FicWad

This chapter is kinda long and make the story move really fast but it'll be worth it. I swear! Have some cookies for just attempting to read this thing!! xo
**

Later that evening, Olivia had volunteered to do the dishes while Donna had an early night. She very absently placed each dish on the draining board once it was clean enough. She was about to start drying the clean dishes and put them away to make room for more but then Gerard appeared at her side with a dish towel. He silently picked up the clean dishes and dried them off before putting them away in the cupboards.

"Sorry if I brought back bad memories at dinner." Gerard mumbled. "I didn't mean to pry."

"Thats okay, its just a..." Olivia stopped to think of the right word. "...delicate subject."

"Is it the reason you came here?" Gerard asked.

"Yeah, I was fed up of all the whispering and pointing." Olivia replied. "My dad lives here also."

"He does?" Gerard asked. Olivia simply nodded.

"I wanted to...I don't know, confront him and demand to know why he left us." Olivia explained. "I just haven't found the courage yet." Gerard didn't say anything, he didn't know what to say. "I'm not sure if I know where he lives. I'm not even sure what his last name is anymore. My mom like, erased him from existance after he left."

"Its late." Gerard said after a few minutes of silent dish drying. Olivia shrugged and continued washing. "You can go up to bed, I'll stay and do this." Olivia shook her head. She had to keep busy otherwise she would cry and she didn't want to cry. Gerard didn't force her. He just helped her do the dishes until there were none left. Gerard dried off his hands and then went into the living room. Olivia followed him and sat down on the couch. She pulled the laptop onto her lap and opened the lid. Gerard watched her again, from the corner of his eye as she typed furiously on her laptop. He turned on the T.V and paid attention to the stupid cop show.

Once Olivia was finished with her laptop, she shut the power down and set it on the coffee table. She curled up into the ball on the couch and started watching the cop show with Gerard. Gerard saw all of this from the corner of his eye. His leaned on his hand on the arm of the chair, he felt exhausted. He closed his eyes for a second but when he opened them again, Olivia was asleep on the couch and there was a different show on the T.V. Gerard muttered something incoherent and started to leave the room. He was half way out the door when he turned and looked at the sleeping Olivia. He went back inside the room and shifted the coffee table to give him more room to move. He bent over and slid his arms underneath her. He picked her up and took her out of the room. He struggled a bit, getting her upstairs but he didn't blame that on her; he knew that he was weak. He kicked the bedroom door out of his way and went into her bedroom. He set her carefully on her bed and found a spare blanket folded up at the foot of the bed to lay over her body. In her sleep, she gripped the blanket and rolled over to get comfy. Gerard couldn't help but watch her sleep for a minute.

She looks so beautiful Gerard thought. She stirred in her sleep and Gerard took that as his cue to leave. He closed the door quietly and went to his own room. He pulled off his jeans but before he could just hurl them to the floor, he folded them up and set them on the dresser. He did the same with his t-shirt and then got into bed. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about Olivia. Thinking about her beauty, thinking about everything he had overheard earlier that night.

"Do you think I could make him happy again? Even if it was just as friends?"

"I think so, he needs a good friend right now. Maybe it'll turn into something more."

"Maybe."

"Here's hoping."

Would Olivia make him happy again? Was he ever going to be happy again? One day maybe.

"One day, soon." Gerard whispered to the darkness. He smiled and closed his eyes.

**

A few days later, Gerard had completely moved out of his ex-girlfriend's apartment. Olivia helped him shift some boxes into his bedroom, when he came home after packing up his stuff. Audrey had left him a little note saying to take what DVDs and CDs he wanted because she didn't care much for movies and music. She didn't really care much for anything that Gerard was interested in. He began wondering why he was even living with the woman. They had nothing in common.

Olivia came out to the car to start helping with the boxes. Gerard didn't have much, just a few bits and pieces of art supplies, clothes, and all the CDs and DVDs. Olivia grabbed the first box, silently and took it inside. She was followed by Gerard but didn't realise until they were in his room. She smiled, trying to hide her embarrassment of getting a slight fright when she turned around and saw him. Gerard smiled back, widely and warmly.

"Was it awful?" Olivia asked him. His smile didn't disappear.

"No, it was very educational." Gerard replied. "I realised that I actually had nothing in common with her. Maybe its a good thing we broke up."

"Okay, I'm gonna go grab another box." Olivia replied, slipping past him to get to the door. Gerard followed her, still smiling. He was starting to freak her out, and maybe himself. "You're weird today." Olivia commented as they hauled more boxes up the stairs.

