It Was a Lie When They Smiled

Gerard’s POV

When she finally finished and started walking away I stopped her and turned her so she was looking at me.

“Kierstyn, just because I spend time around Delilah when she needs help doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Just because I’m never around doesn’t mean I’m off with some other chick. And you’re a beautiful, beautiful young woman with a lot of patience. I understand how all the pressure piles up on your shoulders and sometimes you need someone else to blame it on and yell at. We all have and if we haven’t we will. Not meaning to bring him up but this is just for an example. Frank blamed me for Delilah’s death before. Now even though it was somebody else’s fault she was dead, he still blamed it on me. But it all turned out for the better… somehow. Maybe destiny hasn’t brought it to us yet maybe it has and we just didn’t notice so quickly. Kierstyn, you need to know you’re part of my life. You take a huge roll in it and always will. You just have to understand that no matter where I am… no matter what I’m doing I still love you. And I’ll be there for you though think and thin. Just please don’t walk away.”

Kierstyn smiled weakly as her eyes began to water. Her cheeks a light pink color against her pale white skin.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She really tried to hold back her tears.

“It’s okay,” I said pulling her into a tight hug. Every one of her tears fell on to my shirt. Eventually she hugged me back, still crying.

"So," I said, pulling away when all her tears were gone (which had taken a while). I knelt down on my right knee and held out the ring to her.

"Kierstyn, will you marry me?"

"Yes, you silly man! Haven't we done this before?" she laughed.

"Yes, but I wanted to make sure." I kissed her again and slipped the ring back onto her finger.

"So you wanna help me warm up?" I asked.

"Sure."
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Delilah’s POV

(April 9th 2009)

I rolled over in my bunk so I was facing Frank who was across the isle from me. He, too, was up. He smiled. I returned the favor.

“Its Gee’s birthday,” I mouthed. Frank looked confused. I looked at my clock really fast. The dim red numbers read 8:49 am. I sighed. I hated getting up before 9:00. Lucky for everyone else… they were still sleeping. I looked back at Frank and whispered what I had mouthed before. Frank smiled as he nodded. I yawned and quietly tried to slip out of my bunk. Frank did the same.

We walked out into the kitchenette and started making our breakfast. What I usually had, and would demand we got more as we ran out, was my Chex cereal. I usually had that and some water. We didn’t really have anything in the fridge.

“Sleep well?” I asked Frank, just as he was sitting down at the table. He shrugged.

“I guess.” I yawned again.

“What do you mean ‘you guess?’” I questioned, dipping the spoon into the bowl of golden, square shaped cereal. Frank messed around with the wrapper from the M&M’s from the night before.

“I mean I guess. I didn’t really dream anything I just had flash backs… no big deal,” Frank said. I pulled my spoon out of my mouth.

“We’ve all changed so much,” he continued, “It’s like… we all look so different. You, Ashley, and Kierstyn haven’t talked to your parents in about 5 months?”

“Kierstyn called her parents yesterday,” I pointed out.

“And Ash?”

“She called… three weeks ago.”

“And you?”

“Five months.”

“You sound proud of that.”

“Well… I’m not.”

“Then call.”

“I e-mail my parents, though.”

“Delilah you’ve changed… so much in the past 5 months. Your parents wouldn’t even recognize you.”

“I haven’t changed that much.”

“Yes you have. You dyed your hair dark, dark, dark, dark purple, you lost weight-“

“Yeah… I need new pants.”

“Yeah and a new belt… that belt does not fit you right anymore.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“You have dark, dark, dark, dark, dark purple hair.”

“You said that already.”

“Well… I’m saying it again.”

“Well, okay.”

We reviewed our past, laughing softly about things that happened two years ago, last year. We talked about how nothing funny has happened so far this year. How this year has just been a living hell.

“What happened?” Frank sighed. I shrugged.

“I don’t know,” I replied softly. Memories from the past started to catch up with me. I thought I could just leave what ever happened behind when we left for tour. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“Morning,” Mikey said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Morning,” Frank and I replied. Mikey grabbed a box of strawberry Pop Tarts off the counter and took a package out.

