Glades and Playgrounds

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, laughing where I stumbled forward, led by no less than Gerard himself. The correct word to describe what was going on would be kidnapping, though Gerard and company didn’t agree. According to them, this was just a better way to celebrate my birthday. I had no idea of where we were going, and would probably not know any time soon since we had just started walking from my house. God, people must think we’re crazy… Two people surrounding a third one, who’s wearing a god damn blindfold. Oh well, it’s Halloween, we’re supposed to do stupid things.

“Hello…?”

I got no answer, which I hadn’t gotten to my previous questions either. I knew they were there though; Gerard was right next to me with his arm protectively around my back so I wouldn’t fall, and I was pretty sure Bert was the one trying to suppress his laughter as he continuously told Gerard to lead me into a wall or something. Fortunately, Gerard didn’t listen to him. Where Billie, Mike and Tré were, I had no idea. I hadn’t seen them before, and I couldn’t hear them anywhere near me.

“Up” Gerard suddenly ordered and I slowly lifted my right foot up. The front of my shoe hit something hard so I continued to raise it, thinking it was probably a very high stair step. “Not there, you idiot…” he laughed softly, “That’s a wall”

“And how the hell was I supposed to know that?”

“Female intuition?” Bert chimed in and I aimed a punch at what I thought was in his direction, but I only punched through thin air.

“Knock it off, we’re gonna be late” Gerard said and turned me slightly to the left before once again saying, “Up”

“Late for what?” I asked, trying to sound casual so he’d forgot that it apparently was a secret. But sadly, I was only met with silence. “Hello…?”

“He’s one hell of a talker…”

Gerard laughed at Bert’s comment, “He’s one hell of a lot of things”

“Oh, kinky, Gerard”

“Is sex all you think about?”

“I’m offended. You’ve known me for what? Fourteen years and still you’re asking me that question”

“You didn’t become a sex-craving monster until you turned twelve…”

“What do you know about that…”

“Hey, hey, hey, a little less talking and a little more steering Frank away from hard things!” I exclaimed and took a hard grip around Gerard as I felt my elbow brush against something hard, probably a wall or a streetlamp. They ended their pointless conversation and instead laughed at my pathetic tries to try to avoid things I couldn’t even see. “Are we there yet? My eyes are itching!”

“Actually… We are” Gerard declared, but didn’t take away the blindfold. “Bert, take this, and I’ll go and see if the guys are here yet”

The sound of rustling paper and plastic was heard.

“What’s that?” I asked, indicating at the sound, “And where have the guys been?”

“Absolutely nothing…” Gerard mumbled, while Bert chose to answer my other question.

“They’ve been at band practise,” he said, pronouncing the last two words with a mocking voice.

“They have a band?”

“Kinda. Not that they’ll make it big or anything…”

“Bert, that’s no way to talk about your friends,” Gerard scolded, though sounding quite amused, “You’re just jealous”

“Am not. I’m just stating the obvious… You can’t expect to get taken seriously while having a band name such as Sweet Children-”

“You’re jealous” Gerard butted in, “I’ll be back in a sec.”

I had to admit, being left alone with Bert while wearing a blindfold weren’t something I would’ve normally put up with, but since all he did was to sulk quietly next to me, it didn’t bother me.

“They’re inside, come on” Gerard was back, and the sound of rustling paper and plastic was heard once again as he took whatever it was he had given Bert just minutes ago.

“Inside of where?” I asked, though knowing perfectly well they wouldn’t answer. Gerard laughed at me, gave me a kiss on the cheek before he took my hand and slowly led me forward.

-

Warmth and the smell of popcorn hit me in the face as soon as we came inside. A cinema. A smile crept up over my face and as Gerard saw it, he laughed.

“You know where we are, don’t you?”

“The smell gave it away”

“Damn. I should’ve brought a nose clip.”

I laughed, then felt the fabric that was covering my eyes slip away and seconds later, the light in the foyer of the cinema hit my eyes. Squinting my eyes for a second, I looked around and smiled at my friends. “So this is what we’re gonna do tonight?”

“It’s one of the many things, yes” Gerard said, nodding while smiling goofily, “We’re gonna see a horror movie, go trick or treating and then go to a Halloween party”

“Go trick or treating?” I asked, strongly doubting we’d be getting any candy whatsoever. I mean, why give candy to five sixteen year olds and a fifteen year old when you can give it to small, sweet blonde-haired six year old girls?

“Yeah… But we’ll just screw the part where we give people a choice” Bert explained with a grin, “It’s a small tradition of ours”

“Oh… So what exactly do you do?”

“Throw egg and tomatoes at people’s houses.”

Before I could respond to Bert’s comment, I was knocked aside by a body flying straight into mine, almost making me fall to the floor. I managed to stay up with help from Bert, who had caught me by the shoulder.

