You Give Love a Bad Name

"I should be sleeping right now," I informed Cara and Melanie, glumly taking a sip of my plain, black coffee. "It should be illegal to wake people up before twelve."

"Oh, shut it," Cara yawned herself, shaking back her dark brown hair that was streaked with dark blue. "Melanie and I had to pry you away from your bed. And we were late, too."

This morning I had a pretty rude awakening, if I might say so myself. Someone - my guess that it was Gerard, the bastard who likes to torture little sisters - let the terrible duo, Cara and Melanie, in. Being the nice friends that they were, they made sure that the first thing that greeted me in the morning was a cold glass of water right in the face. According to Melanie, nothing is quite refreshing as freezing liquid in your facial area when you wake up. I vowed that someday I would return the favor.

"So?" I grumbled as the three of us walked around the local mall, dodging an already forming throng of people.

"Dude, twenty minutes is enough to at least brush your teeth," Melanie smacked me upside the head, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. "And you had thirty after Cara and I called you and said that we were going to be late."

"I fell asleep," I groaned, ignoring Cara's snicker. "You can't blame me, though. Gerard was being an ass yesterday."

"What happened?" Cara asked me with interest, pulling me towards a hair care store so Melanie could buy some hair dye for the lone pink streak in her hair.

"Um, nothing tragic. He was just hyphed up about a new song that he was writing, so he kept coming into my room to ask my opinion on the lyrics till two in the morning," I said, taking another sip from my cardboard coffee cup. "He said that he'd ask Mikey, but he wanted it to be a surprise for the band."

Cara laughed, examining a bottle of blue hair dye for herself. "Don't you just love siblings? To tell you the truth, I'm glad that my older sister chose to go to school in Texas. No only do I get her room - which is way bigger than my old one - with all of the furniture, but now I don't have to battle for the bathroom in the morning."

"Oh, come on!" I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "You didn't have it that bad. Okay, yeah, so Mikey's not bad when it comes to self grooming in the morning, he only take five minutes or so - fifteen if the shower is included. But, dude! Gerard is like the ultimate gay-acting male when it comes to bathroom sharing! He spend more than an hour in there! I only spend like thirty minutes, and I'm a girl."

Cara's eyebrows rose as she put a Manic Panic bottle back on the shelf, turning her full attention back on me. "You're kidding, right?"

I shook my head, bighting my lip ring. "I wish. Mikey and I even made a petition in ninth grade that stated that Gerard should be allowed no more then thirty minutes of bathroom time. But our Mom just said we need to learn how to share among us."

"I love your family," she grinned, her baby blue eyes crinkling with laughter. "The Ways are anything but normal."

"All done," Melanie exclaimed, coming to stand next to me and Cara, a blue plastic bag swinging in her hand. "I need to remember this place. The dye is like two bucks cheaper than in the one that I usually go to."

"I told you!" Cara stuck her tongue out victoriously. "That's where I buy my hair dye as well."

"Where to next? I asked my two friends curiously.

"Costumes!" Melanie said excitedly, linking her arms with me and Cara.

"Are you serious?" Melanie laughed, her head stuck out from behind the changing room's curtain, surveying Cara who held up three costumes. "That's so kindergarten, though!"

After walking around the mall for twenty minutes, Cara, Melanie, and I, finally found a store that especially specialized in Halloween accessories and costumes. It was huge, and heaven for people who adored the holiday that occurred on October thirty-first - like myself.

Sadly, after almost forty minutes of searching through all sorts of costumes that one can only imagine, the tree of us didn't find anything to our taste.

"Nuh-uh," Cara shook her head, clutching the three costumes tighter. "I think it's a cute idea! And they have these in our sizes too."

"The Three Good Faeries?" I took the blue, green and red costumes from Cara's hands and looked them over. "Isn't a bit...overdone?"

"No!" Cara snatched the dresses back. "It's perfect! There's three of them, and there is three of us. Plus Sleeping Beauty was always one of my favorite Disney movies while I was growing up."

"I don't know..." Melanie trailed off, coming out from behind the curtain and taking the material of Fauna's green dress in her hands.

Cara groaned in frustration, thrusting the blue fabric of Merryweather's dress at my chest. "It's not like you guys even know what you want to be, anyway. And I think that being Fauna, Flora and Merryweather is the perfect idea."

"Fine, but I'm Fauna," Melanie held the green dress to her, examining her reflection in the changing room's mirror. "The Thoughtful Fairy."

"Flora," Cara pointed to herself, grinning, happy that she finally got her way. "The Nurturing Fairy."

I grimaced, pouting a bit. "Why the fuck do I have to be The Feisty Fairy?"

For some reason that made Cara and Melanie erupt into a fit of giggles.

"Tell me!" I grabbed Cara's elbow, making the best puppy dog eyes I could master. "I'm losing all hope, here."

Cara looked around the mall's food court, where we have been sitting for the past hour. Cara and I were drinking identical sort of latte that she ordered for both of us, while Melanie was eating a cinnamon honey bun. There were three bags laying at our feet; our Halloween costumes. We were going to be Fauna, Flora and Merryweather after all - much to Cara's delight.

"Shut up, dude!" Cara smacked me on the shoulder teasingly. "People are starting to stare."

"Tell me what you got Frank," I insisted, ignoring the fact that Cara was in fact right. "I seriously don't know what to buy him. He has everything. I need ideas. And fast."

"Buy him some condoms," Melanie snickered. Like Cara, she wouldn't even give me a teeniest hint on what she got for Frank.

I made a face. "Ewww. Please don't make me throw up."

Melanie smirked and poked her pastry. "Better be safe than sorry. And this thing is disgusting. Never buy anything that's baked here, guys."

I ignored her and turned back to Cara. "Tell me!"

"Noooo," she shook her head, taking a sip of her latte. "All I'm going to say is that it's something that he likes. Something that everyone likes, actually."

"Hot boys?" Melanie asked hopefully.

"Erm," Cara gave Melanie a weird look as I erupted into laughter next to them. "Unless Frank's gay -and I highly doubt it - that wouldn't apply to him."

"Yo!"

The three of us turned around at the sound of the familiar voice to see that Bob and Mikey were walking in our direction, Bob waving like a maniac, attracting unwanted attention from the nearby shoppers, while Mikey was trying to act like he was seeing Bob for the first time in his life.

"Watcha doing?" Bob asked the three of us, sitting down in between me and Cara, and throwing his arms around our shoulders.

"What do people usually do in malls, Bob?" Mikey questioned half heartedly, sitting down next to Melanie.

Bob ignored him and picked up Cara's shopping bag, opening it and looking inside eagerly. "Halloween costume?"

"Yes," Cara snatched the bag from Bob's grasp. "No peaking. It's a surprise."

Bob groaned. "You're no fun, woman."

"Jake doesn't think so," Cara grinned slyly, making the rest of us groan playfully.

"Hey, Mikey," I quickly changed the subject. "What did you get Frank for his big eighteenth?"

"Not telling," my brother stuck his tongue out at me.

I pouted as Cara and Melanie started to laugh. "You guys suck."