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[A/N] Bee Tee Double-You: I know American Idiot wasn't actually out when Gerard was in high school. But what can I say? Creative license, to quote Danielle :P [END]

"Seriously, Verity, you look stellar. Trust me, okay?"

Brave words, but it was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. Not that I didn't trust Cara; it's just that right then I was wearing about a pound of black eyeliner, just as much red eye-shadow (if not more), a pair of skinny jeans that I swear were made for a really tall six-year-old, and a shirt from some band that (again) I'd never heard of. The shoes - Chucks - were the only thing I actually owned, but Cara had persuaded me to paint red hearts all over them.

"Cara, I canNOT wear this," I said for the thousandth time. "It'd be too weird."

"Shut up, you look gorgeous," she said, running the straightening iron through my hair one last time--for good measure, I assumed. What the hell? My hair was straight enough as it was, thank you very much, and so was Cara's--why did she even OWN a hair straightener?

"Doubtful, Cara, very doubtful," I sighed.

"Are you discrediting my handiwork?" she mock-gasped.

"I'm sorry, Cara, but some faces just can't be fixed."

"Okay, Verity? Your self-confidence is so low that it's on the verge of annoying," Cara said matter-of-factly, zipping up her makeup bag. I didn't say anything --because really, what could you say to that? Especially since it was true.

"I'm gonna wait downstairs," I said quietly. I wasn't sure if she heard me or not; she just shrugged and took her stuff back to her room.

I ended up not waiting, although I'd fully intended to. I just stopped off in the bathroom to wipe of a lot of the eyeliner and almost all of the eye-shadow, and put on my usual red hoodie. When I was coming out I heard the doorbell ring. My mom had the sense not to answer it, but unfortunately that sense didn't seem to be hereditary; before I was even at the top of the staircase, Cara was opening the door.

"Hey, you must be Gerard," she said.

"Uh, yeah," I heard Gerard say (I still couldn't see him). He sounded confused; he probably didn't know who she was.

"I'm Verity's sister Cara," she clarified. "I'll just get her for you."

"I'm right here, Cara," I said. She jumped a little as I walked up behind her. She raised an eyebrow at my altered appearance, but didn't say anything (thank fuck!).

"Hey," Gerard said. I smiled back.

"Tell mom I'm staying over at Gerard's house tonight," I said to Cara. She looked a little surprised; I guess she didn't know we were at the 'sleeping-over' stage yet. Actually, I hadn't told her about what he'd asked me yesterday. Oh well--story for another time.

I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. Gerard smiled down at me.

"You look good," he said, somewhat shyly.

"Thanks," I grinned. I didn't believe him, AT ALL, but I wasn't gonna let that ruin my night. We both went to walk down the stairs at the same time, and there was a bit of awkward shuffling before he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we walked down them together.

"So...where are we going?" I asked him. I didn't give a flying fuck, actually; as long as I was with him, I would've been happy hauling garbage.

"Uh..." he looked at me a bit sheepishly. "I still have no fucking idea." We both laughed.

"What do YOU wanna do?" he asked me.

"Um, I don't know," I said, a little nervous. "What's there to do in Belleville?"

Gerard scof
fed. "Fuck all," he said. "We could drive to Newark...or something."

"Okay, sure," I said.

We were getting into the car when Gerard said, "Ohhhh! You like the Bouncing Souls too?"

The WHAT? I was confused for a second until I remembered Cara's shirt.

"Oh, um, no, it's my sister's, actually. She wanted me to wear it. I've never heard of them, actually. Well, I've heard OF them but I've never HEARD them, you know?" Shit, I was rambling. But Gerard was smiling so I guess he didn't think I was totally retarded.

"I can show you sometime. I have their CD," he said. I nodded, and he pulled out of my driveway.

"So..." he started, shifting gears, "Cara's living with you for good?"

"Yeah," I said. He was probably wondering why she'd STOPPED living with me, but I really didn't feel like getting into that. And anyways, he didn't ask; all he said was,

"You're not, like, sharing a room or anything, are you?"

"No, thank GOD!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Amen to that," he said, smirking at me. Whoa. The word 'amen' had never seemed more inappropriate, especially considering what Gerard was hinting to.

"You want some music on?" he asked, his eyes on the road.

"Can I pick the CD?" I asked, getting excited. Maybe he had some Iron Maiden!

"Sure," he said. "CD wallets are in the back."

I turned around and rummaged on the floor until I found the CD wallets. Holy fuck! There was about four of them and they were all huge--they must've held like a hundred CDs each.

"Uhhh...shit!" I laughed, heaving them onto my lap. "I think I'm being crushed!"

Gerard laughed too. "Those are like every CD I've owned since I was twelve," he explained.

"So!? That's still like...seventy CDs a year!" I opened the first one and started flicking through the CDs. A black and red one caught my eye, and when I read what it said I immediately burst out laughing again.

"What?" Gerard said.

I showed him the "Backstreet's Back" single, and he laughed too, although his face turned red.

"Shut up! It was a present, okay?" he said.

"Sure it was," I teased him. "Who gave it to you, then?"

"Uh..." he hesitated. "My...my aunt did." His face looked guilty immediately, and I could tell he didn't lie very often. Whatever--I found an Iron Maiden CD!

"Ohhh YES!" I said, putting it on. He smiled as I started singing along with the first song, and he turned it up.

"I'm assuming you like Iron Maiden, then," he said.

"Only A LOT! Actually Mikey introduced me to them."

"Well then you have good tastes in music."

Why did that make me so happy?