This Still Belongs to You and Always Will

Gerard's P.O.V:

I sighed and ran a hand through my damp hair. That had been awesome fun. We needed to do this more often, definitely. Frankie gave me a grin over his shoulder as he checked the tuning on his baby. Then he turned to me and pecked my lips quickly, stroking my cheek.

"I'll see you when we're finished," He smiled brightly.

"Yep, I'll see you then," I smiled back "Have fun. I love you."

"Love you too," He beamed, kissing my cheek and quickly sneaking in a cheeky ass-slap.

I smiled and picked up my water bottle as I headed backstage, taking a long satisfying gulp of cool water. Now to find Elena and maybe order myself a diet coke with ice. I deserved that much certainly. Then Elena and I could heckle Ray from the crowd for kicks and giggles. I smiled to myself.

Scanning the crowd for her face, I pushed people aside and shoved through the crowd to try and find her. Where was she? Black hair. . . black hair. Have you ever found that when you're not looking for someone, they seem to pop up out of nowhere but the moment you're looking for them, they're nowhere to be seen? Yeah, that always seems to happen to me. Same with objects. I'll be looking for my eyeliner and it'll have just gone off somewhere on its own. Yeah, thing's always seem to run away from me.

I shrugged. Maybe if I stopped looking she'd show up. Or I could always give her a call with my cell.

But hey ho, there she was by the bar. What a stroke of luck. I smiled and began to make my way over.

A flash of blonde hair.

I froze, clutching tighter at my bottle of water. She was talking to him. I took a shaky step forward. And her. Why was she talking to them?

Elena looked up at me with a bright smile and a wave, beckoning me over. I couldn't. I couldn't go over there and talk to them. It was them. But I shuddered at the thought of leaving Elena with them on her own. I shivered and found my feet taking slow baby steps forward. Elena was smiling expectantly at me as I dawdled over to join them. I managed a tiny ghost of a forced smile back.

Micheala was beaming at me behind her bright red lipstick. I cringed inwardly.

"Hello," I managed to greet mechanically.

"Hi," Michaela twittered, still giving me that sickly smile.

Her teeth glinted and her eyes glittered as she spoke. Again, I cringed. It looked plastic. My insides churned.

I turned my head towards him and struggled to tilt my head into a brief, acknowledging nod. I could just see the corners of those lips twitching into a smirk. My skin crawled as his eyes travelled all over me. I anxiously twiddled with a stray strand of my hair. Michaela was the next person to speak, still smiling brightly with her candy apple red lips.

"We were just discussing your performance," She beamed.

"Yeah?" I replied monotomously.

"I had no idea you could sing, Gerard," He smirked "I liked it."

"Thank you," I forced myself to say, shivering.

"You're welcome," He replied with that same smirk.

Elena beamed naively at us all. What else can I say apart from that fact that she was completely ignorant to that thick fog of awkwardness that seemed to be settling around us. He continued to smirk with this arrogant air of judgement around him that mixed in very nicely with the awkwardness. Elena, how could you do this to me? Hurry up, Frankie.

He was still throwing himself about onstage with no sign of stopping anytime soon. Michaela followed my eyes to Frankie onstage. She smirked and shook her head, turning back to look at me.

"Really, Gerard," She said in a patronising tone "How old is he again?"

"You guys are the same age, aren't you?" He questioned dumbly.

You know we're not, you assface.

"He's thirty?" Michaela questioned in disbelief "Thirty years old and behaving like that?"

"Actually, he's twenty-six," I protested "Please, why don't you tell me what's wrong with the way he plays guitar? Do you see any complaints out there? Didn't think so!"

Elena looked at me with shocked eyes. She turned and mouthed 'Sorry', almost as if she were embarrassed by my behaviour. How dare she. I was her father and she had no idea what that man in front of her had done to me over many years of my life. What did she know?

And Michaela was smiling patronisingly and nodding her head as if to say 'That's fine'. I was not a five year old child misbehaving. I snatched Elena's wrist up furiously.

"We should really be going," I stated firmly in a no-arguments tone "Goodbye." I said sharply.

Elena protested bitterly as I dragged her towards backstage, pulling her wrist in a feeble attempt to break loose. I was working myself into such a state of anger that I couldn't even speak anymore. Elena snatched her wrist away and stormed over to the backstage door, leaning against the wall and glaring at me. I glared back just as harshly, still unable to speak. My balled fists were shaking , I was so angry.

I have no idea how long we were stood there like that for. One minute we were burning holes into each other's faces, the next the guys were swamping us and asking us what the matter was. I could barely talk. Frankie's arms embraced me as I continued to shake in anger. He whispered gently in my ear, hushing and stroking my back. He then linked his arm through mine and said we were going for a drink. I nodded feebly and followed him.

"Now," Frankie began, handing me my cool glass of coke "Tell me what's wrong!"

"Everything," I sighed, taking a sip of my drink.

He smiled and shook his head patiently, lifting his glass of sprite to his lips. The liquid bubbled as he took a sip. I bit my lip, watching the tiny bubbles float around as he sipped. My coke also bubbled as I swilled it about in the glass a little bit.

"Could you possibly narrow it down?" He questioned, wiping his top lip with his thumb.

"Bert and Michaela," I replied without hesitation "They're trying to muscle into our lives!"

Frankie quirked an eyebrow coolly. I felt pretty dumb.

“They’re here?”

I nodded.

“Elena was talking to them again.”

He nodded slowly, taking another sip of sprite. It bubbled some more. I joined him by taking a gulp of my coke. He reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder, smiling and kissing my cheek.

“Tell you what, we’ll finish our drinks up and get going, yeah?”

I smiled.

“We’ll talk at home, okay? This is hardly the time or place!”

I nodded slowly. He was right, now wasn’t the time to worry. Now was the time to congratulate the guys on their awesome show. I was being selfish. I was being stupid and selfish. I should be paying attention to Frankie and the others.

I’d worry about Bert, Michaela and Elena later.

My coke bubbled again.