FicWad

So here's the next chapter...finally. Just a quick warning my updates are going to take even longer now since I'm organising my mum's surprise party (imagine if she reads this and finds out lol) so I can't give the story my full attention but I will try dammit! Thanks for all the reviews much appreciated so enjoy my darlings.

'Mia please just tell me what I did wrong' Frank pleaded as he closed their front door behind him. 'Ever since we left Amber's you've been giving me the cold shoulder, is it because I told you to shut up in the car earlier, I apologised for that.'
'No it's not because you told me to shut up it's because you spent all night getting friendly with Lyn' Jamia said taking her jacket off and hanging on the coat rack.
'Oh My God are you jealous' Frank said doing the same and following her into the living room.
'No I am not jealous, have you forgotten how she treated Gerard, what she put him through and here you are rekindling a friendship and walking down memory lane' Jamia said facing him and crossing her arms across her chest.
'I was just being polite what was I supposed to do, not talk to her' he said sinking into the lone armchair that was positioned by the door.
'I managed it and so did Bob if you hadn't noticed' she said glaring at him.
'Bob doesn't count he barely knows her and you not talking to her was just plain rude Mia.'
'I was not rude I just have no intention of striking up a friendship with Lyn.'
'And neither do I, I was trying to make her feel welcome.' He said honestly.
'She doesn't need welcoming ok she needs a kick in her ass.'
'Why is this bothering you so much?' he asked
'Because I can see right through her and I know what she doing' Jamia sighed
'And that is...'
'She's trying to get back with Gerard and she's doing it through us.'
'And you know that how' he laughed
'Don't laugh at me Frank, I can see it, it's written all over her Goddamn face, she's trying to get back with Gerard'
'Jamia can you hear yourself, that is so absurd and far fetched, how can assume something like that after spending a few hours with her?'He asked.
'Call it women's intuition, I'm onto her I know what she's trying to do.'
'Honey I doubt that what's she's doing' Frank said standing up 'and lets just say for arguments sake that she is trying to get Gerard back, he isn't stupid and he has Cheyenne, he wouldn't risk losing her for anything especially not Lyn.'
'Hmm we'll see' Jamia said not catching Frank's eyes as he stood.
'Come on let's go to bed, I'll make you feel better' he said taking her hand and leading her to the bedroom.
*
'So' Gerard said once he and Cheyenne were in bed, he was sketching and she was flipping through a magazine.
'So what?' she asked looking up from the fashion pages to glance at him.
'Are you gonna tell me what happened earlier?' he said still sketching as he spoke.
'With what?'
'Thanksgiving'
'Nothing happened' she said shaking her head.
'Really cause that's not the impression I got' he said.
'You read too much into things.' She replied dropping the magazine to the floor and switching off her bedside lamp, which was their only source of light.
'Drawing over here' Gerard said speaking into the darkness.
'Oh I'm sorry honey I thought you finished drawing when the interrogation begun.' She retorted settling herself for sleep.
'Interrogation? All I did was ask a question' he said dropping the notepad to the floor and getting under the covers.
'Is it that you don't like Thanksgiving, I know some people don't like that holiday.' He said quietly pulling her close to him.
'Please baby just drop it' she said trying to keep the frustration from her voice.
'No why won't you tell me what your issue with Thanksgiving is?'
'I don't have an issue with it, you asked me to come to your mother's and I'm coming' she said
'So what's bothering you then?' he asked
'Nothing so please stop asking me' she cried.
'Does it have something to do with your parents, I noticed you have no photos of them?' he said.
'What do you know of parents Gerard?' she asked.
'Nothing'
'Exactly you know nothing so drop it' She said throwing his arm from around her and leaving the warmth of the bed and the room.
*
'Well let's chalk up the score shall we' Lyn said to herself counting off her triumphs on her finger 'I believe that's two to me and zero for Cheyenne' she laughed to herself and if tomorrow fell in her favour it would be three nil. She tucked herself into her bed thinking that soon she'd be snuggled up to Gerard. She let out a giddy laugh and hugged his t-shirt close to her like she did every night, it still smelt faintly of his scent, which consisted of cigarettes, soap and a mild hint of body spray and she loved it. It was her favourite t-shirt of his and she deliberately hid it from him when he came to pack up his things along with a lighter and a pair of his boxers. She closed her eyes and willed sleep to come as she needed to be prepared for tomorrow morning.
*
'Cheyenne' Gerard called out from the bedroom door, he hadn't realised it but it had been over two hours since Cheyenne had exited the bedroom. He unintentionally dozed off and when he woke he discovered she hadn't returned. He walked through the apartment his bare feet making no sound as he made his way into the living room to find Cheyenne curled up in a ball asleep. He made his way over to the sofa and crouched down in front of her, she was breathing softly and he could see she had a scrunched up tissue in her hand. She kissed her tear-stained cheek while removing the soggy tissue from her hand and placing it on the arm of the chair. He then gently placed his arms under her and lifted her sleeping body off the sofa and carried her to the bedroom wishing he knew what had upset her so much.
*
Saturday morning.

