Glades and Playgrounds

Mom seemed to look at this dinner at the Way’s house as an second date for me and Gerard, I on the other hand just saw it as an opportunity for mom to make some friends. All she does when she gets home from work is to sit alone in the couch, watching tv or reading in her room. She used to be so social, so happy, gushing with emotions and laughter. My grandma used to say that she had a red aura, which basically meant that she was crazy, but since it was my grandma that thought she could see aura’s, I think she was a tad more crazy than mom.

“You’re not wearing those pants you wore yesterday” mom pouted as I jumped down from the stairs, still having three more steps to go, but found it quicker to simply jump.

“Nah… ‘cuz if you didn’t notice, they were too small…”

“The tighter the better… And I bet Gerard thinks so too” she said, adding the last part teasingly.

“I swear to god, that if you say anything, and I mean anything embarrassing tonight in front of him, I’ll disown you as a mother”

“Oh really? And where do you think you’re going? Maybe you can live at Gerard’s house?”

“Shut up” I muttered grumpily, walking past her into the kitchen, “But seriously, please, don’t embarrass me”

“I won’t” she said, smiling as she saw my serious face, “I promise… You know I wouldn’t anyway”

I shrugged, looking out of the kitchen window. It looked more like autumn than summer at the moment. Great clouds were infecting the deep, blue sky and it was blowing hard, almost like a storm. I could see Gerard’s house from here, it lay almost across the street, only one house to the right.

“When are we leaving?” I asked, my question ringing through the silent kitchen, “Linda?” I heard the shower being turned on, so I had to rely on my memory on how much time I had left until we had to go. Since it was just past noon, I knew that I had at least four hours to get ready. What to do, what to do…

And as always when you’re bored, I ended up in front of the computer. It was the last thing we packed up since mom doesn’t think it’s necessary to have it whatsoever. I logged onto MSN, but no one interesting was in so just as I was gonna log out, Sasha logged in.

x Rawr says; FWANKIE! :D

Mr. Pansy says; SASHY! s’up?

x Rawr says; not much, missing u… u? ^.^

Mr. Pansy says; I’m nervous as hell, dude… I met this really kewl guy & Linda & I are going over for dinner… ._.

Mr. Pansy says; Linda miss you lots btw

x Rawr says; Kewl guy, ey? You making friends already, huh? Forgetting about me so soon? *cries* anyway, why r u so nervous? It’s just a dinner… Aw, tell her I miss her 2. XD

Mr. Pansy says; I kinda went out on a date with him & yeah… so yeah, he’s really kewl… & by kewl I mean sexy as hell… ^.^

x Rawr says; date? sexy? wtf r u talking about? O.O

Mr. Pansy says; he asked me out & I said yes & we went on a date… get it?

x Rawr says; care 2 tell us when we got gay?

Mr. Pansy says; I get the feeling ur mad… I didn’t actually know I was gay, I just went out with him, to u know try something new

x Rawr says; so ur gay?

Mr. Pansy says; yeah (:

x Rawr says; I’ve 2 go, dad needs the computer.

Her dad has his own computer…

*

“Ah, hello! Come in,” Mr. Way said as he opened the door, standing on the threshold , dressed in a white shirt, grey tie and black, ordinary pants. “I don’t think we’ve met” he added when his eyes fell on me and he stretched out his hand for me. “I’m Mikey and Gerard’s dad”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Way” I said politely, “I’m Frank”

“Call me Don” he smiled, signing for us to come in. “The boys are in the living room if you rather wanna talk to them instead of hearing us parents babble. And could you please tell Gerard that he has to come up with a believable lie to why I found a cigarette in his room…”

I nodded, returning the smile and followed the two to the kitchen just to say hello to Mrs. Way before making my way over to the living room… which was empty. A loud thud from the second floor gave away the brothers position so I walked up the stairs.

“Where did you buy this anyway?” I heard Mikey ask, his voice coming from the door that was at the end of the hall.

“Grandma bought it for me” Gerard’s voice answered, “now; give it to me before I rip your head off!”

