FicWad

Gerard looked over at his employee as she chewed on one of her fingernails. She had been steadily getting more and more nervous since her lunch break was over. He guessed that is was not the work training that was bothering her, she had done well that day and seemed to pick things up fast. Now they were both back in the reading area waiting for customers to come in. "You ok?" she snapped her head over at him in startled surprise.

"What?"

"Oh nothing... you just look nervous about something," Gerard got up and grabbed a bottle of windex and paper towels from under the counter and started to spray down the glass case.

"I'm not... well kinda... it's just that..." Gerard raised his eyebrow at her while he waited for her scattered thoughts to get straightened out. With each stuttered statement he visualized one puzzle piece after the other clicking into place in her brain. "You went to college, right?"

The question was not what he expected and he laughed at its randomness. "Yes, I went to an art school in New York."

"Oh... did they have fraternities there?"

Gerard was starting to have his own puzzle pieces nestle together and he smiled a bit, "Nah, that wasn't really our thing at that school. Why do you ask?" He figured if he just directly prodded her he could finally find out what was on her mind.

"Oh! Well this guy at school invited me to his frat party and I don't really go to parties at all so I was just wondering what to expect," she was biting that same fingernail again.

"Beer." He spritzed the glass and wiped it down, "Lots of beer."

"Oh... so pretty wild?"

"Look, don't wear a white shirt and don't let someone fix you a drink... oh and avoid bedrooms," he went through all the memories he had of the crazy parties he went to before he got sober. Frat parties wouldn't be much different aside from the hazing. He shook his head at the thought of the greek tradition and sprayed the glass in a different spot.

Lauren pondered over this information and let her eyes roam over the nearby shelves. She noticed a rack labeled “Signed Editions” and got up to look at it closer. She picked up one after another, regarding the sharpied comic books that all bore names she had never heard of. Obviously they were big names in that industry, judging from the prices. “Alan Moore... Neil Gaiman... Fabio Moon... Gabriel Ba... Gerard Way?” She frowned in thought and fished the business card for the store out of her pocket. She looked down at the small piece of paper and back up at the comic in her other hand.

With a quick glance back at her boss she flipped to the back of Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and check for an author bio that might have a picture. There was no picture but it did say that Way went to art school so she figured it had to be the same guy. She read the rest of the bio and frowned at the last sentence, “You're in a band?”

The once continuous spritzing stopped behind her and she turned to face a slightly surprised Gerard. “Um... I was... we kinda haven't done anything in a few years. It was just a couple years or something...” He gulped.

“Oh? Have I heard of your band?”

“Um... no, probably not.”

"And you wrote this?"

He took a quick look at the comic book she was holding, "Yes, I wrote another on that is around here somewhere..."

"Oh! I'll have to read it then!"

He nodded a couple times and his cheeks pinked up a bit, "Just keep that copy then, I'll autograph another for sale later."

"You sure?" She still thought it was a nice gift even if he had many others on hand.

"Yep," the bell at the front of the store went off and he immediately dropped the windex bottle on the counter and went to help the new customer. She shrugged off the strange conversation and put the comic down next to her purse.

-

Frank looked up at the tall man that just entered the Starbucks and offered a giant grin. “BRYAR!” He shouted once in the crowded cafe and the blonde turned and found him quickly.

“How's it going, Frank?” They gave each other quick hugs and sat down at the table.

“Good, good,” the guitarist took a loud and slurpy sip from his frozen drink, “I was just wondering if you'd be willing to put up with us again for another project.”

“Oh? You guys have a concert or something?” Bob knew well about their hiatus and about Gerard's dry spell and their problems with finding a new drummer, in the past Bob had just been to busy to step up.

“Uh... no. I just have a feeling we're going to need you for something a bit bigger,” Frank grinned at the man across from him as Bob made a silent “oh”.

“How did you get him to start working again?”

Frank shrugged, “Not sure if I have but I think I definitely got the wheels turning again.”

Bob grinned brightly at him, “That so? Alright, man, count me in and keep me posted.”

Frank reached over and shook his friend's hand, “Will do, Bryar.”

At a table nearby, a small woman with a blonde bob reached for her phone and dialed with a shakey hand, “Leigh? Girl, clean your lenses because you won't BELIEVE what I just overheard! ...What?... Yes, I overheard it by accident... NO I'm not stalking anyone! I swear I'm just here on a break!... Yeah, yeah. Look, just get your stuff together and meet me at my place at 6, we've got some research to do!” She put her phone back on the table and glanced back at the table with the two mismatched men. “Alright, Shorty, start spilling some more and make my job a bit easier!” She whispered.



A/N: Why is it that all the latest chapters have coffee? I mean, I know it's in the title but I totally did not plan that. But it IS kinda cool now that I've noticed. What do you think? SHould I continue this theme? (I mean, it'd be absurdly easy considering how addicted I am to coffee... so IN LOVE)

ALSO, here you have the introduction to two paparazzi characters that won the audition! Congrats to the awesome writers who invented them: ImJustFine and XxPerfectTomorrowxX

...more results to come.