FicWad

Chapter 30: The lady is a tramp

You know the saying “all good things must come to an end”? That’s what fits this situation the best probably. And for a while, everything was going great.

Gia went to school. People still talked about her sometimes, stared at her every now and then, but all that started to fade. They found new people to gossip about, new people to torture emotionally.

Lucas hung to Gia like a very sticky piece of gum on the sole of her shoe. They hung out every day, and Gerard even let him sleep over for one night, though only because Tina was being extremely annoying, and Gerard felt bad for the boy. Besides, Lucas agreed to sleep on the couch downstairs and keep his ‘dirty, sick perverted paws’, as Gerard so elegantly put it, to himself.

Gerard worked for the most part. The band stuff and the upcoming tour and release of the new album kept him busy, but whenever he had free time, he spent it at home with Gia. But there was one more thing to keep him occupied. Or rather, a person.

“Have you told her yet?” Mikey asked. He and Gerard were sitting in Mikey’s kitchen with coffee cups in front of them. Gia was with Alicia in the TV room, watching a movie.

“Told who what?”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Have you told Gia about Lindsey?”

“Are you crazy?” Gerard scoffed. “Of course not!”

“Well, are you planning on telling her? I mean, you and Lindsey have been together for what, three weeks?”

“I just don’t think Gia would take it the news too well”, Gerard explained. “So, I have a plan. I don’t tell her. I’ll wait for four or five more years until I even start to think about getting serious and by then, Gia will be off in college!”

Mikey raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re letting her go to college?”

Gerard shrugged. “She seems to have her mind set on going. I don’t know where I went wrong with that girl.”

“Well, anyway, I still don’t think that not telling her is an option.”

“Yeah I know”, Gerard sighed heavily.

“Look, if this thing with Lindsey starts getting serious, then you’re gonna have to tell her.”

“Yeah... Unless!”

“Unless what? I’m not saying that it’s necessarily gonna happen any time soon, but what if you meet a nice girl, decide to live with her, get married and she squeezes out a few puppies, at least then Gia’s gonna figure out something’s a little off.”

“Maybe it’s better that way! Maybe I should let her make her own conclusions? Really, I’m only thinking about what’s best for Gia.”

Mikey was about to answer, but he was interrupted by Gia coming into the room.

“Can we go home now? I have homework”, Gia whined.

“Yeah, sure”, Gerard said, drank the remaining of his coffee and got up.

“Aww, you’re leaving already? I didn’t even get to talk to you yet”, Mikey complained to Gia and spread his arms apart. Gia smiled and went to be hugged. But as Mikey was squeezing the life out of Gia, he shot a warning look to his brother.

The message was clear. Either Gerard tells her, or Mikey will.

_____________________________________

Gia was on her way to her history lesson, which she was hopelessly late from. She had been at the school nurse’s office. The nurse still insisted on ‘checking up’ on Gia every now and then.

“Gia! Wait up!”

She stopped walking (more like running) and saw that Lucas was walking towards her with a big grin on his face.

“Why aren’t you in class?” Gia frowned when he reached her.

Lucas laughed. “I just thought I’d skip it.”

“You what?!” Gia shrieked. She hated it when he skipped class. It just made him seem lazy. Which, he actually was.

“Relax. And why aren’t you in class?”

Gia rolled her eyes. “I was at the nurse’s office. She wanted to see me.”

“Oh. What about?”

“Nothing really. Just to talk.”

“Well hey, since we’ve both already missed half of the class, what do you say we skip the rest of the day too?”

“I don’t skip classes”, Gia told him.

“Oh come on! It’s not like I can go to my math class anyway, so I have to skip! And since you’re my best friend and I’m just so incredibly handsome and sexy and just simply awesome, you just can’t make me skip school alone.”

“Why can’t you go to your math class?” Gia asked, deciding to ignore the rest of the crap he just said.

“I didn’t do my homework so the teacher would give me detention. And if I got detention, Tina would so ground me.”

