FicWad

**
Toni's POV
**

I woke up to the annoying sound of the alarm on my phone. It's one of those ones that picks a different song each morning... And this morning my slumber was destroyed by Gerard screaming 'I'm Not O-fucking-Kay' in my ear through the little contraption.

Ugh... Friday, well Fridays are usually kinda good ... right?
I dragged myself out of my bed once more and practically crawled to the shower. Once I was showered and dressed I made my way through to the kitchen. And once more there was a note waiting for me on the fridge door.

Toni,
Had to head off to work early again. There's plenty for breakfast in the fridge.
B x

Oh well. Nothing new there.

I decided to pass on the elevator today and take the stairs. Don't ask me why... I really don't know. Outside was still pretty chilly so I pulled my hoodie close. I had the Black Flag one on again because it was the warmest one that I now own. Sam stood reading as usual but he wasn't listening to his Ipod today.

'Hey.' I say giving him a gentle nudge on the arm.

His head snapped up and he turned to me and smiled.

'You're early, are you feeling okay?' He joked.

I just responded with another nudge... but this time it was slightly harder. A few more minutes of small talk and the bus drew up to our corner. We climbed on board and took our usual seat at the back. He put his book away. The next stop we made was the last one before school. I don't usually pay attention to who climbs aboard then but today there was someone that caught my eye.

Adam.

My look must have been glued to him with disgust because he just glared at me with a cruel smirk playing on his ugly chapped lips. Sam brought me out of my little ' hate stare' by waving his hand in front of my face.

'Hey... you okay?' He asked getting my attention.

'Huh? Oh yeah... it's just that guy is an asshole and I had a little run in with him the other day at school.' I replied still keeping my eye on the back of his head three seats down.

' What Adam Walton?' He was almost shocked at what I had said.

'Yeah... why. You know him?'

' Well not personally. But I do know that most kids that mess with him end up in the emergency room. What happened! Did he hurt you?' He was talking too fast for my liking.

'Well not really. I just called him an asshole and he grabbed me and shoved me around. I got a few bruises from it. But no biggie.' I replied almost casually.

' Why didn't you tell me? Look... just stay away from him.. Okay?' He ask with pleading eyes, so I had to say yes.
'Okay... fine.' I said not really caring.

***

Lunch... it has to be the best class of the day. I made my way out of the English room and up the stairs to my locker. If you could even call it that. I knew Sam was waiting out under the tree for me. It was just what we did now. We would talk about everything sitting there. It was weird. I had known him for less than a week and already we knew nearly everything about each other. It was almost like having Joey back. But instead of Sam talking to me about guys he likes, he tells me about the girls. Like the one in his science class. Man... he had it bad for that chick. Angela something I think he said it was.

But anyway. When I was on my way down the stairs to go meet Sam I was stopped. By Adam. There were two other guys behind him in the stairwell. It reminded me of Mackenzie and his group of morons back home at the movie theatre.
Adam was in the middle and as I tried to pass him he grabbed me by the arms. His rough hands managing to squeeze the same spot they had just days before.

'What's your problem?' I ask rudely as I squirm in his grasp.

I could hear his buddies laugh through their noses behind him. Adam said nothing but just stared at me with that god awful smirk. The one that I wanted to smack right off his face.

' LET ME GO!' I demanded while still in his grip.

' Awww. Look, is the licke emo kid gonna cry?' He mocked in a baby voice.

But seriously, I don't know where he got the whole emo thing from. Okay... so my hair might be a weird colour and I might wear eyeliner and own more band t-shirts than needed. But I wasn't emo. I wasn't anything. I hated labels. And I hated the people that did the labelling more.

' I AM NOT GOING TO CRY. NOW LET ME THE FUCK GO!' He spun us around so that I was at the edge of the top step to one of the small flights.

' Okay!' Was all he said before he let go of my shoulders with a tiny push. But that tiny push was enough to throw my balance off and for me to go tumbling down the hard, sharp steps.

