Follow Your Bliss

As soon as we got off of 684 I turned the stereo knob to WCCC 106.9 on the radio, one of the only good rock stations in Connecticut, in my opinion anyway. Steady, As She Goes by The Raconteurs streamed out of the speakers.

I looked in the rear view mirror at the dogs in sleeping in the back seat before looking over at Gerard and laughing. It was just he and I for today and everyone else who felt like coming would come down tomorrow for my dad's birthday.

"Are you letting them actually get to you?" I asked amused.

"No." He mumbled sourly as he tapped his knuckles.

I rolled my eyes and turned up the volume a bit as the chorus played. Gerard had been quiet even during my changing lanes on the Saw Mill. And anyone can tell you; I may not be the greatest when it comes to the winding parts of the Saw Mill, especially when I change lanes. Usually I get yelled at in fear at lest once because of some little mistake that supposedly could result in death.

"I think your lying." I said in a singsong voice before singing to the music softly.

"And if I am?" He shrugged.

I sighed turning off 22 making the right onto Milltown. We were only about twenty minutes away, if that, from where I lived. "I think you're an idiot then."

He reached over and linked his hand shyly with my right as I continued to drive with my left hand. "Jane, I'm an idiot."

"I know." I looked over and laughed. I let go of his hand gently and leaned forward to dig my phone out of my back pocket, holding down the number two as my cell phone automatically dialed my house.

"Yes?" My mom asked teasingly before pausing. "Caitlin are you on the phone while driving!?"

"Not technically, Gerard's holding it for me." I fibbed a little white lie and smirked at Gerard's appalled face as I dragged him down with me.

"Yeah right." She said not believing me for a second. "Make this quick before you get a ticket or crash and die."

"Thanks mommy." I said sarcastically. "You guys want Subway or pizza for lunch?"

I heard her speaking to someone in the background. "Subway. You know what we like."

"Okay. I'll stop there first." I let her know.

"Just get off the phone Caitlin." She scolded me and hung up, but not before saying a quick 'love you.'

I laughed and flipped the phone shut, tossing it to Gerard. "They haven't even met me yet and youre already getting me in trouble."

"She didn't believe me though so it's not like you actually did." I pointed out and grabbed his hand again. "Besides I brought you a little more time before you have a panic attack over nothing. I mean you can stand in front crowds full of hundreds, but you can't face two old bags?"

Gerard chuckled at my terminology. "I don't believe I've ever seen this side of you before. You're a lot looser than the Jane I slept with this week."

"Ass." I slapped his chest with his hand. He chuckled smirking.

"This is so suburbia." He looked out the window at the houses once we crossed over the New York state border. "Some of these houses are huge."

"That's because they're newer. You want to see huge?" I asked as I turned onto Ball Pond road instead of continuing down Gillotti. I made a few more turns going around behind the big pond before stopping in front of a huge mansion with newly planted trees scattered all across the front. It was a four-car garage with an extremely long driveway. "This is the probably the second biggest house in town. The mushroom house is the biggest I think."

"Who lives here?" Gerard asked looking at the over sized house.

"The Galante's." I chuckled. "Even New Fairfield has their own piece of the mob."

"Every town has their own skeleton's I guess." He laughed at the irony as well. "Anything else I should know?"

"Eh, a double homicide a couple of years ago and a few other murders, one dealing with a wood chipper." I shrugged, but growing up here that was a big deal because it's New Fairfield, the tiny town with only about a 14,000 population, where things like murders shouldn't happen.

"So it's completely innocent compared to Newark." He watched the house as I turned around.

"Please," I rolled my eyes. "It's not fair to compare it to Newark."

Gerard laughed at my response and kissed my hand. He leaned over and turned up the radio even louder as Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast came on.

I smiled, pleased that he was at least more relaxed. I pointed out the area where I lived, and where we would be going later, and the different schools that were located on the same road.

