Glades and Playgrounds

~You can thank Xx Pansy xX that I added Bert as one of Gerard's friends... It was only supposed to be Green Day (: And oh, you should really read her story, it's amazing- + she'll stop moaning about it and hopefully stop deleting it only to put it up again. Guys, it's a Frerard... Okay, bye.~

The next morning, I went over to Gerard’s house, seeing as we hadn’t set any time for him to come over and pick me up, so I just thought I’d go over. I rang the doorbell and seconds later, Mikey opened.

“Hey” I said, smiling, “Is Gerard there?”

“Yup, but he’s in the shower” he said, stepping aside so I wouldn’t take his answer as that I had to go home again. “You can wait in our room”

“Thanks” I said, taking off my shoes and followed him up the stairs after saying hi to their parents.

“What are you and Gee gonna do today?” Mikey asked as he started fiddling with his cellphone, sitting on the bed and I copied him, sitting down on Gerard’s.

“Hang out with his friends”

“You sound excited about it”

“I am. I haven’t had anything to do since I moved here…”

“Well, hanging out with his friends aren’t exactly a blast”

“What do you mean?” I asked, playing with a wrinkle of the sheets in Gerard’s bed.

“Didn’t Gerard tell you about them?”

“He said they were… special” I said, smiling as I remembered I thought he meant that in a serious term.

“Oh, they’re special alright” he smirked, looking at me before turning down his head to look at his cellphone, a pose that seemed quite familiar.

“At that playground… where we met, was it your cellphone that you had in your lap?”

“Uhm, yeah”

“Why were you there anyway? Gerard said you’re not allowed to go there”

“Because” he said, waving his cellphone at me, “That’s the only place where I can get some privacy without Gerard, mom or dad asking me who I’m texting with”

“Oh” I said slowly, “So who are you texting with?”

He raised his head slowly, glaring at me as to say ‘that wasn’t funny’ and I smiled apologetically.

“Everyone who’s last name ain’t Way has to close their eyes right now” I heard Gerard’s voice call from the hall, his footsteps approaching the door in no time.

“And why’s that?” I called back.

“Because I’m half naked”

“I don’t mind”

“But I do” he laughed, “Close your eyes”

“Fine” I said, closing my eyes as I heard him walk in. A wave of a fruity smell hit me in the face when he walked passed and it took all my self-discipline not to open my eyes.

“Done” he said after a minute or so and I opened my eyes, seeing him fully dressed and his hair dripping wet. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought I was gonna pick you up”

“Changed plans” I smiled, “I was bored”

“You’re bored a lot” Gerard stated randomnly and all of a sudden, he turned around, facing Mikey, pulled his hair into a short ponytail on the back of his head and pressed the water of his hair down into Mikey’s bed.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Mikey yelled at his brother, who just laughed.

“That’s what you get for waking me up by yelling like a maniac!”

“Can’t you take a joke?”

“Apparently not” Gerard shrugged, smirking as he saw the phone in his younger brother’s hands. “Who’re you talking to?”

Mikey gave me a knowing look before glaring at Gerard.

“None of your business”

“Whatever” Gerard sighed, turning to me, “You ready?”

“Yep” I answered and after he had dried his hair, he gestured for me to walk out of the room before him.

“You know, you look good today” he said causally but a small smile played mischievously on his lips.

“No I don’t… But thanks” I actually didn’t. All I was wearing were a pair of grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt; that was all I had that didn’t smell of either sweat or some other unpleasant body odour.

He smiled, without actually showing any teeth and it created small wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, making him look both adorable and inhumanely kind.

“Yeah, you do. Now come on, we’re already late”

“Yeah, you took your time showering…”

“What makes you think I was just showering?” he grinned as we walked out of the door, his arm slipping around my waist and rested on my hipbone, just like it had done the other night when we were talking to our parents.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that” I laughed, trying to joke it away so I wouldn’t blush. Surprisingly, I succeeded. “Where are we going?”

