Demolition Lovers

When I woke up, I was in Gerard's bed.

Quietly breathing, my eyes were wide open. The dark room was lit up with a single beam of light coming from the window. I blinked slowly, wondering where Gerard was, until the soft breathing behind me finally registered.

Turning around, I saw him. I could smell him, too - cigarettes, espressos, and the occasional drift of vodka. I couldn't say I liked the last part very much, but I sighed and closed my eyes again. I needed sleep, to burn out fresher memories. Suddenly, I wondered how long I had been sleeping. Or what time it was. Looking over at the window, the blinds were drawn over it, and no trace of light emanated from the cracks. Probably really-early morning, I decided to myself groggily, turning around to try and sleep again. However, my eyes saw that Gerard was about to wake up, and I smiled softly, closing my eyes.

"Good morning." A garbled voice muttered, and I felt a shifting of weight on the lumpy mattress. The sheets were kicked off, and I felt a slight shiver come over me as his hand felt my forehead. Was he checking for a fever? Huh.

"Good afternoon, you mean." I mumbled back, smiling almost serenely so he wouldn't worry. Opening my eyes slowly, I saw a groggy, mumbling Gerard crawl out of bed outside with the zebra-print blanket around his shoulders as he scratched the back of his head. I sat up against the wall now, shivering softly as I clutched onto the blue blanket. I heard a crashing noise, a loud swear, and groaned. Gerard had smashed a mug, or something, probably.

Crawling out of bed myself with the blue sheet clutched around myself, I made my way to the kitchen to find the pot of the coffee maker on the ground with hot coffee on the floor, a glasses-less Mikey looking sheepish and Gerard pissed.

"MIKEY, PUT YOUR GOD-DAMNED GLASSES ON RIGHT NOW. YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT MAKE COFFEE WITHOUT YOUR GLASSES. AND CLEAN THIS SHIT UP, IM NOT GOING TO CLEAN UP YOUR MESS." Gerard was yelling at Mikey, and I rolled my eyes before pulling out the half-used roll of paper towel and unraveling practically the whole thing over the pile of shit-tasical coffee. "Done." I muttered, tossing the tube thingy to the side before looking around for the Instant-coffee tube shit that Donna had brought from the Korean grocery in Newark.

Gerard grunted something and Mikey snorted quietly, before retreating to his room, hopefully to put on his glasses. Suddenly the phone rang, and I saw Gerard going over to the phone to get it. "Hello? ...Oh, hi, Casey... I meant Callie... Yes, Callie Long. And stop calling me Garry. It's Gerard."

Callie Long? That was my friend. My best friend, the one that lived next doors, the one who knew about my dad, but not about what happened in June. She had gone to SVA, a fact she was very proud of. I had heard from Gerard that he went to an art school, but there was no chance on earth they knew each other... right?

Practically tackling Gerard (it was amazing how curiosity could give me huge bursts of energy,) I ripped the phone from Gerard's hands and spoke to the mouthpiece of the phone. "Hello?"

"Uhm... Hi? Wait, who's this? 'Cause like, oh my gawd, you sound like my friend that I know, and she totally went missing, and her house is like, abandoned."

This, I knew, was my air-headed, bubbly-as-fuck friend, Callie-Anne Rose Long.

"Hey, Cals." I said, an edge of nervousness ringing in my ears.

"Uhm, who is this? 'Cause, I know this totally cannot be like... Ella? OHMAGAWD, ELLA?"

Yup, this was her. "Hi."

"What are you doing at Garry's house?"

I frowned. "Garry?"

Callie giggled. "Don't you know? Garry - I mean, Gerard, is like, my bestie. Sort of."

Gerard rolled his eyes, and I took this as a sign to ignore what Callie said, because she, like usual, was being an airhead.

"Sooooo likeeee. Where were you!? Everyone's been insane trying to find you."

I paused. My mind went blank. Did I tell her the truth? No, I decided, as I blatantly lied. "No, my parents and Alicia are in Mexico, and I'm hanging out with... Garry."

