FicWad

Kara arrived back at Jamia's just as the pizza delivery guy was leaving. They had already trashed the cheesecake as the conversation had changed from giving Gerard a chance to explain to why all men were idiots. They were each sharing their own stories of the stupid things their men had done. Alicia had decided to make daiquiris to smooth the process. Jamia had jumped in with both feet although she was only having limeade. As they dug into the pizza, they revisited some of their favorite stories for Kara's benefit. Alicia was amusing herself making a voodoo doll of Gerard and devising various forms of torture for it. Most involved a certain portion of his anatomy.
A few hours later, Monica, Alicia and Christa were definitely feeling no pain. Jamia decided that fun was fun, but it was time they went home and slept it off. She called Ray and Mikey to collect their better halves. Kara called Donna to tell her that she was staying at Jamia's.
While Monica was visiting the little girls room, Monica's cell pone rang again. Alicia looked at the caller ID. Gerard again. Well, what the hell? Why not give him a piece of her mind? She answered.
"You, sir, are the biggest idiot in the world. I am happy to inform you that your dick will be falling off in exactly 6 hours. Have a good day." She hung up before he could get in a word edgewise.
Ray and Mikey showed up to collect Alicia and Christa. Ray, while helping Christa into her coat made the mistake of asking if she had had a good time.
"Why do you have to be such a man?" she asked in an angry tone.
Alicia chimed in, "Yeah, you man you" She turned and punched Mikey in the shoulder. "I can make yours fall off, too. Just remember that." She nodded to herself.
"I have the feeling that this is going to be a very long ride home." Ray said to Mikey.

Gerard crawled out of bed Wednesday morning feeling just a bad as he had when he had finally closed his eyes just a few hours before. He hadn't been able to sleep. Every time he had tried his brain wouldn't shut off. Nothing would be right again until he could talk to Monica. If only she would answer her phone, not Alicia.
He met the guys downstairs in the hotel restaurant for breakfast but the only people talking were Matt, Josh and James. Frank had sat at a table by himself. Bob had gotten a cup of coffee then had left to go back to his room. Gerard sat down with the guys but didn't listen to them. His mind was turned off. If he didn't think then he wouldn't feel.
He noticed that Eliza and Katlin were sitting alone in another area of the dining room. They both looked upset. Now he wished he had never asked them to accompany the band on the tour. It had seemed like such a good idea at first. Just like old times, Eliza had said. He knew however with all the tension it wasn't going to be easy for them. Making his decision he stood and grabbed his cup of coffee. Frank looked up from the paper he was reading to watch him. Gerard walked by the girl's table, said a brief hello then continued out of the restaurant and back up to his room. Once there he forced himself not to call Monica. It was midnight back home and she would be sleeping. Just for a moment he closed his eyes and allowed himself to imagine her asleep in bed. Her hair fanned out on the pillow, the soft sound of her breathing. He shook his head to dissolve the memory. He needed to concentrate on the day ahead of them. They had a radio interview. After that they would head to the hall to prepare for tonight's concert. He wanted it to be special, he wanted to be able to tell Monica all about it afterwards.

Katlin watched Bob leave with his coffee. She leaned over and whispered something to her sister. She wiped her mouth with the napkin before throwing it on her half-eaten croissant.
Bob was just about to his room when Katlin caught up with him.
"Bob, wait....I need to talk to you."
Bob turned, clearly not happy to see her.
"Katlin, just leave me alone." He turned to continue down the hall.
She hurried after him, catching his sleeve.
"Bob, please wait. We saw the pictures. Now I understand why you were so angry. It's my fault. Someone stole the camera in Paris. I guess whoever did it recognized you guys. They probably don't realize the fuss they've caused."
Bob stared at her, not knowing whether to believe her or not.
Katlin turned on the waterworks, sending 2 perfect tears down her cheeks. "Bob, I'm so sorry." She lowered her eyes and continued, "We were so surprised when Gerard suggested that the 4 of us travel together, but it sounded so fun. Just like old times, with sightseeing and parties. We spent a couple of weeks planning special things we could do."
She didn't see Bob raise an eyebrow at that. Something didn't sound quite right. Gerard had seemed as surprised as everyone else to see them in London. He didn't think that the little pipsqueak was that good an actor.
"It's all turned into such a mess." Katlin added.
"You can say that again." Bob agreed.
"Eliza and I talked it over. We'll leave if you want us to."
Bob didn't say anything.
Katlin, feeling bolder, reached out and placed her hand on his chest and looked deeply into his eyes.
"Do you want me to leave, Bob?" Her husky voice held the promise of illicit pleasures.
His eyes narrowed and he took a deep breath.
"Yes" was all he said before he turned and left.
He wasn't a witness to the lightning fast transformation that occurred at his leaving. Katlin's face clouded over, her anger evident as she too turned, heading back to the dining room.

