Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Don't Hold Your Breath
A/N:So I know I'm absolutely shit at updating this, but hopefully this makes up for it. But I have actually been busy, exams, my birthday, prom etc. But now I've got two months of nothing ahead so I plan to work more on this. Don't give up on me yet!
Feel free to drop me a review, it helps to know what you guys are thinking:)
Anyway, on with the chapter!
Chapter 6
“It’s eight o’clock, goooooood morning New Jersey! If you’ve just tuned into the show, we’ve got a great line up for you this morni-”
I cut off the radio presenter mid sentence by blindly slamming my fist continuously on my alarm clock until it clattered to the floor and silence enveloped the room again. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing at the light coming in through the window. A small internal war broke out inside my head, debating whether or not I should get up or just bury myself back under the safety of my duvet. Unfortunately I gave in to the side telling me to get the fuck up. But really, who gets up this early on a Saturday?
Blinking slowly, I twisted my body until I half fell, half climbed out of the bed, tripping over my feet and scrabbling for the door handle. As soon as the door was open, the smell of bacon cooking attacked my sinuses. Thinking of all that fat sizzling away downstairs woke me up a bit more, my eyes adjusting to being open. How people can eat that shit is just beyond me. But bacon wasn’t the only thing I could smell. I tugged at my shirt front and sniffed it, my nose screwing up at the odor, quickly deciding that I needed a shower. Pretty badly.
I stumbled across the landing into the bathroom, locking the door behind me and undressing quickly. After turning the shower on, I peered at my reflection in the mirror on the medicine cabinet and grinned freakishly, tugging the skin below my eyes down and pulling stupid faces while the temperature sorted itself out. Steam started to fill the room and cover the mirror, ruining my fun. Shrugging, I stepped into the shower, muscles loosening as the water fell over my skin. Streams of hot water rained down on me whilst I hummed tunelessly, soaking my hair and turning it into a soapy afro as it mixed with the shampoo. My thoughts wandered to the plan for today’s events. Part uno of “Operation Wonga” as Mikey had called it. After arguing relentlessly for a good 40 minutes, Gerard decided to accept Mikey’s idea, on the grounds it was better than his first one–“Project Unicorn”- which had no relevance at all. A grin appeared on my face at the memory.
Today we were meeting up with Andy’s gang to wash cars. School was closed for Christmas break since last week, so we decided to go door to door in pairs, Mikey rounding up the numbers. Not sure how Gerard talked him into helping, but no one was going to object, we needed the extra hands. I sighed, the shower was so warm I didn’t want to move, but I knew I had to before I made myself late. As usual. Running my fingers through my tangles of sopping wet hair, I switched the shower off, wrapped a towel round my waist and fled to the safety of my bedroom, shutting the door behind me.
I fumbled into my boxers and jeans, running a studded belt through the loops and hunting around for a clean shirt. After sniffing a few discarded ones off the floor, I realized I’d put my last clean one in the wash last night. Sighing again, I flung open my bedroom door and ambled down the stairs, rubbing absentmindedly at my wet hair with the towel and heading in the direction of the kitchen to retrieve a clean shirt from the ironing pile. Concentrating on drying my dripping hair, I walked into the kitchen, eyes down. When I looked up, I stopped in my tracks.
Gerard was sat at the kitchen table, mug in hand; eyes wide and staring at me, mouth open slightly with shock.
“Uhhh…” I didn’t know what to say, but I found it impossible to put one foot in front of the other.
“Hey, Frank.” Gerard smirked, still staring at me. I could feel the blush burning my cheeks, molten blood turning them fiery red with embarrassment. I stuttered an inaudible response and shuffled awkwardly past him towards the pile of clothes mom always had stacked next to the dryer, still rubbing at my hair. I could feel Gerard’s gaze following me across the room and quickly slung on the first shirt at the top of the pile and walked back to where he was sat.
I tried to play it casual but I was beyond embarrassed that Gerard had seen me shirtless.
“Uh, Frank? You know I love you and everything man, but I’m worried for your sanity if that shirt’s yours.”
I glanced down at the lilac deep cut v-kneck that clung to my upper body. In my nervous flap I’d done what was more embarrassing that flashing my half nakedness at Gerard.
