FicWad

Gerard and I sat with our heads rested on our hands as we watched the clock tick slowly. It was Friday afternoon, and it was the last spell for the day. Usually Gerard and I enjoyed English, but this lesson was particularly torturous. Mr. Gerrison was away and the relief teacher was dick. His name was Mr. Trench. As soon as Gerard and I had entered the room and spotted Mr. Trench, I dragged Gerard to the back of the room so I didn’t have to put up with Mr. Trench being right in front of us the whole lesson. If his name doesn’t spell it all, then let me explain.
He was a short, bald, wildly overweight, grumpy son-of-a-bitch. We were in the middle of studying the Lord of the Rings and we were supposed to be learning about character development, however, that was a waste of time according to Mr. Trench. Instead he decided we should write an essay on the importance of grammar, because the children of today are sorely lacking in proper English skills blah blah blah.
“You know, it’s my birthday tomorrow.” Gerard whispered. It sounded slurred because his whole face was smushed together with his hands.
“I know. Your Mum told me when she dropped me home on Monday.” I sounded exactly the same as he did.
“My parents said you can come stay the weekend, if you want to.”
“Really?” I asked in monotone. Neither of us were looking away from the clock.
“You don’t have to. It’s an offer. But it’d be cool, and my parents have agreed to it.”
“You see, if it had of been my parents they would have kicked me out for the mere suggestion. Oh wait, I forgot.”
Gerard laughed half-heartedly and sounded a bit ‘special’ as his face was still smushed.
“Good thing my parents aren’t so uptight. Like I said, no pressure.”
“I’m keen. Can we go back to mine and ask Raven first?”
“Sure.”
We watched the clock tick another horrendously slow forty five minutes before the bell rang. We snatched our books up and raced out the door, pretending not to hear Mr. Trench yelling at us to come back. To avoid the possibility of Mr. Trench chasing us down the corridor, we sprinted to Gerard’s locker. There was no way he was going to be able to catch us if we did. He grabbed all his stuff and shut his locker.
The corridors spilled with the students as we made our way back to my locker. I was disgusted to find Alicia leaning against my locker blabbing away to Bonnie as Frank stood next to her looking up at the ceiling and his hands dropped to his sides. He was obviously bored shitless.
“Excuse me.” I said to Alicia. She pretended not to hear me. “I said EXCUSE ME!”
“Temper temper.” She mocked as she slowly, and I mean, slowly moved out of my way. She stood next to Frank and smiled at Gerard. My blood boiled again.
“Hey my favourite American boy, how’s it going mate?”
My eyes twitched at the sound of her voice, her accent in general. I quickly shoved everything into my bag and grabbed it.
“I’m fine thanks, how are you?” He sighed.
“Oh you know, a bit bored. Bonnie and Frank are gonna go off and do their own thing. I wanna go see a movie, want to come with? My shout.”
“Depends.” He said. I closed my locker and spun around to face him. What the hell?
“On?” She flashed a smile.
“What movie are you going to see?”
“Oh, you can choose.” She giggled.
Gerard frowned. “How about that movie that I can’t remember the name of. What was it?” He pretended to think hard. “I can’t remember, it starts with A, though.”
She tilted her head to the side. “What’s it about?”
“Some hoe that needs to fuck off.”
I burst into laughter, and Frank snorted, Bonnie shot him a glare and he bit his finger to stop himself from laughing. Gerard stepped up to Alicia.
“I’m not interested in you. I’ve got standards and honey, you’ll never reach them.” He grabbed my hand and we made our way through the front door. I could hear Alicia scoffing behind us, and whispering something to Bonnie. I didn’t care; Gerard burnt Alicia in front of everyone.
We got on the bus back to Bob’s, and I still had a massive grin on my face.
“What are you smiling at?” Gerard asked as he smirked at me.
“You.” I looked at him.
“Why?”
“You totally burnt Alicia in the hallway!”
“Yeah,” Gerard faced the front. “She was pissing me off.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Burning her like that. I wonder if she’ll hit on you again on Monday?”
“If she does I’ll just burn her again. But more brutally. Like, say her ass looks fat in those jeans or something. Girls hate that. If that doesn’t make her piss off then I’m not sure if anything actually will.”
I rested my head on his shoulder until we got to our stop. We hopped off the bus and walked back to Bob’s. I walked in and closed the door behind Gerard, I called out for Raven.
“I’m in the bathroom!” She yelled back.