I could feel a hole burning through the back of my head. Note to self, never call him Garry again.

"Well, that's like, totally awesome! 'Cause like, I was totally gonna come over, and I have some of your stuff, y'know, your clothes."

My clothes? They were still there? Fuck, I thought they would have auctioned them off! "Yeah." I said, sounding almost desperate. "Please." I added hurriedly afterwards.

"Alright, I'm going over to Gar- Gerard's place in a few. I'll bring your stuff. Honestly, there wasn't much. See ya." The phone clicked off, and the phone was snatched from my slick fingers. "Next time, you could just ask to use the phone." He muttered grumpily, before stomping over to his room and closing the door.

Grumbling, I stared at the reflection of myself in the window. I had stringier hair than possibly imaginable, and knew that taking a shower couldn't be put off any longer. Sighing, I trudged over to the guest-room-slash-my-room and picked up a clean t-shirt and jeans, and walked to the bathroom before closing the door and locking it.

I first tried brushing my hair with a spare hairbrush I found, and found that no matter what I did with my hair, it still looked flat and greasy. Sighing, I stripped down and hopped in the shower.

The hot water felt relaxing, almost therapeutic against my pale, tired skin, as I stood there, soaking myself in the shower. After about ten minutes though, I started to finally wash myself. I washed my hair with shampoo, used the soap to actually clean off my skin, and hopped out of the shower in around thirty minutes.

I wrapped a towel around myself, staring at the reflection in my mirror. I knew I could look pretty if I tried - eyeliner, mascara and hair products helped - but right now, I looked pale, tired, and sallow. Sighing, I threw on the jeans and t-shirt, tried to dry my hair as much as possible with the towel (no hair dryer - did Donna have one in her bathroom?) and walked outside to see Gerard, drinking a new cup of coffee. The pile of paper towel had disappeared, by Donna, I presumed, as Gerard paused to look at me.

I grimaced - I should have worn that skirt that I hadn't worn since I had been home.

"You look nice." He commented after a long gulp.

"Bullshit." I muttered, going over to the bathroom again, to see if I could fix my hair at all. Probably not, seeing as I had no elastics or whatever, but staring at the mirror a little longer would get my mind off of things.

When Callie arrived, I went to open the door – and was immediately practically strangled in a hug. “OHMYGOSHELLAIMISSEDYOUWHEREWEREYOUANDOHMYGODHOWDIDYOUFINDGARRYIMEANGERARDBECAUSELIKE-“

“Her face is turning blue.” Gerard commented dryly, making Callie let go of me, finally.

“So like, your clothes are here, and I have some of your makeup that I borrowed and basically like never gave back, and that’s about it. I didn’t bring your art supplies because I think the keys to your art studio are somewhere else –

My art studio? I raised my eyebrow. “What do you mean, my art studio?” I asked, confused now. My hair may have been dripping, but I was no fool.

“Your art studio? Holy hawaiian, did I not tell you? I bought you an art studio and stuck the key in the pocket of… Hey! You’re wearing the jeans right now!”

Holy shit. She bought me a house? Well, showed how rich she was.

Frantically, I dug my hand into the pockets of my jeans, and there it was – a glorious, silver key. “It’s in Manhattan, but I was hoping you’d move in there and be like, my roomie. But then you totally like, disappeared.” Callie said, pouting at me.

Oh, so it was a proposition to live together. Well, it was still pretty much thoughtful. “But… you said it was an art studio.” I frowned.

“It’s a penthouse with a studio in it. Big difference.”

Holy shit, she had bought out a fuckin’ penthouse? “Why did you not tell me about this sooner?”

“I was going to tell you on your birthday, which was next week, but you disappeared, duh.” She rolled her eyes at me, as if this was obvious. Looking over at Gerard, he had simply raised an eyebrow.

“Well… Thanks, I guess.”

“I was living there like, last week, but my parents got me a new place, so you can live there now, you know, if you want.”

