Motion Sickness

I could hear them talking. I closed my eyes, with my arms wrapped around my knees. Refusing to think. Refusing to concentrate.

The door opened. "Nah, we shouldn't need gas, we got some yest- Oh T..." Ape said once she saw me, her voice full of pity. I hate when people do that.

I looked up when she said my name. Well, my first initial anyway. She shoved all of our bags at Franks chest, and tossed the keys on top. "Put these in her car. I'll be down in a minute." She shoved him as he balanced the bags hazardously.

She sat down beside me and wrapped her arms around me. And started rubbing my back lightly, like my mom. She leaned her head against mine and whispered in my ear, "James Barrie."

A small smile played across my face. "I can't sleep."

"Richard Feynman."

I raked my brain. Who was he? Not an actor..nor a military leader.. Oh wait. "Physicist, right?"

She nodded lightly, with a tiny smile.

"'I'd hate to die twice, it's so boring...' right?"

She laughed a little. "I don't know. You're the one with the last words. I'm just naming people you've mentioned. Want me to keep going?" she asked, letting go and leaning back a little.

I shifted and turn toward her, with my legs crossed indian-style like. "Yea, please?"

She mirrored me, and looked at the ceiling in thought. "The Barrymores. You know, the actors?"

I smiled. I so have this one.

I cleared my throat. "John Barrymore. 'Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.'. And Ethel Barrymore's were 'Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I'm happy.'"

She smirked, "Hers weren't quite as catchy as his."

"I'm sure he'd be ashamed."

She went on for a while. Naming random composers and writers and military generals and kings and actors. Well, she probably didn't know that. But I did. I knew them by heart. She knew them because I'd told them to her so much, she had the names memorized.

"Joan Crawford?"

"'Dammit, don't you dare ask God to help me.'"

"Lou Costello.."

"'That was the best ice-cream soda I've ever tasted'," I answered with a smile. I looked up and saw Frank coming back down the hall.

"Louis Mayer?"

"No. No more," I replied quickly, looking back down at her after I said it.

She frowned, "That doesnt seem right..is it?"

"No I mean no more quotes. Not while he's here."

He leaned against the wall, as Ape turned and looked up at him. "What?" he asked, obviously confused.

"Nothing, lets just go."

We walked to the elevator in silence. Just like when me and Frank came up. Silence..silence..lobby..silence..parking lot.

I got to my car and started for the passenger door. "Taylor," Ape said sharply.

I turned and looked at her, as Frank started toward his car, Ape grabbed his wrist. "I think you should ride with Frank."

I stared at her like she was the second stupidest person in the world.

Frank being the first.

"What?! No!"

She quickly jogged over to me holding the door shut. "You guys have..shit to talk about. Itd be good for you. Go on, I'll follow you guys."

"No!"

"Taylor.."

"NO!"

"YES!"

She stared at me, and I stared back coldly. "Ape Face I'm not riding with him!" I hissed in a whisper.

"Taylor yes you are," she replied sharply, locking the doors to the car with the remote. Then walking over to the drivers side and only unlocking her door, "I'll see you in New Jersey, T. Be good."

Oh my god she sounds so much like my mother.

I looked over at Frank, who looked like he honestly didnt know what I was going to do. I rolled my eyes and started towards him, "I guess I'm riding with you then."

He smirked, "Sounds exciting."

His car was an old white one. The ornament was gone, so I didnt know what kind it was. But all the same. It was immensely dirty and, like a typical guy car, was full of trash on the inside. That didn't bother me so much though. More like being in a car with just him for the next hour. It's not that I hated him. I just didnt like him. Theres a difference.

He started out of the parking lot. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Ok, I'm going to be a good friend. What makes you feel better?"

"Ape," was my only response. Taking a mental note that he thinks hes my friend.

"Well, whats she do?" he pressed.

I didn't say anything for a second. He was trying to figure out what we were doing in the hallway back at the hotel.

For once? I decided not to be difficult. "She quizzes me."

He looked over at me, and I just slouched down into his seat looking out the window. "About what?"

"What I like best." Ok so I was being a little difficult. But I could just not tell him at all.

"Which is..." he said, slightly annoyed.

"Peoples last words. I'm obsessed with them."

His eyes got wide, and he looked at me and smiled, "Seriously?!"

For some reason? His excitedness made me feel a little better. I hid my smile by turning away and looking out the window as I spoke, "Yea, quiz me."

"Ok.." he thought for a second. "Who do I pick?"

