FicWad

"Uh, hi..yeah...this is ranch dressing, and I ordered honey mustard...."
Lily stirred her Dr. Pepper absentmindedly, clinking the square cubes of ice against the plastic cup as Ryan asserted himself to their seemingly apathetic waitress.
Ryan rolled his eyes,
"What the hell is so hard about that? HONEY MUSTARD..not RANCH...they don't even sound alike...yet it always happens." he grumbled, staring at his plate of fries and hamburger in frustration.
Will took a bite out of his triple cheeseburger,
"Dude, whatever. Just use ketchup." he mumbled, stuffing a french fry into his already full mouth.
Ryan rolled his eyes, "Will, if I wanted ketchup-"
Lily sighed loudly, clearing her throat to signal the need for silence.
Ryan furrowed his brow and began to eat his pickle moodily.
Will took a sip of soda,
"So," he asked after swallowing a mouthful of carbonated beverage, "How was your BREAK?" he asked, emphasizing the k sound.
Lily scratched her forehead,
"Fabulous." she said with a grin. She picked up a fry and dragged it through some ketchup,
"What did you guys do? Besides not call me.." she asked with a raised eyebrow and a wry smile.
Will sighed and took another bite from his triple cheeseburger,
"Spent some time at home. Did some online interviews...went to some strip-clubs. Got some tats...did some sweet crystal." he said with a shrug.
Ryan laughed as the waitress returned with a small bowl of honey mustard.
"Tats? Of what?" Lily asked, watching Ryan ravenously consume mustard coated onion rings.
"Oh...of you and Bert on my ass." Will replied with a wink, taking another sip of soda.
"Oh yeah, he wanted me to say... 'holla at cha butterball', by the way." Lily added, savoring the expression of disgust on Will's face.
Ryan snorted, eating happily,
"Well," he began, "I hung out with my mom and gramma..dyed my hair, as you can see," he said, gesturing to his now blue/black hair,
"And uh.." he dipped another fried onion in sauce,
"took a lot of baths..." he shrugged.
Lily nodded,
"Well," she began beaming, "Gerard..finally popped the question." Lily said with a grin.
"When's the date? And what's the color scheme?" Will asked playfully.
"It's mauve and you know what I mean." she said with a dismissive, impatient wave.
Ryan laughed,
"Sooo..you guys are FINALLY dating then?"
Lily nodded,
"Yep..yep yep yep!" she said, obviously buzzing with excitement.
"Have fun telling Bert..." Will mumbled, frown on his face,
"Hate to be the one to tell him..." he added with a chuckle.
Lily furrowed her brow,
"Bert's practically head over heels in love with some Aussie chick named..Alice or whatever." Lily explained, "He's more that preoccupied at the moment." she concluded.
Will shrugged,
"Well, had to happen sooner or later..how long has it been...'official'?" he asked, mocking the word slightly.
"About a week, thank you very much." Lily stated proudly, crossing her arms and leaning back in the booth, "And I'll have you know, he asked me when I was wearing those sweatpants you all hate."
They all groaned simultaneously.
"Warped should be weird now. Thanks Lily." Ryan added with a raised eyebrow and a sigh.
"What?" Lily asked, mildly shocked.
"Yeah," Will agreed, "Can we keep the drama, and PDA, to a minimum, please?" Will asked, wiping his plate clean.
Lily rolled her eyes,
"I'll give it a shot." she replied sarcastically and turned to the eerily quiet Adam,
"And what about you?"
Adam shrugged.
Lily noticed a hardness in his face.
Will and Ryan looked down at their food quietly.
Will sipped at his soda, brushing the light blonde hair out of his eyes, wide with concern.
Lily softly tapped Adam's foot with her own,
"Hey?" she asked quietly, a gentle smile on her face.
Adam sighed,
"My uh..." he paused, looking at the table,
"My fuckin' dad is trying to get a hold of me.." he mumbled under his breath.
Lily's eyes softened. She wanted to hold his hand; her maternal instinct kicking in. But she didn't do anything...all she did was push his foot slightly harder under the table,
"I'm sorry Adam.." she whispered, staring at her chicken strips.
"Yeah," Will interjected, "Fuck that fucker. It's alright..." he said, giving Adam a quick glance and a nod.
Ryan stared at his honey mustard, "Don't even worry about it, dude. You're a grown man...he can't do shit to you...all you have to do is ignore his calls..." he paused, looking up from his plate,
"I do it all the time to Lily."
Lily didn't care if she was the object of ridicule..as long as everybody was laughing...
She felt relieved Ryan had cracked a joke, and she flashed him a look of thanks, which he returned.
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Later that day, as they rode to a hotel, Lily thought about Adam. She stared at him as he slept in the van, remembering how they had met...
Adam was a bouncer at a Goth club in the city called Nocturna. Lily remembered the first time she saw him...standing by the doors, arms crossed, biceps bulging through a fishnet shirt...shiny piercings adorning his face and nipples (he denies any such piercing to this day). He had a goatee and stony brown eyes lined crudely with black eyeliner. He wore large black boots and leather pants, towering over the melancholy crowd of wannabe vampires, intellectuals and people trying to fit in, like Lily.
Lily had developed a friendship with him after a couple months, much to this dismay of the majority of the goth scene. There were many girls set on winning him over, aiming on impressing him with piercings and dark makeup, tales of pentagrams and blood.. only to be ignored. They couldn't figure it out how someone so..UN-GOTH could befriend someone so immersed in the scene..someone so stone cold and apathetic that they called him Gargoyle.