I’d put on my mom’s shirt.
I scrambled out of the chair so fast I nearly fell on the floor, rebalancing myself by gripping the table. Gerard’s cute dorky laugh rippled through the kitchen as I stripped myself of the lilac wonder and threw on something manlier, one of my shirts this time. I was back at the table in record time, my butt slamming into the chair with such force it almost tipped. Gerard laughed harder, and I couldn’t help but join in. The situation was so ridiculous that I had to laugh to make sure I didn’t cry.
“Okay. The events that just occurred do not leave this room. Agreed?”
Gerard shook his head, laughter verging on the brink of hysterical, his eyes screwed up a little to accommodate for his devious Cheshire cat grin. Blushing more, if that’s even possible in my current state, I reached forward and pried the mug of coffee from his slender fingers, suspending it tipped above his head to prove my point.
“Gerard.”
The laughter dimmed as he looked up to see the threat above his head. He fixed me with his best puppy dog look, eyes still shiny from the laughter.
“Oh fuck off, stop that. You look constipated.” I lied, lowering the mug.
He grinned in response and briefly held his hands up in surrender before scrabbling to grab his coffee back. I suspended it out of reach for a moment, enjoying torturing him before he reached up and snatched it, brought it to his lips and took several huge gulps; draining the mug and slamming it back down on the table.
“Ready?” he asked, standing up and tucking the chair back under the table.
I nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
“Let’s go.”
**
It took about 10 minutes to walk to the end of the street where the others were waiting. Somehow Andy was perched on the street sign, a lit cigarette dangling loosely from between his pale lips. Jake was staring at his phone screen, a dirty grin occasionally spreading across his face when a text came through. Definitely not the kind of smile you get from texting your mother. Jinxx and Christian were talking quietly in the background, voices masked by Ashley and Mikey who were excitedly talking about bass guitars and laughing like old friends. For such a shy kid, Mikey seemed surprisingly comfortable. When Andy noticed us approaching, he sucked in one last deep drag from the cigarette before stubbing it out on the front of the sign and jumping down. I noticed that he’d dimmed down his usual appearance, looking less pale than usual without his darkly rimmed eyes, disheveled raven hair still tumbling past his shoulders. He did a quick headcount before yelling at the guys to get their attention.
“Well, since there are eight of us and four buckets,” he nodded in the direction of the grey plastic buckets stacked next to the sign, each containing a small bottle of car shampoo and a sponge, “we should split into pairs to cover more ground. Meet back here in two hours?.”
Christian and Jinxx grabbed a bucket and sponge, saluted us and sauntered off in the opposite direction to the one we had come from, still talking casually. I got the feeling that they didn’t want to be here. Mikey, on the other hand, seemed enthusiastic almost, pausing to reach down and grab a bucket off the floor before resuming his banter with Ashley. He grinned at me as he walked off.
“Come on, give me that.” Andy snatched Jake’s phone before he could defend himself, whimpering like a child when Andy slipped it in the back pocket of his painfully tight jeans. “See you guys.” He said, hauling Jake along by his elbow.
Paying too much attention to them as they walked down the adjacent street, I didn’t see the sponge coming until it slapped me in the face with a damp splat. “Looks like I’m stuck with you.” Gerard grinned and I resisted the urge to throw the sponge back at him. Instead, I plopped it back into the bucket and tore of in the direction we had just come, laughing wildly knowing Gerard was just at my heels. It wasn’t long until he had passed me, swinging the bucket in his left hand as he ran. I was briefly overwhelmed by how much I wanted to reach forward and slip my hand into his. It caught me off guard, and I tripped over myself, slowing to a halt as my knees collided with the footpath, my hands grazing the gravel in an attempt to break my fall. I stood slowly, assessing the damage. I’d made a pretty big hole in my jeans and skinned my right knee, but I’d had much worse. Before I realized, Gerard was at my side, wrapping a hand around my waist to support me. His warmth was comforting.
“Are you always this clumsy?”