I walked in. She was scrubbing the bathtub with Jiff. She had purple gloves on and her hair tied back. She sat back and pulled her gloves off and looked at us, she smiled.
“Hello you two. How was school today?”
“Excellent.” I grinned.
“Good to hear. Where’s Bob?” She stood up and took a swig of a glass of water.
“In detention.” I smiled. She rolled her eyes.
“What for?”
“He drew a penis on the board in vivid. It wouldn’t rub off. He even put his own hand up when the teacher asked who did it.” I giggled.
“Of course he did. Where did I go wrong?” She sighed. She put her hands on her hips and looked at the bathtub. “Yeah I think that’s clean enough. What are you two up to?” She grabbed a cigarette from her packet. I stepped back to let her through. She walked out the front door, leaving it open as she stepped out onto the porch and lit up, she turned around to face us and exhaled.
“Well actually, Raven.” I gulped as I stepped up. Raven was lovely, but she was staunch. “Gerard’s invited me to stay over at his house for the weekend, his parents hav-”
“No.” She said bluntly.
“But his parents have agreed to it.”
“No, Rachel.” Her tone was almost fatal. “When you’re in my care, you don’t stay over at Gerard’s house.”
“What if Aunt Marie gives me permission?”
Raven pursed her lips slightly, and thought about it.
“I’ll speak to Marie.” She said. “Once I’m done with this smoke.”
I nodded. Aunt Marie was pretty awesome, so I was fairly confident she’d say yes. I thanked Raven as Gerard and I headed to my room.
“Gerard,” Raven called out. He stopped in his tracks. “You don’t go in there.”
He cleared his throat and scratched his head. He shrugged and pulled out his cigarette packet and walked out onto the porch to smoke with Raven.
I quickly packed a bag full of enough clothes for the weekend. I grabbed my art folder so that Gerard and I could start working on our art piece for the competition at the end of the year. I put my stuff at the end of the bed and walked out.
I wanted to have a smoke with them but I didn’t want to push Raven’s luck. So I just sat down on the door step.
“Right. Now that you two are actually here.” She coughed. “You want to go stay at Gerard’s?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“And you want her to stay at yours?” She turned to Gerard.
“That is correct.” He took a drag.
“Okay. Well. I was a teenager about a million years ago but that doesn’t mean I don’t remember what the hormones were like. This is awkward, it really is. So I’m just gonna be bold about it. Are you two using protection?”
I had stolen a sip out of Raven’s glass of water right as she said it, and ended up watering the pot plant to my side as I spat it out, and had a coughing fit.
“We’re not having sex.” Gerard said calmly. Raven turned to him and gave him a sarcastic look. “Honestly. We’re not.”
Raven tilted her head back and looked at Gerard, as if she were studying his facial expression for any hint of lies. She frowned and her eyes widened as her head lowered slightly.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“You two have got to be the only teenager couple that… Even Bob doesn’t have a girlfriend and he’s all over the place.”
I screwed my face up. I really didn’t want to hear that. I already knew about it, but I preferred not hearing it.
Gerard shrugged. “I’m in no hurry.”
“Right. Well. Okay. Uh. I’ll just go call Marie.” She put her smoke out and rushed inside.
Gerard snorted his laughter as he looked at me. I stood up and closed the door; I grabbed a cigarette out from his packet and took a massive drag as I lit up. The smoke hit my lungs like double barrel gauge bullets, and it felt good.
“If she catches you, that’s from your own packet, not mine.” He said raising his eyebrows. “I like you and all, but I can imagine Raven’s wrath is that of a thousand scorned women.”
“Relax,” I smiled. “I wouldn’t get you into trouble. But if I’ve got time, I’m handing this to you.”
He half shook his head as he took another drag.
“What are we gonna do at yours anyway?” I asked.
“I’m thinking we work on our art thing. Listen to some good music. I’m in the mood for some Iron Maiden.” He smiled.
“You’re always in the mood for Iron Maiden.”
“Exactly.”
I chuckled a little. “I like Black Label Society. Oh and Pantera.”
“Good. Good.” He grinned. He leaned back onto the wall and put his foot up behind him. He crossed his arm over and rest his hand on the inner elbow of the arm he held up as he smoked. “What about Maiden?”
“You haven’t played them, yet.” I responded.
“Oh we’re listening to Maiden tonight.” He nodded. “And Lamb of God.”
I sighed. I wished that I had already known these bands, I felt like a complete noob having to be taught at the age I’m at now.
