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"Gerard kissed you?! Are you freaking kidding me?!" Katie shrieked from her end of the phone. I had just told her about what had happened after Gerard had taken me home from the Coffee House.

"Whoa, calm down there, girl!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry. But seriously, are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not kidding. And I'm also not kidding when I say that my cheek still tingles when I think about it. I doubt it meant anything serious, though." I smirked. "But I'm sure it meant something serious last night when Frank kissed you."

"True." Katie joined me in laughing. She had originally called to tell me that after Frank had taken her home, he had confessed that he'd had a crush on her ever since they had met. Katie in turn admitted that she'd had a crush on him for the longest time, and they became a couple on the spot after sharing what Katie described to me as "the longest passion-filled kiss I've ever had in my life". I knew the fact that Frank had his arm around Katie at the Coffee House had meant something!

"Everyone else seems to think Gerard likes me, but I still doubt that there's anything going on."

"Okay, let me be perfectly clear on this. If it wasn't obvious to me before, it is now. Valerie, Gerard likes you. He really likes you."

"No he doesn't!" I defended. "He and I are just friends, strictly platonic."

"Yeah, my guy friends kiss me on the cheek all the time." Katie snickered.

"Okay, you are the living definition of sarcasm, you know that?"

"Duh." Katie laughed. Her tone then changed to serious. "Honestly Val, I think he likes you, but you're scared to let your guard down around him."

"I've let my guard down around him already, haven't I?"

"Well yeah, but I'm talking about in the boyfriend-girlfriend sense."

"I can tell. And you know that as much as I'd like to have a boyfriend someday, I still seriously doubt that it'll happen because I've never had a boyfriend."

Yeah, you heard me correctly. I was sixteen years old by then and not once had I ever been in a relationship. It wasn't really my fault because there wasn't anyone at school who I was interested in. There was another reason why I'd never had a boyfriend, but I didn't want to tell Katie something that she already knew the whole story of.

"Remember that you're talking to the future forty-year-old virgin here, Katie."

"Val, you won't be a forty-year-old virgin, trust me. And I know you think you'll never have a boyfriend, but who knows? Maybe Gerard will change that."

"Change what? The boyfriend thing or the virgin thing?"

"The boyfriend thing, duh!"

"Okay, just making sure!" I exclaimed, and the two of us burst into giggles.

"Well, I have to go. If anything else happens between you and Gerard, I want to hear all the details, okay?"

"Okay, fine. See you later."

"Bye!"

I hung up the phone and sighed. Katie was probably just teasing me like I teased her about Frank. Besides, there wasn't any way Gerard had any feelings for me. He didn't have feelings for me like that...or did he?

*

Going to school on the last Friday of November, I knew that school wouldn't be so bad. It was my seventeenth birthday that day and the seven of us had plans to crash at Katie's house that night for a movie marathon sleepover to celebrate. When I got to my locker that morning I laughed. Grouped around it were Katie and the guys, and I noticed that they had just finished covering my locker in purple wrapping paper with glittery black stars on it.

"Hey, birthday girl's here!" Mikey exclaimed, jumping on me in a hug, making me laugh. "Hey Frank, put it on her!"

"What're you...oh, crap." I blushed. Frank had put a silver tiara on my head, making everyone laugh.

"She's officially the Birthday Princess!" Frank laughed.

"You look cute with that tiara on." Gerard grinned, making me blush even more. "And even cuter when you blush."

"Stop it, compliment overload here." I joked.

"Okay, I can take a hint." Gerard hugged me and I felt him kiss my cheek for a second time. I glanced Katie's way and I swear that she had to keep herself from squealing right there. "You know, I was going to get a boa for you to wear with that tiara, but then the guys raised a good point."

"Which was?"

"That Gerard would steal the boa away from you and wear it himself." Ray spoke up.

I raised an eyebrow at the guy in question. "Boa obsession, much?"

"I have my feminine days." Gerard shrugged. Before he could say anything else we heard the bell, signaling that we only had five minutes left to get to our first period class.

"You guys didn't have to do this, you know." I said to Bob as we sat down waiting for our history teacher to arrive. "You know, stuff like decorating my locker and throwing a party for me."

"That's the thing, Val, we wanted to." Bob replied. "We like to do things like this for each other on our birthdays. Besides," he grinned, "we've had a chocolate cake made for the party, and Katie's told us that you can't resist chocolate cake."

"She has taught you well." I grinned back and we laughed.

*

By five o'clock, we were all grouped in Katie's basement with pizza, soda, chips and popcorn with cake and ice cream waiting for us upstairs in her kitchen. Katie had gone the extra mile to hang up streamers and a happy birthday banner on the wall to remind us just why we were all there.

"All right." Frank plopped down next to Katie on one of the couches. "Let's get this movie marathon sleepover started!"