I was now only a few steps away from the door and I started to feel slightly nervous; was I supposed to hug Gerard when I saw him? We’d only been out on one date…

“Fine… by the way, I think Frank and his mom just arrived”

“Actually, we arrived a couple of minutes ago and I didn’t get a proper greeting” I said as I pushed the already half open door up and stepped in.

They were sitting on their bed; Mikey in his with a comic book in his lap and Gerard on his, lying down with his hands behind his head as a pillow. His bed was right to the left when you entered the room so I was practically standing next to him.

“Oh, hi! We didn’t hear when you came” Gerard smiled, getting up from the bed and hugged me. Guess I didn’t have to worry… Mikey made a slight wave with his hand as to greet me and I smiled.

“Your dad said you have to come up with a believable lie to why he found a cigarette in your room.” I said, turning to Gerard who once again sat on his bed, remembering what Mr. Way had said.

“He what?!” Gerard exclaimed, “But… But I don’t smoke, how-“ he craned his neck to the right and stared at Mikey who was sitting innocently with his comic book. “Mikey?”

“Mhh?” Mikey said, looking up from his book, then realized why he had gotten his brother’s attention. “Dude, I don’t smoke and you know that! I’m sure it was Bert”

Gerard sighed, “Dammit… Dad’s gonna freak out”

“Why don’t you tell him it was this Bert guy who did it?” I asked.

“He always blames poor lil’ Bert” Mikey explained as Gerard grinned.

“He deserves it… I was grounded for a month after he had set that bench in the park on fire… He inhaled a hell of a lot of smoke and passed out so everyone just assumed that I did it”

I laughed, but stopped as Gerard was gazing at me intently; “What?”

“Nothing,” he said, shrugging, but Mikey spoke up.

“Oh come on, Gee, you can do better than that! Aren’t you gonna tell him how pretty he is when he laughs, hmm?” he asked, cocking his head in a sly look.

“No, but I can tell you how ugly you look when you’re trying to be funny” Gerard retorted as he raised his eyebrow and Mikey stuck his tongue out.

“Boys! Dinner!” Mrs. Way called from downstairs, which was quite a relief since I had started to feel stupid about just standing and leaning against the threshold like that.

“Coming!” Mikey called back, getting up from bed along with Gerard. We walked downstairs and over to the kitchen where Mrs. Way had set the table, adding two extra chairs at the ends. I sat down next to mom just to feel a little protected and with Mr. Way sitting next to me at the end of the table, Gerard opposite me.

The conversation went well, I didn’t talk too much, neither did Mikey and Gerard, it was mainly our parents who laughed and joked, trying to get us quiet ones one’s into the conversation too.

“So Frank, your mom said you’re turning fifteen this October… Must be tough having your birthday the same day as Halloween”

“Nah, not really” I said, shrugging and trying desperately to swallow the amount of food in my mouth, “It’s like getting presents from all your neighbours”

They laughed, which gave me some time to swallow in case they’d ask me something else.

“Mikey’s birthday’s on the 31 of December… and since he’s such an attention who- I mean, since he likes attention, he hates sharing his birthday with New Years Eve.” Gerard grinned teasingly, giving his mom an apologetically look for almost saying ‘whore’ at the dinner table.

“I was sevenwhen I said I hated it, Gerard… Get over it! And I’m not an attention wh- uhm, seeker”

Gerard snorted, receiving a glare from Mikey and Mrs. Way quickly started talking to mom to prevent them from arguing.

*

“Thank you so much for dinner” mom said, making a small bow and Donna laughed.

“You’re more than welcome! I’ll just clean up a bit and the rest of you can go and make yourselves comfortable in the living room” Donna said, which was instantly followed by mom who said she was more than willing to help and blah blah blah, so as they kept on talking, the rest of us moved into the living room.

“You boys can go upstairs, we’re just gonna sit and talk down here anyway” Mr. Way said, waving us off as we were about to get comfortable on the couch. Shrugging, we made our way back upstairs and into the brothers room once again, I felt slightly shy since we’d probably just sit and look awkwardly at each other once we were in there.

