FicWad

He was standing in the center of the room. I stopped in the doorway trying to catch my breath. He turned to face me slowly. It was then I saw the knife in his hand.
“Gerard?’ I froze, my eyes trained on the blade.
He smiled sadly, “I remembered I had this hid in the closet behind a lose board.” He said holding the knife up for me to see.
Shit, I didn’t know what to do. All I knew was I needed to get him out of this room and out of this house.
“Can we please go now?” My voice was just above a whisper.
He stared at me a minute and I held my breath. Finally he nodded, “Yeah, lets get the fuck out of here.” He dropped the knife and walked towards me. I put my arms around him and hugged him as tightly as I could. He hugged me back.
“Come on honey, let’s go.” He said moving us out of the room.
I don’t think I took another breath until we walked out the front door. Silently we walked arm in arm to the car. He began talking once we pulled out of the driveway. “We need to get back to mom’s. I didn’t realize what time it was.” He glanced over at me. “Are you okay with that? I mean I told her we’d be back for dinner and she’ll worry if we aren’t there. We can check into a hotel later.”
I nodded, “Sure, that’s fine.” I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. There were so many thoughts in my head I couldn’t think straight. What the fuck had I just witnessed? What was the darkness in his old room that had consumed me?”
“Gerard” I said his name softly.
He sighed, “Yeah?’
“I’m sorry I don’t know how to help you.” I whispered. “So sorry.”
He pulled off the road and parked on the shoulder. Turning to me he leaned over and touched my cheek brushing a tear away that had fallen. “You did help me.”
I searched his face to see if he was telling the truth. I wasn’t sure. “Dry your eyes, little Laura and smile. You saved me.”
“Saved you?” God, how I wanted to believe he was telling me the truth.
He leaned over and touched his lips to mine. He spoke our lips still brushing, “You saved me. As I held the knife in my hand I saw your face in my mind.” He closed his eyes.
I was sobbing now. Did he mean what I thought he meant? I couldn’t bring myself to ask him. He held me tightly while my tears soaked through his shirt.

An hour later we arrived at his mom’s house. He tried to joke, “She’s gonna be pissed. I’ll just tell her you couldn’t get enough of me once we got to the hotel.”
I tried to smile. “Do I look okay, now?” I had repaired my makeup in the car the best I could.
“You look beautiful,” he answered
We got out of the car and walked towards the front door. “Oh fuck,” I said.
Gerard stopped and looked at me. I nodded towards the curb where Ray’s car was parked.
“Mom must have invited him for dinner.” He said.
Lord, I felt like I was in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode. “You don’t have a problem with Ray being here?”
He took my face in his hands, “Laura, Ray loves me. We are like brothers. Please don’t misunderstand what happened at the house.”
“How can I not misunderstand? You won’t let me understand.”
He took a deep breath cleansing breath, “Please, Laura. You don’t want to understand.”
Donna called out to us, “Gerard, you’re late as usual and I blame you of course. Laura, come on dinner’s ready. I should make my son stay outside.” She laughed.
I pasted a smile on my face, “I totally agree.”
We held hands as we walked inside. I spotted Ray sitting on the sofa talking to Mikey. Alicia was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, Ray.” Gerard said with a nod.
“Hey man” Ray answered. Shit, these two were great actors. The casual observer would think they hadn’t just had a fucking episode. I followed Donna into the kitchen. Alicia was setting the table.
“You guys get settled in your hotel?” She asked looking up at me.
I nodded and gave no further information. Embellishing lies always led to no good. I asked what I could do to help.

Dinner turned out to be a pleasant experience. If Gerard noticed I kept stealing glances at him he never let on. Once more the smiling, happy Gerard had taken over. He charmed his mother with his tour stories. Ray, while not as animated as Gerard, was quite pleasant.
After dinner we all sat around the table talking. Donna had so many stories to tell Gerard. It was so plain to see how much she had missed her eldest son. Around ten o’clock I started some serious yawning. Gerard noticed and told his mom we would be leaving for the night. He promised her we would be back tomorrow.
“Come for breakfast.” Donna said. I noticed she sounded so hopeful. “You know how you used to like me to make you and Mikey breakfast.”
Gerard nodded, “Yeah Ma but I thought Laura and I would sleep in.”
I saw her face fall. Shit, this woman had missed her son so much. “Speak for yourself” I poked Gerard in the side. “I love breakfast and if you mom wants to make it for me I’m in.”
Donna smiled her thanks to me. Gerard just shrugged. We said our goodbyes and headed to the car.
We reached the end of the road when Gerard spoke; “Hope we can find a fucking hotel at this hour.”
I had been thinking the same thing. The first two hotels we tried were full. He came back out to the car from the third hotel with some info. “Guy in there says to try the motel they just opened near Nutley.”
I yawned again as we started driving. I fell asleep but was awakened when I hear Gerard utter “Fuck”
I sat up, “What?”
He looked over at me. “I so didn’t plan this.” He said looking over at me a stunned expression on his face.
I looked out the window at the motel. I too uttered, “Fuck.” The neon sign proudly proclaimed “Bates Motel.”