Boys Of Summer

MAIN POV

"Pete, we have a winner!" I yelled out to my friend from inside a changing room cubicle. We'd been shopping and trying on dresses for what seemed like forever and I was getting seriously close to giving up and just wearing my jeans to the VMA's.

"Thank fuck for that," I heard him laughing as I opened the door. Of course he had to insist he have the final say, but I knew there was no way he could argue about this outfit. "Wow, you look beautiful," he gushed with his eyes wide, taking in the sight as I twirled before him.

This dress was completely perfect for me. It hugged my curves, the halter neck emphasised my already ample cleavage, the colour was gorgeous and the cut made it hang just right. I just hope Gerard loves it as much as I do. It's pretty weird to think that our first real date is going to big this whole big awards show thing. It's actually pretty weird to think that he's now my boyfriend. The moment he asked me seems so surreal, almost as if I hallucinated the whole thing.

Pete broke me out of my daze as I stared at my reflection by announcing that we needed to find some matching shoes before we could ditch the shopping and have some real fun. Real fun in this case meant go-karting, mini golf, and a nice splash through this fountain Pete had been going on about since the moment our plane set away from the gate in LA.

We'd been in Chicago for three days already and I only had one left before I got to see Drea again. I'd managed to talk Pete into asking her to go with him, and though she was slightly sceptical about accepting, once I mentioned the possibility of seeing [b>U2 in the flesh she jumped at his offer. Her boss was great, letting her have the time off at such short notice but he did have one request - that Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance sign something for his teenaged daughter. It was a small price to pay, and I knew the guys would never dream of turning me down when I asked them to do it.

Pete's mom had been so kind to me as well. I really couldn't blame him for still living at home when he had it so good. The woman was amazing - making us meals, doing our laundry, hauling out all the embarrassing childhood photos and taking great pleasure in teasing her son with the stories that explained them. Amazingly she didn't jump to any conclusions and assume that I was interested in her son. She found it cute that Gerard would ring me each night before we went to bed, just to say hi, I miss you, and sleep well.

x

Running from cops was not really on my agenda for the day, but apparently security had stepped up a notch since Pete's last fountain romp. We were fortunate enough that there was a large crowd in the area, and that we were parked pretty close by, but it still was an adrenaline rush not knowing whether we'd be caught until we were safely within the confines of our transportation.

I'd already beaten Pete in our go-karting session, and we'd tied our scores in the mini golf, so we'd had a competition to see who could splash the most people before getting yelled at. As soon as the cops appeared I completely lost count, not that I really cared anymore. I just knew we had to get out of there, fast.

"Dude, that was crazy!" Oh god, I'm starting to talk like Pete. I shook my head a bit at that thought, although it was a bit funny.

"I know! Man, they almost pulled their guns on us." We were both laughing, imagining what the people around the place must have thought while they watched us scramble past them, completely soaked.

"Can they even do that? I mean, what were we doing that was so bad? I guess they just don't like people having fun." I still wasn't really used to the idea of cops having guns with them. Back in New Zealand it just doesn't happen like that. Pretty much only the Armed Offenders squad and the S.A.S. were issued with firearms.

"Oh well, we had fun. Man, wonder if anyone got some photos? They'd be cool to see. Ha, I can just imagine all the teenies gossiping about us."

"Dude, I know. It was bad enoughwhen I started touring and everyone thought I was dating you cos we were always hanging out. I think it's going to get worse after everyone sees me with Gerard. The rumours are gunna go crazy. I know it."

While I'd had some spare time, or when I was uploading my photos onto the MCR site I'd had a few looks around the message boards. There had been quite a few threads about me, each with their own version of events as to why I was on the tour. The funniest thing I had read was probably the rumour that I was dating Pete, had somehow pissed Gerard off to the point that he wouldn't speak to me, and that I was obsessed with Frank's feet. I had absolutely no idea how any of that came about, but it had given us all a good laugh.