FicWad

A/N; I really do apologize for the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks. The split of MCR sort of cut my creativity and motivation for a bit but I promise I'm back. I'm sorry this chapter isn't as exciting as the last one but it's a filler for now. I promise the next chapter is waaay better! PS: Your reviews and rates warm my soul. Please feel free to do so :)


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I sat up in the tree house. There was no official backyard to my place; the state houses on my side of the street and on the street over from us sort of back into each other, and were sectioned off into little family park areas split between six houses. In the middle of the park was a massive tree, with this crappy little tree house in it. Some kids that used to live next door to me a few years ago built it out of second hand plank wood, that was already old. I was pretty sure it wasn't safe to sit in it, but I did anyway. It was my favourite place to go to when I needed to get away.
I sat there for a good few hours trying to figure out how I was going to explain this shit to Gerard. I had spent the last few days desperately trying to cover up my real family life from him and make it so that my family is completely normal, but now that had potentially been exposed. So I had two options; I could tell him another lie and just tell him that my Mum had been having a shitty week and was just in a bad mood, or I could just tell him the truth - my family sucks.
Luckily my Mum had not seen the kiss, but it sure as hell raised some alarms and now I was under parental control forever.

Flashback

"What the hell is going on here?"
Gerard and I looked towards the doorway. It was my Mum.
I completely choked up, what the hell was she doing home so early? She's never home early! The one time she actually turns up before 6pm is the one time someone from school is here and it just so happens to be a boy, which is a big no-no-son.
In the corner of my eye I could see Gerard glance over at me, and I could feel his awkward feeling. Poor guy, he comes over to help me and he lands himself in this situation.
"I got beaten up at school," I managed to slur out; still baffled by her appearance.
"I can see that," She turned to Gerard. "But who are you and why are you about to kiss my daughter?"
"He wasn't!" I butted in, pissed off that she's more concerned with Gerard about to kiss me than the fact I got beaten up. "It's Gerard. He's from across the road."
"Well it damn well looked like it from where I'm standing!" She glared a me.
"He's helping me!" I shouted. "I got my fucking ass handed to me at school and he's helping me!"
My Mum and I stared daggers into each other. I could feel Gerard's confusion over the whole situation, fair enough too. My Mum was pissed off because there was a boy in the house and she was concern he might be trying to kiss me, and I was pissed off because any other mother would have been far more concerned with even a slight act of violence directed towards their child, but not my mother.
"I, uh..." Gerard cleared his throat, not knowing if he should speak or not. He held up the kit and dettol. "I brought over a first aid kit. I was helping her clean up."
My Mum's death glare shifted from me to Gerard. The tension in the room was so thick you couldn't even hack through it with an axe if you tried. I turned to Gerard hoping he would forgive me for this one.
"You should go," I whispered. "I'll see you in Science tomorrow."
"Okay," He nodded. He packed up the kit and stood up, he finished the rest of his coffee and placed it back on the table. He paused for a moment and looked at me dead in the eye. "Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "Thanks."
He faked a smile and made his way passed my Mum who was still trying to kill him with her eyes.
"It looked a little more like he wanted to kiss you than play doctor if you ask me!" She snapped as soon as we heard the clicking of the front door shut behind Gerard,
"Well he didn't!" I spat back. "Believe it or not there are people in this world that actually DO have kind hearts and do good things WITHOUT expecting something else in return! Jesus Christ Mum, you care more about me being kissed than me being beaten up? What the fuck is with that!?"
"I'm not stupid." She walked over to the wine cabinet and grabbed a bottle of wine, a glass and the ashtray. She basically threw the contents down on the table and sat opposite me, and poured herself a glass of red. "I can read body language, Rachel. And if he didn't kiss you, fine. But I know he wanted to. And I know you wanted to, too."
She opened up a new packet of cigarettes and pulled one out. She biffed the packet down onto the table and lit up, slowly taking her first puff before exhaling.
"Oh my god Mum!" I yelled. I folded my arms and leaned back in my chair. "Nothing happened. Nothing is happening. I don't know what the hell you are talking about but if you must know; He saw me limping down the street. You know why? Because it fucking hurts to get beaten up, but I'm okay now thanks to Gerard and thank you for asking. He offered to help, I said no but he just kept on insisting. I gave up. And you walked in."
"That may be true," Her voice sounded fuller as spoke into the wine glass before taking a massive gulp. "But you mention him this morning and swiftly mention the fact you don't know him, and then suddenly he's here after school the very same day? I'll be keeping a close eye on you."
I glared at her for a while, before storming outside to the tree house. I didn't hate the woman, but there was nothing motherly about her and I sure as hell did not like her.

