Infinite

“So I’ll give you a call in a couple of weeks then.”

It’s Pete Wentz.

“Thank you so much!” Karl says, since both Noel and I are dumbstruck.

“From what I’ve heard, I should be grateful one,” Pete smiles, and looks at Gerard, who has been by my side the whole time (although not with his arm around me). “Nice to see you, Gee.”

“Yeah, you too. Tell the guys I said hi.”

Pete grins.

“Will do,” he says, before turning to the rest of us (the Infinity fans stay in the background and I don’t blame them, this may have been one too many great musicians to handle in one night), waving and walking away.

“Oh my God,” I say, letting out the breath I’ve been holding for a while. Pete Wentz said he liked our demo – he had gotten it from a friend of a friend who had been to one of our gigs. I don’t want to ask if Gerard has had any part in it, but I strongly suspect that he does.

Pete Wentz said he wanted to sign us to Decaydance.

“Don’t faint,” Gerard says, and laughs at the face I make.

“It’s Pete Wentz, did you expect me to keep calm?”

“Are you saying you can keep calm around me but not around Pete?” Gerard says, raising his eyebrows and causing me to laugh while desperately fighting another blush rising to my cheeks.

The club is still pretty crowded, but not as much as before. We decide it’s a good idea to get our things and start to think about getting home, since it’s a school day tomorrow. The problem is that Red is nowhere to be seen – again.

“Ten bucks says he’s in a bathroom stall with that Amy girl,” Karl mutters. Amy’s friends don’t hear what he says, fortunately, and I throw him a glare.

We try calling Red on his cell but there is no answer. After loading all our stuff, including Red’s, into the van and looking through the bathrooms and most of the club without any sign of neither Red nor Amy, we hang around for fifteen more minutes before the members of My Chemical Romance decide it’s time to go home.

While the rest of the band get into the car that apparently is Ray’s, Gerard and I stand a few feet apart with an awkward silence in between.

“So, I guess… this is kind of goodbye for a while."

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I don’t think any silence has ever been any more awkward, and I’ve had my share of awkward silences.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just kiss her!”

Gerard turns around to give Frank a lethal glare, which Frank pretends to dodge. But Gerard looks at me again, and then takes a step forward and kind of leans in, his face close to mine.

And I forget how to breathe, how to think - I forget who I am, where I am and who the people around us are. All I’m aware of is soft lips against mine for a few seconds; and then a desperate feeling of longing for more.

I can hear wolf-whistles and approving shouts from our audience, and as we pull away, Gerard smiles shyly.

I realize I’m smiling too.

As I watch the car disappear out of sight, I hear Karl yelling “Red! Where the hell have you been?” behind me. I turn around and there is Red, looking a bit flustered in rumpled clothes and hair sticking out in weird directions. Amy is there too, looking even more out of place.

“Away,” Red says, shrugging. Amy is smiling and tries to take his hand, but he doesn’t even look at her and pulls it away.

The poor girl looks utterly destroyed. Before getting into the van, Red gives me a look I can’t really read. But there’s something about it that makes the feeling that is still filling my body from Gerard’s kiss fade a bit.

What is happening to us?

The ride home is anything but pleasant. Red is sulking in his seat, Karl and Noel try to keep a meaningful conversation in the front but it doesn’t go that well, and I’m thinking about Red, Gerard, Gerard’s kiss, Red’s behavior and the reasons behind both of them.

The fact is that I don’t know Gerard at all, and I’m realizing it now. Not in person, anyway – I’ve watched interviews and seen him on stage but you don’t know a person before you’ve even spoken to them, do you? All I know is that he is a nice guy who, for some unfathomable reason, probably likes me in the same way that I like him. Or at least he likes me a little bit in the way that I like him.

There’s one part of my mind that is telling me to just keep going and see where it all leads, but another part is asking how on earth he can like me. Me. I’m not amazingly pretty or nice or outgoing, not like the girls he probably meets everyday and who would do anything to be in my position.

Gerard Way just kissed me, but I’m as confused as ever – there has to be something seriously wrong with me.

And then there’s Red.

Just a few weeks ago, everything was as it always had been and Red was being… Red. A little strange from time to time and with a weird sense of humor. Something happened the minute I introduced him to Gerard.

It suddenly clicks, and I’m about to fall off my seat.

It’s all about Gerard.

It’s not because he’s in My Chemical Romance or because Red thinks he’s a sellout – I should have known Red not to say anything like that, even if he can be a bit serious about music. The Red I know would never say things like that. He’s deeper than that.

Most of all, I should have seen this. The looks. The hatred towards a guy who seems to like me.

I could be wrong, I know, but the feeling in my gut tells me I’m not.

My train of thought is interrupted when Red himself speaks.

“Guys, I’m leaving.”