Strangers in the Rain

“G-gerard?” I said, I was kind of waking up. I may have well been asleep so I may have well been waking up. I was glad to find my spit on my cheek or window. He didn’t respond, he remained crouched next to my car, his face shadowed and he had stubble fresh from a week or two occupying his face, his eyes red possibly been crying and his clothes were not fresh, I could smell that when he climbed into the passenger seat of my car after I had cleared the space. “What are you doing here? And why are you showing up so late? I know you won’t answer either of those properly but it’s worth a shot.” Gerard didn’t answer any of my questions, but what's new? He ran his fingers through his hair and let out several long sighs. “If you don’t get started soon I'm going to fall asleep so can we get on with this?” I put a yawn in, although it was faked.

“Everyone’s been telling me I need to be straight with you. And I bet you want me to be straight with you as well. And not so weird. But I think the easiest way to do this would be to show you. Do you have this weekend off?” He asked.

“Yeah, but I'm moving into my new apartment over the weekend.” I said, a real yawn slipped out this time.

“Then tomorrow it is then,” he must have found out I have tomorrow off too. “I promise to you, swear on my life and all that, I will be here at 9 tomorrow ready to tell you the truth. Get some sleep.” He said that as those I was up for no reason. Bloody git. He walked away from my car, with his hands deep in his pockets and slouched over. He wasn’t the Gerard I had met before, the forceful confident sure of himself charming…. Well something’s affecting him right now. I watched until he slipped from my sight and under the street lamps.

I got a couple of hours sleep that night, despite my tiredness. I just couldn’t sleep after that. I got ready for Gerard at 7 and sat watching music videos on my iPod until he showed up. I was shocked I didn’t die of shock when he did. He pulled his car in front of mine. When he got out I could tell he had pulled himself together, he had taken a step back to being normal Gerard again. His hair was an organised mess instead of a disaster on his head, his eyes were clear and normal and his clothes were fresh and clean. He also walked taller and smiled more. I was happy to see his change back but it worried me, what had gotten to him in the first place?

“Coffee?” He smiled holding out a starbucks cardboard cup. I smiled and took it from him, following to his car. Neither of us spoke of last night, or the previous few weeks, it was as though nothing had happened and we were seeing one another after our Chinese. I had finished and crushed my cup and we hadn’t arrived at the unknown destination yet. I watched the scenery pass. The fields, the buildings, the people, the cars but most of all the large amount of shops and retail parks, we were heading towards New York. I was going to ask, what this was about but I know him well enough now to know I will get no answer from him. He’ll ignore me or answer my question with a question or just smile and flip his hair. “We’re here.” His voice showed no emotion, when I looked we were parking outside a small grave yard with an old brick wall cornering from the church it was attached to.

Gerard didn’t even wait for me when he took off down the path between the rows. It’s no secret that I'm not fan of graveyards, they give me the creeps and a lot of the people I knew have died so they bring up some bad memories. I held my jacket close to my body. It was cold and overcast, a high chance of rain. He didn’t stop until he reach the far wall and went in a few rows. He stopped in front of a large brick tomb stone, your typical grave. The person whose grave it belonged to was named ‘Katherine Regason’ she died at the age of 25 and the quote was covered by a lot of fresh flowers but she had died just of a yeah and a half ago. I was still unaware of why Gerard had brought me here.

“Care to explain?” I asked, I looked over at Gerard, who looked down with love in his eyes. This girl meant a lot to him. I have never been looked at like that before. That’s how you know when someone truly loves you, the way they look at you, even if all your doing is sitting on a sofa writing fanfiction in pyjama trousers. He nodded and reached into his pockets. He pulled out his wallet and flipped the flaps to a see through square with a picture from one of those booths inside. It was of Gerard and someone who looked a lot like me. Same colour hair, same eyes, same complexion, similar face. The only clear differences were that her hair was a little shorter, but not by much and she had less freckles than I do. And a bigger forehead. But apart from that I was sure we could do magic tricks together or something. Speechless me waited for an explanation of this woman. I wanted my unasked questions answered this time. I didn’t want anymore rhetorical rubbish from Gerard. I wanted answers. But I just couldn’t find the questions.

“The woman you are looking at is the woman buried before us. She was the love of my life before she died in a car accident back a year or so back. Since then I tried to move on. I’ve dated quite a few girls, none were any good for me. I am assured Frank has pointed this out to you When I saw you in the rain the day we met. You looked just like her. And I couldn’t let you get away. I had to know who you were. And then when I learnt what a tough time you’d been having I knew I had to help, I couldn’t let someone who looked just like Katherine have that sad look on her face. I had to make you happy. For her. And I kissed you, just to see if you would kiss like her. If your skin felt like hers. If your laugh sounded like hers.” The rain dripped onto Gerard’s wallet. “I had to see if you were like her, so I could love again.” I dropped his wallet into the mud and took off at a sprint towards the nearest low lying wall. He was a creep. I knew it. He’s not right upstairs and I have to get away from him. You don’t do stuff like that. Creepy stuff. Well sane people don’t anyways.