Status: Finished. Sequel possible.
Bums
The End.
Two weeks of searching, worry and anxiety. Julian stepped into the house and across the finish line. She left her suitcase by the door and closed it quietly behind her. Toeing her shoes off, she set off in search of the only other person in the house. She was sure her heartbeat was audible to him, but he made no appearance as she searched through the clean kitchen and the living room.
The walls were periodically adorned with hand-drawn artwork, some obviously Bandit and the others held Gerard’s own style. In between the artwork, pictures were proudly framed on the walls. At the end of the main hallway stood a large family frame with four places. In one, Lindsey. The other two held Gerard and Bandit, and the final spot was empty. With a heavy heart, Julian realized that the empty oval belonged to her.
Turning away from the large frame, she found Bandit’s room, and the room that Lindsey and Gerard shared. One doorway lead to the basement, and she noted that it was the only place she hadn’t looked. In the basement, it was a makeshift art studio and music booth. A couch was pressed up against one of the walls, and on the couch with his hands in his lap was the one man she wanted to see.
“Lyn, where’d you-” He looked up and the two of them locked eyes. Julian could see Gerard visibly stiffen before pulling himself from the couch and walking over to her. Closing the distance, he moved his arms up slightly for a hug before dropping them awkwardly.
Julian took the initiative and flung herself at him and began to cry. He squeezed her tightly and she could feel her shoulder getting wet from his own tears, “Oh god, Jules,” he rocked the two of them back and forth, and she opted not to say anything - it would come out indistinguishable either way.
“Christ, I’ve been waiting eighteen years for this moment and I don’t even know what to do,” Gerard mumbled, and he pulled away from her and reached a hand to push her tear-soaked bangs off her forehead to scrutinize her face.
“You’re exactly how I pictured. Even here,” he pressed the tip of his finger into her forehead with a wry smile, indicating the stress-lines that had been there her whole life. Julian brought her arm up to wipe her tears off with a sleeve, and offered him a shaky smile in return.
“I ran away from home. I got stranded in Omaha, fell for a complete stranger and let him have my heart, hitchhiked and let my best friend give head to an old man in exchange, met Jimmy Urine on a bus in Vegas while Leigh used herself as a distraction, squatted at his house for a week on eggshells. I can’t go home now. Please don’t send me away,” Julian begged, and Gerard squeezed her upper arms gently to get her to stop talking for a second.
“At the risk of sounding like a kidnapper, I won’t let you go away, Jules. Stay here. We can sit around and watch Star Wars and draw and sing and laugh and cry and be a family. We’re your family, Jules,” he brought her into another hug and didn’t let her go for a long time.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
The walls were periodically adorned with hand-drawn artwork, some obviously Bandit and the others held Gerard’s own style. In between the artwork, pictures were proudly framed on the walls. At the end of the main hallway stood a large family frame with four places. In one, Lindsey. The other two held Gerard and Bandit, and the final spot was empty. With a heavy heart, Julian realized that the empty oval belonged to her.
Turning away from the large frame, she found Bandit’s room, and the room that Lindsey and Gerard shared. One doorway lead to the basement, and she noted that it was the only place she hadn’t looked. In the basement, it was a makeshift art studio and music booth. A couch was pressed up against one of the walls, and on the couch with his hands in his lap was the one man she wanted to see.
“Lyn, where’d you-” He looked up and the two of them locked eyes. Julian could see Gerard visibly stiffen before pulling himself from the couch and walking over to her. Closing the distance, he moved his arms up slightly for a hug before dropping them awkwardly.
Julian took the initiative and flung herself at him and began to cry. He squeezed her tightly and she could feel her shoulder getting wet from his own tears, “Oh god, Jules,” he rocked the two of them back and forth, and she opted not to say anything - it would come out indistinguishable either way.
“Christ, I’ve been waiting eighteen years for this moment and I don’t even know what to do,” Gerard mumbled, and he pulled away from her and reached a hand to push her tear-soaked bangs off her forehead to scrutinize her face.
“You’re exactly how I pictured. Even here,” he pressed the tip of his finger into her forehead with a wry smile, indicating the stress-lines that had been there her whole life. Julian brought her arm up to wipe her tears off with a sleeve, and offered him a shaky smile in return.
“I ran away from home. I got stranded in Omaha, fell for a complete stranger and let him have my heart, hitchhiked and let my best friend give head to an old man in exchange, met Jimmy Urine on a bus in Vegas while Leigh used herself as a distraction, squatted at his house for a week on eggshells. I can’t go home now. Please don’t send me away,” Julian begged, and Gerard squeezed her upper arms gently to get her to stop talking for a second.
“At the risk of sounding like a kidnapper, I won’t let you go away, Jules. Stay here. We can sit around and watch Star Wars and draw and sing and laugh and cry and be a family. We’re your family, Jules,” he brought her into another hug and didn’t let her go for a long time.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
♠ ♠ ♠
That's the end.Thank you so much for reading this far. Thank you to those who subscribed, and especially thank you to those who commented. This story went without any form of feedback for a while, and I lost interest in it.
I don't plan on making a sequel to this, ever. This story was intended to focus mainly on Julian's journey, and her change from a child to an adult along the way.
I'm sorry the ending was so... abrupt. I felt that the time she spent at Jimmy's house was enough to bring the reader down from the constant happenings during the middle of the story. I didn't think that her final meeting with Gerard needed to be drawn out - she learned a lot about him and his love and actions during the course of the story, and I didn't think there needed to be even more.