Summer: Undefined

“Gerard?” I asked, shocked by his sudden bravery.

“Hey, Delilah,” He spoke softly and timidly. His head was always slightly angled to the floor, but not so much as if he was completely starring at it.

This was not the Gerard I thought I would encounter. Instead of the over-confident person I spoke to on the phone, he was nervous and endearing.

“You look… r-really nice,” He stuttered.

I felt my cheeks get hot.

“Thanks,” I smiled and bit my lip.

Now his slightly angled head was directly starring at the floor. I could feel our eyes playing Tag with it. I would look at one spot and so would he, then at the same time we ran away from that spot.

I bravely looked back up at him.

Gerard was anxiously playing with his hands and gnawing at his, now red, lips.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He looked up at me, shocked by my unexpected question. And also a tiny hint of wonder was hidden beneath the warmth of his hazel eyes.

Nervous hands stuck tiny locks of raven hair behind Gerard’s ears. A minute crooked smile followed and he motioned to his stomach.

“I’m just- I’m just hungry.”

“O-Oh.” I was not expecting that.

“Talk to you later…”

He slightly shoved past the others behind me and I watched as he scurried to the snack table where he pretended to pick at the vast array of chips and candy.

I turned back around to notice Aimee pleading with her eyes for me to come rescue her.

Finally, I took pity on her when Halle and Ray started singing a song that they were both apparently fans of.

I pulled her tightly by the arm over to me. Halle and Ray waved bye to her but never broke away from the lyrics of their song.

“Would you mind if I go to the bathroom real quick?” She asked sheepishly.

“Do you know where it is?”

She shook her head.

“I’ll show you.

Aimee made it to the bathroom and reassured me that I wouldn’t need to wait for her. “I promise I won’t get lost,” she had said.

I ventured out into the unknown of the party once more. It was a little strange being here. I can’t exactly explain it, but the sense that something big would come from this long night was defiantly stronger than normal.

Yes, you’d expect things to happen at large parties, but this was a different kind of sensation. If you felt it, I know you’d feel the same way, and understand what I’m trying to tell.

“Delilah!” Jude came rushing over to me.

“Yeah?” I called back at him. “What is it?”

“What did you say to Gerard?” He asked quietly and took my arm. He dragged me to the side of the house and starred me down.

“Nothing. I barely said six words to the guy! Why?”

Jude shrugged.

“I guess he’s just out of it then. Mikey did say he does that a lot.”

Without another word Jude he left me alone on the side of the house. I watched his actions carefully as he reentered the gazebo. No words were said to Gerard, that I saw.

Gerard was sitting alone in the corner of the gazebo, his head angled at the roof and his hands placed on his stomach.

Jude was right, he was out of it.

I sighed and went to sit down at the vacant swings. My back faced the party, so I was looking at my vacant street. I eyed the houses, trying to decide if I could make them on The Sims 2 or not. I did that a lot when I was bored.

Unfortunately, because my lack of skill at that game I could only make the simple ranch house that looked out of place, on my street.

I wiggled my feet out of my converse and made pictures with my toes in the sand.

It stuck to my toes so when I went to put my socks back on it was extremely uncomfortable.

The chains on the swing next to me wiggled and the sound of a body falling onto it followed.

My head jerked up and I saw Gerard sitting down and starring at his shoes.

“Got a little carried away?” He laughed, pointing at the markings I’d made with my feet.

“Oh… Yeah, I guess so.”

“So… Delilah.”

I looked up at him; he was still starring down at his feet, or at my drawings. It was hard to tell which it was.

“How’ve you been?” Gerard asked.

“You mean since you scared the shit out of me last night?” He laughed. “Yeah, I’d say I’ve been good. What about you?”

“I’m feeling a little overwhelmed…” He admitted.

“Why?”

“Uh… It’s my first big party.”

He lowered his head in shame.

A smile broke out on my face. I could feel it growing around my cheeks. Without wanting to a laughed a little bit.

“What’s so funny?” He asked, starting to get defensive.

“It’s just… This is my first party, too!” I put my hand over my mouth to hide my smile, but I just couldn’t help it.

“Oh!” Gerard’s cheeks became bright red.

I noticed something about him then. He blushed a lot. I didn’t know if he did it around everyone, but he certainly did when he was with me. It was almost every other minute.

It was cute…

We talked for a little bit about ourselves. It turns out Frank wasn’t lying when he said Gerard drew really good comics. He showed me a tiny sketch of a monkey that he kept in a small notebook.

“That’s the breakfast monkey,” He told me. “He’s the star in my cartoon show.”

“You’re doing a cartoon show?” I smiled. “That’s amazing, Gee!”

He stopped.

“You called me Gee.”

“I’m sorry. You said yesterday that I could and… Are you okay?”

Gerard was starring off at the horizon. His hazel eyes focusing on something beyond this street. It was a little intimidating to see him so out of it.