"Really?" Gerard asked. "I always thought I was weird, but whatever. What makes me weird today?"

"Well...you're not...gloomy today." Olivia explained. "You looked like the world was going to end when you left this morning but you came back and you're smiling. Its strange. Are you high?"

"No!" Gerard half yelled. His smile disappeared. "I'm not high. I don't do that anymore."

"Sorry...I didn't mean it like that...its just how it seems." Olivia replied. Gerard sat down on the stairs, everything suddenly hitting him. He wasn't high, that was the old Gerard. The new Gerard was stronger than that. Or was he? Gerard's had balled into fists, his knuckles becoming whiter and whiter as he squeezed. Olivia sat next to him. "You...you're an artist Gerard, you feel a lot more emotion that everyone else in the world," Olivia explained. "I'm waiting for you to snap and get into your old ways."

"How much do you know about my past?" Gerard asked her quietly.

"Nothing really..." She replied. "I just know that you weren't always this strong." Olivia replied, hoping he won't get mad at what she's about to tell him.

"How do you know?"

"When I first moved in here, I found something in your room." Gerard stared at her with wide eyes.

"Behind the wardrobe." Gerard reminded himself. He was up there like a shot, in her room and in the wardrobe. Olivia followed him, hoping that she hadn't just unleashed something. He pulled the bottle of vodka out first and then the bottle of pills. He hadn't held them in years and he couldn't believe that they were still there after all these years. He thought for sure that when Olivia moved in, they would have been removed, but no. Here they were. Gerard sat on the floor, cradling the two bottles.

"Gerard..." Olivia squeaked. "You don't have to do this."

"I know." Gerard replied, almost lifeless. "But I want to."

"Give them to me." Olivia said, holding out her hands for them. Gerard stood up but he didn't hand them over. "Gerard," Olivia said in a firm tone. "Look, Donna will be home any minute, is this what you want her to walk into? Her son, giving in to temptation."

"No," Gerard said, tears pricked his eyes. He handed over the two bottles and sank to the floor again. "I don't wanna be like that again."

"I know." Olivia took the vodka and the pills and went into the bathroom with them. She locked the door and opened the bottles of pills. She poured them all down the toilet and then did the same with the vodka. She flushed the toilet and made sure there was no evidence. When she returned to the room, Gerard was still on the floor. Tears silently fell down his pale cheeks and he hugged himself as if he was holding himself together.

Olivia set the empty bottles on the bed side table and went to crouch next to him and put her arm around his shoulder.

"Shhh..." She cooed. "Its okay now, they're gone." Gerard nodded but he kept on crying. He didn't know he could be so strong. "You know, I've never been around a guy who cries." Olivia said. "There's nothing wrong with crying," She added when he looked at her. "I've just never seen a guy cry, except on T.V." Olivia, cupped Gerard's cheeks and wiped away his tears with her thumbs. "You don't look nice when you cry." Gerard stared into her eyes for a long minute. Gerard was about to say something but then he decided just to kiss her. Their lips were almost touching, eyes closed, noses touching. They heard Donna come inside the house downstairs. They sprang apart and stood up. Donna came up the stairs but before Olivia could get rid of the empty bottles Donna entered the room and they were the first thing she saw.

"What are those?" Donna asked.

"Mom I can explain," Gerard said but before he could explain Olivia said something he didn't expect.

"They're mine." Olivia said. "I heard uh, met some guys at a bar and they said they give you the perfect high. So I tried it." Donna gawked at her. "But Gerard found them and ordered me to flush them away." Gerard shot her a pleading glance. "I'm not going to do it anymore and I'm sorry." Tears pricked her eyes.

"I want you out." Donna said, glumly.

"No..ma..." Gerard said.

"Pack your things and get out of my house." Donna said more firmly.

"I am truly sorry." Olivia said through her tears. She suppressed a sob and dropped the two bottles in the waste basket. She began packing a bag as Donna left the room and went into her own bedroom. Olivia packed what clothes she could fit into her little rucksack and then pulled out her keys. She left the key to the house on the bedside table. Gerard didn't say anything but the Olivia could read the guilt.

"Don't tell her truth," Olivia said to him. Another tear fell from Gerard's eyes. "Donna loves you and I don't want that to change. I don't want her to get hurt by her oldest son." And with that Olivia left the Way household. She was about half way down the road when she fell to her knees, crying. The ground was wet from a recent rainfall, the knees of her jeans were getting soaked.