“Happy birthday!” the unknown person bellowed in my ear and I let out a small shriek in both pain and surprise. “How old are you anyway? Like… sixteen?”

“He’s fifteen, Bill, now get off him” Gerard laughed and pulled away Billie from me, “How did band practise go?”

It only took one look at Billie to see something was wrong. His eyes were bloodshot and glazed, as if he had cried recently but he didn’t look sad at all. Actually the opposite, he was smiling like a maniac and didn’t even seem to notice that his lips were so dry the flesh had started to tear up, making small lines of dried blood visible.

“We like… didn’t have band practise, y’know, because we like… forgot” he grinned, blinking repeatedly as he talked and put his arm around Bert’s neck. Though he only stayed in that position for a few seconds before he was nearly sent to the floor, just like I almost had been just minutes ago. The reason that had caused Billie to fall was Mike, who was now laughing hard while lying next to Billie on the foyer floor. Several people glared at them, but they didn’t seem to notice; Mike looked just as demented as Billie.

“Are you high or something?” Bert asked while pulling Mike up by the collar of his jacket.

“Yeah, they are” a voice said behind us and I recognized it as Tré. He didn’t look high at all, but amused to see Billie on the popcorn-filled floor. “They found some sort of drugs in Billie’s brother’s room and well… they tried it”

“And how come you’re such a good boy?” Gerard asked Tré while bending down to help the laughing Billie up, “I’m having a hard time thinking you’d say no to drugs.”

Tré made a mocked glare at Mike and Billie, “The shitheads took it all.”

“Ah… But wait, fuck…” Gerard sighed, “How the hell are we supposed to make them shut up during the movie? They’ll fucking get us kicked out!”

Billie, who was looking at Gerard with certain interest from where he stood next to him, put an arm around Gerard’s neck while holding up his index finger in front of Gerard’s face, as if he wanted Gerard to listen, “Now look… That- that won’t be like a problem or anything” he slurred, shaking his head vigorously, “’Cuz Mike… Mike and I can be very, very quiet… y’know” The sentence ended in whisper, and with his index finger over his lips as to really point out how quiet they could be. “Right, Mike?”

“You…” Mike gasped, clutching his side, who hadn’t heard a word of what Billie just said, “You look, you look like a girl!”

The two burst out in laughter. Gerard rolled his eyes at them, “Yeah so anyway… Do you want your presents now, or later?”

It took me a second before I realized he was talking to me since I had been watching Mike and Billie try to hold each other up while laughing. “Oh, right. Yeah, presents, sure”

“Eh… About that…” Tré said slowly as Gerard started to rummage through the plastic bag he had been carrying, and I realized it was my birthday presents he had kept in it.

“You forgot?” Gerard asked, still trying to reach the bottom of the plastic bag.

“No,” Tré said, shaking his head, “But Mike was in charge of that…” He made a small gesture at Mike who was studying his hand with such interest his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. “But don’t worry; we’ll pay for the movie”

“You really don’t have to” I laughed, but realized that someone had to pay for it since I didn’t bring my wallet. As said, I was kidnapped and there was no time to bring necessities. “Anyway, let’s bring on the existing presents then!”

Gerard laughed, waving at me to come closer so I could get my present from his bag. “Alright… Do you want mine, or Bert’s present first?”

With one look at Bert’s rowdy face, I came to the conclusion that his present was something evil, so I turned to look at Gerard. “Yours”

Bert made a strange noise, a mixture of a snort and a cough to let me know I had offended him, “My present’s a lot better than his…”

Gerard grinned at Bert while picking up a medium-sized package, wrapped all in black with black a black ribbon around it from the bag. Looking at me while giving it to me, he said; “You already know what you were gonna get from me so I bought you two things… or well, one and a half.”

I slowly opened the present, taking my time with all the tape- I highly suspected he had wrapped it himself since there were a lot of it- and out fell a pair of black, proper gloves with white skeleton bones on them, just like the ones I already had, but mine were fingerless.

“Woah, thanks!” I beamed at him, immediately pulling on the gloves, but then noticed there was something more in the package. I unfolded the paper completely, revealing a CD I had lost hope in ever finding, Ramones Mania. “Woah,” I said again, though this time slower, “How did you know I didn’t have this?!”

“I might’ve heard you complain because you couldn’t find this album anywhere…” he grinned, and I, grinning back, literally bounced over to him and flung my arms around his neck. It was true though, I had complained a lot, but that had just been a hint for my mother to hear, not him. But I wasn’t complaining anymore, I had the god damn album!

Seconds later, my lips were in contact with his. If it had been me or him who started the kiss, I’ll never know, but at least I was the one deepening it. I tilted my head to the side, slowly sliding my tongue into his warm mouth, past his soft lips, and was happily welcomed by his own tongue. It was like kissing silk- though I doubt that would taste as good as this-, just warm, sweet, soft… Our chests sunk into each others jackets, and I could feel him smile widely as my hand travelled up from where it had been on his back to his neck.