“We should play a game or something…” Mikey said as we entered and Gerard rolled his eyes, which Mikey wasn’t late to discover. “Got a better idea?”

“Yeah, we can sit and stare at the walls, that’s much more fun than playing games”

“Why don’t we let the guest decide, huh?”

“If I get to choose from staring at the walls or play a game, I think it’s pretty obvious what I’ll say” I said, smiling apologetically at Gerard who sighed.

“Fine, but we’ll play Monopoly, end of story”

“Yeah, you suck at that anyway” Mikey shot in before he went to get Monopoly of a shelf in their room.

“I do not! Remember last time? We played for like a week… And I won!”

“You cheated”

“Did not!”

“Did to!”

“BOYS!” Donna’s voice was heard from downstairs and the brothers went silent, calmly sitting down on the floor with their legs crossed and the game on in front of them. I copied them, smiling as they continued their fight by glaring at each other.

“You guys got worse mood swings than Linda on her worst day…” I grinned and they both looked at me, offended. “How come you’re fighting and the next minute you’re all happy and lovely around each other?”

“We’re brothers” Mikey explained as he started to set up the game field. “Anyway, let’s start… Everyone knows how to play this shit, right?”

“Dude, it’s Monopoly… He’s not a retard” Gerard laughed.

“Hey, I’ve seen your previous dates… They weren’t exactly bright”

“Can we just start playing already?” I interrupted, knowing that Mikey’s remark would probably lead to another fight. Thankfully, they obeyed and the game started and kept going without any further fights.

As it turned out, I was a retard. Although I knew how to play Monopoly, I wasn’t too good at it. Apparently, I was too greedy. I mean, if you can afford it, why not buy it? They were all careful and shit, not wanting to buy too much so I practically owned every street… But they always seemed to get away since I was too busy mourning about the lack of money that I didn’t see when they ‘walked on my street’. So yeah, I’m broke.

“I almost feel sorry for you” Gerard laughed as I once again had to give all my money to the bank.

“I’m sure you do” I murmured. I hate losing.

“Aw, I think your boyfriend’s a bit cranky…” Mikey said in a mocked baby voice and I laughed. Wait, boyfriend? Am I Gerard’s boyfriend? Already? Jeeze, I met him only a couple of days ago… Hold on, boyfriend?!

“Shut it, you’re embarrassing him”

I wouldn’t mind being his boyfriend… Especially not if it means I get to spend more time with him. But he said he date a lot of guys and you don’t call a guy you’ve been out with once your boyfriend, right? No… Dammit, I need to talk to mom about this.

“Frank?”

But if Mikey says I’m Gerard’s boyfriend… then maybe Gerard has talked about me as his boyfriend. Or maybe Mikey just said it as a joke? Maybe Gerard and I are just friends? No hold on, we were out on a date… You don’t go on dates with your friends god damn it. Why do I care anyway?

Suddenly, a hand came dangerously close to my face, waving frantically and I snapped out of my thoughts and looked around.

“Hi?” I said, giving both of them some confused looks for staring at me, “What?”

“Nothing” Mikey sighed, giving me a long look before he started to take away the game from the floor, “I give up on this, Gerard wins and everyone’s happy”

“Oh nuts, I was so close to winning” I joked and Gerard laughed.

“You owed the bank around 10 000 dollars, sugar” he smirked

It looked like Mikey was gonna comment on my new nickname but as Gerard gave him the evening’s worst deathglare, he shut up. I smiled at Gerard, who looked at me nervously as if I was gonna start laughing, and he rose from the floor, walking over to the tv.

“Anyone up for a movie? The elders are gonna talk all night if I know my mom right”

“Sure” Mikey and I said in unison and Gerard laughed.

“Movie it is… And since I’m such a gentleman, the guest gets to pick what one”

“Do you have like… ‘Terror on Elm Street’ or something like that,” I asked and they both gave me some impressed looks, “What?”