I lay at the bottom. I was a little dizzy...but hell I was kinda surprised I was still conscious. All I could hear was the muffled and now distant cries of laughter from Adam and his buddies. My back felt like it was splitting in two. My shoulders hurt from where Adam had had his grip and my thighs were burning from the fall. If there had been maybe four or five more steps then that fall could've been fatal if I landed the wrong way. But of course with my luck there were just enough stairs to give you a ton of unwanted bruises and a headache to remember.

When I finally found my breath and the strength, I tried to stand. It wasn't as painful as I had prepared myself for, but it was still really uncomfortable. I made my way through the halls and out into the winter sun to find Sam sitting under our tree.

' Hey I've been waiting here for ages for y....' He stopped when he saw me limping slightly.

'OhMyGod! What happened?' he said it almost as if it was one word.

' Ugh.. Adam.' Was all I had to say.

Sam stood up and helped me sit down.

' Where is he I'm gonna...'

' No Sam... It's really not worth it.' I said pulling on his sleeve and getting him to sit back down.

After I had told him what had happened we just sat for a while until the bell rang signalling the end of lunch hour. We said our good byes for the day there and then, I told him I was just going to walk home tonight because I really didn't want to face Adam on the bus. He had said he would walk with me but he had to be home early every night since getting kicked out of his old school. (Which I was still to find the reason for) It didn't bother me that much though. I needed some time alone to think anyway.

The sound of the bell at the end of the day was like music to my ears when I was sitting in American History class. I got up and got all my things together. Being extra sure not to run into Adam on the way out, I slipped into the girls' bathroom. I stood in front of the sink and stared at my reflection in the mirror above it. It was a challenge just to try and not punch it... I swear.

I now had a small red mark forming under my right eye. I must've smacked my face on a step and not really known it. But it wasn't too bad, it just looked like a pimple or a birthmark or something. I lifted up my hoodie and t-shirt to reveal a large red mark that was starting to bruise on my ribs. And last but not least, I took off my hoodie to see my upper arms. The yellowish bruise that was already there was now covered by a bigger black and purple one. Great.

After a few minutes in the bathroom I made my way out into the halls and then out the main doors. It was a pretty long walk back to Brian's. I thought for a while and then realised that Mikey and Alicia's was only a few minutes from the school. It was kind of in between school and Brian's. I pulled out my cell from my book bag and scrolled down my contacts list till I came to 'Mikey & Ali Home' and pressed 'call' and waited for an answer.

' Yellow?' Was the answer from the other end.

'Hey Ali, It's Toni. Um..... Is it okay if I come over for a little while?' I asked not wanting to be rude, but not wanting to go straight back to Brian's empty apartment.

'Of course you can hunni. Y'know which floor we're on?'

'No' Was my simple yet truthful answer.

' Floor 8 apartment 667a. Okay?' She asked in a perky voice.

'Thanks... I'll be there in 10. Bye.'

'Bye sweetie.'

There was a soft click as the line went dead. I crammed my cell back into my book bag and carried on the rest of the way to Mikey's.
***

Normal POV ~ At Mikey and Alicia's


Alicia hung the phone back on the wall and made her way through to the kitchen where Mikey, his brother and Frank were all sitting drinking coffee.

They all looked up from their conversation when Ali entered the room.

' Hey you guys, Toni's coming over. That was her on the phone.' She said sitting down and picking up her coffee mug.

' Yeah? Cool. How is she?' Mikey asked taking his fiancé's hand.

'Um... actually, she didn't sound too great. I think something's bothering her... Y'know? She sounded kinda .... Distant on the phone.' Ali replied not quite sure how to word it.

'Hmm... well we'll just wait and see what's up when she get's here.' Mikey said sitting forward slightly.

Frank sniffed, scrunched his nose up a bit while his eyes went to slits. He threw his head back while taking a loud, deep breath and promptly threw his head forward again. Sneezing.

'Sorry... my allergies are really fucking with me this year.' He whispered apologetically.