“Why didn’t you do your homework?”

“Why do you ask so many questions? What is this, ‘Lucas knows all the answers’- day? I didn’t feel like doing my homework.”

Gia sighed. The boy wasn’t a total lost cause, he was just lazy. She still had some hope for him. “Oh, fine. But I won’t be happy.”

“Great! Let’s go to your place.”

“You have a dark side. Someday, you will get us all killed, Lucas Parker.”

“But while we wait for that to happen, I’ll just work on having us both expelled from school.”

Gia gasped. “WHAT?!”

“Geez, I was just kidding”, he laughed and took her school bag from her. “Now come on, I won’t be young and good looking forever.”

“You are so full of yourself.” Gia rolled her eyes, but followed him anyway.

Gia and Lucas had found a way to move on the yards of their houses without anyone on the inside seeing them. Well, actually Lucas was the one who found it, because he liked to sneak into her house when ever Tina was too much to bear. And his discovery had proven to be really useful. Like now, for instance.

They were lucky Gerard wasn’t home, but if he was, it wouldn’t have mattered. They would have just climbed up the wall on the outside and gone in through the window of Gia’s room. But now that the house was empty, they could simply walk through the back door.

“So what do you want to do?” Lucas asked, heading straight for the fridge.

“I don’t know”, Gia shrugged and pet Jersey who had come to greet them.

“Then would you mind making me something to eat?”

She raised her eyebrows at the wide, appealing smile Lucas had on, but went to the fridge anyway. “How about pancakes?”

“The extra thin, half raw ones, please! I like my pancakes like my women: thin, blonde and covered in syrup.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Thanks.

All of a sudden, they heard a car on the drive way. Lucas glanced at Gia worriedly. “When did you say your dad was going to be home?”

“He shouldn’t be here for hours”, Gia answered, set the mixed patter down and rushed to the window. “What is he doing home?”

She could see that there were two people inside the car, but couldn’t see who they were. Of course the other one had to be Gerard because it was his car.

“Well we have to hide evidence!” Lucas shrieked, grabbed the patter bowl and a banana from the counter. “Come on; let’s go upstairs!”

Gia followed him quickly, even though she was dying of curiosity to know why her father was home at this hour. He had told her just this morning that he’ll be gone the whole day doing work stuff.

Gia and Lucas hid at the top of the stairs so that they could see the bottom of the front door, but that was pretty much it. Jersey started barking downstairs when he heard keys in the front door’s lock.

“—so we’ll be gone until September, at least. If we don’t add any more shows”, they heard Gerard say, and saw his legs when he came in through the door. Then they saw another pair of legs, and Jersey started barking wildly.

“Wow, cool dog!” a woman said. “You didn’t tell me you had a dog.”

“Technically, he’s Gia’s”, Gerard answered. “He’s Jersey.”

“Jersey?” the woman laughed.

“Don’t ask. Here, let me get your jacket.”

“So, you were saying? About the tour?”

Gia and Lucas could only see their legs from where they were hiding, but the conversation was enough to make them suspicious. Who was this woman and why did she laugh at Jersey’s brilliant name?

Gia’s paranoid mind had already thought about all the worst-case scenarios. The woman could be from the social services, she could be Gia’s new mommy… The possibilities were horrifying.

Lucas noticed that Gia was pretty uncomfortable. “Relax, she could be just a realtor trying to buy your house or something.”

“I don’t want to move”, Gia frowned, adding the realtor possibility to her list of fears.

Lucas couldn’t answer, because the conversation continued downstairs. “So do you want a tour of the house?”

“Yeah, thanks. Is Gia home? I’d like to meet her.”

“She’s a school. But don’t worry, you’ll get to meet her some day. Maybe.”

They couldn’t hear the rest of the stuff they said, because they disappeared into the living room. But if Gerard was giving the woman a tour of the house, then they would come upstairs soon, and that meant that Gia and Lucas had to move.