One night, after becoming particularly plastered, Lily approached him by the large doors.
She demanded to know why he looked so angry and what his favorite color was.
Thus, their friendship was born.
He was still standoffish, and still intimidating as hell, but...Lily persistently spoke to him while intoxicated, breaking the barrier. All the goths came to accept her, seeing as she talked to the creepy bouncer with the shaved head and nipple rings.
And that creepy bouncer kept an eye on her, more than she thought.
And there was one night that would change everything, and it started in the club bathroom..in the dark..dark bathroom with the single bulb and the curtains instead of doors...
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"Hey pretty flower, come here."
Lily spun around, wide grin on her face. She was damp with sweat, blonde hair clinging to her forehead.
"Hey." she said with a smile, breathing heavily.
She ran her hands over her face and through her hair seemingly compulsively,
"Whats..up?" she asked with a nervous laugh, sucking in saliva from the corner of her mouth.
A girl with black nails and jet black hair laughed,
"Nothing's up.." she said, looking her up and down.
Her eyes ran over Lily's black skirt and boots, laughing quietly at what she saw.
Lily turned to look at her own reflection, struggling to pull her hair up into a bun.
Her hands were shaking slightly, making it difficult to perform the task at hand.
Lily breathed in, air seemingly to rattle her chest with each intake.
The goth girl leaned against the wall, eyes narrow slits. Her arms were hanging loosely at her sides, smile loose and large..face relaxed,
"You look a little shaky, are you ok, honey?" she asked with a laugh, standing up straight.
Lily leaned on the counter, underneath the dim lightbulb, makeup smudged, face glistening with sweat. Her collar bone was poking through her seemingly thin skin...skinny arms hanging at her side. Her legs seemed wobbly and weak..and she stood there, eyes fluttering, hands shaking slightly.
"...I'm..fine." Lily managed, wrapping her arms around herself nervously, laughing, sweat shining on her forehead.
The goth girl smiled,
"I got just the thing for the shakes.." she said, pulling a small plastic package out from inside her bra.
She dangled it in front of Lily's large pupils.
"It's pure..." she grinned, pulling out a dollar bill from her pocket,
"Just the thing for the shakes..."
Lily smiled, rubbing her nose,
"Right on.."
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Lily ran around the dance floor that night..and Gargoyle watched her. He watched the way she laughed, stumbled...the way her eyes fluttered and her hands trembled. And then...suddenly...she was down. And the man of stone moved, quicker than anyone had seen him move before.
She lay there on the floor, surrounded by laughter, breathing heavily...pupils wide. And he picked her up and brought her through the back door...
It was sprinkling outside as he sat her down in the cold, dark alleyway behind the booming club..
He dipped his hand in a nearby garbage can lid, water collected inside it from the past rainfall,and dripped the cold water over her hot forehead.
Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned, sputtering a bit before stumbling over on to her hands and knees and heaving onto the black, wet pavement, knees embedded with rocks and fine pieces of glass.
And that night, the gargoyle..the man who watched over so many others so apathetically, put his hand to her back and held her hair.
He stayed with her until she stopped heaving...until the shaking stopped.
She wiped the wet hair from her face, eyes lined in a black blur, mascara running down her cheeks in black streaks and sniffled,
"...I'm Lily" she grumbled, "...Th..thanks." she managed.
"I'm Adam..." he whispered,
"...You shouldn't be here..."
Lily grunted,
"Well, I'm fucked up." she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand, sitting on the cement, damp from the rain.
"You don't have to be." he said, extending his hand.
Lily stared at him momentarily, eyebrow raised. She ran her hand over her nose and sniffled,
"Why are you helping me?" she asked.
Adam's hand wavered in the air,
"Because you're a good person."
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Over time, Lily found out a lot about Adam. As they spent more time together, he opened up to her about himself, probably because he knew she felt embarrassed about the incident in the alleyway.
He was one of two kids...just him and a younger brother. His father had left his mother when he was 10, leaving her to support two kids without a child support check. He told her, one night as they ate pizza, that he had been abused.
"Abused?" Lily echoed, nibbling on her slice. Her fingers trembled slightly as she chewed, and she began tapping the table. She sniffled, wiping her nose on a paper napkin.
Adam ignored the trail of red her nose left behind,
"Uh, yeah...he used to hit my mom when she was pregnant with Joey...and I knew that was bullshit, so...I told him what I though and..." he spoke slowly. He drank deeply from his cup, wiped his mouth and continued,
"He..hit me instead."
Lily frowned, mouth open,
"How old were you?"
She asked softly, shoving her trembling hands between her bony legs.
"8." he mumbled, " I would just stand there and take it..because, hey..I was just a kid, what could I do..." he trailed off,
"I learned to keep my mouth shut."
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Lily jolted out of the memories as the van came to a stop. Adam woke up almost immediately, eyes opening and blinking...
Lily caught his gaze and smiled, and tapped his foot with hers.
He smiled back; a weak smile, unsure of himself.
Lily reached over and grabbed his hand, remembering the gravel in her knees in that alleyway, his hand on her back,
"I'm here for you." she whispered, "I owe you one." she added with a grin.
Adam smiled and squeezed her hand; his eyes already looked stronger...they were no longer made of stone.