Rubbing my hands up and down my thighs a few times, I dusted off most of the dirt and smiled at him in response. He wrapped his arms around me in a comforting embrace for a second, before releasing me. Completely oblivious, I grinned awkwardly back and shyly managed to start a conversation with Gerard as we continued on our walk to the end of the street.
**
By the time an hour and a half had passed, we’d managed to wash four cars at $10 each. It was Mikey’s idea to charge a lot per car, so we’d have less to wash. One guy gave us a leather chamois he didn’t want anymore, so we charged an extra $2 to dry two of the four cars, giving us a total of $44. Not bad, hopefully the others had done pretty well too. Heading back to meet them, we stopped on the way to do one more car.
“Gerard, you missed a spot.” I said, pointed just in front of the little pale green Ford Focus’ left mirror. Gerard quickly lathered that patch with the sopping wet sponge. He stepped back to make sure it was all soap covered, before handing me the hose pipe that the owner had dragged round for us to use.
“I wonder if how Mikey’s doing.” I thought out loud as I rinsed the car.
“Probably conning some old folks out of their money for a half hearted job.” Gerard laughed, and I knew he was joking.
I walked round the other side of the car, standing on my toes to aim the nozzle at the roof. Loosing my balance slightly, I blasted the hose at an unsuspecting Gerard, breaking into fits of laughter as the water cascaded over the car and drenched his face. He spluttered with shock before moving away from the jets of water, throwing the soapy sponge at me over the roof of the car before running round it towards me, arms stretched in front of him. Immediately I blasted him in the chest and he raised his arms to shield his face. I creased over with laughter, distracted long enough for Gerard to step forward and grip the handle of the hose pipe, battling to snatch it away from me. Tilting the nozzle slightly, I aimed the water back at him, soaking any dry patches left on his shirt. Seeing the fabric cling to his torso made me lessen my grip, and Gerard yanked the handle away from me, shutting off the water. He didn’t look angry, he just looked cold. I guess late December weather isn’t exactly practical for a water fight. Guilt washed up inside me.
“Gee, I’m sor-” a spray of cold water firing at my face cut my apology short. Gerard’s lips were tinted slightly blue with cold, but he was grinning. He was aiming the hose at me like a gun, and I backed away from him before tripping down a ditch where the grass ended and landing in a small flower bed.
“Hmm. Frank, you’re looking a little dry. Let me help you out there!” Cold water slapped into my chest with force, washing away the response that was on the tip of my tongue. I shrieked and writhed, laughing and shivering as the liquid seeped through my clothes and tickled my skin. Satisfied I had received a decent soaking, Gerard shut off the hose and leaned over me to admire his work. My hair was slicked to my head, tendrils of it falling into my eyes and dripping down my cheeks. Shivers rattled up and down my spine as the cold set in, but I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face.
“You boys!” a young female voice trailed from doorway across the drive.
Before I could assess the situation, Gerard’s firm hands were clasping at my waist, dragging me up from the dirt. Even when his hands were gone, I could still feel their ghosts clinging protectively to me. Still in a slight daze, Gerard spun me round and started brushing the mud from my hoodie, sighing quietly. A woman stepped into view from behind a carefully trimmed hedge carrying two glasses of orange juice. She promptly stopped and stared us up and down before smiling lightly to herself.
“You know, you two just trashed my flowers.” She shook her head, still smiling, and handed us the drinks. I downed mine quickly, unaware how thirsty I had been until the cool liquid touched my tongue.
“S-sorry. We’ll…um…pay for those.” Gerard stuttered nervously, his playful outburst abruptly cut short by his manners.
“Oh shh, it’s fine! My daughter’s been dying to plant more down there away.” She laughed lightly to herself and exchanged our empty glasses for $10. As she headed back towards her house, she turned briefly to shout “Thanks for the help, boys!”, leaving us to clean up.
After reeling up the hose and tipping the remainder of the soapy water down a drain at the end of the drive, the cold had really set in, and I struggled to stop my teeth from chattering. I reached down to pick up the bucket and sponge, getting ready to tell Gerard to move his butt since we were going to be late, but I paused. With his back to me, Gerard had taken his shirt off and was busy wringing the moisture out of it, his milky skin bright in the faint sunlight. The muscles in his forearms churned beneath his skin with the effort of twisting the material in his hands, water dripping out of it with each wring. He slipped the creased fabric back over his torso, satisfied it was now only moist instead of dripping, and shrugged his jacket back on before turning to face me. my mouth was slightly agape and I hurriedly turned my gaunt expression into a more casual one, raising one eyebrow suggestively.
