The Technicolor Daydreamer; Folie A Deux.

"You come here often"?
Agh, I'm lame.

Lame, lame, lame. That's one of the most cheesy, overused--

"No, not quite...often. More like every once in a while."

Ah. I guess we're equally weird, then.I like that.

"Cool," I shrugged again. "Want to come down here so we don't wake up half the neighborhood?"

To be honest, I just wanted to see herface eyes up close.

"Oh! Um, sure..." She scooted down the first part of the slide, and gravity took effect.

And, uh, you know how when you drop something really small down a slide, it kind of flies on its way down? Like, a coin or a pebble? And it goes really fast?

Well, Amia did that. (I might have to start calling her Mia for short. )

Quite simply, without mincing words, she landed on top of me.

I'd been standing at the bottom, expecting to help her up.

We hit the ground pretty hard, actually. both of us made a sound akin to "Oof!"

And now, purely by accident, she'd landed in a...straddling position. With her head on my chest.Her thighs on either side of my waist, tightening around me during that split second of impact.

"Ow..." Mia groaned. Then gasped, I guess because she'd finally realized she got a face full of me...instead of gravel. I've been told i'm squishy.

Well, this was awkward.I kind of liked it.

"Oh! i'm so, so sorry..." She started off.

But she was interrupted by a voice I know all too well, accompanied by the unmistakable glow of a flashlight.

Blinding, at this time of night. Morning. Whatever.

"Hey, Frankie! Second day of school, and you've already found a girl?"
Shut...up. Shutupshutupshutup.

My cheeks reddened. "She has a name! and we're--"

"We're not...together..." Mia stuttered.

"Uh-huh. Then you're...friends with benefits, then?" His tone swirled around the words alluringly.

"No!" I snorted, getting annoyed, and a bit flustered.
There was friction in all theright wrong places.

"Well, what conclusion am I supposed to come to, no pun intended, when I find you two getting jiggy in the schoolyard at half past 4 in the morning?" Gerard folded his arms patronizingly, striking some sort of witty diva pose.Bench.

"We--" Both of us spluttered at the same time.

"I don't need to know the specifics of the kinkyness," Gerard waved a hand dismissively, then tucked a wind-blown strand ofdyed raven hair behind his ear.

Oh, i'm so gonna kill him for this later...painfully.

"We should get up now, huh?" I chuckled, deciding to get out of this position before it got any more awkward. If that was possible.In fact, i'm pretty sure she's filled her "gross-out" quota for the rest of the year just by being this close to me.

"Yeah...mhmm..." She nodded shyly, as I helped her to her feet.

"Amia, this psycho right here holding the flashlight, in true deranged mall cop fashion, is Gerard. Gerard, this is Amia." I shivered at a gust of wind, leaning against her for warmth until I realized she was losing her balance.

"Hey! I prefer clinically insane;" Gerard smirked deviously.

"Somehow, i'm not surprised. You okay, Mia? Nothing broken?" I half-joked. She did look pretty fragile, though.

She patted herself down, adorably. "Nope. Still in one piece..." She smiled slightly, and her eyes lit up a little bit.

"After that fall, i'm surprised everything's still in good shape...you hit the ground pretty hard..." I continued blathering, ineptly.

"My, my, what an interesting way to land," Gerard snickered, adjusting the cigarette between his lips to suit his words. He lit it and took a quick drag, while tiny little sparks from it were being carried off into the air on a whim.

"Shove it," I snapped, fighting a giggle.

"So hostile!" he laughed raspily, smoothly dodging a rock I kicked at him.

"Pay no attention to him. As a baby, his crib bars were covered with lead paint..." I murmured to Amia.

She giggled, loudly, and ended with a snort. She made a slightlyabsolutely adorable embarrassed face.

Good. for once, she looked happy. That sadness in her eyes disappeared for a second.

I made her laugh.

"You can't say anything! You ate fire ants when you were little!" Yup. They were crunchy, too. Tangy.

"Yeah, but ants don't cause brain damage..." I smirked.

Mia giggled again, but broke off into a yawn.

Still tired?" I smiled at her, and she nodded while nodding a second time.

"Maybe you should get some shuteye? You look pretty out of it," I shrugged.
"Walk you home?"

Hope that wasn't too forward. I have a knack for scaring her without trying to. And I need some sleep myself. Lately, Mom's been looking at the bags under my eyes like they scare her. Not even eyeliner can conceal that sort of stuff from a mother's radar, I guess.

"Sure," she covered her smile subtly with one of her hands, then bit her lip.

"Y'know, you hide your smile a lot. Um, you shouldn't, you know, 'cause it's...nice..." I babbled like an idiot, before trailing off. Stupid.

"Err...uh...really?" her eyes--moonlightbluegraylightbrownagain-- flickered up at me for a second. "Thank you," she smiled, and (hesitantly) dropped her hand.

I was blindsided for a second.

"Much better," I nodded.

Her smile got wider. Pearly white. No gaps, no caps. Her hands almost went up to cover her smile again, until she remembered halfway through the motion and dropped them to her sides, laughing.

"Mhm, nothing going on..." Gerard noted sarcastically, his eyes going back and forth between the two of us. He took a drag of his cigarette again, suggestively exhaling the deadly smoke out of the same side of his mouth he talked out of.

"I'll see you two later.." he strolled casually in the opposite direction, waving a goodbye as the wind dramatically swirled the leaves around him.

"So...which way are we headed?" I followed Mia, walking close behind and ignoring the random bits of playground dust blowing in my eyes as we crunched through the gravel. The breeze was getting annoyingly fierce, making the surrounding trees bend and sway as their leaves made that calming whoosh sound. Kind of funny, considering their shadowy silhouettes were an ominous pitch-black against the early hints of sunrise.

She nodded across the playground, to the right and in the general direction of a large field.

Just then, a really hard gust of wind hit...hard enough to knock Amia's frail little frame backwards into me before she could even start trudging through the dried brush.

And, of course, I got knocked over, too, because i'm about as balanced as she is.

She smells really good, actually...