Boys Of Summer

PETE's POV

As Rachel followed Bob out into the hallway I was stunned by how beautiful she looked out of her usual jeans and t-shirt. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Gerard had his eyes glued to her every movement. A flicker of love shining from his eyes matched the smile he wore. I was still a bit jealous that he'd decided to hijack Rach tonight, but we'd had a few talks recently and I knew how much he really liked her. It was hard for him to admit it at first, he'd always been slow at realising his feelings, but he soon figured it out. The night he'd roomed with Rachel after breaking up with Libby had been the moment his foggy mind had cleared and he was able to piece his thoughts together. Gerard had confided to me the following day that he'd scared himself with how honest, open and relaxed he felt that night. That he'd so willingly, and unexpectedly bared his feelings made him feel vulnerable. He was sure his newfound feelings wouldn't be returned and that was why he closed himself off for the rest of the night, unable to sleep knowing Rachel was watching his back from her place across the room. I told him he was crazy for thinking that his affection would be unrequited, but he explained his reasoning to me.

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"Why would someone so down to earth, caring, talented, fun, beautiful and amazing be interested in a high, depressed, drunk idiot?"

"Gerard," I began, not quite sure how to handle this. "You're really not that bad. This tour I've hardly seen you using, you've been more of your old happy self and you haven't been constantly drunk either. Iknow you can hide your problems well, but this tour really has been different. We'veall noticed it. Ever since that first night we met Rachel..." I trailed off, leaving him to piece things together by himself. "And anyway, she's already your friend so she can't think you'retoo bad."

His elbows were on his knees, hands clasped together with his forehead tapping against them. It was his version of hitting his head against the wall. After a minute his head came up, causing my eyes to flicker over his own that looked so helpless."I want to get better," he spoke almost reluctantly, his voiceeerily empty.

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We all decided to do a bit of gambling for a start. Everyone split up, heading in the direction of his 'luckiest' game. My little group comprised Gerard, Rachel and Joe was tagging along too. We chose to tempt our luck at the Blackjack tables to begin with. Rach was kicking some dealer ass claiming to have 'beginners luck', while the rest of us were struggling to break even. After an hour or so we got sick of losing, so we headed downstairs to the slot machines.

Rachel kept the drinks flowing all night, insisting that since it was now legal for her to drink and buy alcohol in the USA she was going to take advantage of it. Gerard had been trying to drink slowly, but not wanting to seem like he wasn't having a good time, or being rude. It didn't matter; Rach would just order him another drink anyway. I know she'd noticed his lack of drinking lately, but she hadn't known it was because of her.

Gerard really was serious about stopping his problems and cleaning up. I'd never seen him like this before, and neither had Mikey. Of course we were all pleased about his changes, but we had to wonder how far he really could go before he relapsed, or something caused a breakdown. There had already been some tension, fear of the unknown, but nothing he couldn't handle as long as he stayed determined.

Rachel really did seem to have someone looking out for her luck tonight, she'd already made over $500 by the time we got sick of gambling and decided to try finding some of the other guys. Along the way we lost Joe to the Craps tables, but managed to run into Patrick, Mikey and Ray who had been having mixed luck down the road at one of the other casino's. Of course, when we found them Rach had to shout everyone another round, saying winnings like hers were meant to be shared. We decided to move on from the beers we had been drinking, and onto Tequila shots in one of the bars. I have to say I was impressed by how well Rach was handling her alcohol. We'd had a few big nights on the tour, but she had always held back, preferring to take photographic evidence of the drunken mishaps that occurred. By my count she'd had around eight beers and was now onto her fourth shot. She was a little tipsy, but it didn't really show except for a slight slurring of her words. Aside from Gerard, who could drink all of us under a table comfortably and was the only one still drinking with her, she had to be the best drinker I'd seen.

"Come on, I wanna go dance," she started pulling my arm along with Gerard's as she headed towards the street. I waved to the rest of the guys, who motioned that they were calling it a night and heading up to the rooms. I was starting to feel quite tired myself; the adrenaline from having played had worn off a long time ago.

"I think I might join the other guys, go up to bed," I mumbled nervously, wondering if Gerard was up to being alone with her in their states of drunkenness.

Rachel stopped dead in her tracks, turning around to face me, lips pursed and with her index finger against her chin in a look of pondering. "One dance then you can go, ok? Good." With that she returned to pulling us out to the street and towards blasting music.