“What?” he grinned, his playful demeanor returning.
“Nothing.”
“Here, take your hoodie off, I’ll do that too.” He said, holding out his hand. I sighed and dropping the bucket, I pulled my hoodie up over my head, ignoring his hand and throwing it childishly straight at him. After a minute or so of flapping it around and squeezing moisture out of it, he deemed it acceptable and tossed it back at me. I slipped it back on and pulled the hood up to shelter my damp hair from the cool wind.
**
It took just over five minutes to walk back to the sign post. Only Andy, Ashley and Mikey were already there, so it was nice not to be the last ones turning up for once.
“Hey guys! How’d it go?” Gerard’s sociable nature made it easy for him to start up conversation while I shuffled awkwardly beside him.
“Pretty well, I think. We made $40, which is impressive since Jake wasn’t really helping!” Andy chuckled.
“Wait…where is Jake?” I piped up, noticing he was missing.
“Gone to meet his girlfriend for lunch. CC and Jinxx bailed already too, said they had plans.” Oh, so we were late. Again.
Andy fished in his pocket and pulled out some money. “I didn’t get to count, but I think there’s about $30 here from them.” He handed the wad to Gerard who thanked him before tucking it into his back pocket.
“Yeah, we did a good job too!” Mikey blurted excitedly. “Washed seven cars, made $65 in one day! Not bad in my opinion.” He handed the money to Gerard.
“I thought we were charging $10 a car, why $65?” He questioned, as he pocketed the money.
“Some ass only paid us $5 because he said his ‘windscreen was smeary’ and we ‘missed his tail light.’ I mean, there’s just no pleasing some people!” Mikey made air quotes with his fingers and raised the tone of his voice, mimicking the ‘ass’, and threw his hands up dramatically in despair to punctuate his sentence. I stifled a giggle.
Maths had never been my strong point, so I watched Gerard adding the sums in his head, too lazy to try and work them out myself.
“So that’s $189 in total.” He smiled, but I could hear a flicker of disappointment in his voice. That was less than half of what we needed.
“Not bad for one day, right?” Ashley sounded hopeful.
“Yeah, we’ve still got other things we can do, and that already covers the deposit.” I squeezed his arm reassuringly and he smiled at me in response.
“Yeah.” He said, his voice lifting. “Hey, why don’t you guys come back to mine for a few hours?”
“Yes! Gee, can we order pizza? Pleaaase?” Mikey pleaded.
“Fine, but seriously Mikes, you’re gonna get fat.” Gerard laughed when Mikey feinted hurt and punched him lightly.
Mikey and Ashley started to walk in the direction of the Way’s house, returning easily to their conversation. Walking beside Gerard, we followed them.
“Oh, Gerard, I meant to say. I phoned my uncle on my way back here and he said he could use some help in his tattoo shop. Said he’d pay.” Andy sounded pleased with himself, striding confidently beside me, sandwiching me between him and Gerard. His abnormal height made me slightly uneasy, despite getting to know him over the past few weeks.
“That’s really great and everything, but I can’t. I’m…I don’t like needles.” Gerard shuddered beside me.
“No man, he doesn’t expect you to give tattoos to people, you’re not even trained!”
“Oh…” a faint blush tinged Gerard’s cheeks at the blunt realization.
“But if you can work at the front desk, you know, talk to the customers and stuff?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s okay.”
“Great. I’ll call him later and let him know.”
Conversation flowed comfortably between the two boys and I felt jealously attempt to rear its ugly head, but I forced it back down with a dry throated swallow. Occasionally Gerard elbowed me lightly to get me to add something to whatever they were talking about, but I didn’t really mutter more than a few words at a time.
Things improved when we got to the house; turns out Andy sucks at any video game with a controller. So basically, all of them. But he didn’t seem to mind watching as the rest of us virtually shot each other and yelled abuse at the TV when we died.