"Hold it!" I stood up. "Before we watch anything, I have to lay down some ground rules. There will be no watching of horror movies and we'll watch one chick flick."

"Aw, come on!" Gerard pouted while the rest of the guys groaned.

"I thought you said you had your feminine days, Gerard." I smirked.

"Not that kind of feminine!"

"Whose birthday is it here?" I pointed out. "Tell you what, I was going to make you guys sit through Legally Blonde, but I'll make it fair and have us watch something else."

"Fair enough." Ray shrugged.

"Let's watch Sweeney Todd!" Gerard yelled excitedly when he saw it on Katie's shelf of DVDs.

"Hell yeah!" Katie's face was lit up.

"What part of 'no horror movies' don't you understand?!" I exclaimed. "I personally don't want to watch a movie about people getting their throats slit, having their remains put through a meat grinder and baked into a pie!"

"But it's a musical, Val, and you love musicals. And I need some Johnny Depp goodness in my system!"

"What, I'm not good enough for you?" Frank pretended to cry when he heard Katie say that.

"Aw, c'mere, you big doofus." Almost as soon as Katie had said that, she and Frank were cuddling.

"We've officially lost them." Mikey rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Fine, we'll watch it." I sighed. "But put on anything more gory than this and it'll be Legally Blonde for you boys." I bit my lip when the opening credits started playing. As much as I loved that musical, I had avoided Sweeney Todd like the plague when it was in theatres because I wanted to sleep at night. Gerard seemed to notice just how nervous I was getting so he put his arm around me and held me close to him. Surprisingly, that helped me calm down a little. Sweeney Todd was actually pretty good, but watching all those bodies become meat pie filling was gory and disturbing. Every time that happened I'd bury my face in Gerard's shoulder, making him laugh gently but never complain.

"Is it gone?" I asked after Sweeney's latest victim met his fate.

"It's gone." Gerard smiled. "Hate to break it to you, babe, but you look so cute when you're scared."

"Um, thanks...I think..." I glanced at the TV and saw that it was finally over. "Okay, now we're watching my chick flick of choice, and it shall be..." I held it up. "Center Stage." It was a personal favorite of mine and I hadn't watched it in ages.

"It's not an extreme chick flick, is it?" Ray asked nervously.

"Not as much as Legally Blonde is." I hit the play button.

Amazingly, the guys were all really into Center Stage. They laughed at all the right moments and I could tell that they were fascinated by the dance sequences. Every time a really cute scene came on, Gerard held me closer to him and put his face near mine.

"That was actually a really good movie." Frank said when it was over.

"I told you it was." I smiled.

"Now, it's time for cake and presents!" Katie declared, and with that we ran upstairs.

As we were eating, I didn't see Gerard dip his finger in the frosting on his piece of cake until after he'd put said frosting on the tip of my nose. In return I smeared some of my frosting on his cheek. Katie grabbed her digital camera and snapped a picture of Gerard and I with our arms wrapped around each other and smiling at the camera, with frosting on our faces and the tiara still perched on my head.

"That is without a doubt one of the cutest pictures I've ever seen in my life." Katie showed it to me and I couldn't help but agree with her. I didn't say this out loud, but Gerard and I looked so much in love that the untrained eye would think we were a couple instead of two really close friends.

"Okay, people, now comes the time of judgement." Ray said solemnly, and then he grinned as he set a series of brightly wrapped boxes in front of me. "Time for presents."

By the time I was done unwrapping most of the gifts, I'd received a pink and black pinstripe hobo bag from Frank, a CD that I'd been wanting for a while from Ray, a photo album from Bob, a copy of Twilight from Mikey, and a really pretty journal from Katie. The five of them had all pitched in to get me a gift card to Hot Topic as a group gift, because by then they were determined to get me into those kinds of clothes more often after seeing what I had worn at the Coffee House. Whether or not I'd start buying clothes from Hot Topic remained to be seen.

Gerard was the last to give me his gift. "I know it's not much and all, but when I saw it I thought of you so I hope you like it."

I tore the paper off and opened up a jeweler's box to see a silver heart charm toggle necklace, identical to the one Elle Woods wears in Legally Blonde. "Gerard, this is so pretty! Would you like to put it on me?"

"I'd be delighted." Gerard smiled as he clasped the necklace closed. "I'm so glad you like it."

"I love it." I gave Gerard a hug.

Once I'd thanked everyone for their gifts, we trooped back down into the basement to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (that had been Frank's idea, he loved Harry Potter as much as Katie and I did). When the scene where Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys are all confronted by the Malfoys at the Quidditch World Cup, I smirked when I saw Katie make goo-goo eyes at Draco. "Katie, I don't know what you see in Draco, he's such a wimp!"

"He is not!" Katie exclaimed. "Draco's just misunderstood!"