“Let’s go hide in your room”, Lucas whispered. They couldn’t risk getting caught, especially now. He could tell that Gia didn’t like this situation at all. Her dad was obviously... well, with this woman, and that meant change. Gia didn’t need nor want change in her life.

Lucas closed the door quietly when they were safe in her room. Gia immediately plopped down on the bed and buried her face into the pillows. He didn’t know what to say, so he just awkwardly sat down beside her.

He tried to remember what it was like when he first found out about Tina. He had felt angry, disappointed, sad, betrayed... It wasn’t nice. So now he worried about Gia. He would have understood if she was as angry as he had been, but she didn’t seem to be angry. She was just... wallowing.

“What do you think she’s like?” Gia asked quietly after they heard the woman laugh downstairs.

“I don’t know”, Lucas sighed. “But I hope she’s nothing like Tina, that’s for sure.”

Gia smiled, but the smile was hollow and didn’t reach her eyes. “I don’t think we need to worry about her being like Tina. Dad would kill himself if there was another Tina in his life.”

“The upstairs is pretty much just Gia’s room, but you can see it if you want to”, they heard Gerard say and footsteps coming up the stairs.

Lucas and Gia exchanged a frightened look and made a dash for the closet where Gia kept her clothes. They got in just in time, but so that they wouldn’t be heard, they couldn’t close the closet’s door all the way. That worked out fine though, because this way they could watch them.
“What’s this space for then?” they heard the woman ask. Excluding Gia’s room and the bathroom, the second floor was pretty much just an open space where they had a few couches and stuff like that.

“It was intended for hanging out, but no one really hangs out there. We just couldn’t think of anything to do with the space”, Gerard answered.

“Oh. And that’s Gia’s room then? Are we allowed to go in?”

“She won’t mind.”

In the closet, Gia was holding her breath. Lucas was on the floor on his knees, peeking though the slightly open door, but seeing was still difficult. And what made concentrating even more difficult was the girl that was half on top of him, half leaning on him for support so she wouldn’t fall down. Her hair fell on to his face and he could smell the strawberry scented shampoo she used.

But when Gerard and the woman stepped into the room, all of his attention diverted from Gia to the black haired woman, and gasped. Gia frowned and clasped her hand on top of his mouth so he wouldn’t make any sound.

After a while, Gerard and the woman left. But Gia and Lucas remained in the same position for a while before she finally removed her hand from his face.

“I can’t believe it”, Lucas gasped when Gia stood up.

“What?” Gia asked, though she was deep in thought and didn’t really care what he had to say.

“Your dad is dating... He’s... Oh my god!”

Now he had her attention. “What is it? Do you know her?”

“Do I know her? No. But I do know about her. And so do you. You just don’t realize it yet.”

By now she was completely confused. “Huh?”

“I’ll show you. Where’s your laptop?”

A few minutes later Gia was staring at the woman with black hair – on her computer screen. She could see what her dad saw in her, the woman was very pretty. Lindsey was her name, according to Lucas, and Gia couldn’t decide if she liked her or not. It was probably too early to make that decision anyway.

“What are you thinking about?” Lucas asked. The two of them were lying on the rug now, Lucas on his back and staring at the lamp that was turned off, and Gia on her stomach, staring at the computer.

“How long do you think they’ve been together?” she asked.

“I don’t know”, he shrugged. “Couldn’t have been long, if he hasn’t even told you yet. Has he really never mentioned her?”

“Never”, Gia said. Then she sighed tiredly. “Well, anyway. I’m not complaining.”

“You’re not?”

She shook her head. “He deserves to be happy. As long as he doesn’t start drinking again, I’m fine.”

Lucas didn’t push the conversation further, even though he wanted to. She was obviously bothered by this, but like she always did, she ignored it and convinced herself that it was okay.

“You wanna go somewhere?” Gia suddenly asked, closing the laptop.

“Where?”

She shrugged. “Just... somewhere.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”