Its not that I don’t like Andy, because I do. He’s not a bad guy.
I’m just scared of loosing Gerard.
Feel free to drop me a review, it helps to know what you guys are thinking:)
Anyway, on with the chapter!
Chapter 6
“It’s eight o’clock, goooooood morning New Jersey! If you’ve just tuned into the show, we’ve got a great line up for you this morni-”
I cut off the radio presenter mid sentence by blindly slamming my fist continuously on my alarm clock until it clattered to the floor and silence enveloped the room again. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing at the light coming in through the window. A small internal war broke out inside my head, debating whether or not I should get up or just bury myself back under the safety of my duvet. Unfortunately I gave in to the side telling me to get the fuck up. But really, who gets up this early on a Saturday?
Blinking slowly, I twisted my body until I half fell, half climbed out of the bed, tripping over my feet and scrabbling for the door handle. As soon as the door was open, the smell of bacon cooking attacked my sinuses. Thinking of all that fat sizzling away downstairs woke me up a bit more, my eyes adjusting to being open. How people can eat that shit is just beyond me. But bacon wasn’t the only thing I could smell. I tugged at my shirt front and sniffed it, my nose screwing up at the odor, quickly deciding that I needed a shower. Pretty badly.
I stumbled across the landing into the bathroom, locking the door behind me and undressing quickly. After turning the shower on, I peered at my reflection in the mirror on the medicine cabinet and grinned freakishly, tugging the skin below my eyes down and pulling stupid faces while the temperature sorted itself out. Steam started to fill the room and cover the mirror, ruining my fun. Shrugging, I stepped into the shower, muscles loosening as the water fell over my skin. Streams of hot water rained down on me whilst I hummed tunelessly, soaking my hair and turning it into a soapy afro as it mixed with the shampoo. My thoughts wandered to the plan for today’s events. Part uno of “Operation Wonga” as Mikey had called it. After arguing relentlessly for a good 40 minutes, Gerard decided to accept Mikey’s idea, on the grounds it was better than his first one–“Project Unicorn”- which had no relevance at all. A grin appeared on my face at the memory.
Today we were meeting up with Andy’s gang to wash cars. School was closed for Christmas break since last week, so we decided to go door to door in pairs, Mikey rounding up the numbers. Not sure how Gerard talked him into helping, but no one was going to object, we needed the extra hands. I sighed, the shower was so warm I didn’t want to move, but I knew I had to before I made myself late. As usual. Running my fingers through my tangles of sopping wet hair, I switched the shower off, wrapped a towel round my waist and fled to the safety of my bedroom, shutting the door behind me.
I fumbled into my boxers and jeans, running a studded belt through the loops and hunting around for a clean shirt. After sniffing a few discarded ones off the floor, I realized I’d put my last clean one in the wash last night. Sighing again, I flung open my bedroom door and ambled down the stairs, rubbing absentmindedly at my wet hair with the towel and heading in the direction of the kitchen to retrieve a clean shirt from the ironing pile. Concentrating on drying my dripping hair, I walked into the kitchen, eyes down. When I looked up, I stopped in my tracks.
Gerard was sat at the kitchen table, mug in hand; eyes wide and staring at me, mouth open slightly with shock.
“Uhhh…” I didn’t know what to say, but I found it impossible to put one foot in front of the other.
“Hey, Frank.” Gerard smirked, still staring at me. I could feel the blush burning my cheeks, molten blood turning them fiery red with embarrassment. I stuttered an inaudible response and shuffled awkwardly past him towards the pile of clothes mom always had stacked next to the dryer, still rubbing at my hair. I could feel Gerard’s gaze following me across the room and quickly slung on the first shirt at the top of the pile and walked back to where he was sat.
I tried to play it casual but I was beyond embarrassed that Gerard had seen me shirtless.
“Uh, Frank? You know I love you and everything man, but I’m worried for your sanity if that shirt’s yours.”
I glanced down at the lilac deep cut v-kneck that clung to my upper body. In my nervous flap I’d done what was more embarrassing that flashing my half nakedness at Gerard.
I’d put on my mom’s shirt.
