Glades and Playgrounds

“Bye honey!” mom called and I muttered a faint ‘bye’ before I closed the front door. Walking quickly out through the white, meter high gate, I saw Gerard and Mikey waiting for me out on the street.

“Hey!” Gerard said with a smile, but it died once he saw my face. “You okay?”

“Mmyeah…” I mumbled, then greeted Mikey with a nod, “Hi”

“You look tired” Mikey stated, “Got any sleep last night?”

“No.” I said, “I was up studying math.”

Gerard laughed, “Why?”

I simply shrugged. He gave me a puzzled look before taking my hand in his as we started walking.

-

“It was so bizarre…” Gerard mumbled to Bert. He was in the middle of telling Bert what we had seen. Mike, Tré and Billie were listening too, though not as eagerly as Bert was, who was sitting on the edge of the bench, taking in every word of what Gerard was saying. I was trying not to listen at all; just thinking about it made me nauseous, so hearing it was about ten times worse. Instead, I just sat next to Gerard on the hard bench on the schoolyard, hugging myself slightly to protect my body from the harsh wind. “… -and then they just disappeared!”

“Are you sure the man’s dead?” Billie asked absentmindedly, picking his nails. “I haven’t read anything in the papers… or seen it on the news.”

“Since when did you start reading the papers?” Mike snorted.

“Or watching the news?” Tré butted in. Billie just gave them the middle finger without even looking at them, he just watched Gerard expectantly.

“Well, first there was the gun shot, then there was the body bag and oh, did I mention the gun shot?” Gerard said sarcastically, “Maybe they just haven’t found the body yet.” Then his face went terribly pale. “Do you think the body’s still there?”

Bert shrugged, “Dunno’, but maybe you should go to the police just in case…”

“You can’t do that,” I said and Gerard whipped his head around, looking a bit surprised that I was even there. I couldn’t blame him; I’d been quiet all day. He had tried starting up conversations every once in a while, but they died pretty quickly since I gave him the shortest answer possible.

“No?”

“Then you’ll have to tell them you were out that night… and then our parents will know we were out that night.”

Bert rolled his eyes, but by Gerard’s facial expression I knew that his parent’s wrath weighed more than the corpse dignity. “Yeah… you’re right… so…”

Gerard’s eyes landed on Bert for just a second, but it was enough for Bert to see it.

“No way!” he said, “No way Gerard!”

“Please, just tell them you went for a stroll in the dark and that you accidentally walked in on the whole thing!”

“Isn’t that like… illegal? Lying to the cops and all?” Tré asked.

Bert shrugged and looked at Gerard, “Why don’t you ask Gerard? He knows a lot about… illegal stuff, don’t you?” Bert’s eyes then darted over me for a second. Confused as I felt, I looked at Gerard and to my surprise noticed that his cheekbones had turned light pink and his eyes showed nothing but anger.

“Why don’t you just shut the hell up?”

“And why don’t you just tell-“

“Bert!” Gerard roared and Bert fell silent. “Just go to the police, okay?”

Bert’s eyes lingered on Gerard as if he was trying to figure out whether he should just drop their conversation and consider himself beaten, or if he should push it. “Fine.”

Gerard’s face softened slightly, but he still looked a bit defensive and I made a note to myself to ask him later what was going on between him and Bert, “Thank you.”

-

“You look like you’re gonna throw up any second,” Gerard said as we were walking home from school. “Are you still freaked out?”

“Kinda.” I answered shortly.

He laughed softly and took my hand in his. “You know, I can’t remember being like this after I had seen my first dead body.”

“You’ve seen more than one?”

“Yeah, like three!” he laughed, “Welcome to New Jersey baby!”

“Urgh… You know, I’ve lived in New Jersey for like… years, but never seen a dead body” I groaned, “Newark sucks. I wanna move…”

“No you don’t…” Gerard smiled, “I’m here, remember?”

“You’re not that great…” I said, and, for the first time that day, smiled.

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong,” he laughed. I could tell he was joking and laughing more than normal, and it made my body temperature rise to know that he was doing it for me. Our houses were getting close, so he asked, “Wanna hang out or do you just wanna be alone?”