I looked over at him and shrugged, "Anyone. I'm pretty sure you cant name one I don't know."

He smiled, "Is that a challenge?"

I smirked and looked out the window. "Shyea. Normally I make it so that if guys name one I dont know, I'll give them a chance."

I could hear his smirk. "Oh yea? What makes me different?"

"You cheated," I mumbled. Slowly getting more and more pissed.

He kept going down the hiway in silence. He finally said, "Ok fine, um.. I dont know.. Abraham Lincoln?"

I rolled my eyes. Why do they always guess the presidents? "'They won't think anything about it.'".

He frowned, "Know why he said it?"

I sighed. History lesson. "Abe Lincoln was at a theatre when he was assassinated, you know?"

He nodded. Every human learned that part in like, fourth grade.

"His wife asked him what people would think if they saw them holding hands. He said 'They wont think anything about it."

"Whoa, that sucks," was all he said.

I smirked, "Yea, a lot of them are pretty depressing."

"Can you tell me somemore?"

"No," I replied, looking out the window.

I'm sure he wasnt happy. "Why?"

"Because I'm pretty picky on who I tell that kinda stuff to."

"It's other peoples last words," he said, slightly annoyed. "Come on, it'll make the trip go faster. Besides, doesnt it make you feel better?"

I thought about it. I was just about to say 'I suppose', when it occurred to me that I let Frank get away with a lot more shit then I did a lot of the other guys I met.

I looked at him, and pictured him as Clark. "No."

He rolled his eyes and stared off at the hiway. And I smiled in confidence and looked back out the window.

He ended up turning on the radio. He has good taste in music. But I guess I knew that when I saw them play a few days ago.

"This is it," he said for the first time in forty five minutes or so, just as we passed a sign that said 'Welcome to Newark.'

I didnt say anything. Just watched as we passed cute little houses with freshly cut lawns, and a building with a sign outside that said 'Newark High School.'

"Cute," I said flatly. Feeling my cocky self guard me again. It made me feel better.

"Yea, I grew up like, ten minutes from here. I guess we're going to Gerard's apartment."

It was dark, and the sun was beginning to come up, seeing as it was about seven in the morning.

We pulled into a small parking lot, with a three story building that looked like it had to have been built in the fortys or something. There was a door on each end, with badly chosen flowers that were making a poor attempt of making it feel welcome sitting next to them.

He parked and turned off his car. "Can I talk to you a second?"

I was just about to open the door. I just glanced at him.

"Look. I'm sorry I did all that stupid shit in the last...day and a half. To be honest, if I could rewind back to the day before yesterday I would. So can we like, pretend what happened...two hours ago, never happened?"

That kind of caught me by surprise. Not at all what I was expecting. "Well, as much as I would love for that to be true, if it hadnt happened, I wouldnt be here right now. And I don't feel like driving all the way back to Connecticut just because we decided to pretend something didnt happen. So if that didn't happen, what did?"

"How about everything except when I kissed you. And told you I loved you. How about I just apologized and begged you to come back?"

I thought about it for a second. "Hm.. That sounds ok. I mean, thatd put us back to me hating you a little for being such an ass to me yesterday in the car. And thats all. Right?"

"Right," he agreed. I laughed a little to myself at how he easily agreed that I hated him a little.

I shrugged, "Cool."

I could tell he was happier as he got out of the car. "Sweet. You know this means I can still give you shit about the groupies thing. Cause you know you wanna fuck me."

Rolling my eyes, I got some stuff out of my car from Ape, and followed him inside. He ran up two flights of stairs and me and Ape just trudged along tiredly. He made his way to apartment 307 and started flipping through his keys.

I looked at him confused, "Oh, you live here?"

He looked at me like I was stupid, "Not really..."

I smirked and gestured toward the keys, "So what are you his on call boysex partner or something?"

He looked down at the keys, finally realizing what I was getting at. "Oh! Nah, don't you have a key to your best friends apartment?" he replied with a smile, finally getting the door open.

I was expecting to see the typical college guy apartment. Old couch against a white wall. Old tv sitting on some boxes. Maybe a game system or two sitting on the floor. With trash cluttered everywhere. Thats not quite what I got though..

You walked in with the living room to the left. I was right about the ratty old couch against the wall. And the tv was, indeed, sitting on two old milkcrates, with a Super Nintendo and a Nintendo 64 scattered in front of it.

I adjusted my eyes a little to what looked to be a twin mattress sitting against the wall, with a few blankets and a pillow or two. "Is that a bed? In his living room?"