"This is some twilight thing going on here." He laughed at the cobble stone sidewalks in front of the tiny library and post office lined with brightly colored flowers and vintage lampposts with a small flagpole adorning the American flag at full mast. "It's almost eerie like in Edward Scissorhands or Pleasantville. Something like that."

"It's not so bad." I defended my town. "I mean the people could be different for sure, but I like its layout."

Instead of going straight to Subway, I figured we deserved a little caffeine. "I've changed my mind. Any tiny ass town with a Starbucks has an okay in my book."

"Glad you see it my way." I grinned hitting him.

He slapped me back. "You're twisting it to make it seem that way, but I made this revolution on my own."

"I'm sure you did." I patted his head. I turned off the car and grabbed the dogs' leashes so they could at least stretch their legs a bit.

"What do you want to drink?" Gerard asked me as I took a seat at a table outside.

"You know I suck at the Starbuckian language. Surprise me." I laughed.

"Jane, I wonder about you sometimes." He shook his head laughing before going in to get our drinks.

I petted Logan and talked to them like they were my babies, picking up Olivia and putting her on my lap. I looked up seeing Gerard come baring the wonderful gift of coffee. "Thank you." I stood up for him to sit letting Olivia go on ground with Logan.

Gerard smiled and sat down pulling me onto his lap. "I needed this."

"Please don't worry." I kissed his neck.

"If I worry will I get more of that?" He smirked.

"Maybe." I laughed giving him another kiss. "I love you." I whispered softly.

"I love you too." He kissed my temple. We sat there in silence letting the sun warm us up and enjoyed our coffee.

"Oh my gosh, Caitlin?" I heard the high pitch squeal that made me cringe. "And look at your dogs, how cute!"

"Save me?" I whispered. I looked up blocking the sun with my hand, though I already knew whom that voice belonged to. "Meg? How are you?"

"Wow, it's been forever. I haven't seen you in so long." Her voice sounded too high to be human. I took a deep breath asking God to give me patience and wondering how we were actually best friends when we were younger.

"Gerard, this is Meg and Dan." I introduced them finally taking notice of him standing there. "And vice versa, this is Gerard." He leaned over me and shook both their hands politely.

"Oh, wow. I know who you are." Dan said in awe as he shook his hand.

Meg stood there looking clueless. "Who?"

"He's a singer, you wouldn't recognize them." He shushed her.

I never could stand the guy, way too arrogant for me. And he always had to be right, starting pointless arguments to due so. But, he was her first boyfriend and I knew she would end up marrying him.

"Oh." She shrugged with a giggle. "Well, you look great Caitlin. I wasn't sure if you were ever going to recuperate after that nasty break up with Matt."

"It really wasn't that tragic." I made a funny face not sure why she had brought that up since it was so long ago.

"Oh, I thought you were talking of marriage and a future." Her head bobbed side-to-side as she talked.

"No, we never did." I shrugged. "It must have gotten mixed up through the grapevine."

"Oh, oh well." She giggled. "So are you here to see your parents?"

"Yeah, for my dad's birthday and Gerard gets to meet them." I said trying being the better person and being nice.

"Aw," Meg cooed. "How exciting. Well, while you're up here we should get together."

"Maybe. It might be hard because our friends are coming up too and I wanted to show them around." I tried to find my escape route.

"Then, another time." She waved her hand. "Or I could come down to visit you in the big city."

I could help but chuckle, hoping that my mouth didn't get me into too much trouble. "Yeah, we'll have to try sometime."

Gerard stood up helping me with him. "Well, I don't mean to end this little reunion, but we promised her parents to get lunch and that was twenty minutes ago, but I needed my coffee." He shook his cup smiling a little.

"We'll let you go then." She gave me a hug. "Say hi to your parents for me."

I smiled promising I would. "It was good seeing you." I said politely as Gerard guided the dogs and me to the car.

As soon as we got in and I saw that they had entered the coffee shop, I leaned over the armrest and grabbed him into a kiss. "I owe you so much for getting me out of there."