Present

I lay on my back looking up into the branches of the tree. What the hell am I going to tell Gerard? Maybe I should just go over there and say whatever comes to my mind? I pondered this for a few moments, all I could hear were my parents drunken slurs and I thought, fuck it, why not?
I rolled over onto my stomach and crawled out backwards until I could reach the planks nailed down the tree, and climbed down. I got on my hands and knees and crawled along the grass passed the kitchen window, hoping and praying that if God existed he wouldn't let Mum or Dad catch me. As soon I was out of the red zone, I got up and bolted towards Gerard's house. Noticing the lounge and hallway lights were off, I decided not to knock on the door in case I woke them up or something. I grabbed a little stone and threw it lightly at Gerard's window. It took a few more stones before he finally flicked his curtain out the way and looked around. I caught his eye waving at him; he smiled and held up an index finger and disappeared.
I stepped onto the property and quietly closed the gate behind me. I walked up the steps which now had flower pots on them, with no flowers yet.I looked around the darkened street which was hardly lit at all as drunk people threw solid objects at the street lights quite often and smashed the bulbs, the council eventually gave up replacing them.
Gerard then finally opened up the door.
"Shhh," He whispered holding his finger to his lips. "Everybody's already asleep."
He closed the door behind me very quietly and we tip toed up the stairs. Gerard opened his door and walked in, it was the only room in the house that still had the light on, and as soon as I stepped inside my jaw hit the floor.
The Way family hadn't been here for a week even and already their house was far more homely than mine. But Gerard's room was fascinating. He had a big double bed against the wall opposite me, and above the header was a massive Misfits flag. On the same wall and placed by the flag's sides were other flags of Iron Maiden, Pantera, Slayer and Lamb of God. The wall to the right was half covered in band posters, all big men with beards and black clothing. The other half of the wall (closest to his bed) were for the most part half naked heavily tattooed women. I smiled at this, he liked his rock chicks.
"Sorry about the mess," He said kicking a box out of the way. "I'm still unpacking. Come, take a seat."
He grabbed my hand and we made our way to the bed in the only line in the whole room that didn't have boxes. He jumped up on his bed and grabbed another flag and shook it out. He paused.
"You can sit on the bed you know," He looked at me. "I'm not going to jump your bones or anything."
He smirked as he grabbed some pins and began to pin up the Black Sabbath flag directly above his bed. This flag was probably the width and height of the other flags on the wall put together. I would have offered to help but there was no way I was going to be able to reach the ceiling. So I sat down on the side of the bed and looked around his room for anything that would be familiar to me.
"You have a lot of stuff," I commented.
"Yeah," He grinned. "Would you believe that this is only half the stuff I had in Jersey?"
"Seriously?" I looked at him wide-eyed. He nodded.
"I had to sell or give away most of it, there was limited space in the containers so I wasn't allowed to bring everything. I just chose my favourite crap."
"Fair enough," I looked around the room again.
"I'm sorry I haven't found the shit box yet," He had finished pinning up the flag and sat down next to me, and began eying out the symmetry of the flags. "But when I do find it I'll bring it over."
"The shit box?" I asked, confused.
"The shitty stereo I'm giving you." He smiled. He reached into his bag and grabbed out a 25 pack of Marlboro reds and opened them. He held it out to me. "Smoke?"
"Sure," I said after some thought. I had always been curious about cigarettes, always tempted to try them. Not because I think it's cool or anything it's just that both my parents smoke, my Aunty Marie smokes and a shitload of kids at school smoke and I'm pretty damn sure I've smelt it on at least half my teachers. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
Gerard flicked a cigarette out from his packet and into his mouth, and climbed off the bed. He kicked boxes and papers as he made his way to the window and opened it wide.
"We'll have to look retarded and lean out the window and smoke, I'm afraid," he sighed. "Mum hates the smell of smoke in the house, and I can't be fucked going outside. So this is my compromise."