“You can sit,” I informed him, as he opened up the package.

He shook his head, “That’s okay.”

It was only a few moments later when he said, “Frank, move over!”

I smiled. He all ways changed his mind about stuff. One second he wouldn’t want a new bass. The next second he would. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Eventually every one was up. We were all talking to each other about last night’s show, and how this night’s show would be. We talked about changing the set list. Some how we started talking about horse back riding. Probably because the TV was on Animal planet.

When Gerard went to the bathroom, I nodded at Frank and Ashley. Time to bring out the cake.

He walked out, wiping his hands on his pants and then stopped in his tracks.

"SURPRISE!"

We'd hurridly streamed toilet paper around the bus as streamers and grabbed the cake out of the fridge--which he hadn't opened, thank God.

We'd lit the candles and everything. Gerard takes about three minutes in the bathroom so it was all carefully calculated. The number of people we had was a big help too.

"Oh my God! You guys are... impossible!" He smiled and grabbed Kierstyn and lifted her up in a big hug. He gave us all hugs, lifting who he could and squeezing who he couldn't twice as hard. Hell, he even kissed Mikey!

"I seriously thought you guys forgot!" he said.

"Naw. We can't forget you, Gee! Look at the cake, we had it made special," Ray said.

"Aww! Look, there are little bats! There so cute!" We'd had the cake made with purple icing with lots of little black bats flying around and one big one that was holding a white banner that said, "Happy Birthday, Gerard!" and at the bottom it said, "We Didn't Forget."

"You guys are dorks, I swear!" Gerard closed his eyes, made a wish and blew out all thirty-two candles. Good blow. That sounded so wrong.

"Aw, man!" Ray said.

"What?" I asked.

"Gerard's 32 years old!"

"So?" Frank said.

"That mean I'm gonna be 32 soon! I'm gonna be old!" We laughed and Gerard scooped up some icing on his finger and poked Ray on the nose.

"Be nice."

We had a great time. Gerard was happy and he had Kierstyn pulled up beside him and I had Frank to lean on. We laughed and joked around and Gerard opened his gifts.

"AH! I love you! The Ieros are definatly awesome people!" He grabbed Frank in a crushing hug and then examined the comic book he'd gotten. X-Men, the first one in the series and it was first edition or something. I don't know much about comics, but Frank said Gerard would love it and that it was priceless. He got it for fifty dollars. Doesn't sound so priceless to me, but whatever. Gerard was happy, that's all that mattered.

He got a book from Ray-- Superstisious by R.L. Stine. I'd read it and it was freaky. He'll love it.

He got a DVD from Mikey. Salem's Lot. I'll be having nightmares when he makes us all watch. Great.

Bob gave a little gazelle plushie to, "Help you with your nightmares."

We laughed and then it was the girls' turn to give our gift. Yes, the gift's from all of us.

Keirsten stood in front of him, Ashley on his right, and me on his left. We all swooped down to give him a kiss. Ashley and I of course pecked him on the cheek but Keirsten kissed him full on the mouth and slipped the gift into his hands.

We'd used Frank for rehersal. When we did that, I'd taken Keirsten's place and she took mine, but all the same, it worked. And Frank seemed to enjoy it.

"Girls! Always upstaging us guys!" Mikey said. Gerard opened the small box and pulled out a watch. It was silver and not too fancy but it was nice.

"Ha! Now he can get to practice on time!" Bob said.

"Ha ha, very funny, Robert," Gerard retaliated.

"Hey, don't call me that!" He sounded like a five year-old.

"Don't call me slow. I was late because I had to coffee. If there's no coffee, there's no practice. We'd all be zombies," Gerard explained as he fastened the watch onto his pale wrist.

"Thank you, girls. You really know how to make a guy wonder what's going on."

"We try," Kierstyn said, kissing him again. I love watching them, it's cute. I can't wait for their wedding-- I hope it's as special as mine was.