FicWad

It was about seven o’ clock when my phone rang, an Ashleigh Simpson song blaring. Yes, I got Bob to send it to me. I hated, no, despised it, but it was catchy. Bitch. Anyway, Gerard was calling me. Patrick still wasn’t home yet and he hadn’t got in touch to tell me how it went. I was a little disappointed with that. I thought that he might at least tell me if he’d gotten the job. I’d been bored shitless all afternoon, trying to entertain myself. As usual there was sweet F.A on TV. The only thing I could do was sit on my ass on the couch eating an entire jar of peanut butter. Yeah, that lasted me the whole of an hour. The rest of the time I spent sleeping. Napping on the couch with Hemmy in my lap.

It was a crappy day, the weather was completely shit. It was literally pissing down and I was kind of glad that I was wrapped up warm in the apartment. That was, until Gerard called with his request.

‘Shoot…’ I sighed, half asleep as I answered the phone

‘Pete,’ Gerard started, sounding excited but worried, it was weird, ‘Alright, man?’

‘I’m good..’ I yawned, ‘You?’

‘Yeah, yeah… I’m awesome’ Gerard answered, ‘Uh… listen… I have a favor to ask...’

‘I will not baby-sit Lucifer’ I shook my head, looking at Hemmy, ‘You remember Lucifer, Hemingway?’

Hemmy barked viciously and Gerard yelped.

‘Ha! As if I’d leave Luci anywhere near your dog again’ Gerard snorted, ‘I’d rather not come back to a hamster burger… No… I just need a ride’

‘To where?’ I asked, eyebrow cocked, hands jingling the keys in my pocket

‘I’ll give you the address when you pick me up’ Gerard replied, ‘Just come over to my house within the next hour… I think I’m about ready’

‘Well, if you’re ready’ I answered, sarcastically

‘If you don’t want to help me…’ Gerard began to growl, but I cut across
‘I was just kidding’ I interrupted, ‘I’m quite fascinated to find out what the destination of our mystery trip is.’

‘Pfft’ Gerard hooted, ‘Like you have to ask’

‘I’m sure I don’t’ I lifted myself up off of the couch, Hemmy dropping down off of me and stretching

I found some shoes directly by the door where I’d kicked them off. I slipped them on, not bothering to adjust the laces. I always make sure my shoes are prepared for me to just launch myself into. Probably because I used to always have somewhere to go, I suppose. Work, home, out with Ash, press conference, party, gig, after party. Now, life kind of slowed in pace. I don’t have to be anywhere. I don’t necessarily have to do anything. Anyway, that’s besides the point. Gerard still blabbering, on and on and on about feeling sick and maybe not wanting to go but then on the other hand he felt that he just had to do it because him and Becca had this weird connection and he really wanted to make her feel better because it must be terrible to feel so alone like when he was in high school and his History teacher told him and blah, blah, blah. God, he was acting like such a teenager. I did however manage to get a word in edgewise to be able to say goodbye.

So, I got in my car and drove towards the general direction of the Gerard’s house. I’d been there once before for an office Christmas party. I remember Gerard in a ridiculous Santa hat, wasted out of his mind, singing ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ to a potted plant. I laughed to myself. That was a while back. Not long after I’d started there actually. He hadn’t had me over since. Probably because Ash had turned up, yelling and screaming, asking why I didn’t tell her where I was going. To be honest, that’s exactly why I didn’t tell her. The constant yelling and moaning. I could not deal with her.

I recognized the tree in the front yard and knew I had arrived. That tree, the one I tried to climb back when ‘straight edge’ wasn’t even a term I’d heard of. Frank managed to catch me before I landed on my head. I have apologised a million times for breaking his arm. He’s held it over me ever since. No is not an answer he has ever accepted. Whenever I turned down any of his requests he’d just point at the nasty ass scar on his forearm and I jumped to it. Stupid, but I like to try and keep hold of the few friends I have.

I honked the horn and the curtains ruffled, revealing an amazingly smart-looking Gerard. He waved at me before disappearing, all the lights in the house flicking off one by one. Resurfacing by the door, he struggled with both his arms full to close and lock the front door. Coming closer it became clear what he was holding. A dozen of blood red roses. I blinked as he dropped himself into my car.

‘Howdy’ Gerard grinned, looking nervous

‘Hey Romeo’ I smiled at his from the side of my face, pinching the petal of one of the roses between my fingers, ‘So, where does Juliet live?

‘Funny,’ He sighed, slapping my hand away and rearranging the bunch ‘Do I seriously look okay?’

I looked him up and down. Gray slash black hoodie under a black slash dark green jacket above a pair of faded gray slash black jeans. Fingerless black slash gray gloves and simple black converses. His hair was styled in a form of sexy slash messy that only Gerard could pull off. He looked okay. Hell, he looked good. Really good.

‘Jeez Gee’ I gasped, ‘I might just take you back to my apartment and keep you myself’

His eyes went wide and he clutched the roses to his chest.

‘Please don’t’ He squeaked, putting a piece of scrap paper in my hand

I unfolded it, revealing an address scribbled down in Gerard’s neat handwriting that was strangely curly. A small red heart dotted in the top right hand corner. When I pointed it out to him he blushed. I shook my head. Right, 16 Sheppard Lane. Not too far away really. About ten minutes at the most. I knew that I’d have to keep Gerard talking cause if he let the nerves get to him he would want out and would probably throw up in my car. Hey, it’s happened before and history has a weird habit of repeating itself.

‘So, what you planning on doing?’ I asked casually, checking his expression every few seconds

‘Roses… Kinda have a speech planned…’ Gerard said slowly, staring at the flowers in his lap then letting his head drop, ‘Oh god… What am I doing?’

‘You are doing a very romantic thing and when all goes to plan I am totally going to make fun of you for being so female about this’ I retorted, trying to keep the mood light

‘Remember when you wore that pink shirt to work?’ Gerard giggled lightly, ‘And you’re going to laugh at my femininity’

‘It looked good!’ I argued, a little more pissed off than I should be

‘Yeah, as a blouse’ He gripped his stomach, chuckling, making me worried that he was actually going to hurl

The banter was good for him I think. Calmed him a little maybe. I looked out for the house numbers, knowing we were coming close. 24, 22, 20, 18, 16. I pulled up in front and considered backing up into the drive. Thinking that doing that might be taking the piss a little. The whole house was dark apart from a light up on the top floor which I assumed was her bedroom. I put the handbrake on and watched Gerard take a deep shaky breath. He turned and smiled at me, I smiled back. His eyes dropped.

‘I can’t do this’ He groaned into his hands.