Dressed in comfortable jeans, trainers and a light blue jumper Lyn neared St Peter's and hoped that the day would go well. She spotted Mary and made a beeline for her determined to be the perfect helper this afternoon and hopefully catch Donna's eye.
'Good Morning Mary' she said brightly causing the middle-aged woman to turn and face her.
'Lyn' she beamed hugging her closely 'I'm so glad you turned up'
'Well I said I would didn't I?' she answered smiling 'so how do these things work?' she asked looking around at the various tables set up around the well kept church yard.
'Well basically you set up a table, lay everything neatly and people will browse by and hopefully purchase something. Most of these items were donated from the parishioners themselves, you know old gifts and things like that' she smiled
'Do I have to run a table by myself?' Lyn asked slightly worriedly, she was not a people person at all.
'No of course not everyone is partnered up' Mary said taking a clip board from under her arm 'I have paired you up with Andrea Class she'll be here any minute and I have assigned you to the toy and children's gift table.' Mary informed her and she cursed inwardly, why did she have to be placed at a table that would interest brats that would touch everything with their sticky fingers?
'Oh great who err who else is working today?' She asked casually
'Quite a few I couldn't name them all dear but I'm sure you'll see them throughout the afternoon.' Just then a little blonde girl with long pigtails came along calling Mary's name, both women turned to greet her.
'Mary, Sam hasn't turned up yet I'm gonna take her place on the cake stool with Donna.' She announced proudly flashing a wide smile.
'That's a very busy job' Mary said honestly 'Do you think you can handle that?'
'I know I can' the girl said practically jumping around
'Ok just don't get under Donna's feet okay' Mary warned
'I won't I promise' she said skipping off towards the church doors her pigtails bouncing wildly behind her.
'Well the toys have all been placed by that table over there, so I'll leave you to set up' Mary said giving Lyn's arm a quick squeeze before walking off.
'Goody for me' Lyn said heading to her designated table.
*
Gerard stood in the kitchen puffing away on a Marlboro deciding whether or not to call Bob. What happened with Cheyenne last night saddened him and it didn't take a genius to work out that it did have something to do with her parents. He dialled Bob's number and waited for it to connect.
/'What's up Gee?'/Bob greeted cheerfully.
'Hey man, how are things?'
'everything is cool how's my baby cousin?
'She's okay I think.' Gerard answered honestly.
'You think?'
'Well that's why I'm calling, I err invited Cheyenne to Thanksgiving dinner and she went all weird about it then I asked her about her parents and she stormed off, I found her later fast asleep on the sofa, she'd been crying man. Please tell me you know what's that about' Gerard said taking a drag of his cigarette.
'It's not my place to say Gee...' Bob said uncomfortably.
'Please Bob if you could only see her now you'd know how badly she's needs comforting and I can't do it because I don't know what the problem is.'
There was a long pause and finally Bob started talking.
'When Chey was younger she lived with her parents, they were seemingly normal except that my uncle Chey's dad used to beat my aunt and not just hit her like a slap or two but actually beat her. This went on for years and no one knew any better not even Cheyenne because he never touched her he never laid a finger on her, she just thought things were normal. Then about three years ago on Thanksgiving it all blew up. Her parents got into an argument at the dinner table and my uncle hit my aunt and then all the abuse that she had suffered came spilling out, that night my uncle left without so much as a goodbye to Cheyenne, she was heartbroken Gee. The next year on Thanksgiving her Mom committed suicide, Chey found her in the bathroom with pills and a bottle of alcohol after that she came to live with us.'
'Jesus' Gerard whispered not noticing the pile of ash his cigarette formed on the tiled floor. 'Poor girl'
'Look just tread softly ok, she still isn't over it and this time of year always hits her hard and I'm not going to lie, it can be hard to handle her. Get her to call me when your done talking I need to hear she's ok' Bob said
'I'll tell her, thanks Bob.' Gerard said.
'No problem' Bob replied before the line went dead.