I took the last drag of my cigarette, put it out and then exhaled, right before Raven came out.
“Okay. Marie said it’s fine.” She said sternly. She held her hand up as I jumped up and down on the spot with excitement. “On the condition you promise me you will be safe about… Things.”
My demeanour dropped. It was such an awkward topic, I couldn’t be bothered arguing the point of my lousy virginity, so I just agreed.
I raced inside and grabbed my stuff and shot back out again. Raven frowned.
“That was quick…” She said.
“Yeah well, I kind of already packed my bags.” I blushed. She shook her head.
“You two better get going before I change my mind.”
I gave her a kiss on the cheek and we said goodbye. We walked over to the bus stop hand-in-hand. I already knew this was going to be the best weekend ever.

We arrived at Gerard’s around 5pm, we stepped in.
“I’m gonna go for a quick shower, I feel a bit .. Bleh.” He said as he walked into the bathroom. “Go watch TV.”
I nodded and stood awkwardly for a bit. I could hear Donna doing something in the kitchen, so I stepped into the lounge.
Mikey was sitting right in front of the TV screen, and turned around.
“Hello Rachel.” He said as he got up and sat on the couch. “Come sit and watch Ninja Turtles with me!”
“Okay!” I smiled as I jumped down onto the couch. “Who’s your favourite Ninja Turtle?”
“Definitely Donatello.” He said without really thinking about it, I figured he didn’t need to. “One, purple is one of my favourite colours and that’s the mask he wears. But he’s also really intelligent. He doesn’t like violence, he believes that the worlds conflicts can be solved by talking about it properly instead of blowing it up. And he’s right. I don’t like violence either. It’s silly. Who’s your favourite Ninja Turtle?”
I smiled. He was pretty smart for a ten year old.
“Mine is Michelangelo. Definitely. He’s funny.”
“How do you know who the Ninja Turtles are?” He asked curiously.
“Oh, I grew up watching the cartoons!” I beamed. “I used to go to my Aunty’s house in the school holidays and she would have taped all the Ninja Turtles episodes for me during the school days, and so when I got to hers I had heaps of episodes to watch.”
“Why didn’t you just watch it at home?” His question stunned me. I was relieved when Gerard walked into the room.
“Mum says I can’t have a shower just yet, she needs the hot water for cooking and cleaning, apparently.” He rolled his eyes.
I smiled. Gerard sat in between Mikey and I, and put his arms along the back of the couch. We all sat there and watched Ninja Turtles, cheering them on.
“Dinner time, guys!” Donna popped her head through the doorway. Her face lit up when she spotted me “Hello Rachel!”
“Hey, Donna!” I smiled.
We left the lounge and walked into the dining room. Don was already seated at his end of the table. Mikey sat down next to him, and Gerard and I took the opposite side, leaving the empty end of the table for Donna.
She had made a roast lamb and veges for dinner, and gave us all our plates. She put all the main dishes on the table on their matts and told us to help ourselves.
“So Rachel, have you always lived in Liverpool?” Don asked me as pots and pans and meat were passed around the table.
“Yes I have. Born and raised.” I smiled.
“You must have been around Europe already, how exciting, living in such a big place like this.” Donna smiled.
“I actually, have only ever been to Bridgend in Wales and London.” I sighed. “My parent’s aren’t big travellers.”
“Oh,” Donna frowned slightly. “Well we will be doing a lot of travelling around Europe. Gerard’s not interested. He’s too cool.”
“You’re damn right I am.” Gerard said with a mouthful of lamb. Donna screwed her face up and Don smacked Gerard lightly around the head.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”
Donna, Don and occasionally Mikey asked me questions about my life, of which I was wary of. They never asked about my parents, Gerard must have told them what had happened. The thing I enjoyed the most about being at the table wasn’t just the great food, but the family vibe. Everybody talked about their day, what they learned and played the game of ‘Three cool things about your day’, in which you have to name three things that happened in your day that you really enjoyed.
“Three cool things about my day,” Don sighed as he sat back in his chair. “Uh. Okay well, I got to work on time for the first time since leaving the states.”
“That is super cool!” Donna gasped. “Well done you! Have a gold star!”
Don gave her an evil look. Mikey giggled.
“I had lunch with the boss, who talked about a position he wants me to apply for. More money means a better house. I thought that was super cool. And last and but not least, I’m sitting here with my family having dinner.”