"Your Mum lets you smoke?" I watched as he lit up and took a deep puff, trying to figure out how I was going to do this and not look like a complete noob.
"Yeah, I started at the end of the 8th grade, I didn't really try to hide it from her." He handed me the lighter. "She wasn't impressed but she's always kind of let me do my own thing knowing that if I fuck up it's my own mistake, not hers."
I nodded. I lit the smoke and took my puff. I just about coughed out my lungs. Gerard snorted and just about pissed himself laughing.
"This is your first time smoking, isn't it???" He asked gleefully. I nodded. My throat was raw and my eyes were watering.
"That's amazing!" He was beaming. "You don't have to have it if you don't want it. I only offered in case you did smoke."
"Na it's good." I squeaked. Gerard couldn't stop chuckling to himself. My throat was killing me, but I took another puff anyway, which wasn't as bad because I only inhaled a little bit at a time so that my lungs didn't go into shock. "I was thinking of trying it anyway."
"You might want to grab hold of me," He grinned.
"Why?"
"You're about to get the major head rush of your life."
And just as he said it. It was like being in an elevator that's going down too fast, I felt dizzy and a little bit sick, but otherwise the feeling was nice. I grabbed hold of Gerard and held myself up.
"Don't worry, it won't last much longer." He said in between smoking. "It's just that your body's not used to the nicotine so you get a massive kick out of it. It happens to smokers too, sometimes; if they don't smoke for a longer time frame than what their body is used to, and WHOO! Hello!"
We stood there looking funny leaning out his window for a little bit. I analyzed all the aspects. The taste, the smell, the feeling of the smoke in my lungs, the dizzy feeling I was getting from each puff. Usually I hate feeling dizzy but this was a different kind, it was pleasant.
"So..." Gerard started. "Is your Mum always like that?"
I took another drag of the cigarette and contemplated the answer. To tell the truth or to lie? I decided to go for the truth, he deserved that much at least.
"Yeah," I sighed, exhaling the smoke. "My Dad's not much better, either."
Gerard looked at me and nodded. He motioned for me to go on.
"I can relate to your story, in some ways. My Dad is a drinker and a gambler. My Mum is a drinker too, but she's not quite as bad as my Dad, although her anger issue makes up for it. She doesn't hit me anymore, but she'll still take the old swing at me or Dad if she's drunk. Her and Dad are hammered now at home, actually. That's why I came over."
Gerard took one last puff of his cigarette and threw it out onto the street. He exhaled the smoke and looked down for a little bit, and nodded. He looked up at me.
"Do you want to crash here tonight?"
"Oh! No that's not what I-"
"I know that's not what you meant." He cut me off. "But you see, I can relate to your story. I know what it's like to want and need to get away and have nowhere else to go, so I'm offering this place. I'm not trying anything on with you; I just want to help."
"Thanks," I smiled and nodded. I handed Gerard my cigarette knowing too well that my aim meant it would not make to the street from here but instead set the front yard on fire. "If you don't mind, that is."
He stood back up right into the room and closed the window behind us.
"Of course it's alright." He walked back over to the bed and pulled the sheets back. "Uh, do you want a shirt to change into or something?"
"Uh..." I ran my fingers through my hair. "No it's okay. I'll just go home early in the morning."
"You sure? I don't mind. I won't look." He blushed a little. I couldn't help but crack an enormous smile at this blush.
"I'll be alright."
He climbed into the bed next to the bedside table with the lamp on it.
"I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to climb over me, I sleep on this side of the bed."
"Okie dokie," I smiled jumping over him. I climbed under the sheets and felt a little piece of heaven. The mattress was the softest mattress I had ever lay on and the sheets had that amazing clean linen smell, which was one of my favourite smells in the world.
I thought it would have been awkward being in Gerard's bed, but it wasn't. It was really nice.
Gerard turned out the light. "Roll over and face the wall."
"Okay..." I said confused. I did as I was told.
I couldn't help but smile as he placed an arm under my head and wrapped his other arm around my waist and cuddled me as we slept.