“Wow Gee, you actually find someone cool this time…” Mikey said, looking mildly surprised and then nodded, “Yeah, we got ‘Terror on Elm Street’… It’s downstairs, I’ll get it” he disappeared out the door and I looked at Gerard.

“What was that all about?”

“What?” he asked, fiddling with the remote.

“That you’d find someone cool this time”

“Oh… yeah, uhm, Mikey doesn’t really… approve of the guys that I normally date… That’s why he’s uhm, acting kinda distant with you, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Oh, so he doesn’t like me?”

“He doesn’t know you”

“Neither do you”

“I know enough to say that you’re not a complete loser… And Mikey hates losers” he said and I smiled at the compliment, or is it a compliment when someone tells you you’re not a loser? It is… It totally is.

“Thanks, I guess”

“What are you talking about?” Mikey asked as he returned; now holding a DVD in his hand. “I heard my name be said”

“You’ll never know…” Gerard said, taking the DVD from Mikey and put it into the DVD player. “We’re sitting on your bed, Mikes”

“Hell no, I don’t want you two messing around in my bed”

“Oh believe me; we won’t mess around with you next to us”

“I don’t know about that, Gee… You’re pretty desperate when it comes to those things”

“Thanks for saying that in front of Frank, dude…”

“He’d found out eventually anyway”

They both went quiet as they realized I was staring at them. Seriously, how could they start arguing so easily?

“Next time, we’ll put you two in different rooms” I stated, realizing that when it came to hanging out with both of them at the same time, I had to take the lead. “We’ll sit on Gerard’s bed since you can see the tv better from there”

Mikey smirked victoriously at Gerard who rolled his eyes and the three of us crawled up in his bed, Gerard in the middle and me to his right. Since I was sitting in the corner with the wall as support, Gerard used my arm and shoulder as a back support, which I found quite comfortable since it felt pretty… cosy.

Ten minutes later, it wasn’t that cosy anymore. The wall behind me was hard, surprise, and my back was practically screaming and Gerard wasn’t exactly helping since he was pressing me even harder against it. I wasn’t just gonna sit there and take the pain just so he wouldn’t move away so I raised my hips up slightly, heaving myself up a bit so I could put a pillow behind my back. Gerard smiled, mouthing a ‘sorry’ as he realized he had been lying on me and I smiled back, yawning.

“Tired?” he whispered not to disturb Mikey who was really into the movie.

“A little”

“Sorry for squashing you like that”

“It’s okay… My back hurts though, so you have to return the favour” I said, smiling as he put the pillow behind my back in his lap, showing with his hand for me to lie down. I made a small bow, or it was more a nod of gratefulness since we were sitting down, and lay down with my head in his lap, my body curled up in a ball because the wall were too close for me to stretch out but it didn’t matter.

I felt Gerard’s forearm rest on the side of my chest, his hand hanging limply down over my chest. The flickering blue and green and god knows how many other colors were slowly but steadily making my eyes tired and it didn’t took me long to fall asleep.

I was awoken by a light shake, and as I opened my eyes, I saw Gerard’s mischievous ones look back at me.

“You fell asleep” he giggled as I blinked my eyes repeatedly. The pillow that I had once laid on had slid away and instead I was lying flatly on Gerard’s jean-clad thigh, my face turned to his stomach.

“Yeah, sorry… I’ve seen that movie too many times” I giggled back. “How long was I out?”

“About half an hour”

“Where’s Mikey?” I asked as I noticed that he wasn’t lying next to Gerard as he’d done before.

“He’s downstairs, trying to get dad to share some beer with him” he smirked, “That little geek’s so gonna turn out as an alcoholic”

I laughed, getting up from my lying position and stretched, making my spine snap slightly.

“Wanna go downstairs?”

“Sure” I answered; still feeling a bit tired but didn’t exactly want to go home. I had a great time, even if we weren’t doing that much. I felt comfortable with him and even more comfortable when Mikey wasn’t around. Not that I had a problem with Mikey, but it kinda felt like he thought I was just someone Gerard had picked up on the streets and then randomly asked me out. And maybe that was the case, but that didn’t mean I was a loser…

We got downstairs and found the living room empty. I looked at Gerard, who nodded his head at the backdoor, which led to the garden.