Gerard hung up and tossed the cigarette butt in the bin once he made sure it was dead, he then quickly swept up the fallen ass and tossed that into the bin too. Walking through the hallway he poked his head around the bedroom door to see if Cheyenne had arisen yet but she was still curled up under the covers fast asleep, he noted the time and hoped she would wake up soon it was already coming up to mid-day. As he showered and dressed he remembered that she had invited her friends over for dinner, maybe he'd take them out instead.
*
The sale was due to start any minute and Lyn was already regretting signing up, she had met her partner Andrea and she was a ginger haired no it all, the kind of girl that Lyn would beat up if she was still at school. She couldn't help but look over at Donna, they had seen each other earlier and Donna had given her a polite smile. She watched as the little blonde girl from earlier entered the church when an idea struck her.
'Andrea I'll be right back' Lyn said heading towards the church. Once she entered she walked quickly down the aisle and headed for the open door of the vestry.
'Hey there little girl' Lyn said smiling at the little blonde brat in front of her
'My name's Casey and I'm nine' the little girl replied
'Ok, Casey how would you like to work on the toy stool with Andrea' Lyn said 'Just think of all the fun toys you can play with.'
'No thanks I'm happy helping Donna' Casey smiled showing her kiddie teeth.
'Are you sure? I saw a lot of barbie dolls on that table' Lyn replied
'I'm sure' she said walking around Lyn 'But I could be persuaded.'
'You have got to be kidding me' Lyn said staring at the nine year old with a mix of wonder and distaste.
'Ok then have fun with Andrea and all the kids with their jammy fingers.' Casey said turning to leave.
'Urgh! Ok wait a second' Lyn said pulling her purse out of her shoulder strap bag 'here that's $10 don't spend it all at once.' She said handing the note to Casey who just folded her arms.
'Well take it' Lyn said shaking the money in front of her
'Double that and you have a deal' Casey said
'What no way' Lyn cried in disbelief.
'No deal then'
'Ok how about $12?'
'$18'
'Hell no' Lyn said
'$15' they both cried in unison.
'Are you happy?' Lyn asked
'No are you?' Casey replied.
'No'
'Well alright then it was nice doing business with you.' Casey said pocketing her money and skipping out the vestry. That little brats going to get far in life Lyn thought smiling to herself.
*
When Cheyenne finally woke up it was after two and the apartment was empty. On the coffee table Gerard had left her a note informing her that he'd be back later and an envelope, which held a letter. After making herself a herbal tea, she settled down and read Gerard's letter. When Gerard returned thirty minutes later Cheyenne was crying on the sofa again and when she spotted him she ran over and threw herself in his arms.
'I'm so sorry' she sobbed into his shoulder
'Hey it's okay' he said embracing her tightly.
'I just read your letter and it's so beautiful and yesterday I wasn't nice to you at all'
'It's alright baby I know what you're going through I spoke to Bob, I just wished you would have told me yesterday so you didn't have to face those feelings alone.'he told her.
'I know I'm so sorry, I just got so angry remembering it all, it still hurts so much' she said calming herself down 'I hate this time of year'
'I got that vibe' he joked trying to lighten the mood, Cheyenne laughed and held him closely. 'Next time let me in ok, let me be there for you'
'I will' she sniffed
'C'mon on I'll run you bath' he said 'you can chill out and relax before this evening'
'This evening...are we going out?' She smiled wiping her eyes with her hands.
'Yep me, you, Farrah and Jude' he said leading her towards the bathroom.
*
When Lyn emerged from the church she was happy to see that a few people had started to browse the tables. She took a deep breath as she descended the church steps and made her way to Donna.

'Hello Donna' she said once she reached the table that she'd be serving at for the rest of the afternoon.
'Hello Lyn' Donna said taking a second to look up at the figure standing beside her.
'Err ho..how have you been?' Lyn asked feeling awkward and willing her confidence to come forward.
'I'm very well and yourself' Donna said handing Lyn a container that was filled with muffins and pointing to an empty tray.
'I've been okay' Lyn replied opening the container and lining the tray with the small chocolate chip muffins.
They worked in silence for a while Donna handing Lyn containers of various cakes and cookies and Lyn arranged them neatly on trays.

'So I hear congratulations are in order' Donna said finally speaking up
'For what?' Lyn asked.
'I hear you been sober for quite a number of months'
'Oh yeah I have' Lyn blushed 'who told you?'
'Mikey did, he mentioned that you all had dinner last night' Donna recalled.
'We did it was fun, it was nice to catch up with all of them again, being sober I could actually appreciate their company and follow the conversation' Lyn said laughing lightly.