"If you say so." I stayed silent until just before Draco gets turned into a ferret. "Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy..." I chanted under my breath but loud enough for Katie to hear.

"Oh, shush!" Katie paused the movie on Draco's smiling face and went over to the TV. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I'll protect you from the evil goody-two-shoes Gryffindor."

"Pureblood whore!" I yelled, smirking.

"Go fool around with your Weasley twins!" She grinned evilly. "You know, they've been cheating on you with me behind your back."

"Yeah, so? Draco's told me that he was much happier being my boyfriend than yours."

"Oh, hell no!"

"Oh, hell yes!"

"Will you both just shut up and watch the movie?!" Bob attempted to sound threatening, but he ended up laughing his head off just like the rest of the guys. Gerard and Frank were laughing so hard they couldn't speak, and Ray and Mikey were wiping tears of laughter away.

"Guys, you just witnessed one of our Gryffindor versus Slytherin fights." I explained, glad that they found it so amusing.

"Sorry if I made you feel weird hearing me express my love for Draco, Frank." Katie had the decency to look ashamed.

"Aw, no worries, it was too funny for me to be upset about it." Frank grinned, holding his arms open to Katie. She gladly went into them and they resumed their cuddling session.

"And they're back to the cuddling." Bob shook his head.

"Hey, Valerie? Can we go upstairs and talk about something? Privately?" Gerard asked.

"Sure we can." We got up and went into Katie's living room. Her parents and her brother were at a basketball game downtown, so we had the house to ourselves. "So what's up? You seem a little nervous."

"I am, I'll be honest." Gerard bit his lip. "I just thought that, well..." He took a deep breath and started again, taking both of my hands in his. "Valerie, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. When I first met you I liked you a lot, and I was really happy that we became friends so quickly. But the thing is, I feel closer to you than I've ever felt with the other girls I've been friends with. What I'm trying to say is, I...I love you, Valerie, and I was wondering if you'd like to be my girlfriend."

My jaw dropped. "Wait, back up. Did you just say you were in love with me?""

"Yes."

"Oh my God!" I breathed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry because I wanted to do both. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

"Why would I lie about something like this?" Gerard asked.

I sighed, it was now or never that I tell him. "Because I've never had a boyfriend. I never thought I would."

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you, but get comfy because it'll take a while." Gerard sat down and I began. "Ever since I started school, I've been made fun of by the boys in my class. They saw just how emotional I was so they always called me crybaby, and during our last two years of middle school it started to get personal. They'd make fun of me because I wasn't as thin as the other girls and they'd try to push me around as much as they could, just to get a few tears out of me. The summer before I started high school, I lost weight and taught myself not to be such a pushover. I'd changed, but the boys at school still saw me as I was back in middle school. What really did it for me was when one of them said that I could never get a guy."

"That must've stung pretty badly." Gerard nodded sympathetically. "What about guys you've met outside of school?"

"I've had guy friends before, but I never had any romantic feelings towards any of them. So I gave up on love entirely, but that changed when I met you. I guess it's true when they say that when you stop looking for love, it finds you." I smiled up at Gerard. "So yes, I would love to be your girlfriend, Gerard...I love you too. I think I always have been in love with you."

Gerard smiled. "I've wanted to hear you say that for a long time."

The next thing I knew, Gerard and I were kissing. Bear in mind that I'd never kissed a guy until that point, so I was trying to figure out exactly how to kiss properly, but I learned pretty quickly. As I met Gerard's kiss with one of my own, he gently rubbed my back as we held each other. If that one little moment wasn't bliss, I didn't know what was.

"Yeah! Go Val!" Katie laughed.

Gerard and I turned to face the kitchen and saw Katie and the guys standing there, and we both knew that they'd been watching us make out.

"So, is it safe to say that you two are going out now?" Frank smirked.

Gerard and I looked at each other, and we both said, "Yes."

"You guys owe me so much money!" Mikey yelled gleefully. "Pay up!"

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"That night at the Coffee House we made a bet to see how long it would take for Gerard to ask you out. And I won because my bet was the closest."

"And it didn't even cross your mind to let us in on this?" Gerard asked.

Mikey grinned. "Sorry, but no."

"You suck, Mikey." Gerard rolled his eyes, but the two just ended up laughing it off.

"Yeah, well, it's about time you two got together. I was starting to think you'd never hook up, even though you guys were already acting like a couple." Katie shrugged.

"Jeez, the things my best friend never tells me!" I exclaimed, making everyone laugh.

"Okay, now that we've established the fact that you two are now a couple, can we please get back to that movie marathon of ours?" Ray begged. "The night's still young, you know!"

"Okay Toro, let's watch some more movies." I laughed. As the five of them went back down into the basement, Gerard and I lingered just long enough to share another kiss.

"I love you, Valerie Russell, more than words could ever say."

"I love you, Gerard Way, with all my heart and soul."