I Believe We're The Enemy

Ginny’s P.O.V.

“Ginny, hun, wake up. We need you. Please, wake up already!” Ray’s soft, high-pitched voice jolts me out of my sleep, and as soon as my eyes open he drags me gently out of bed.

“Wait, Ray, what’s going on?” I murmur sleepily, not protesting as he grabs my hand and drags me into the front room.

“It’s Glory Girl,” he replies. “She’s bleeding really badly, and none of us know what to do... Please, can you help?” His face is the picture of begging, so I nod and follow him to Glory Girl’s couch.

The first thing I do when I reach her is pour a small trickle of water into her mouth, making sure that she swallows it. I assume that even if this doesn’t help, it’ll keep her alive longer. Then I peel away the cloth Gerard and Frank had pressed to her bleeding throat and, ignoring how she flinches away from me, I grab a towel out of Mikey’s hand and press it to her nick much harder than the boys would dare.

“You’re going to strangle her!” Ray yelps. I turn around to glare at him, reminding him that he’s the one who asked for my help, and next to him I see that Mikey looks paler than a ghost. Glory Girl coughs.

“Ray, she’s right,” she mutters. “I’ve had a good deal of practice with this. Nothing ever stops bleeding without pressure.

“You’re awake,” Mikey mumbles, as if trying to grasp the concept. She ignores him.

“Ginny, go ahead and bandage it. I’ll tell you if I start chocking to death, so you’ll know you’re not killing me.”

“What if it hurts your neck?” Ray asks nervously.

“That’s a risk we’ll have to take. I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, so try whatever you think will work,” Glory Girl replies. I nod and start wrapping strips of fabric around her slim neck. Ray stays at my side, exclaiming at every mistake I even come close to making. After a while, we all start to get irritated.

“Ray, cut it out,” Frank snaps. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing any more than the rest of us do. She’s not perfect, so just leave her alone!”

Gerard, laughs, breaking the awkward tension. “I think Ray begs to differ on the ‘perfect’ part,” he says with a chuckle. Mikey and Frank laugh, and even Glory Girl gives a little smirk.

“Shut up, Gee,” Ray mumbles.

Glory Girl clears her throat. “It’s just ‘cause he likes her,” she says in a hilariously immature tone.

“That’s old news, Glory,” Frank teases. Gerard nods enthusiastically.

“I think ‘obsession’ would be a better word,” he laughs. Glory Girl sends an evilly suggestive smirk in Ray’s direction as I go into a fit of giggles. Meanwhile, Gerard takes over my job, tying off the bandages on Glory Girl’s neck with deft fingers. She tenses at his touch, and I start to realize that she really isn’t comfortable around boys.

“Gee, I’ll take care of her,” I offer, gently pushing him away from Glory Girl. When none of the boys are looking, she mouths a discreet ‘thanks’, and I make a mental note to talk to her about this later.

After a long breakfast picnic (on the floor where the coffee table had been before we moved it), I quietly ask Glory Girl if she can walk, and when she answers in the affirmative, I guide her into Ray and I’s room, shutting the door firmly behind us.

“What do you want?” she asks tiredly.

“Glory, I just wanted to ask you about something. I noticed that you won’t let any of the boys touch you except Ray. Did something happen to you?” I ask, keeping my distance from her.

She laugh humorlessly. “No. I just don’t trust boys. Especially famous ones like them. What if they assume that everyone loves them, and then they decide that I’m appealing? Even the sweetest of boys won’t always listen.” I sigh.

“The guys are great. They’d never do anything... like that... to you, not without you approval. They-”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she hisses. “Gerard’s all over me!”

“That’s just how he is!” I reply. “In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s like that to me, too. And Mikey, and even Frank. Trust me.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I know real boys, and they’re not like that. I had a boyfriend once, Ginny. His name was Bob. He was kind and gentle and beautiful and he would never do anything to me if it made me uncomfortable at all, and he listened to me and he cared. I loved that boy, Letterbomb, and I know that idiots as worshipped as Party Poison would never be that sincere.”

“What about Ray?” I growl through clenched teeth. She’s not even listening to me.

Her scowl softens but doesn’t go away. “Ray is different. I love Ray.”

For the first time since Sun Beam’s death, I feel the familiar pit of jealousy tugging at my stomach. My self-control falls away from me and I take a step toward the much taller Glory Girl, glaring at her furiously. “So do I, Glory Girl,” I hiss. “So do I.”