“Uh… Gerard?”

I lightly tapped his shoulder and he focused back into reality.

“Did I say something wrong?” I asked.

“No… No. I was just thinking.”

That really didn’t explain anything to me at all. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to force anything else out of him.

“Can I ask you something?” I abruptly asked him.

“Anything.”

“Why were you so shy over there?” I gestured towards the gazebo. “That’s not how you were on the phone at all.”

“You want honesty?” He asked, his eyes avoiding mine. I eagerly nodded. He obviously saw me out of the corner of his eyes because he continued on. “Because I didn’t expect you to be so beautiful. It kind of took me aback a little bit…”

“That’s so sweet, Gerard…” I placed a hand on his shoulder.

Gerard looked up at me with hopeful eyes. That’s when I saw it.

It was that look that told you something was seriously churning in his thoughts.

Something… different.

My hand dropped. I held it up to my mouth to cover my cough.

“Hey guys! We’re gonna go in the hot tub! Wanna come?” Halle yelled over at us.

“Who’s we?” I questioned.

“Me, Jules, Frank, Ray and Jude!”

“I don’t think we’d all fit!” I laughed.

“There’s only one way to find out!”

I looked over at Gerard who was looking down at his feet again. That seemed to be a spot he’d grown quite close to when it came to avoiding things.

“Want to go?” I asked him.

He pursed his lips to one side in thought.

“Not really…”

“Want to go watch them try to fit five people in a hot tub?” I asked, more cheerfully.

“Sure!”

We jumped up at the same time and raced over to the hot tub.

It turns out Halle asked more than just those five people to squeeze into the hot tub. Bob, Will, Mikey, Matt, and Vince all stripped to their underwear and entered the over-crowded tub.

A few people had to sit on people’s laps. But overall it wasn’t as crowded as I’d imagined. At least most of the people had their own seats, right?

Frank teased Gerard about not wanting to come in, but Gerard just snapped back with, “Excuse me if I don’t want to strip for everyone!”

“I’d rather be sexually healthy than a prude!” Frank joked.

Their “argument”, I guess you could call it, was interrupted by the presence of another new friend.

Aimee came trudging up to me and kept close to my arm.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“There are so many people here…” She whispered in my ear.

“Are you socially retarded?” I joked.

She laughed and eyed the people in the tub. Her blue eyes seemed to stop upon Frank. But they quickly moved away. I noticed her cheeks turn a slight shade of red, but I don’t think anyone else did.

I wanted to ask her about it. But I couldn’t do it in front of everybody. I would hate to embarrass her.

“Do you want to come in?” Frank asked jumping up from his seat and tripping on someone’s foot. Before we knew it, Frank had disappeared underneath the bubbling water.

Everyone stopped and looked at each other, smiles trying to hide themselves, just in case Frank had gotten hurt.

He jumped up from the bottom of the tub, his hair dripping wet and sticking to the sides of his face.

We all burst out laughing, everyone that is, except Aimee. She had her hand close to her mouth and her eyes were wide.

“So…” He said, regaining his normal breathing pattern. “Do you want to come in?”

Aimee smiled sweetly and shook her head.

“Self conscience…” She murmured. “Sorry.”

“Oh…” Frank sunk back into his seat and buried his mouth below the bubbles and blew some of his own.

I watched carefully as Aimee’s eyes scanned the ground. Lips pursed to one side her head shot up and she stormed over to the hot tub.

“On second thought…” She smiled at Frank and pulled her shirt off over her head. “Why not?”

Her body made a splash as she jumped into the water.

“Where should I sit?” She asked, a bit more timid.

Everyone immediately pointed towards Frank’s lap.

“It’s the only place open!” Mikey teased.

I laughed and turned back to Gerard.

“Want to go back to the swings?” I asked him.

“Sure!”

By the time we were back to talking normally the sky was a dark shade of purple and the sun was barely visible over the horizon of giant houses.

The tops of the trees looked completely black from the setting sun. Their silhouettes had me entranced for the longest time.

“Are you okay?” Gerard asked, nudging my shoulder. I hadn’t noticed he’d stopped talking.

“What? Oh! Yeah I was just looking at the trees of there.”

I pointed over to the silhouettes and his eyes followed my finger.

“They are interesting…”

“Can I ask you something?” I repeated from earlier.

“Go ahead,” He said, slight worry trailing in bits of his tone.

“Are you really as anti-social as Jude said you were?”

Gerard laughed a deep laugh. It came from deep in his chest. The harmonious laugh echoed throughout the yard and skipped its way back to us.

“Only when I’m around people I don’t really know.”

“You don’t really know me that well…” I pointed out.

“But I feel comfortable around you. But it’s nice. It’s nice that I can just talk to you honesty. And what’s funny is, usually I don’t care what people think of me. But with you, I do… Is that strange?”

“Not in the least,” I smiled back at him.