“And Frank was like ‘God, I’m so glad I’m not a girl…” and then he was nice to me for about a month- Oh, hi honey!” mom said as she saw me and Gerard, then giving me a knowing smile as Gerard snaked his arm carefully around my waist, not really holding on to me but resting his hand on my hip. So we’re on that level, ey…

“Hey… Are you gossiping about me, hmm?”

“I was just telling them how you acted when I told you what happened when girls had their periods, remember that?”

“Yep, and God will never make me forget it either…”

“I never talk to my sons about stuff like that” Mrs. Way said, eyeing Mikey who was sitting on the armrest of his father’s chair.

“That’s because we don’t wanna know” Mikey answered.

“Believe me, I didn’t wanna know about periods either” I laughed, trying to snake my arm around Gerard’s waste casually so it wouldn’t get too much attention. I failed.

“How did your date go anyway?” Mrs. Way asked, her eyes wandering from our arms that we had around each other to our faces. “You never tell me anything, honey…”

“Let’s talk about something else!” Gerard stated, but his suggestion was immediately turned by his parents.

“No, come on son, we barely know who you hang out with these days, you never talk to us! I think you owe us some details of how your evening was last night” Mr. Way said, smiling kinda evilly at Gerard. Mom gave me a warm smile as if to say that she was happy we had a better relationship than what they did and I happily returned it.

“I had a good time, okay?” Gerard said evasively, “Anyway dad, about that cigarette you found… It was Bert’s.”

“Of course it was. It’s always Bert, isn’t it?”

“Kinda” Gerard said, smiling goofily, “No, but seriously, it was, I promise…”

“He’s actually telling the truth for once, dad” Mikey piped in, “I would’ve noticed if he’d started smoking”

Mr. Way looked at both of his son’s with piercing eyes before finally nodding.

“Alright, you’re off the hook for now…”

“We should get going” mom said, rising up from her chair and looked at me, “You look pretty tired”

“He is, he fell asleep before…” Gerard said, smirking. I looked at my watch and showed it to him.

“It’s two am, you are supposed to be sleeping”

“So Gee, what were you doing to him when he was asleep?” Mikey asked, smirking almost evilly and I saw Gerard clench his teeth through his closed mouth, if that makes sense.

“Shut the fuck up, Micheal…” he said slowly, “I’m not a pervert, unlike you…”

“Boys, drop that conversation right now” Mrs. Way sighed, giving me and mom an apologetically look, “Welcome to the Way family…”

“Don’t worry about it” mom laughed, “I had a great time tonight, and I’m sure Frank had too, but we should really get going”

“It was fun having you over! We should do this again” Mrs. Way smiled

“Definitely” mom agreed as the rest of the sitting persons got up on their feet to walk us to the door.

“Come,” Gerard said to me, taking my hand and lead me inside, but instead of going to the door, he took me into the kitchen. “I refuse to say good bye to you in front of my parents” he explained.

“And why’s that?” I smirked; he made it sound like he was gonna fuck me right then and there.

“Because they’ll go all ‘aww’ on us” he muttered, well, that didn’t exactly go well with my theory…

“Can I ask you something…?”

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked, smiling but it faded quickly as he didn’t return it.

“I’m gonna hang out with some of my friends, sorry”

“Oh… Can I come?” I asked, but regretting it the same second it came out as he looked pretty hesitant. “I mean, I understand if you don’t want me there, it’s your friends and all, it’s just, I’m so bored just sitting on my room and all…”

Great, make him feel guilty, smartass, that’s how you want him to say you can come.

“No, it’s not that I don’t want you there!” he said quickly shaking his head slightly to make his point, “It’s just… my friends… they’re pretty special, if you know what I mean”

“Special as in… retarded?”

