FicWad

Yeah, yeah. I know you hate me for leaving you hanging. I was so tempted to stop writing it there just to annoy you guys, but then that would ruin the title and all the events I have surreptitiously set up to happen from the first three chapters. So here you go. Comments and crit are always appreciated. Enjoy.


Chapter 4

---------------

Recap:

I stood, paralysed and silent as I watched Mikey walk away from me. Dani? As in Dani Toro? As in Ray's little sister who was supposed to be dead?

---------------
Dani's P.O.V
---------------
I ran towards the other side of the park, and slowed to check that Mikey hadn't followed me this time. He hadn't. Good. I slowed down to a walk and went the rest of the way to the small children's playground. When I got there I flopped down on one of the swings and watched what I could see of the enclosure through the sparse bushes, and I sat for a couple of minutes before I heard some loud screams coming from alley that I had passed through earlier.

I jumped up from the swing and jogged around behind the small building containing public toilets so I could get a closer look but remain unseen. I peered around the corner of the building and saw Gerard and Mikey, sprinting across the grass towards the playground followed by a crowd of about thirty teenage girls waving pens and screaming. They were heading in my direction, so I decided to be immensely kind and take pity on them.

As they ran past my hiding place heading towards the park gate leading onto the high street, I grabbed their arms and dragged them inside the doors of one of the toilets, pushing it shut with my heel just as the gaggle of fangirls ran around the corner. I could tell Gerard was about to speak, but I cut him off with a hand placed over his mouth and pulled the door open a crack. The girls had run through the exit and out onto the street beyond, so I moved back a little, squashing the brothers and opened the door again.

I walked out of the cramped cubicle, motioning for them to follow, and waited for them to trip out of the door and breath. I pointed to the other park exit and told them that they could find their way back through there, turned, and started walking back to the alleyway. I felt a hand on my shoulder, so I stopped walking, sighed and turned around to face the owner.

'Why did you help us, Dani?' Mikey asked in a soft voice. I looked him in the eyes, smirked and replied in a tone that implied I wanted to leave.
'Because I pity pathetic creatures.' At that comment, Mikey scoffed and turned away, starting to walk, but Gerard pulled him back by the arm.
'We thought you were dead. Why didn't you ever try to find us?' he asked, curious. The second I heard those sentences finish, I rounded on Mikey.
'Oh, is that what he told you? I'm dead? DO I LOOK FUCKING DEAD TO YOU?' the last part was screamed in Mikey's face. He stepped back, turned around and walked off, leaving Gerard standing behind me.

'Dani... I never knew. We all thought-' Gerard started.
'You thought wrong.' I said quietly, and turned to leave. Gerard just stood there, watching me.
---------------
Gerard's P.O.V
---------------
I couldn't let her go. I just couldn't. She never saw what it did to Ray, her 'death'. If she came back-

He started to run, but she was at the alley again when he caught her.

'Go away. I don't want to see-'
'What about Ray?' she froze instantly.
'What about him?' she asked in an eerily calm voice as she swivelled on her heels like a dancer, a fake smile plastered across her face. She reminded me of an antuque china doll, broken and unloved, cold and precise.
'He-he... well, umm-'
'Spit it out for fuck's sake, Gerard. What about my brother?' she yelled, her façade dissolving before my eyes.
'Well, after you- umm, left- he got seriously depressed, and he's never really recovered. Instead of going places with the guys, he just, sort of, works. He sits there with his laptop, and types for hours on end. He doesn't really sleep properly, and his guitar playing- well, that's another story. If he's not working, he's practising guitar. I think he does it for you.'

I looked up at her to see a single crystalline droplet run down her cheek, glistening as it crested her cheekbone, and fall to the grass. She met my gaze, her eyes full of unshed tears, her delicate features twisted horribly into an expression of such pain and sadness that I could not describe it. I strode the last few metres to her, and gathered up her small body in my arms. I held her for what seemed like hours as she just stood there, and when I pulled away her face had changed. A small smile played across her full lips, and just that simple movement told me everything was okay between us.
---------------
Mikey's P.O.V
---------------
I walked away from them. Just walked away. I knew I should have talked to Dani, apologised for what I'd done to her, but those last words cut me to the bone. Pathetic, that's what she called me. That in itself was an insult, but what made it worse was the fact that I knew it was true. I was pathetic. What I had done to her was pathetic.

I had reached the edge of the park, entirely absorbed in my own thoughts, and started to walk along the fence towards the gap I had left through earlier. I was expecting Gerard to catch up to me and bug me about why Dani was here, but he didn't. I turned around, hoping for one last glance of her before she left, but instead saw her tangled in a tight embrace with my brother. I thought about going back over, but decided against it, so I carried on along the fence.

I slipped back through into the bus park and made my way to the bus, but just as I was about to get on the bus, on of the girls on the stage crew stepped out, blushing as she caught my eye. I wondered what she was doing in there, before I climbed up the steps onto the bus and threw myself down on the couch, switching on the TV as I did so.
---------------
And that's it for this chapter. Hope you liked it. Thanks again to my betas for making this less terrible. :D