Skittles, Friends and a Little Thing Called Love

After a few minutes of terrified silence on my part, I spoke up. “Gerard?”

He said nothing.

“W-where are you t-taking me?” I squeaked.

He looked at me, and to my surprise, he was smiling. “I’m taking you home, silly!” he laughed. “Your parents would kill me if I got you home late.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “O-oh.”

He looked sideways at me. “Why, did you wanna come back to mine?” he asked, and winked.

I laughed uncertainly. This was weird, and I was really starting to wish that I’d listened to Mikey before going out with Gerard tonight.

We pulled up in front of my house, where the lights were on in most of the windows. I undid my seatbelt, and Gerard jumped out of the car, and ran round to my side to open the door for me.

He mock bowed as I got out, making me giggle slightly.

“You know, it’s very likely that my parents are gonna beat you up, seeing as they didn’t know that I was going out with you tonight, and it’s already nine o’clock,” I replied, my confidence coming back slightly now that Gerard was acting normal again.

He just smiled knowingly, not saying a word. The door opened as we got to the front step, my parents appearing in front of us.

“Mum! Dad! Hi, I’m so sorry, I-”

“Good evening, I’m Gerard. I hope I haven’t brought her back too late?” Gerard cut in smoothly, and I gawked at him.

“No, this is perfect timing, young man. Though next time, perhaps Sian should tell us she’s going out before she actually goes, hmm?” my dad said sternly.

I was so confused. Why were they being so calm?

“And it was very short notice, but thank you for ringing us earlier and explaining about the project. I’m glad Sian is taking such a healthy interest in school work for once!” my mum exclaimed, smiling at me.

“You’re very welcome. Well, I should be off now – good night, Sian,” Gerard said politely, and turned around, walking back to his car.

I watched him leave, my mouth still open in surprise. Project? Wow, Gerard was good. I followed my parents inside.

“So Sian, did you get lots of work done with Mikey?” my mum asked.

“Mikey? Oh right, yeah! Uh, of course, gotta love history!” I said, giving them a big smile and thumbs up.

My mum frowned. “History? I thought it was a maths project.”

My eyes widened. “Uh, yeah it was... maths throughout the ages! Yeah, that’s it... We were writing about the discovery of... calculators?” I stuttered, trying to look as innocent as possible as my face started to heat up.

“Sounds interesting darling, better get to bed,” my dad said, not suspecting a thing for once. My mum on the other hand was still frowning at me suspiciously.

I kissed them goodnight, and ran upstairs to my bedroom, dodging the various clothes and CDs on the floor.

Flopping onto my bed, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling. I needed to talk to someone about Gerard’s behaviour. I couldn’t talk to Mikey or Frank... they had warned me about Gerard. I couldn’t speak to Jess, she would just get overly worried, and tell Mikey. I picked up my phone, and looked though my contacts.

A name caught my eye. Bob. The guy we met in the nurse's office! This was perfect – He seemed like the type of person who would listen, but didn’t know me well enough to get too involved or worried.

The phone rung a few times, before someone picked up. “Hey, Bob? I was wondering, if you’re not busy-”

“Sian?” Someone interrupted me harshly.

I froze. That wasn’t Bob’s voice.

“...Gerard?”