“Ah, we’re not so prude anymore, are we Gerard? Making out in public… Pff…”

“Mmgh- go” Gerard mumbled and I felt his body jerk a little as he waved at Bert to go away from where he stood behind my back. Gerard pressed me closer against him, his hand placed itself on the back of my head, playing with the locks of my hair and our tongues slipped in and out of our mouths. I started to feel a bit anti-social, though I knew all Tré and Bert had their hands full with trying to make Billie and Mike to stop singing/screaming, it still made me feel like I was pushing them aside.
Maybe it was because I was still kinda new in the group, but it always made me feel guilty kissing or simply being cuddly with Gerard whenever they were around. I pulled away, licked my bottom lip and smiled at him. His eyes were shining with that same old mischievousness that I had come to love, and his lips were both red and coated with saliva.

“Thanks for the presents…” I said quietly, my mouth still just inches away from his, so I quickly pecked his lips. “I loved them.”

“I’m glad you did… And just so you know, the CD was from Mikey as well…”

“I’ll remember to thank him”

“Great, you’re done!” Bert said behind my back, and with a swift movement, Gerard had turned me around so we were both facing Bert, and Gerard with his arms resting over my shoulder and down my chest. “Open my present!”

He handed me a white envelope. The front of it was completely covered in doodles, random words and smiley faces, but the backside was clean.

“Thanks,” I smiled, fearing what would be inside. I opened the envelope and pulled out the papers inside of it. As Gerard saw what it was, he burst out laughing, and bent his head down to lean his forehead against my shoulder. It was a single condom, plus at least five pamphlets about safe sex and how to avoid HIV and other diseases.

“Damn Bert, I love you!” Gerard laughed, taking on of the pamphlets from me to read on it.

“I know. Too bad I don’t go for guys… We would’ve made a beautiful couple” Bert grinned, “Told you my present was better than yours”

“Oh, they’re quite equal” I smirked as I played with the square-formed, purple plastic the condom was wrapped up in. “Here. You take this…” I said and twisted my arm backwards to put it in Gerard’s back pocket. Realizing how evil I could actually be, I slipped the condom down his pocket while pressing my hand hard against his arse, as if my arm was twisted so badly I had to do so.

“And what do you think you’re doing, mister…?” he whispered in my ear, seeing through my evil plan, “Molesting me?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about… Are we gonna see a movie or not?”

-

As the result of my question, we, twenty minutes later, made our way into the saloon, and thanks to a small incident with the cashier lady- Bert had to swear in the name of God that our friends weren’t high or drunk- we got inside just as the commercials were over. In all honestly, I had no idea what movie we were gonna see, but since I wasn’t paying for it either it didn’t bother me.

It only took about ten minutes to classify the film as bad. The actors were terrible and the special effects were even worse, I could tell by the way Gerard was paying more attention to the straw of his soda than he was to the movie that he agreed. Billie and Mike on the other hand were gasping and shrieking loudly as soon as something happened, though way too loud, and Bert and Tré desperately tried to make them shut up. Bert’s method was to stuff popcorn into their mouths, while Tré simply slapped them.

Another ten minutes passed and I couldn’t even busy myself with drinking my soda since I had drunken it all up. Gerard reached out to take my hand, but not to hold it, but to look at my watch.

“An hour left… Great.” he whispered, sighing, “This movie sucks.”

“I know” I whispered back, and suddenly the whole saloon was enlightened by an explosion from the movie screen. Another bad special effect… the speakers boomed and crunched while the screen blinked in different colours, making Gerard’s skin change colour repeatedly. I realized that he hadn’t turned his face away from me to look at the screen, but just sat and looked at me with a smile. “What?”

I should’ve known, huh?

He slowly leaned towards me and seconds later our lips touched. Thinking that kissing him was way better than watching the movie, I happily kissed back, pressing my tongue against his lips. I was getting the hang of this, weren’t I? I obviously was since he parted his lips to meet my tongue with his own.

Somewhere in the background I could hear Mike laughing hard at something, Tré hissing at him to shut up, people chewing on their popcorns and the movie’s upbeat music, but not as clear as I had done a second ago. It was like a wall of soundproof glass had been set up between the rest of the world and Gerard and me, all I could hear clearly was the sound our tongues and lips were making. He placed his hand on my cheek, kissing me a bit harder, then let his hand caress its way to the back of my neck where it started to play with the neck of my shirt. Just the simple touch made me shudder, and I could feel him smile against my mouth before he pulled away.

“Just wanted to do that…” he whispered, and I smiled while leaning forward to continue the ended kiss.

[A/N; I promise, this story is going somewhere...
Oh, and thanks to xDisenchantedWithMCR for helping me with this chapter... you're amazing.]