'Allergies?.... Frank it's nearly December... I didn't know you got allergies in Winter.' Gerard spoke laughing slightly at his watery eyed and sniffing friend.

' Yeah... well apparently you can... and they found me.' Was Franks humorous reply.

The whole table just sat and giggled to themselves at the situation... which wasn't even all that funny. About ten or so minutes later and the doorbell sounded through the apartment.

'I'll get it.' Frank said while jumping up from his seat at the table.

'It's probably Toni.' Alicia called from the sink.

Frank nodded while removing the chain from the snib and opening the door to reveal a slightly stressed out looking Toni.

Frank thought it was strange that he had only seen her 24 hours ago and she was having a great time... and now she just looked so different. More worried, more stressed and she looked quite sad too.

'Hey kiddo... in ya come.' He said stepping to the side slightly to let her in.

' Thanks Frank.' She smiled gratefully, looking slightly surprised that it was Frank that opened the door.

'We're all in the kitchen.' He said pointing in the general direction of where they were.

They both walked through to see Mikey helping Alicia dry the dishes and Gerard chewing his nails at the table.

'Hey kiddo... I hear I missed out on a shopping spree yesterday.' Gerard laughed while getting up and hugging Toni tightly.

' Yeah... You did. It's good to see you.' Toni replied while wincing slightly when he hugged her. It really hurt but she didn't want them to know what happened at school.

Mikey noticed Toni's reaction when his brother had hugged her. Usually she hugged back ten times tighter. But today he noticed that she let go quickly and there was a look of pain written all over her features the whole time. He decided he would talk to her about it later. It could be nothing.

'Hey do you want some coffee or anything...' Mikey asked playing with the dishtowel in his hands.

' Um... no I'm okay thanks.'

' Okay.... So what brings you to our humble abode?' Mikey asked leading them all into the sitting room and getting comfy on the couches.

' Well... I just had a crappy day at school and I didn't want to go back to an empty apartment.... If I'm intruding them just kick me out.' She replied not very sure whether it had been rude of her to come or not.

' What .... No way!. We'd never kick you out.' Mikey replied with a little bit of worry in his voice.

' So what was it that made school so crappy for you today?' Gerard inquired.

'Um... just some guys that give me shit... no biggie though. They're just jerks.' She replied wanting to get off the subject and wishing she had never mentioned school in the first place.

'Yeah.. I know what that's like... I used to get shit from guys that were twice my size at school. Have you been shoved into a locker yet... that's one of the worst.' Frank asked recalling his high school years.

' Um no, not yet.... I was in my old school though... Not great if your claustrophobic.' Toni giggled a bit.

' Ha ha ... Amen to that!.' Frank replied.

'So... you spoken to ...um..... Aw. Shit...... Donnie!.... Yeah, have you spoken to him recently?' Gerard asked trying desperately to remember his name.

' Yeah... he's fine. He should be coming home soon. I go to school with his brother now. Which is kinda freaky.' Toni replied, not so happy that they were back to the subject of school.



Another few minutes of small talk, and the apartment phone rang. Mikey got up to answer it.

' Hello?'

' Mikey?... it's Brian, Um is Toni with you guys?' Brain asked as if he knew the answer but just wanted confirmation.

'Yeah she is. She came here after school.' Mikey responded not knowing what was coming next.

' Ok. Hey I'll be there in like 15 minutes or so to pick her up okay?' Brain asked.

'Yeah sure man. Just come up and ring the bell. Okay?'

'Yeah thanks man. See you then. Bye'

'Bye' Mikey sighed as he hung up.


As he walked back into the room he heard them all arguing. Alicia and Gerard were arguing over a certain horror movie and asked Toni for her input. Obviously Toni had said what Gee had wanted to hear because then next thing Mikey saw was Gerard lean over on the couch and hug Toni tightly.

Mikey was the only one that could see the look on her face.

********

Hey that was kinda long wasn't it?

Anyway.... I found a way of nicking wi-fi on my holiday... so you just might be getting updates after all!

xxxx

Pwetty please review on this one! Luv u!