“School”

“Come again?”

“School” he repeated.

“Uhm… why?”

“Because the guys are there”

“Uh. Okay… So they’re at school under their summer break?”

“Yep. The schoolyard’s our place… We hang out there; no one’s there now anyway so it’s the perfect”

“Ohhh” I said slowly, tilting my back a little as I realized that he wasn’t a complete moron for being at school under the summer holidays. “Great, then I can memorize where the school is so I won’t get lost and stuff when it starts…”

“Or you can go with me and Mikey to school”

“Yay, I feel social” I giggled, “Anyway, there must be something seriously odd about your friends… Mikey didn’t seem too happy when he talked about them”

“Erm, no, that’s because he met them at their worst day. Or at least at Bert’s worst day”

“Did he hurt him?”

“Who? Bert? No… Bert’s not violent” he laughed, “A bad day for Bert basically means that he acts like five year old with a Red bull”

“So he has only met your friends once?”

“No, but he has only hung out with them once… And after that he was too freaked out to do it again. See, Mikey doesn’t really have a lot of friends, so I kinda wanted him to hang out with mine, but yeah, Bert made sure that wasn’t gonna happen”

“It’s over there, right?” I asked, pointing with my free hand, the hand that currently wasn’t holding on to Gerard’s hand, at a red brick stone building that I recognized from when we were driving to our house for the first time.

“Yep” he responded, “Ergh, school starts in one and a half week… Are you nervous?”

“Pff, I’m never nervous” I smiled and he gave me a doubtful look, “Alright, I’m terrified”

“Aw, don’t worry, it’ll be fine” he mocked as we walked into the school yard, “They are sitting over there on the ground… Those lazy fuckers didn’t even bother finding some benches”

“They know you’re gay, right?” I asked quickly, not sure if he wanted me to let go of his hand.

“Of course they do… Guys!” he called and the four boys that were sitting on the ground a few metres away next to one of the huge oaks turned their heads to look at Gerard. We reached them seconds later and a guy with long, black and dirty hair had stood up. His hair was seriously long, not just for a guy; it even went passed his shoulders.

“Ah, so this is the Frank you’ve been bragging about, hm?” he asked, smirking at Gerard as he looked at me.

“I wasn’t bragging,” Gerard mumbled, glancing awkwardly at me “But yes, this is Frank”

“Frankie” I corrected him, sighing.

“Sorry; Frankie. Frankie, this is Bert”

Bert made a girlish wave, grinning manically, and Gerard sighed.

“Please, behave…”

“I always do” Bert said innocently before turning around, facing the three other persons, still sitting on the ground, “Hey nimrods, wanna meet Gee-Gee’s new boyfriend?”

“Ooh!” one of the boys that were still sitting on the ground exclaimed said, jumping up and made a leap to reach Bert, almost knocking him down in the process of flinging his arms around Bert’s neck. “We should have boyfriends too!”

“F’course Tré” Bert said, patting the boy’s back, “But we’re not gay, remember?”

“I think they’re testing you…” he mumbled, ignoring the boys’ conversation. “Anyway” he said, now talking in a normal voice, “Those two calm, lovely ones over there are Mike and Billie”

“Hey” the guy with blonde, spiked hair said, smiling as he craned his neck to look at me, “I’m Mike”

“How come you’re just sitting there?” Gerard asked Mike and Billie suspiciously after giving Tré and Bert a quick glance where they stood, whispering.

“Tired” Billie, a guy with reddish brown hair and big, green eyes groaned, leaning his head against Mike’s shoulder, who pushed him away. “Were up all night… Drinking… Erhg, hang-over”

“Ah, lucky you then” Gerard said, smiling at me, “You only have to deal with two maniacs”

“Yay…” I mocked, “I think I understand why Mikey’s so anti your friends…”

“We heard that!” Bert called, “Gee, your boyfriend’s-“

“He has a name, Berty” Gerard laughed.