Frank had tossed his keys on an end table and was peeling off his jacket. "Yea. Thats mine."

He led us down a hallway (that was pretty much the rest of the apartment). The first door on the left he said was Gerards room. The door right across was the only bathroom, and at the end of the hallway was the extra bedroom.

The extra bedroom consisted of three more twin sized beds. One was propped up against the wall though, like it hadnt been used in a hell of a long time. Another had a bunch of shit on it. Piled with clothes and tapes and trash and random stuff. And the last was perfectly made up, with two blankets draped cleanly over it with two pillows resting at the top.

Ape gasped, "Oo this ones Mikeys isnt it."

Frank laughed, "Could you tell?"

Each of the beds were just matresses, sitting on the floor. Yet each of them were empty...

"Do you all live here or something?"

"Oh no," he said quickly. "Nah, we just stay over here a lot. For a long while, Gerard was the only one of us that actually had an apartment of his own. Mikey used to live with him. Bob stays over here a lot when hes here from Chicago. And before Ray had Ali, he stayed over here a lot. Mikey's got a little apartment that he shares with some guy now though, and Bob has family here, he just chooses to stay with Gerard sometimes. And Ray lives with Ali in a different apartment."

"Ah," was my only reply, still soaking up the fact that this apartment had five beds in it. Even if they were just mattresses sitting on the floor. I bet the bathrooms disgusting...

He smirked a little, "Besides, the extra beds come in handy when we're over here partying."

I smiled. Partying. That sounds fun right now. Right after sleep anyway.

Then I realized, he hadnt said anything about him. "What about you?"

He shrugged, "I'm here pretty much full time. It's either here or my parents, ya know? And Gerard doesnt mind. We all have the same income pretty much. So its not too big of a deal."

I nodded, and dropped my bag from my protesting shoulder, just as Ape let out a small yawn.

"You guys tired?" Frank asked quickly, obviously just now remembering that he woke me up at four. "If you want April, you could sleep in here, on Mikeys bed or something, unless you want the couch."

"Mk," she said happily, jumping onto Mikeys mattress and situating the blankets.

"Come on," he mumbled to me, grabbing my wrist lightly and leading me back to the living room. Once we got to the living room he said, "You can have my bed or the couch, I'm ok with both really."

I looked at the couch. The nasty, ratty couch. Then back down at Franks bed, topped with a bunched up blanket and a few pillows. The bed looked really nice right about now. Even if it was just a mattress.

I went over to it and grabbed his blanket, wrapping it around me before plopping my head down on his pillow. "Mmm," I said into it in approval. You never realized how tired you were until you had the chance to sleep. I noticed the scent of his pillow and started laughing.

"What?" he asked with a smile.

"You and your natural fucking cologne.."

He started laughing and plopped on the couch, laying down on his stomach and hugging the pillow so he could see me. "You like it."

I looked up at him, without moving, just moving my eyes. He had pulled off his hat, and his hair was now dangling in his hazel eyes. He looked so...happy. Like he could lay there all day just staring at me. Like it didnt bother him at all that I had just claimed his bed (without him in it...) while he lay on the couch.

I frowned into the pillow a little, "Do you want a blanket or somethin?"

He smiled, probably surprised that I was being halfway nice, "Nah. You can have it, I'm not too tired anyway."

I nodded a little, letting my eyes close. Then I opened them a little. "So what are you gonna do? Sit there and stalk me while I sleep?"

"Pretty much," he said flatly. "Probably wait for Gerard to get up, so maybe we can go somewhere and you let you guys sleep. I think he needed to go to the store anyway. Besides, as much as he would love for me just to bring a couple chicks home in the middle of the night, I'm sure he'll want some sort of explanation."

I decided my eyes could stay closed now. I smiled and barely mumbled, "You're such a pimp, Frank."

"It comes naturally," he said with a smirk. "Go to sleep. I'll talk to you when you wake up. G'night Taylor."

"Night Frankie," I mumbled a little, settling into his blankets.

And then my eyes shot open.

He started busting out laughing. "What?! Did you..did you just call me Frankie?!"

I sighed and closed my eyes again, "Shut the fuck up Frank I'm tired and delusional."

"Oh Frankie!" he moaned. I chucked one of his pillows at him, but since I was laying down it didnt do much damage, unfortunately.

"I'm tired and you're making me angry," I whined pathetically. I wasnt very convincing.

"I'm sorry, princess," he said still laughing a little. "Goodnight T."

"Night."