“Alone, I think” I said, “Plus, I’ve got homework to do-“

“I can help.” he said instantly, but when he saw my face, he started laughing, “Okay, so maybe I can’t help… But I can distract!”

Laughing at him, I gave him a no. We stopped in the middle of the road, right between our houses. “I’ll call you tonight”

He smiled and slowly leaned forward to kiss my cheek but I turned my head to make him peck my lips. He laughed softly, placing his hand on the back of my neck and separated his lips to deepen the kiss. I swear, just feeling his soft tongue against my own made my day so much brighter. I gladly kissed back, working my lips against his thin ones and we didn’t stop until a car began to honk its horn at us. We broke apart and quickly jumped over to the sidewalk so we could say a proper good bye. His eyes were slightly droopy, as if he was on drugs; I take that as I’m a good kisser.

-

I learnt that Gerard didn’t even have to be present to distract. He sent -and I’m not kidding- 25 text messages during that night. I also learnt that if it had been anyone else but Gerard, I would’ve been annoyed.

Two days later it was in the papers about the murder, and it felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of my shoulders just by reading the article. Now it wasn’t my problem anymore, and all I had to worry about was the nightmares, but I had them under control.

“Do you think we would’ve done it?” Gerard randomly asked me while we were sitting on my bed. He had one of my comic books in his lap and had been completely devoured by it for at least ten minutes now without saying a word while I had been doing some homework. I took my grades seriously.

“Done what?” I asked and looked to my right. He was almost staring at me, his eyes scanning my face intently. “What are you talking about?”

“That night,” he said and I immediately knew what night, “Before they came. Do you think we would’ve gone through with it?”

Realizing what he was talking about, I blushed and quickly looked down in my book. I’d lie of I said I hadn’t been thinking about that as well.

“I don’t know…” I mumbled softly, “Do you?” I looked up and saw him sucking in his lips and his eyes shining mischievously. He didn’t answer, instead just went back to reading his comic book.

Returning to my book, I tried to study for a few minutes but felt how I was once again being watched, so I looked up. He was looking at me again, but not as intently as before.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing” he said with a shrug and started reading again. Laughing softly and shaking my head, I started reading again too.

It wasn’t until this had repeated itself for the third time that I snapped, put my book aside and threw myself at him. He laughed happily and eagerly welcomed my body so I was lying on top of him, since I had knocked him down from his sitting position.

“Why are you staring at me?!”

“I wasn’t staring…” he replied calmly, placing a hand on my hip.

“Oh really?” I snorted, “You know, this is why I hate being in the same room as you when I study.”

“Then don’t study when I’m around!” he laughed and started squirming underneath me, hoisting himself up in the bed a little so he’d have his head on my pillow.

“You’re always around…” I lowered my head down to rest in the crook of his neck and then softly added; “But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

We weren’t much for romantic talks really, so that probably made us both blush: I wouldn’t know, I couldn’t see his face. I just heard him giggle and then place an arm to hang loosely over my back. We fell silent again. I had a nagging voice in my head, which reminded me a lot about mom’s, that told me I really should get up and study, but the weight of Gerard’s arm on my back was enough to make me stay down.

“Hey, Frank?” he asked nervously and I looked up, a bit alarmed by his sudden change of mood.

“Yah?”

“Umm…” he mumbled, “I think… I think there’s something I have to tell you”

“… Okay?” I said slowly, urging him to go on with the tone of my voice.

“Yeah… so, you know, umm…”

With furrowed eyebrows I sat up so I was straddling his waist. “What is it?”

“I…” his chest had started to rise and fall faster than normal from stress, and he brought his hand up to his face to scratch his nose, “Like… You have to promise not to get mad, right?”

“Yeah, sure?”

“I…” he looked to his left, as if to reassure himself my mom wouldn’t barge in through the door any second.

“Gerard, come on…” I whined, “What’s up?”

Then suddenly, he smiled and looked down where our bodies met and he said; “I just… I really liked what we did that night.”

“Oh,” I said slowly, taken aback. I wasn’t entirely sure that was what he was gonna say. “Yeah… So did I.”