I scrambled out of the chair so fast I nearly fell on the floor, rebalancing myself by gripping the table. Gerard’s cute dorky laugh rippled through the kitchen as I stripped myself of the lilac wonder and threw on something manlier, one of my shirts this time. I was back at the table in record time, my butt slamming into the chair with such force it almost tipped. Gerard laughed harder, and I couldn’t help but join in. The situation was so ridiculous that I had to laugh to make sure I didn’t cry.
“Okay. The events that just occurred do not leave this room. Agreed?”
Gerard shook his head, laughter verging on the brink of hysterical, his eyes screwed up a little to accommodate for his devious Cheshire cat grin. Blushing more, if that’s even possible in my current state, I reached forward and pried the mug of coffee from his slender fingers, suspending it tipped above his head to prove my point.
“Gerard.”
The laughter dimmed as he looked up to see the threat above his head. He fixed me with his best puppy dog look, eyes still shiny from the laughter.
“Oh fuck off, stop that. You look constipated.” I lied, lowering the mug.
He grinned in response and briefly held his hands up in surrender before scrabbling to grab his coffee back. I suspended it out of reach for a moment, enjoying torturing him before he reached up and snatched it, brought it to his lips and took several huge gulps; draining the mug and slamming it back down on the table.
“Ready?” he asked, standing up and tucking the chair back under the table.
I nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
“Let’s go.”
**
It took about 10 minutes to walk to the end of the street where the others were waiting. Somehow Andy was perched on the street sign, a lit cigarette dangling loosely from between his pale lips. Jake was staring at his phone screen, a dirty grin occasionally spreading across his face when a text came through. Definitely not the kind of smile you get from texting your mother. Jinxx and Christian were talking quietly in the background, voices masked by Ashley and Mikey who were excitedly talking about bass guitars and laughing like old friends. For such a shy kid, Mikey seemed surprisingly comfortable. When Andy noticed us approaching, he sucked in one last deep drag from the cigarette before stubbing it out on the front of the sign and jumping down. I noticed that he’d dimmed down his usual appearance, looking less pale than usual without his darkly rimmed eyes, disheveled raven hair still tumbling past his shoulders. He did a quick headcount before yelling at the guys to get their attention.
“Well, since there are eight of us and four buckets,” he nodded in the direction of the grey plastic buckets stacked next to the sign, each containing a small bottle of car shampoo and a sponge, “we should split into pairs to cover more ground. Meet back here in two hours?.”
Christian and Jinxx grabbed a bucket and sponge, saluted us and sauntered off in the opposite direction to the one we had come from, still talking casually. I got the feeling that they didn’t want to be here. Mikey, on the other hand, seemed enthusiastic almost, pausing to reach down and grab a bucket off the floor before resuming his banter with Ashley. He grinned at me as he walked off.
“Come on, give me that.” Andy snatched Jake’s phone before he could defend himself, whimpering like a child when Andy slipped it in the back pocket of his painfully tight jeans. “See you guys.” He said, hauling Jake along by his elbow.
Paying too much attention to them as they walked down the adjacent street, I didn’t see the sponge coming until it slapped me in the face with a damp splat. “Looks like I’m stuck with you.” Gerard grinned and I resisted the urge to throw the sponge back at him. Instead, I plopped it back into the bucket and tore of in the direction we had just come, laughing wildly knowing Gerard was just at my heels. It wasn’t long until he had passed me, swinging the bucket in his left hand as he ran. I was briefly overwhelmed by how much I wanted to reach forward and slip my hand into his. It caught me off guard, and I tripped over myself, slowing to a halt as my knees collided with the footpath, my hands grazing the gravel in an attempt to break my fall. I stood slowly, assessing the damage. I’d made a pretty big hole in my jeans and skinned my right knee, but I’d had much worse. Before I realized, Gerard was at my side, wrapping a hand around my waist to support me. His warmth was comforting.
“Are you always this clumsy?”
Rubbing my hands up and down my thighs a few times, I dusted off most of the dirt and smiled at him in response. He wrapped his arms around me in a comforting embrace for a second, before releasing me. Completely oblivious, I grinned awkwardly back and shyly managed to start a conversation with Gerard as we continued on our walk to the end of the street.
