Circo

Sleep was something that didn’t come easy to me that night, which is why I was in a bit of a grumpy mood this morning.

Apparently there’d been a steady alcohol flow last night, and every sure did enjoy it; especially Josie who stumbled in at whatever time announcing to me that she felt like calling her ex-husband. She never did, I think she passed out somewhere on the floor between her bed and mine.
I’d just left her there, I was in a bad mood at the time and I didn’t care, but now I felt kind of bad.

I sat up in my rickety bed and looked around to see Josie asleep in the bed across from mine. I stood up and stretched out the kinks in my back before stepping out into the sunlight, I hadn’t bothered to change to my PJs last night.

The camp still smelt slightly smoky from the fire last night but it was nice, almost like birthday candles or something. Along with that, there was also the distinct smell of food coming from next to the fire where a couple of people were sitting around, chatting casually around a small portable stove.

May as well make myself known now.

The two faces of the people around the stove looked up at me as I stepped towards them.
“Hey, you’re the new kid,” one of them said, standing. I nodded nervously and let her approach me. She looked at me and smiled before it turned quickly into a frown. “God, you can’t be more than seventeen,” she said almost sadly.

“I’m sixteen,” I corrected making her eyes widen a little.

“Why did you come here?”

I shrugged. “I love the circus,”

“Ha,” the man poking at some spitting eggs laughed bitterly, not even looking at me. “Let’s see how long that lasts,”

“Lou!” the woman said hitting him lightly with the back of her hand. “Let’s just be welcoming, shall we?”

He snorted before looking up at me. “Eggs?”

“Please,” I nodded.

“Well, you’re going to have to wait. These are for Way and his kids,” he spat bitterly.

“Kids?” I asked. As far as I knew, he only had one.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you’ve met at least one of them by now. He’s probably tried to get in your pants at least twelve times by now,”

“No—” I started, only to be interrupted.

“Oh, so you haven’t met Gerard. Well,” she smirked slightly, eyeing me up and down. “You will.”

I chose to ignore that and took a seat next to Lou. “He’s the star, right?” I asked, curiously.

“Oh yeah. But I'm sure you don't know why they call him the star,” Lou chuckled.

“Why do they?”

The woman just smirked at me. “Have you met Mikey, yet?” she asked, placing a cigarette between her lips and lighting it.

“I don’t think so,”

“You probably should. He’s only a year older than you; you could stick with him,”

I nodded slowly, and my eyes darted across the campsite to the two slightly larger caravans. I could see movement behind the thin curtains of the one that wasn’t on the edge, the one that belonged to Gerard.

“Oh, I’m Kate by the way,” the woman with the cigarette said holding her hand out for me to shake.

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“Okay guys,” Mr Way said standing around the burnt out embers of last night’s campfire as we ate our breakfast. “We need to get packed up as soon as possible so we can make our way down to Texas. We have ten days to get down there and set up.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away.

“‘ello sweet ‘eart,” Josie said placing herself next to me. “Don’t worry yourself, Me an’ Kate’s gonna tell ya what ya need to do.”

I just nodded gratefully, taking another bite of my toast while staring at the looming form of the tent. It didn’t even seem possible that something like that could come down so easily.

About an hour later everyone was busy getting the tent down. Well, almost everyone. Mr Way hadn’t come out of his caravan and Gerard was dancing about the campsite singing ‘Honey, Honey,’ by ABBA. Everyone seemed completely unfazed by this, ignoring the fact that he was strutting around in only a pair of obscenely tight skinny-jeans and a pair of black converses.

“Frankie-honey,” Josie called. I looked over at her and saw her beckoning me over to where she was; next to an old looking car. “Be a doll, will ya? And clean up these pegs an’ put ‘em in the bags down ‘ere accordin’ to the colour of the stripe around the top. You can do that?” she asked, pointing out the coloured stripes. She then handled me the cloth and scuttled off to...where ever she needed to be when I nodded; it was a simple enough request.

I set about straight away with what I was supposed to be doing. This was the first time since I’d been here that I actually started to feel useful.

Once I’d cleaned all of the pegs with the green stripe, I put them on the bonnet of the car next to me, and bent down to pick up the bag they were supposed to go in.

“Mmm,” I heard someone purr from behind me. I froze up momentarily before realising the position I was in and straightening up quickly, turning to face the intruder.

Oh shit, it was Gerard.

“So,” he purred once more. “You’re the new kid?” He took a long drag on the cigarette in his hand, and I felt nervous as his eyes scanned my body.

I faked clearing my throat, and his eyes snapped up to mine quickly that smirk still covering his features. “You don’t like smoke?” he asked, gesturing to the cigarette. He knew exactly why I’d cleared my throat; he just wanted to see me squirm.

“N-No, it’s not that,”

“Oh,” he took another drag. “Then what is it?”

I couldn’t talk, my vocal chords froze up. I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the man. “You were...” I paused, how do I word this without sounding like a moron?

His eyes danced with amusement and he took a step closer to me. “I was...”

“Ch—” I started before freezing up again as that damn cigarette made its way to his mouth once more. He had such a seductive air about him.

He exhaled the smoke from his lungs making a ring that seemed to frame my face for the split second it existed before fading and being carried away into the atmosphere. “I was checking you out,” he concluded, dropping the cigarette on to the floor and crushing it with the tip of his shoe. “And rather enjoying the view,”

I swallowed, my tongue thick in my mouth and my throat closing up, I didn’t know what to do; how to react to his announcement. He stepped closer and closer still until I could feel him breathing on my lips, until I could practically taste the smoke on his breath.

And while this was happening all I could think was ‘You fucking idiot! What are you doing? Step away. Step away now, before something happens!’, but my heart was thudding so hard in my chest that I couldn’t even hear what my mind was telling me to do.

His eyes flickered from my own eyes and down to my lips and back again, before his whispered, “Don’t you have work to be doing?”

With that, he was gone. I watched his bare retreating back, and let out all the oxygen my lungs had been storing that I hadn’t even been aware about.

That was my first official meeting with Gerard Way.