She steps backward. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m so fucking done with romantic love. Don’t worry, I’m not going to run after him like some lovesick imbecile. But he is my best friend, and without him I would have died very alone. Plus, he’s the only person in this damned world that I trust.”

“Glory, Mikey saved your sorry ass and almost died doing it, and Gerard--his big brother, remember?--let him. Gerard barely even lets Mikey go within miles of danger. And Frank... He’s just amazing. He would never hurt you,” I tell her softly, begging for her to listen. She snorts.

“She obviously likes you a lot. How am I the only person who’s noticed how much that bugs Ray? But no, you just bask in the attention of the two-and-a-half boys totally in love with you. You don’t give a damn what Ray thinks.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What kind of whore do you think I am?”

“I don’t think you’re a whore,” she snarls, her lip twitching upward to reveal her sharp-looking eye tooth. “I think you’re an oblivious, stupid, insensitive bitch and you don’t deserve to have such open access to Ray’s heart.”

“I love him,” I murmur, all of my fury suddenly draining away from my body. “I love him and I don’t want to hurt him. But I don’t want to hurt Frankie either. They both know that I’ve chosen Ray, and that he’s been my choice since the beginning, but Frank can’t seem to get around that.”

“Quit asking like you want my help.” Her voice is violently bitter. “I wouldn’t know the slightest thing about love. Korse killed every single person who ever loved me, apart from Ray.”

I sigh. “Glory... I’ll leave you alone, but please promise me you’ll at least give the boys a chance. They all like you a lot, and they really do listen, I swear. A little love can heal even the worst of wounds, and you’re beyond wounded, I can tell. Just try and forget, okay? It helps.”

She looks at me strangely. “I always forget that you’re not just a normal runaway,” she mutters. “If Ray can change you that much... Bring it on, then.”

I chuckle. “You’d be surprised what kindness can do.”

Mikey’s P.O.V.

“Hey, Mikester, can you help me with this damned can opener?” My head snaps up at the sound of Glory Girl’s voice, and I walk over to where she sits, reaching around her to open the can of Power Pup she’s struggling with. I avoid her bright hazel eyes as she thanks me, her rose-colored lips curling into a gentle smile, and instead of replying I sit down on the sofa next to her. Glory Girl has been with us for a week, and as her external wounds have healed I’ve watched another sort of hurt begin to fade away. Ginny successfully convinced her that Gerard, Frank, and I aren’t going to attack her or anything, so she’s slowly grown more relaxed around us, up to the point where I no longer feel her eyes glued to me at all times.

“Do you ever talk?” she teases, poking me in the ribs. I try to shake my head, but I can’t keep even a remotely straight face, so I start to laugh, and I relax as I hear her giggles blending with my own. Something about Glory Girl intrigues me. I mean, she’s not that different from Ginny; just one more broken girl running for her life from BL/ind. But at the same time, I’m glad I didn’t let Korse kill her.

“Seriously, Mikey,” she continues, giving me that stare that makes me feel like she knows every thought going through my mind. “I’ve heard you say four words in the entire week that I’ve been here. Four! I know you can talk, and you laugh a lot, so why do you always act like a mute?”

‘You’re welcome’ and ‘you’re awake’, that’s what I said. Why those simple phrases have stuck with me, I may never know. “I’m just not that talkative,” I murmur.

Her face turns gentle. “I think you’re just shy,” she says softly, touching the underside of my chin with one skeletal finger. “You need to open up more.”

I shrug. “When you’ve lived with the same three people for seven years straight, you get a little shy around newcomers,” I reply, still avoiding her gaze.

Of course, while I’m staring aimlessly into the floor I don’t see Glory Girl’s fingers shooting toward my head, so when she ruffles my hair with one callused hand I jump nearly two feet in the air, causing her to giggle. “You’re so jumpy,” she says with a gentle laugh. Her teeth, I notice, aren’t one of those unnatural white shades that freak me out, but rather a normal creamy color. “You’re like a little bunny rabbit.”

We both burst out singing the first songs involving bunnies that come to mind, and Gerard peeks into the room from the hallway, giving us a humorous smirk. I stick my tongue out at him as Glory Girl reaches the climax of her song and then proceeds to fall over, sprawled out across the sofa with her legs stretched across my lap.

“Get off me,” I grumble, squirming underneath her as she sits up, her bony butt digging into my thigh. Her round face is only inches away from mine now. As she pulls her emaciated legs onto my lap, adding even more weight to the already stressed bones on which she’s perched, I touch her thigh gently in an attempt to coax her off of me. her face melts from playful to terrified and furious in an instant.