**
By the time an hour and a half had passed, we’d managed to wash four cars at $10 each. It was Mikey’s idea to charge a lot per car, so we’d have less to wash. One guy gave us a leather chamois he didn’t want anymore, so we charged an extra $2 to dry two of the four cars, giving us a total of $44. Not bad, hopefully the others had done pretty well too. Heading back to meet them, we stopped on the way to do one more car.
“Gerard, you missed a spot.” I said, pointed just in front of the little pale green Ford Focus’ left mirror. Gerard quickly lathered that patch with the sopping wet sponge. He stepped back to make sure it was all soap covered, before handing me the hose pipe that the owner had dragged round for us to use.
“I wonder if how Mikey’s doing.” I thought out loud as I rinsed the car.
“Probably conning some old folks out of their money for a half hearted job.” Gerard laughed, and I knew he was joking.
I walked round the other side of the car, standing on my toes to aim the nozzle at the roof. Loosing my balance slightly, I blasted the hose at an unsuspecting Gerard, breaking into fits of laughter as the water cascaded over the car and drenched his face. He spluttered with shock before moving away from the jets of water, throwing the soapy sponge at me over the roof of the car before running round it towards me, arms stretched in front of him. Immediately I blasted him in the chest and he raised his arms to shield his face. I creased over with laughter, distracted long enough for Gerard to step forward and grip the handle of the hose pipe, battling to snatch it away from me. Tilting the nozzle slightly, I aimed the water back at him, soaking any dry patches left on his shirt. Seeing the fabric cling to his torso made me lessen my grip, and Gerard yanked the handle away from me, shutting off the water. He didn’t look angry, he just looked cold. I guess late December weather isn’t exactly practical for a water fight. Guilt washed up inside me.
“Gee, I’m sor-” a spray of cold water firing at my face cut my apology short. Gerard’s lips were tinted slightly blue with cold, but he was grinning. He was aiming the hose at me like a gun, and I backed away from him before tripping down a ditch where the grass ended and landing in a small flower bed.
“Hmm. Frank, you’re looking a little dry. Let me help you out there!” Cold water slapped into my chest with force, washing away the response that was on the tip of my tongue. I shrieked and writhed, laughing and shivering as the liquid seeped through my clothes and tickled my skin. Satisfied I had received a decent soaking, Gerard shut off the hose and leaned over me to admire his work. My hair was slicked to my head, tendrils of it falling into my eyes and dripping down my cheeks. Shivers rattled up and down my spine as the cold set in, but I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face.
“You boys!” a young female voice trailed from doorway across the drive.
Before I could assess the situation, Gerard’s firm hands were clasping at my waist, dragging me up from the dirt. Even when his hands were gone, I could still feel their ghosts clinging protectively to me. Still in a slight daze, Gerard spun me round and started brushing the mud from my hoodie, sighing quietly. A woman stepped into view from behind a carefully trimmed hedge carrying two glasses of orange juice. She promptly stopped and stared us up and down before smiling lightly to herself.
“You know, you two just trashed my flowers.” She shook her head, still smiling, and handed us the drinks. I downed mine quickly, unaware how thirsty I had been until the cool liquid touched my tongue.
“S-sorry. We’ll…um…pay for those.” Gerard stuttered nervously, his playful outburst abruptly cut short by his manners.
“Oh shh, it’s fine! My daughter’s been dying to plant more down there away.” She laughed lightly to herself and exchanged our empty glasses for $10. As she headed back towards her house, she turned briefly to shout “Thanks for the help, boys!”, leaving us to clean up.
After reeling up the hose and tipping the remainder of the soapy water down a drain at the end of the drive, the cold had really set in, and I struggled to stop my teeth from chattering. I reached down to pick up the bucket and sponge, getting ready to tell Gerard to move his butt since we were going to be late, but I paused. With his back to me, Gerard had taken his shirt off and was busy wringing the moisture out of it, his milky skin bright in the faint sunlight. The muscles in his forearms churned beneath his skin with the effort of twisting the material in his hands, water dripping out of it with each wring. He slipped the creased fabric back over his torso, satisfied it was now only moist instead of dripping, and shrugged his jacket back on before turning to face me. my mouth was slightly agape and I hurriedly turned my gaunt expression into a more casual one, raising one eyebrow suggestively.