Gerard heard the soft knocking on his door as he was getting ready to leave for the interview. Eliza stood outside his door looking upset, she smiled slightly, "Gee, can I please talk to you?"
He stood back and allowed her to enter. She walked over towards the bed but turned and took a seat in one of the chairs. "I just wanted to let you know that Katlin and I will be leaving after the concert tomorrow night. I hope that's fast enough for Bob. Tell him that it's the soonest we could get out."
Gerard sat on the bed facing her, "What the hell are you talking about? What about Bob?"
Eliza blinked back tears; "You don't know? He came to Katlin's room and attacked her, accused her of all sorts of things. Something about posting pictures on the Internet of him and her. She was so upset and hurt. Bob was brutal to her. I don't know exactly what happened, she refused to tell me, but when I saw her right after he left she was practically hysterical. Katlin has always thought of Bob as a good friend. She couldn't believe he would attack her like that."
Gerard was trying to make sense of all of this, "Why would Bob think that Katlin posted the photos?
Eliza shook her head, "I don't know, Gee. Maybe he's just upset because his girlfriend found out and he wanted someone to blame. I just know that everything has turned so wrong." Tears began to fall, "I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've caused. I never meant for this to happen. I just wanted to hang with you like old times. I mean you know how I feel about you but I would never ever do anything to hurt you."
Gerard hated to see her cry, "Come on Eliza, it'll be okay. We'll get this all straightened out."
"Is Monica upset or does she understand that you didn't do anything wrong?"
Eliza asked quietly.
Gerard looked away, "She' pretty fucking upset. The photos look bad." After talking to Frank he had viewed them himself. He had tried to look at the photos from the point of view of someone who wasn't there when they were taken. It did look bad.
"But Gee, you didn't do anything wrong. Did you just explain to her? If anyone is at fault it's me. I should never have kissed you." She lowered her head, "I just couldn't seem to stop myself." Fresh tears cascaded down her cheeks.
He stood and walked over to her. Putting his arm around her he gave her a hug, "Look it will be okay. Monica will forgive me."
She looked up through her tears, "But Gee, don't you get it? Why do you want her to forgive you when you didn't do anything wrong? If she loves you like you say then she would trust you."

The rest of the band was waiting for him a half hour later. Frank turned away when he came down the stairs and joined them. Bob completely ignored him. They traveled to the interview in two vans. He was with Matt and Bob. Frank went with Josh and James. Matt tried to keep a conversation going but with neither Bob nor Gerard talking he finally gave up and listened to his iPod. It was decided that only the three true members of My Chemical Romance would take part in the interview.
The interview started out like most. However, Gerard donned his dark glasses and refused to talk them off even after he saw Frank's discouraging look. Thankfully the woman conducting the interview spoke fluent English.
The first few questions were about The Black Parade. Frank answered most of them since Gerard was slumped in his chair smoking. It wasn't until she asked about he cover art that Gerard spoke.
"I got James Jean, who I went to school with to do the art. He's my favorite comic artist out there right now and let me tell you, the work he did for the album packaging is stunning. It's so cool that we got him to so this. He has the coolest studio. He and his wife we're great hosts."
The interview then turned to touring. Frank scoffed when the interviewer asked, "What does all the touring do to a band as far as the live act?"
Gerard ignored Frank and answered, "It really hones your live act, You're either gonna get better or break. It's boot camp in a lot of ways. We had toured for two and a half years before that (Warped Tour) anyway, we were no stranger to it. We only stopped to make "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" and when we finished, the last day of tracking we were back in a van. The very next day the tracking was finished we mixed on the road through email. We haven't actually stopped for three and a half years."
Beside him Frank was feeling nostalgic for the way it used to be. He missed Toro and Mikey. He missed his friend Gerard.
Several more questions were asked about touring then she surprised Gerard by asking. "So have you been fighting off the 16-year-old girls?"
Gerard heard Frank utter under this breath "More like 26 years old". It took all his control not to look at Frank.
"No, it's not ever really that, cuz we get such a diverse crowd. If all we had to worry about was an average 16-year-old girl coming to see us, which there are a lot of, and they're always awesome to us, but if that's all we have to worry about, it really wouldn't be that much of a problem. It's everybody, all kinds of people, older couples, dads."
The interview shifted gears, 'Gerard, five words of less about he other members of MCR."
Gerard glanced at Frank, "Passionate, sweet, fun, nerdy, talented."
Bob sat glancing down at his fingernails wondering which word described him. Idiot, came to his mind. He had a word for Gerard but tried not to think about it.
"So, any dirty secrets?" The interviewer asked with a smile.
Gerard thought a minute. "Yeah I really like the band Tatu with the Russian lesbians."
Frank rolled his eyes as did Bob. The Russian journalist just laughed. She paused then brought up a question about Gerard's personal life. "So is it true you are no longer engaged?"
Gerard was shocked and momentarily speechless. He sputtered, "No, that's totally not true. My fiancée was recently in a serious hit-and-run accident. The same accident that is the reason Toro isn't with us. The though of loosing her was almost more than I could take. She is the most important thing in my life. I have no idea where that rumor came from."
The interviewer had the good grace to look apologetic, "I believe because of all the talk on the internet. You have been seen several times on this tour in the company of another woman."
"So that fucking means I broke up with my fiancée?" Gerard shot back. Bob spoke up trying to defuse the situation. "The woman in the photos is just an old friend."
"Oh, I see" the interviewer said, making it clear by her tone she didn't believe a word of it.
Gerard stood and did something only Toro had ever done. He walked out of the interview.

Author note = Most of the interview is from Book #4 2007 Royal Flush Magazine. I highly recommend getting a copy.