He chuckled giving me another sweet kiss. "I might take you up on that. So who was she?"

I started up the car and cut through the Shaw's parking lot. "She was one of my best friends until I got tired of her empty promises and she just changed a lot. She was really materialistic and our friendship was just fake. I was upset for a while because I was best friends with her for a good five or six years at least. But, I just couldn't put myself through that anymore."

"I don't mean to sound judgmental, but I didn't Barbie was real." He said making me laugh noticing how I had tensed up.

"You just made my day." I continued to laugh. Sadly it was true. She was thin as stick, mostly on her own doing, and wore everything pink with the dyed blonde hair. How she spoke didn't help much to change that image either. And normally I don't tend to stereotype people to that, but with the bad blood between us, I couldn't help but let my spitefulness get the best of me. "My brothers are going to love that one."

Gerard grinned that he could make me feel better and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I pulled into The Plaza across the street. "Is there a specific sandwich you want?"

"Nah, I'll just have the other half of what you're having." He shrugged.

"You coming with?" I asked pulling into a parking spot and turning the car off.

"Of course." Gerard smiled and walked over to me wrapping his arm around my waist. I pulled out a coupon and the list of the type of sandwich to get. He laughed taking the list out of my hand. "What's this?"

"What we are going to have. It's only the best sandwich in the world." I grinned and shrugged. "Josh made it up. I can never remember what's on it so he wrote it down for me. Always keep it in my wallet."

"I love ya Jane." He chuckled handing it back to me and sipped his coffee.

It was only a five-minute drive to my house from there. I smiled pulling onto my road. There's really is no place like home. "Here we are." I laughed pulling on the side of the lawn since the driveway was full.

Our house was always the one that stood out. It was a tiny, one-car garage house with a classy slate blue siding and brick underneath. The garden had a few trees and bushes with rocks and other flowers mimicking a Japanese garden. I loved my house; my parents' hard work showed and it looked homey.

But, we always have and probably always will be the only house on the street with the lawn never mowed until it's a foot tall.

"I like it." Gerard smiled. "It's finally something different than the rest."

I took leashes off the dogs letting them run off not having to worry about oncoming traffic. I heard my brothers' dog barking and running up. I took Gerard's free hand and lead him around the hill and up the driveway.

I hadn't walked five feet yet and I found myself on the ground with the wind knocked out of me. "Devin! What the hell?" I coughed.

He continued to sit on my chest. "Come on, you mean that little push knocked you down? I thought you got some muscle on you."

"I'll show you muscle." I pushed him off and rolled over so I sat on top. "Hah!"

Devin rolled his eyes and pushed me off with ease and stood up. He stared hard at Gerard. "So you're the new guy."

"So you're Devin." Gerard held out his hand to shake, but I had kicked my leg out knocking Devin off his feet. I stood up and ran off knowing that there would be consequences. The dogs started barking getting excited and followed me.

I heard Devin not too far behind me and with the dogs running at my ankles, he barely had to push me to get me on the ground.

"Miss me?" I grinned and groaned when he shoved me.

"You could've ripped my jersey." He glared pointing to his navy blue Yankees shirt.

"Oops?" I smiled innocently and stood up pushing him off me after several failed attempts. "So, Gerard this is Devin."

Devin stood up towering over Gerard and I. He shook his hand and nodded. "Hey man, nice to meet ya."

"Same here." Gerard returned the grip just as strong.

"Watch out with this one." Devin grinned wrapping his arm around me. "She can be a total bitch."

"Thanks." I elbowed his side. "Come on Gerard, Devin doesn't want Subway while the bread is till warm. He loves them soggy and disgusting."

"I'm totally feeling the sibling love here between the two of you." He laughed at us.

"Oh, and you and Mike are so much better?" I laughed holding the bag out of Devin's reach. He leaned over again and snatched it out of my hands anyway. "Dev!" I huffed holding the door open for Gerard and the dogs as they all ran past us anyway. "Mom! Devin pushed me." I whined.