“No, not retarded” he laughed, “Or well, they are, but not in a serious way, ya’know… They’re just… I think they’ll freak you out, but if you think you can stand them, then of course you can come”

“Great! I love Linda and all, but having her as the only company for several days in a row will wear you out”

“Gee, mom says that the two of you should get your asses over to the door so she can go to bed” Mikey said, his head appearing in the doorway.

“Tell her we’ll be there in a sec” Gerard said, sighing as Mikey disappeared, “Sorry, my family’s not the most politest…”

“I think they’re cool” I laughed and Gerard sighed even deeper as his mother’s voice was heard from the hall. “Alright, before they kidnap us…”

He leaned forward, giving me a hug. I smiled, my head resting perfectly on his shoulder and I put my arms around him, making the hug tighter.

“I’ll see you tomorrow” I said, still caught in the hug.

“Yeah, I’ll pick you up… like last time” he giggled and as he pulled away from me, I definitely felt his lips touch my cheek. If it was on purpose or not, I don’t know, but he did. Smiling as I could finally see his face again, I allowed myself to steal a quick glance, looking deeply into his eyes before tare my eyes away to not freak him out by staring at him. We were standing close to each other, very close since we’d just shared a hug and I felt his hands search for mine, taking them in his.

“Our parents will freak out on us soon” I said, smiling kinda sadly. It felt like every time I stopped being nervous around him, the night was over and I had to go back and be alone, once again.

“Yeah” Gerard said quietly, his face only a few inches away from mine. I smiled shyly, trying in vain to avoid his eyes so he wouldn’t see my insecurity.

“Aww Gee-Gee, you can make out with him tomorrow” Mikey’s voice was heard fro the doorway again, “Seriously, come on, mom’ll beat you up if you don’t come”

Gerard gave me one last look, as if to say how sorry he was that he was a part of this family before we followed Mikey out in the hall, where the rest of the folks were waiting.

“Finally!” Mrs. Way exclaimed, “What were you doing?”

“They were-“

“Nothing” Gerard interrupted Mikey quickly.

“Alright then, come on Frank, I’ve had too much wine so you’ll have to guide me home” mom laughed and I slowly let go of Gerard’s hand.

“See you tomorrow” I told him before turning to the rest of the family, “Thanks for the dinner and… everything else”

Mrs. Way smiled at me, as well as Mr. Way and they all called their good byes before they shut the door.

“So what did you and the guys do?” mom asked as we were back at home.

“Play Monopoly… And watched a movie”

“How come you won’t give me any details anymore?” she asked, and for once, she was serious, confused.

I didn’t know why, I always told her everything, but when it came to what I did with Gerard, it felt weird to talk to her about it. As that thought hit me, I decided that that feeling was exactly what I wanted to avoid when it came to my relationship with my mom. So I told her basically… everything.

…”And tomorrow, I’m gonna go and hang out with him and his friends” I finished and she looked pleased.

“See? That wasn’t so hard” she smiled and I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t you have any motherly instinct at all about this, though?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m gonna hang out with a two years older guy… and his friends… tomorrow… all alone…”

“First of all, he really isn’t two years older than you” she said, sighing at my stupidity, “You’re turning fifteen”

“Yeah, but isn’t he turning seventeen?”

“His birthday was in April”

“Oh. So he’s just one year older?”

“Well, one and a half, but you get the point, and second of all; if he tries anything with my son, I know where he lives… and I can always force Donna to tell me where his friends live if they try to rape you” she said, laughing and I sighed.

“Fine, fine… It just feels weird not to have you worrying about me”

“I usually don’t”

“True…”

“Haven’t we had this conversation before?”

“Many times” I laughed, “So, did you have fun then?”

“Hell yeah” she smiled, “But I have to go to bed, my head’s spinning”

“Which means I have to be quiet in the morning?”

“If you don’t want me to rip your legs off…”

“You won’t even know I’m here” I promised.

*

[A/N I'm back... Dude, Las Vegas is the most insane place on Earth... And I saw Spencer Smith (: Go me. And I'm sorry about the crappy chapter names I have, I just can't be bothered to come up with something poetic. And this is long, so I call it a double update ^.^ Peace.]