The Club Is Open Until 8:00Pm

Gerard's POV

"I'm at her school right now."

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"It's really weird at how fatherly you can be sometimes."

"What?"

"I mean you picking her up and everything. That's cool."

"Thank you, Mikey. I got to go now."

"Tell her I say hi."

"I will."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"You're gonna tell her I said hi, right?"

"Yes. I will! Fucking hang up the phone already."

"I'm just making sure, God."

Click.

I placed my phone back in my pocket and tapped the steering wheel while I waited for Monet. I watched the kids come out of the building, and just kinda hang around the grounds. Monet came out, walked onto the sidewalk. She looked directly at the car I was driving, looked around before heading my way.

She came to the door, opened it and slid in. She flashed me a shy smile quickly shut her door. "Something wrong?" I asked. She shook her head, her face looking troubled. "Are you feeling alright?" She shook her head again. "Is it your throat?" Again with the head shaking. "What is it honey?" She looked at me, swallowing hard, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me.

It was her birth certificate. "Where did you get this?" I asked. I thought her mom and I were the only ones who had a copy. "She got it from the foster care center." She whispered. "Who had this?" She didn't answer me, but simply turned towards the window. "Monet." I said. "Christina." She finally answered after about a minute more of silence.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Nothing.

"Monet?"

"What?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"......maybe later." She hesitated.

I sighed, deciding I would just let her be for now. I started the car, and pulled away from the condensed lot outside her school. "Oh yeah, Mikey says hi." I remembered. I saw her take on a thin smile.

...

"You have them right now?" She asked gently. I nodded. "They're in the trunk." I answered. We were in Joanne and Steve's driveway, the car parked and not running. "Who gave them to you?" She asked. "My mother." I said. She looked at me, making the connection that she would be her grandmother. "Oh." She said, unbuckling her seat belt. I watched her do this, and she reached for the car door's handle.

"You coming?" She asked. I nodded, and locked the car up once we were both out. I circled around to the trunk, and popped it, taking out the box that I had retrieved from my parents house. She held the door for me as I approached the front door. When we were inside her house, she led me up to her room, after pausing in the hall to try and call someone on the land line.

"Joanne gave me the old VHS, so we have to watch them in here." She said. I smiled at her, placing the box on the edge of her bed. "Is all this mine?" She asked. I nodded. Monet undid the folds of the box and poked around inside. She grabbed an old photo album with her name on the cover in squiggly letters but didn't open it.

"So, where are the tapes?" She asked, placing the album on the nightstand and ignoring it for now. "Here." I said, digging around and bringing out a few. "Which one do you wanna watch first?" I asked. She shrugged. "I don't know. You pick." She said. I nodded, and handed her the one on the top of the pile.

She dusted it off, put it in the machine, and immediately paused it. Monet started at the t.v for a while, at the staticy lines, then stopped it and ejected it. "...I don't think I want to watch this." She said, moving her fingers in tiny circles on the tape. "It's alright, you don't have to." I said. She flipped the tape over, so the label was facing down, and placed it on the shelf which held her stereo.