why because all I had to do was sit, be quiet and look amazed”, he shrugged. “Anyway, you going home?”

“No, I forgot my key so I’m going to go to the library until dad gets home”, Gia said and started to walk to the exit again, zipping up her coat and putting on her mittens.

“I could hang out with you”, Lucas immediately suggested.

“You’d come to the library?” The idea of him with books was more than weird. Lucas and books didn’t mix. It was like oil and water. Rain and chalk. Fire and that foam that comes out of a foam extinguisher. Nail polish and remover. An eraser and – Well, you get the idea.

“Hey I like the library. No, I love it. I go there often. In fact, I used to go there so often that I’ve got a –“Suddenly he stopped talking and seemed really hesitant to continue, like he just remembered something. Gia looked at him curiously.

“Yeah? You’ve got a what?”

“I can’t go to the library”, he finally admitted. “The last time I did, the library lady banned me from going there ever again.”

Gia couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh no, what did you do?”

“That doesn’t matter”, Lucas said, his cheeks getting red from embarrassment.

“Well, it’s fine. I can go alone.”

“We could do something else! Come over to my house, you can play with my snake again if you wanna.”
Gia thought it over quickly. On the other hand, she had no business to the library, and Lucas’ house was near to hers. But what if his parents weren’t home? She didn’t want to be in a house alone with a boy after she had specifically been told not to (by Gerard, and according to him, teenage boys are all serial rapists). And even if Tina was home, she still wouldn’t want to go to his house. Tina had taken quite a liking to Gia and insisted on the two of them spending as much time together as possible.

“So how about it?” Lucas asked, getting impatient. They had come outside a long time ago and were now standing at the crossroad. If they go left, they go to the library. Right leads to Lucas’ house.
Gia sighed and turned right. It was too cold to be standing there forever and try to decide anyway.
Tina had gone overboard with the Christmas decorations, and their house looked more like Christmas land than the regular house it had been a few weeks ago.

“I love what she’s done with the place”, Gia said when they went inside and were taking off their coats.

“Yeah, I do too. She toned it down a bit this year though. You should’ve seen last Christmas”, Lucas grinned. He took her coat, hat and scarf and put them in the closet for her. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m fine”, she answered, and right after she was done saying that, her stomach growled and her face flushed crimson.

Lucas laughed. “Come on, I’ll make us something.”

“You can cook?”

“No, but I can use the microwave”, he grinned. “Just kidding, I can’t use that either.”

After they ate some sandwiches and gingerbread cookies, they went to the living room to watch TV.

“So what are you going to do on Christmas?” Lucas asked after they settled down on the couch. The TV was on and Lucas had chosen some cartoon channel. Gia had never really watched cartoons before, even as a kid, but it looked interesting. There was a yellow sponge wearing clothes and making hamburgers. Strange, yes, but cool for sure.

“I’m going to grandma’s house”, Gia answered, but she wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation. “What is wrong with that bean?” she then asked, staring at the TV with wide eyes.

“That’s not a bean, that’s Plankton”, Lucas laughed. “Haven’t you ever watched SpongeBob before?”
“No.”

Even though he asked the question, he was still shocked by the answer. “What?! Fuck, you must’ve had one messed up childhood.”

“Yeah, sure. And don’t cuss”, Gia answered, her eyes fixed on the TV screen. It was like a whole new world for her.

They watched TV for at least an hour (mainly because Gia immediately turned down any suggestion to do anything else than watch cartoons) but when they heard the front door open, Lucas shot up from the couch in panic.

“That’s Tina”, he gasped.

“How can you know?”

“Dad’s at a business trip so it can’t be anyone else! Unless thieves have started to use keys and turn on lights when they rob a house. Let’s go up to my room!”

Lucas grabbed her by her arm and dashed towards the stairs. Unfortunately Tina spotted them before they got upstairs.

“Oh hello Gia! How are you doing?” Tina said and sounded so happy and pleased to see her that Gia couldn’t help but shrug off Lucas’ hands of her. It would be so rude not to at least answer her.

“I’m fine”, Gia answered politely. “And you?”

“Well actually, I-“

“Tina would you please let us go! We have to do homework and stuff!” Lucas pleaded.

Tina just laughed and said to Gia: “I keep telling Lucas to call me mom, but he absolutely refuses. I suppose he still considers his biological mother as his mommy even though she lives so far away in Texas.”

Lucas just glared at Tina. Gia had never seen anyone hate another person so much. In fact, it frightened her a bit.

“Uh, Tina, we really need to get to that homework...” Gia mumbled, gave her an apologetic smile and then started pushing Lucas up the stairs. He was too busy controlling himself from feeding his stepmother to the snake upstairs.

When they got up into his room and Gia closed the door, Lucas took a deep breath and threw himself on his bed. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“I don’t mind”, Gia shrugged and went over to the glass box to greet the yellow snake. She was getting used to that little creature, as unbelievable as it sounds.

“Well I do! God, I just hate her so much!” he said, gritting his teeth and strangling his pillow, pretending that it was Tina.

Gia wanted to ask him so bad what exactly he had against Tina, besides her being incredibly annoying, that is. But she figured that this was one of those moments when she was supposed to be a good friend and support Lucas’ hate and rage.

“Can I ask you something?” Lucas suddenly asked and threw the pillow on the floor. “I’m sure your dad’s dated since your mom... well, died. Did you ever just hate the woman your dad was with so much that you just want to –“ He didn’t finish the sentence. He probably couldn’t find the words for the things he wanted to say.

Gia took a moment before answering. Then she said: “No. Dad’s relationships were... Well, let’s just say that they didn’t last long enough for me to even say hello to them. There was this one woman who I think he liked, and they went out for a few months but… I didn’t really even see her that much.”

Lucas sensed that it was a bit difficult thing for her to talk about it. Still, he couldn’t help but say: “I wish it was like that with my dad.”

Gia didn’t bother arguing. He knew some things about her past, because after all Gerard was famous and his drug addiction wasn’t exactly private, but still Lucas didn’t know everything. It was hard for Gia to talk about it. And besides, it’s not like her and Lucas were that friendly.

“You know, Tina is the reason my parents got divorced.”

His words gave Gia an answer to her previous question. Tina was the reason Lucas didn’t have a mother anymore. And this also made Gia realize something else. She and Lucas weren’t as different as she had thought. Sure, Lucas was more social while Gia preferred to be invisible, but they were both hurt by someone who should never cause any pain to them. Their fathers.

Only, Lucas did something with that pain. He turned it into hate and anger. Gia kept it deep inside, bottled up. She wasn’t sure which one of them chose the better road.