“Don’t call me Berty…” Bert said, raising his fist, looking very much like a cartoon figure as he did so, then turning to look at Billie. “Yo, Bill! I dare you to climb up that tree and jump down”

Billie grinned, his so called hang-over mysteriously gone as he bounced up from the ground and climbed up in the nearest tree.

“Shit, it’s pretty high up here” he exclaimed, although he was only about two metres up.

I looked at Gerard, who rolled his eyes.

“They’re stupid, I know… It’s just the game they have. One of them comes up with an idea, any idea, and then they dare each other to do it”

“O...kay” I said, understanding more and more why Mikey didn’t like these guys. I didn’t exactly have a problem with them, but of what I’ve seen; Mikey wasn’t really the type of person who’d want to be dared to climb up in a tree just for the sake of it.

A loud thump informed me that Billie had in fact jumped and he turned to Bert.

“Happy now, bitch? I think I broke my ankle”

“But you’re standing up” Bert laughed. They kept arguing with each other and Gerard took my hand in his, leading me over to where Mike and Tré were seated on the ground and we sat down next to them.

“You okay, Gee?” Mike asked, giving Gerard a concerned look. “You look pissed off”

“I just wished they could be normal for once…” Gerard said, pointing at Bert and Billie, who were now laughing their asses off over something. Mike smiled, and then, without any warning, yelled;

“Guys! Gerard wants you to calm the fuck down so you won’t embarrass him in front of-“

“That’s enough” Gerard laughed, putting his hand over Mike’s mouth, but I had a pretty good idea of who he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of.

“I stopped listening at ‘Gerard wants you’” Bert laughed and Gerard gave him a pleading look. “Fine, I’ll calm down. If Bill does”

“You’re the one who’s winding me up, you idiot” Billie giggled, but the both of them sat down on the ground and finally they were all calm. Maybe a bit too calm to actually be serious.

“Wow Gerard, this is so much fun…” Bert moaned, then his bored face burst out into a grin. “Gee, I dare you to-“

“You do not dare me to do anything today!”

“You cannot stop the daring” Bert said, then went silent as if the sentence had confused him before continuing, “I dare you to… uh… tell us how many guys you’ve fucked”

“Three thousand and one” Gerard smirked, “Happy?”

“Very…”

“You know what we should do?” Billie asked, and got some bored ‘no’s in response. “We should come up with something to do”

“I declare you a genius, Billie Joe” Tré smirked

“Your name’s Billie Joe?” I asked. It was the first time I’d spoken up and they all looked at me.

“Ooh, he talks!” Bert smiled.

“Shut up…”

“Ooh, he can insult people!”

“Don’t tease the newbie” Tré scolded, smacking the back of Bert’s head with his hand.

“Hey, hey, hey, you promised to calm down!” Gerard sighed.

“Yeah, but what’s the point? Isn’t it better if your boyf- Frankie gets to see our real sides, hm?”

“Not really” Gerard responded.

“Why don’t we let him choose? Frankie, do you find us scary?” Bert asked and I grinned.

“No comment”

“See? He loves us Gee-Gee!” Tré laughed, leaning forward and ruffled up my hair, but with a quick movement, I slapped his hand away.

“You know what we should do?” Billie asked again and Bert rolled his eyes.

“Come up with something to do?”

“No, I’ve already done that” Billie said evasively, fiddling with his belt, “We should just sit and hang out here all day”

“I thought that was what we were gonna do anyway” Gerard said, and that was what we did. The first half an hour was pretty tough, but as the conversation went on, I found myself getting more and more relaxed around them. Mikey couldn’t have stayed that long, because when they all calmed down, they were… calm. It didn’t take me long to find out all of their personalities as we talked and laughed, and safe to say; Bert, Billie and Tré were the weird ones. Mike and Gerard were quieter, not shy, but calmer and obviously the ones who kept the rest out of jail. Or maybe Gerard was wild too… I didn’t know yet, he might just have been calm because I was there.