Donna smiled but didn't respond, she didn't actually know what to say, on one side she wanted to scream at Lyn for leading her son into a mess of alcohol and drugs but on the other hand she wanted to hug the woman before her and tell her how proud she was that she was changing.
When Gerard and Lyn were together Donna was enamoured with her and they spent a lot of time together, Gerard had wanted them to get along so much and they did, they had a wonderful friendship and when Gerard and Lyn moved in together Donna was ecstatic and hoped so much that they'd settled down and start a family. But as the years past Lyn became more and more dependant on drugs and alcohol as did Gerard and her and Lyn's friendship deteriorated to the point where Donna couldn't bare to be around Lyn. When Gerard had told Donna he was going to split with Lyn, she couldn't help but feel relieved, the last thing she wanted was for Lyn to get him back in the habit after he had worked so hard and come so far.

'So how is Gerard?' Lyn asked as she served an elderly lady who had what must've been her grandchild with her as the child was tugging on her arm and pointing at a cupcake with pink icing.
'He's fine, he's in Chicago' Donna said not sure whether or not to mention Cheyenne but then again she was his future 'He's visiting his girlfriend'
'Oh duh, sorry Mikey mentioned that yesterday' Lyn said rolling her eye and ignoring the stab of jealous in her gut. 'I'm getting forgetful'
'Well that makes two of us.' Donna said handing a muffin over to a small child who was so eager to taste it, took a bite before handing over the required fifty cents.

The day dragged on to say the least, not only was Lyn bored but she was tired, her feet ached from standing up serving cake and cookies to people and the only upside to this wasted Saturday was that her and Donna seemed to be getting along nicely.
It was coming up to 16.30pm when Mary ambled over and informed them that they were going to call it day, Lyn silently whooped for joy and she and Donna started to put the left over cakes, which weren't that many back into containers.

'We did good' Donna said surveying the four containers they had left.
'I hope we raised enough money to get the things the church needs' Lyn said looking at the cloth bag that held the money they had made.
'Me too' Donna said handing Lyn the robust bag 'could you go put that in the vestry for me while I finish here, if Father David is there tell him I'll be there in a minute to cash up.'
'Ok' Lyn said accepting the bag and carrying into the church, she carefully placed the moneybag on the table and called out for Father David, but he was nowhere to be seen. She left the vestry and closed the door behind her she decided she'd wait for Donna to come before leaving, she didn't want some person with itchy fingers to make off with the money they'd made. Sitting down on a pew and rested her hands on her lap and waited, it had been along time since she had been in a church and she actually felt quite peaceful. Suddenly and idea struck her and she pulled a tattered prayer cushion from under her seat and knelt down on it resting her hands on the pew in front giving the impression that she was in deep prayer.
Donna entered the church and the first thing she saw was Lyn, she quietly made her way over to the praying woman and sat down at the end of the pew and waited for her to finish. When Lyn finally finished Donna was shocked to find that she was crying.
'What's the matter dear?' Donna asked, her motherly instincts kicked in and she embraced the sobbing woman.
'I don't know, sometimes I just get like this' she said 'I get all emotional.'
'Well you let it all out' Donna said stroking her hair gently 'It's ok to cry'
'Sometimes I just feel so alone' Lyn said sniffing 'Everyone's doing their own thing and I feel like I'm stuck in a rut.'
'Oh sweetheart we all feel like that sometimes, but it will pass.' Donna reassured her.
'It doesn't help that the holidays are coming up either' Lyn sobbed 'Another day I'll celebrate alone'
'Where are your parents?' Donna asked
'They moved back to San Francisco at the beginning of the year, but they're vacationing in Europe they'll be back before Christmas thankfully.' She said sitting up 'I'm so sorry Donna I wet your jumper.'
'Don't worry about that' Donna laughed 'It will dry and so will your tears girl, these feelings won't last forever.'
'I hope not or my future doesn't look to inviting' she said giggling nervously.
Donna's heart went out to Lyn as they sat there, she hated the thought of people being alone but what she hated the most was the thought of people being alone during the holidays, those were the times of year that families spent together.
'Lyn why don't you come over for Thanksgiving dinner' Donna offered
'Are you serious' Lyn asked completely thrown by the question
'Yes why not you don't have anywhere else to be and everyone will be there.' Donna said.
'Oh Donna I don't know...'
'If you're worried about Gerard the don't, I'll talk to him and I'm sure he won't mind after all we've all moved on haven't we?'
'Well yes we have but...' Lyn started
'It's settled then I'll set a place for you' Donna said smiling 'I have to go now and count up that money, I'll see you next Thursday at 6.00pm.'
'Thank you Donna that means so much.' Lyn said standing and kissing her cheek.

After Donna left, Lyn gathered up her jacket and bag that rested on the pew and headed for the church exist, as she descended the concrete steps she wiped away her crocodile tears and smiled broadly.
'I believe that's three to me, zero for Cheyenne' She said to herself.