I smiled as the game went around. Mikey’s list was super cute, he got to watch Ninja Turtles, play soccer with the boys at school and he got an A in his maths test. The game moved around to Gerard.
“Three cool things about my day. Well there’s this girl at school that nobody like’s and I shut her down in front of everybody.”
“That’s not cool.” Donna shook her head.
“This girl’s like, super nasty to Rachel.”
“That is so cool you shut her down, have two gold stars!” Donna beamed. I chuckled.
“Uh what else. It’s the weekend. And my girlfriend is here.”
“Nawwww,” Don mocked. “So cute and…” Don trailed off making cute and baby noises to a very unimpressed Gerard. Mikey, Donna and I all just laughed.
Gerard and I cleared the table and started on the dishes. I flicked some water at Gerard, he dunked both his hands the in the water and cradled them together and splashed a whole lot of water at me. I splashed some back, so he tried to grab my head and dunk me in when Don came into the room.
“Oi!” He yelled. “Piss off the both of you.”
“My pleasure!” Gerard cried out in a French accent. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out with him.
“Thank you so much for dinner, Donna!” I yelled as Gerard dragged me up the stairs.
“Yeah thanks Mum!”
Gerard walked over to his stereo and started fiddling with some dials and going through his CD collection, while I jumped on his bed and looked around the room.
His walls were now completely covered in posters and flags of bands and half naked rock chicks. The boxes that were piled into his room were gone and ornaments and other shit were around his room in it’s replacement.
“This. Is Maiden.” Gerard turned around suddenly with his arms in the air, and looking up to the ceiling as if he were praying to God. He jumped onto the bed and wriggled up to me, coming face to face.
“Hello.” He said with his eyes wide. I giggled.
“Hello.”
He smiled as he traced the skin on my face with his finger tips, analyzing every bit. He traced around my eyes and looked into them as if he were studying them.
“You have such an interesting eye colour.” He nearly whispered. “They’re so blue. Too dark to be light blue, too light to be dark blue.”
“I get that a lot.” I smiled. “You have nice eyes, too.”
“They’re hazel. It’s boring.”
“No they’re not.”
He rolled his eyes.
We looked at each other intensely for what seemed forever, a whole hour had passed and we were just lying there listening to Iron Maiden.
Gerard suddenly gulped and rolled on to his back, and put his arm underneath his head, and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up. He shook his head. “No tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nah. It’s nothing.” He shook his head.
“Please.” I held his hand. “You make me tell you things, you should tell me things, too.”
He looked at me, and nodded. He sat up and sighed again.
“This is moving fast.” He looked down at his hands; he was playing with his lighter.
“What is?”
“Us.” He looked at me sharply. “Don’t you see it, too?”
“I’m not sure if I’m following you…”
He frowned in frustration, and gripped the lighter tight. “It’s not supposed to happen this fast.”
“What’s not supposed to happen this fast??” I was getting frustrated, I had no idea what he was talking about. We hadn’t done anything beyond a kiss on the lips and he thinks it’s going too fast. “Gerard I don’t underst-”
“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
My heart dropped a beat and I froze in mid moment.
“That’s what I mean. It’s not supposed to happen this fast. With Victoria it was months. And then shit ended the way it did years later and I got burnt really badly but the worst part is, is that it was my fault in the first place. I don’t want to go down that road ever again.”
“I .. I … I don’t… I think I feel it too.” I stuttered out. He looked at me. “I don’t know. All I know is that it was really intense from the beginning but since last Saturday things got heavier. I’m happy when I’m around you. And when I’m not around you, all I do is think of you, it sounds obsessive but that’s not what I mean. But when I do think of you I smile. I just sit there and I smile. Like a fucking idiot.”
Gerard snorted.
“It’s the same with me, too.” He smiled.
“What happened with Victoria?” I asked.
“Please,” He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about her.”
“Okay.” I nodded.
We crawled under the blankets and Gerard turned the light off, leaving the stereo on. The song that was playing was Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter.
He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me, brushing his tongue over my lips again. But this time instead of freaking out, I returned the kiss. I could taste a slight hint of cigarettes and lamb. He tasted pretty good. As he gently massaged my tongue with his he ran his hands up and down my back. He slowly pulled away and bumped our noses together. He placed soft kisses on my lips and smiled.
“I love you,” He said. I felt a glow inside my chest about to burst.
“I love you too.” I said back.
He held me in his arms until I fell asleep, listening to Iron Maiden.