Was she serious? “No, it’s fine. You can keep it.”

“This is your 3-months-late birthday present, Ella. If you don’t take it, I would have to sell it.” She pouted, and I sighed.

“Fine.” I muttered, shoving the key in my pants and deciding to chuck it into the bottom of the Hudson River.

"So like, Garry, just so you know, Joey wants to see you for lunch next week, and like, you're supposed to hand in a paper or something."

"The Batman analysis thing? I was kidding about that." He groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Well, he wants it next week. Oh, and can I see that new thing you were working on?"

"Threw it out last month, Mikey spilled ink on it." Gerard mumbled, shoving a cigarette between his lips and lighting up. "Now, if you're done, kindly leave, because our grandma's coming to visit in... less than ten minutes."

Callie rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out childishly at Gerard. "Fine. I'll see you later?" She directed the question towards me, and I nodded. "Alright, see you." She said, stepping back out the door as Gerard sat down on the kitchen table again.

"You look nice." He muttered through the cigarette, and I rolled my eyes.

"I repeat - bullshit." I replied, staring down at myself. The t-shirt was a plain grey one, and the jeans were loose, from having lost so much weight while living outside. Damn, if I had known I had a penthouse...

Gerard paused to take a drag, before stubbing out the cigarette. "Moot point. You aren't as ugly as you'd like to believe." He sighed, as the doorbell rang. "I'll get it."

When the door opened, Gerard was embraced in a hug. "Gramma!" He squealed - wait, squealed?

When I got to see the woman's face, I raised my eyebrows slightly. A white-haired woman with a crinkly smile, oval glasses and a shorter than normal stature stared at me, hard. Finally, she smiled and spoke to me. "Well, hello! Who's this, dear?" She asked Gerard, and he grinned.

"This is my friend, gramma. Ella, this is Grandma Elena." He said, nodding towards me slightly with a wicked little grin.

"Well, hello dear. Would you like to see Gerard's prom pictures? I found them last week, you know." She said sternly to Gerard, and he groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Grandma! I told you, I do not want to see them." he said, frowning. "And don't let Ella see them either, I'll never hear the end of it."

"I want to see!" I nodded ferverently, and Elena smiled before walking with a slight stride into the kitchen, and sat down on the chair, whipping out a paper folder of photos, I presumed. She slit them open with a manicured nail, and a pile of photos came tumbling down, as she plucked off the first three.

"Those are Gerard's prom pictures." She said, smiling. Gerard groaned loudly, while I snatched them up and studied them. There were three pictures - a group shot, a shot by himself... And a shot where he was kissing his date. My stomach imploded, and I put that one down first, deciding to study the shot by himself first.

Gerard was noticably chubbier, with a bowl cut. Huh... he looked... different, for sure. Standing there alone with his hands to himself, he looked awkward, shy.

"So, dear, are you starting anything new?" Elena asked Gerard while I studied the pictures carefully.

"Actually, I was going to start a band." Gerard replied, grinning as my jaw dropped all the way to my knees. Then to my feet. Then all the way to China.

"You - I - Wait - WHAT?" I asked, after regaining the idea to speak.

"That's a wonderful idea, dear!" Elena smiled proudly at Gerard. "Are you going to sing?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

"You can sing?" I asked, my eyes widening now. Why did people not tell me these sorts of things?

"Yeah. I wrote a song a few days ago."

"Gee, thanks for letting me know of your secret talent. What next, tying knots in cherry stems with your tongue?" I replied sarcastically, crossing my arms now.

"Actually, I can do that."

"Fuck you."

"Well, I think it's lovely you're going to make music again. You haven't sang since... Peter Pan? Speaking of which, do you still have the costume?" Elena said, smiling.

Gerard laughed. "Green tights and that tunic thing? Yeah, I think Mikey framed it and put it in a box in the basement." he said, grinning as I tried not to snort my lung up.

This week was going to be very long, it seemed. A house, a band and... knot-tying. Lovely.