“Don’t touch me,” she hisses, jumping off my lap and huddling against one arm of the sofa. Disappointment floods my chest, and the hatred and repulsion in her eyes threaten to drown me. I was actually having fun for once, but in the slightest moment it all shattered.

“I’m sorry, Glory, I didn’t mean to,” I reply, trying to display my innocence by holding my hands up in surrender. “I-I forgot.”

A snarl crawls across her face. “Forgot? And what happens next time you ‘forget’? I don’t want my entire life messed up by your memory spasms!” She storms off into the unused bedroom, leaving me feeling incredibly hollow, and I blush at the menagerie of things she could’ve been talking about. Does she think I’d get her pregnant? I would never do that... Another series of thoughts flashes through my mind, and i banish them quickly, feeling my face turn redder than Gerard’s hair.

Ray sweeps into the room, closing his bedroom door so that Ginny can sleep in a bit longer, and observes the scene before him He looks at me sympathetically before heaving an enormous sigh, picking up Glory’s untouched can of Power Pup, and quietly entering the room his friend had just retreated to. I hear his voice calling her name softly, and a powerful rush of envy overcomes me. If only she trusted me the way she trusts Ray. She never jumps sky-high when he touches her.

Twenty minutes later, Ray emerges with an empty can in hand, his face grim. Glory Girl doesn’t follow. I bit my lip anxiously and watch the door, hoping she’ll peek her head out soon and tell me that it’s okay, I made a mistake but it’s okay now. Though I keep my emotions effectively hidden, when ray looks over at my face, he gives a quick but teasing smirk.

“What?” I growl, my voice sounding much more depressed and hostile than it was meant to. He stifles a laugh.

“Nothing.” I glare at him furiously and he walks over to fix his own breakfast, humming gently.

Ginny stumbles out of her bedroom and over to the couch, collapsing sleepily into the spot Glory Girl had just left. Her head leans on my shoulder and I can’t help but smile as I wrap an arm around her torso. She’s more than just Ray’s girlfriend; she’s a little sister to me and Gerard, so much that I sometimes wonder if she would let us legally change her last name to Way. It would fit her pretty well.

“Where’s Glory?” she asks quietly. “She’s usually somewhere around you.”

I stiffen a bit at her words; Ginny makes me sound like a stalker. “She... well, she got kinda mad at me. She’s in there...” I trail off hesitantly, pointing at the bedroom in which Glory Girl is now hiding. Ginny sighs.

“I told you she’s really anxious around you guys. You have to be gentle with her.”

“I was!” I yelp, surprisingly defensive. “I just... kinda... touched her leg, and she got all freaked out.”

Ginny’s face melts sympathetically. “You like her a lot, don’t you?”

“Well... K-kinda... I guess, maybe-ish,” I mumble, staring intensely at my hands to avoid looking at Ginny. She hugs me gently.

“Take you time and be careful around her, and you’ll win her over easily. Trust me.”

For the billionth time today, my face flushes. “I didn’t mean like that...”

Ginny rolls her eyes. “Yes you do. You look just like Ray did when I first met him, except you’re even more clueless.”

“Leave me alone, Ginny,” I growl, taking my arm away from her shoulders. “I’m not in love and I don’t want to be in love, so just cut it out.” She rolls her eyes again and doesn’t speak/

I definitely don’t want to be in love. I’ve seen my own fair share of rabies, and it’s disgusting. No part of me wants to be caught up in that, even with Glory Girl. At the same time, something about her is different. I feel happy around her, not like I’m falling under her spell. She makes me smile, and sometimes when I’m around her I really can’t keep my mind out of the gutter. It grosses me out, but it’s always there, and it adamantly refuses to go away. A funny tingle goes down my spine as I vow not to tell anyone; I’d never hear the end of it for sure.

Glory Girl comes back later fore more breakfast, shooting me a murderous glare as she passes by. As she reaches up to grab a spoon from one of the cabinets, her shirt rides up to expose a small sliver of her tanned stomach, and I blush hard as I realize that I’m watching her every move intensely. She turns around before I can bring myself to look away.

“What?” she shouts angrily. “What do you want? What the hell is wrong with you? Stop fucking staring at me and leave me alone!” I feel myself wilting as she whisks herself back into the room from whence she came. My ears are hotter than the center of the sun, and something inside my chest aches painfully. It feels almost like pangs of hunger, but in my heart rather than my stomach.

Shit. I knew rabies was deadly. Now I’m dying from the inside out.