"Real mature Jane." Gerard teased me and looked around the living room.

"So?" I heard her call from the back sunroom. "Did you push him back?"

"Yeah, she did." Devin said with a mouthful of food. "Freak'n punched me too."

"I did not." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Well aren't you cute." Gerard laughed. On one of the walls in the living room, my mom hung the school photos of my brothers' and I from kindergarten to senior year in high school. "You weren't pudgy." He teased me, not like my photos. "Now, ,i]I was pudgy."

"No." I pinched his cheeks. "You were just a cutie."

"Aw." My mom gushed standing in the archway looking at us. Her strawberry hair shining in the light with natural blond and white highlights through it. I had a lot of freckles, but my mom was covered in them. She was slightly taller than me, reminding everyone how I was the shortest in my family, even though I was pretty tall for a female.

I rolled my eyes. "Mom," I grabbed Gerard's hand to reassure him. "This is Gerard. Gee, this is my mommy, Christine."

Gerard reached his hand out to shake her hand, but she just ignored it and pulled him into a hug.

"Where's my princess?" I heard my dad's voice coming down the hall. "I know I heard my princess."

I rolled my eyes at my parents feeling embarrassed, but loving them at the same time, and introduced Gerard to my dad. I saw my dad smile in approval at his handshake. "Nice to meet you." My dad looked over at me. "You got lunch right?" I nodded. He made a face, "I don't know how you people can stand this heat. And your mother won't let me put the air conditioning on except in Josh's room."

I leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You'll hear that sob story about four more times in the next hour from him."

"I heard that." My dad raised his eyebrows at me and I smiled sweetly in return. "You're lucky that I love you."

"I know." I grinned cheekily.

"You're so horrible." Gerard laughed at me.

"Come in, come in." My mom pushed us through the kitchen out into the sunroom.

This was probably my favorite room in the house after it was added on. There were floor to ceiling windows and windows in the ceiling, letting in all the natural light in that you could get. You had a view of the pool and it opened onto the deck that wrapped around it.

I grabbed a sub and pulled Gerard on the loveseat futon to sit down, giving him half of the sandwich.

"Christine, did you see that we have two extra dogs running around." My dad commented being a smart ass.

Gerard laughed as Devin and I rolled our eyes at the same time. "I don't think that I've ever seen this side of you before."

"You mean she's only bitchy for us." My mom said sarcastically. "How lucky."

"Jackass." I laughed as she mocked an offensive look. "Where's Josh?"

"Who knows," she shrugged. "Maybe at Sean's."

I nodded. "I get his sandwich." Devin called out.

"No, you don't." My mom scoffed.

"Why not?" He sulked.

"Because I do." My dad interrupted them before going in the house to answer the phone.

"Is this your dog Gerard?" My mom asked.

"Yeah, that's Olivia." He smiled playing with my hair with his free hand.

Devin got up and shut the sliding door to the kitchen. "You have to take dad out while we set up tomorrow."

"Why me?" I asked after swallowing my food.

"Why not you?" My mom asked me.

"It'll let Gerard see the better half he's been missing." Devin teased me smirking.

"I know what we can do?" Gerard grinned speaking up, earning a weird look from me knowing that that look could mean no good.

"What are you, nuts?" My dad exclaimed opening the door. "If I can't have the air conditioning on, you're not going to close the doors. You've gotta be out of your freak'n mind."

"Told you he'd complain again." I laughed.

"Oh, shut up you." My dad laughed at me.

"Robbie?" Gerard asked my dad. "How do you feel about horror movies?"

My jaw dropped knowing that my dad would totally go along with it. "If it's a good one that scares you then sure, I don't mind them."

"Well, it turns out that we're getting kicked out tomorrow, what do you say about going to see one?" Gerard smiled trying not to laugh knowing the dirty look I was sending him.

"Sounds good to me." My dad smiled sitting down next to my mom.