“What?” he grinned, his playful demeanor returning.
“Nothing.”
“Here, take your hoodie off, I’ll do that too.” He said, holding out his hand. I sighed and dropping the bucket, I pulled my hoodie up over my head, ignoring his hand and throwing it childishly straight at him. After a minute or so of flapping it around and squeezing moisture out of it, he deemed it acceptable and tossed it back at me. I slipped it back on and pulled the hood up to shelter my damp hair from the cool wind.
**
It took just over five minutes to walk back to the sign post. Only Andy, Ashley and Mikey were already there, so it was nice not to be the last ones turning up for once.
“Hey guys! How’d it go?” Gerard’s sociable nature made it easy for him to start up conversation while I shuffled awkwardly beside him.
“Pretty well, I think. We made $40, which is impressive since Jake wasn’t really helping!” Andy chuckled.
“Wait…where is Jake?” I piped up, noticing he was missing.
“Gone to meet his girlfriend for lunch. CC and Jinxx bailed already too, said they had plans.” Oh, so we were late. Again.
Andy fished in his pocket and pulled out some money. “I didn’t get to count, but I think there’s about $30 here from them.” He handed the wad to Gerard who thanked him before tucking it into his back pocket.
“Yeah, we did a good job too!” Mikey blurted excitedly. “Washed seven cars, made $65 in one day! Not bad in my opinion.” He handed the money to Gerard.
“I thought we were charging $10 a car, why $65?” He questioned, as he pocketed the money.
“Some ass only paid us $5 because he said his ‘windscreen was smeary’ and we ‘missed his tail light.’ I mean, there’s just no pleasing some people!” Mikey made air quotes with his fingers and raised the tone of his voice, mimicking the ‘ass’, and threw his hands up dramatically in despair to punctuate his sentence. I stifled a giggle.
Maths had never been my strong point, so I watched Gerard adding the sums in his head, too lazy to try and work them out myself.
“So that’s $189 in total.” He smiled, but I could hear a flicker of disappointment in his voice. That was less than half of what we needed.
“Not bad for one day, right?” Ashley sounded hopeful.
“Yeah, we’ve still got other things we can do, and that already covers the deposit.” I squeezed his arm reassuringly and he smiled at me in response.
“Yeah.” He said, his voice lifting. “Hey, why don’t you guys come back to mine for a few hours?”
“Yes! Gee, can we order pizza? Pleaaase?” Mikey pleaded.
“Fine, but seriously Mikes, you’re gonna get fat.” Gerard laughed when Mikey feinted hurt and punched him lightly.
Mikey and Ashley started to walk in the direction of the Way’s house, returning easily to their conversation. Walking beside Gerard, we followed them.
“Oh, Gerard, I meant to say. I phoned my uncle on my way back here and he said he could use some help in his tattoo shop. Said he’d pay.” Andy sounded pleased with himself, striding confidently beside me, sandwiching me between him and Gerard. His abnormal height made me slightly uneasy, despite getting to know him over the past few weeks.
“That’s really great and everything, but I can’t. I’m…I don’t like needles.” Gerard shuddered beside me.
“No man, he doesn’t expect you to give tattoos to people, you’re not even trained!”
“Oh…” a faint blush tinged Gerard’s cheeks at the blunt realization.
“But if you can work at the front desk, you know, talk to the customers and stuff?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s okay.”
“Great. I’ll call him later and let him know.”
Conversation flowed comfortably between the two boys and I felt jealously attempt to rear its ugly head, but I forced it back down with a dry throated swallow. Occasionally Gerard elbowed me lightly to get me to add something to whatever they were talking about, but I didn’t really mutter more than a few words at a time.
Things improved when we got to the house; turns out Andy sucks at any video game with a controller. So basically, all of them. But he didn’t seem to mind watching as the rest of us virtually shot each other and yelled abuse at the TV when we died.
Its not that I don’t like Andy, because I do. He’s not a bad guy.
I’m just scared of loosing Gerard.
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