Give Me a Reason to Believe

"I love you... I love you..." He said, kissing me in between his words.

"I love you too, Gerard. So much... So... so much..."

"I love you too, Gerard. I've loved you for so long... I can't believe... I mean, you dream and you dream but you never expect it to come true!" said Ray with a mock sob, jumping on Gerard and knocking him--and his lips-- away from me.

"AH! Ray! Get the hell off me!" yelled Gerard, laughing.

"Gerard... Hold me, darling...."

"Ray!!!!!!"

"Hug me... I love you so..."

"I will END YOU, RAYMOND!"

"But I just--"

He didn't get to finish his sentence.

Frankie ran up screaming, and tackled Ray. They rolled about 4 feet away.

"You bastard! He's mine! He loves me! He said so!" Frankie screamed.

"He gave me a promise ring! He said I was the only one for him!" Ray sobbed.

Gerard sat up, wrapped his arms around me, and rested his head on my shoulder. We laughed at the wrestling boys. By this time the fireworks had ended.

"You know, I've loved you ever since I saw your first painting," he said lowly.

"Really? Oh, Gerard, I put myself through hell because I never thought you even liked me. And when we kissed..."

"It cleared everything up."

"What? No. Hell, no! It made everything so much more complicated for me. I didn't know if you just kissed me because I kissed you and you didn't want to make me feel like a loser or maybe you were caught up in the moment or maybe you thought 'hey, she's hot, why not have some fun while I can?' Or maybe you--"

"Lena! Lena, stop! How could you think that? I kissed you because I wanted to. No. Not because I wanted to. I needed to. My heart couldn't have taken it anymore if I were to just sit back and watch you go along alone... Go along without me. You can't imagine how happy I was when you walked by my house that day. Just another chance to be near you... I was planning to ask you to be my girlfriend then, but I didn't get the courage in time..."

"Oh you poor, dear, sweet boy of mine," I said, laughing, and kissed him softly on the forehead.

Then a thought struck me.

"Hey Gerarrrrrd. You never DID ask me if I even wanted to be your girlfriend," I said, grinning.

He looked at me incredulously.

"You're telling me that after we have professed our undying love for each other and all the secret feelings we've been harboring-- you need me to ASK you to be my girlfriend? And you're implying that you may be doubting your WANT to have me as your boyfriend?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

He growled and pounced on me. He got me onto my back on the ground, and pinned my arms up above my head.

"Now tell me you love me," he said with mischief in his eyes.

"Never!" I shrieked.

His lips skimmed the soft skin of my neck so lightly that, had I been standing, my knees would have gone weak and rubbery.

"Now tell me you'll never ever leave me," he said. His eyes were now serious, gazing deeply and intensely into mine.

I felt breathless.

"I'll never ever leave you... I'll be yours forever..."

"Forever and ever, Babe."

He lowered his head and placed his lips on mine. His kiss was searing, searching, hungry... desperate... longing...

He broke the kiss and looked into my eyes again. I felt so... loved... wanted... needed... he made me feel things nobody ever had before.

Just before his lips met mine again, we heard a loud, jarring sound. It sounded like a gun shot.

As the thunder cracked, lightning flashed and rain started pouring down. And I mean POURING.

We looked at each other, and-- we couldn't help it-- we began to laugh.

He stood and set me on my feet. Pulling me in close to him, we began to look around for the other guys.

Oh someone's God.

Frankie had already whipped his shirt off and was running around in large circles, screaming and dancing in the rain.

Ray's fro was already soaked through and was hanging limply in his face, sticking to him. He was temporarily blinded. Frankie smacked into him. Hard. They both went down.

Bob rushed to pull Frankie up and contain him, and Mikey ran over to help Ray with his hair situation.

"Guys, lets get the hell out of here!" yelled Gerard. He grabbed my hand and we ran off to find the car in the pouring rain.

Wandering aimlessly around the parking lot for 15 minutes, some of the cars had finally cleared off. We began searching harder, and eventually found the tin can in a far corner of the lot. We sprinted towards it, and unfortunately, I was stuck in front of Frankie, who didn't stop in time. He smushed me against the passenger door, went back and hit the car next to ours, and fell on his ass. We were all laughing hysterically as he got up and rubbed his bum.

"God damnit, Frankie, where's your shirt?" I asked, my laughter turning to mere giggles.

"Oh... I must have left it... In the fair grounds..." he said, looking distressed.

"Don't worry, it was just a plain black one. You have like 7 identical ones," Mikey comforted him.

We piled in the car, and it was such an uncomfortable drive. Our clothes were cold and clammy, and we were dripping everywhere.

I leaned on Gerard the whole way, snuggling into him, his leather jacket smelling of aftershave and... spring time.

We finally pulled into his driveway and ran into the house. In the front hall, the guys immediately stripped to their boxers and threw their soaked clothing into Donna's laundry room off the hall. They had obviously known each other for a LONG time.

I stood there, looking uncomfortable, and they finally realized why. Mikey ran further into the house and came back with a long, white button up shirt.

"It's Gerard's. It's clean. It's long. It's comfy. Go change. Now. In there," he commanded, pointing to a door beside me.

I went and changed into it. It was so soft and comfortable and it smelled like Gerard. Mmm...

I walked into the living room where they were already watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force. When they heard me, they all turned around. Gerard's jaw dropped, Frankie whistled jokingly, and Mikey whipped back around, wailing, "My virgin eyes..."

"Baby, you look..." Gerard began. I walked over to him, planted myself on his lap and placed a shy kiss on his cheek. I wrapped my arms around his neck and watched the show with them. Before long, my eyelids began to droop.

"Gee, baby, I think I need to go home. I'm so tired... it's so late..." I began.

"Shh... just stay here tonight, amore. It's fine... Stay with me.." he whispered.

I just nodded. I was too tired to do anything else. As he felt me drifting into LaLa Land, his grip on me tightened to prevent me slipping off of him.

If only things could stay this perfect...

Everything slipped away. I fell asleep in his arms.