Skittles, Friends and a Little Thing Called Love

"Sian, Mikey’s brother is here to take him home," my mum called from downstairs.

I quickly straightened my clothes and sorted out my messed up hair, and went downstairs, following Mikey, Frankie and Jess who had already gone down.

"Actually," I said as I got to the bottom of the stairs, "Is it OK if I go home with Mikey and his brother? It is my birthday after all..."

I gave her my famous puppy dog eyes, knowing she couldn’t refuse.

She sighed. "Yes OK, as long as you’re back in time for dinner, OK?"

I hugged her goodbye, and ran to the front door, where Mikey, Frankie Jess and Gerard were waiting. I stopped in my tracks when I saw Gerard...

I had only ever seen pictures of him dotted around the Way’s house, none of them very up to date. So when I saw Gerard standing in the doorway... my breath caught in my throat.

He was gorgeous! I mean it; he had very dark hair, almost shoulder length, which was kinda messy, but in a really sexy way. He had amazing hazel eyes, and was wearing a black denim jacket over a black shirt, with ripped jeans and black converse.

Jess coughed quietly, and I realised I had been standing there staring at Gerard looking like a complete lemon.

"Hi," he said, smirking at me. (God his voice was sexy...) I shook my thoughts out of my head. He obviously had a girlfriend (or boyfriend?) I mean, he had been at college for nearly two years, and he was really good looking. It would be kind of impossible for him not to have one, right?

"Hi," I replied, blushing as he held the door open for me and the others, mentally kicking myself for the second time that day.

We all piled into the car, me, Jess and Frankie in the back, and Mikey and Gerard in the front, Mikey chattering excitedly to Gerard about what had been going on while he had been away.

We soon got to their house, and Mikey said "Ok, so you guys wanna watch a movie or something? Gee can go out and rent one for us," he said, grinning at Gerard, who sighed, smiling and looked at us expectantly.

"Yeah!" yelled Frankie, (obviously not quite down from his skittle high just yet) "But which one?"

"Um, well, seeing as it’s Sian’s birthday, maybe she could choose?" said Jess, nudging me.

"Yeah! Cool, you can go to the store with Gee while we set up the sofa and stuff, Ok?" Mikey asked me, as I looked at Jess with dagger eyes. If looks could kill...

"Yeah, sure," I said, smiling at Gerard. He grinned back.

"Don’t forget to buy skittles!" Frankie yelped as Jess shoved him out the car.

"OK, everyone out the car except Sian," Gerard commanded, gesturing for me to move to the passenger seat in the front.

I did so, and, being the complete idiot I am, decided to climb through the middle of the car instead of getting out and walking round the side. This basically resulted in me falling half on the gear stick, and half onto Gerard’s lap.

"Well," he smirked, looking down at me in his lap.

"There was probably an easier way of doing that, wasn’t there?" I said, wincing at the gear stick that was pressing into my lower back.

He laughed, and helped me move over to the passenger seat.

Gerard’s POV

Well that was interesting.

I’ve been home for about an hour and already I’ve had Mikey's hyper little friend Frank screaming in my ear, and I’ve had a pretty girl on my lap! Ok, Ok, she’s one of Mikey’s little friends too... but she is kinda cute.

She had slightly wavy, layered black hair that fell to her shoulders, and was wearing a fitted black top with a silver cross printed on it, with black skinny jeans and ratty camouflage pattern converse.

I had just helped her off my lap, and we were on the way to the DVD rental store to choose a film for us to watch.

"So... Happy Birthday!" I said, remembering why she was choosing the film.

"Thanks!" she replied brightly, her pretty face turning towards me, smiling.

"You having a good day so far?" I asked, liking the sound of her voice.

Her face fell instantly, and I regretted saying it.

"Aw, what’s wrong?" I asked, worried I had upset her or something.

"Nah, it’s nothing you wanna hear about anyway," she replied, looking out the window.

"Come on, I don’t want you to be sad on your seventeenth birthday!" I said quickly.

"Well, my boyfriend Pete dumped me if you really wanna know," she said, looking at me, "But, you know what? It’s Ok. He was nothing but a jerk to me anyway," she said, smiling to herself as if just realising what she said was true.

"Oh, I’m sorry," I said, secretly relieved she was smiling again. She had a nice smile...

And no boyfriend...

"It’s ok. Hey, we’re here!" she said suddenly as I almost missed the turning. 'Fucking hell, she could have given me more warning' I thought angrily, gripping the steering whee as anger started coursing through me.

She glanced at my clenched fists, smiling shyly. The anger left as quickly as it had come, and I smiled back calmly.

I parked near the store, and we got out of the car. I noticed Sian was shivering.

"Hey, you want my jacket? You look freezing!" I remarked, stepping closer to her.

"What? No, it’s ok, you’ll be cold without it!"

"Come on, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want you to take it," I said gently, giving her the jacket as we walked to the store.

She smiled at me warmly, and I smiled back, our eyes connecting for a brief moment.

Sian’s POV

His jacket smells nice.

You know that smoky, cologney, leathery smell? It smelt like Gerard, whatever it was... I snuggled into it, waiting for him to get in the car to make our way back to his house with the movie I chose, ‘The Omen’. Yeah, I know, trust me to get something scary, that’ll probably terrify me and give me nightmares... but what can I say? I love ‘em!

"You ready? Nice choice by the way," Gerard said as he got in the car beside me.

"Yup, and thanks for the skittles too. Frankie’s gonna love you, Gerard!" I grinned.

He groaned jokingly, pretending to realise what a mistake he’d made in getting Frank more skittles.

"Wow, he’s gonna go crazy! And by the way, call me Gee. All my friends do," he replied, starting the engine, and driving down the street towards his house.

I swallowed, smiling to myself, pleased he thought of me as one of his friends, even though we’d known each other for about an hour.

We pulled up outside the house.

"And by the way," he said getting out of the car and winking at me, "You are fully to blame for whatever Frank does when he sees those skittles..."