Strangers in the Rain

I woke up the next morning, I thought Jason may be sitting there, on the pavement, staring at my car, waiting for me to wake up and run into his arms. I was wrong. That was the nightmare I'd had that night. I was greeted by the bring sun shine and the roof of my car. I had nothing to help my wounded head so I sat trying to dress myself without moving my head. I was fed up with living out of a car. But when I have my pay check in a few days I will be moving into my new flat. I had even organised Frank to help me set up.

And little did I know today for me would go down in history, today would be the day I would see Gerard again.

I had work today, it’s Monday, so I went to work. Work went well. Nothing special happened until I was almost out of the door. When you leave this place you know that Frank won’t talk to you about work related things until you back in the door again. And you won’t have to think about work until your back through that door again. But until then, as you cross the threshold, you hold you breath until your skin tinges blue and you pass out. I don’t hold my breath, I just like to think hold your breath until I get into the fresh air. I didn’t make it today.

“Lex, can I have a word with you?” Frank said, he hung onto his door swinging a little while his head hung out. I turn around, I held in the swear words and put a smile on my face. I love my job, but with every job I’ve had I look forwards to getting out and having time to myself. I think that’s rational. I took a seat opposite Frank who took his time getting started. I was about to question him on why he called me in here to breath deeply and stare at his hands on his desk. “Have you heard from Gerard recently?” Frank was concerned or something.

“Nope, he told me he would be away for a week and he’s been out for, well, coming up to three now. Why? Should I have heard from him by now? Because I was beginning to think I had imagined it all.”

“He told me he’d talk to you like a week ago.” Frank sighed running his fingers through his hair. It would be pointing out the obvious if I said something fishy was going on here. Something fishy has been going on since I met Gerard Way. “You need to talk to him Lex. I told him to tell you. You’re a nice girl and I know I said you would be good for him but I don’t know if he would be good for you anymore. There's stuff about Gerard you need to know if you two are ever going to get involved and he needs to start being real with you.” Frank was stressed out alright. “And he needs to realise this isn’t all about him. Do you have his number?”

“Yeah, but I make it a policy that when a guy tells me he’s going away not to call him. You never get to talk properly and you normally hear something you’ll regret. And you’re kind of freaking me out Frank.” Some of the stuff he was saying made it sound as though he’s a serial killer or something. And that Gerard is basically a narcissist.

“Ok, I'll give him a call. Stay in your car tonight, Mr. Way will be popping round at some point even if it’s Mikey.” I have no clue who the heck this Mikey person is. But he has the last name as Gerard, so must be a relative of some sort.

I stayed in my car, I bought dinner on the way out to my car, I kept my phone on the dashboard within my view and I watched it like reruns of family guy while I ate cold Chinese food. My evening couldn’t have been more boring or unproductive, if it could have been I would have been sitting in the middle of an empty room looking at a brick wall. Well that could have some use, a brick wall is more likely to ring than my phone. It’s also more likely to give me a straight answer than Gerard Way ever will.

I was drifting off, giving up all hope of him showing up, my head was drooping against the glass and I don’t sleep in my front seat, so this was unplanned, but I couldn’t stay awake any longer. It was becoming dangerously close to tomorrow. I wasn’t dreaming yet, I wasn’t asleep enough, no. I just had hazy thoughts of Frank being some kind of weird counsellor and Gerard being some kind of blood thirsty axe murderer tracking me down while swinging a blood axe between his hands. Maybe he was an axe murderer and he was serious the first day we met. That will be how I'll get hurt. But then why didn’t Frank warn me in the first place?

Oh rhetorical questions how you eliminate my options…

“Lexi!” Someone was shouting through my window and banging on the glass. I jumped about a foot out of my seat and whipped the side of my face in case any saliva had creeped from my mouth while I had drifted off. “Lex, we gotta talk.” Gerard said, he was more serious than I had ever seen him. He looked tired and stressed two and as though he had been crying or rubbing his eyes for a significant amount of time.