We Are Broken

Waking up, I found myself alone in the same room I had awoken in a few hours before. Rubbing my eyes, I looked around again and noticed how the walls looked when the sun hit them. You could see the details: it was beautiful.

I crawled out of the bed, and shyly left the room, walking softly on the wooden floor to the main hallway. I heard laughter from the other end of the hall and made my way down, playing with the hem of my shirt as I went. Reaching the doorway, I peered around it and found the members of My Chemical Romance sitting or standing around the kitchen, eating breakfast and drinking coffee.

Frank saw me.

"Good morning, Maura," he said, "You want breakfast?"

I waved and came further into the room, "Sorry I slept in."

"Sorry," asked Gerard, choking a little on his coffee, "You're sorry?"

I nodded shyly, "I can always wait until lunch."

"What do you mean," asked Bob.

"At the orphanage, if you over slept you didn't get breakfast."

"That's criminal!"

"What do you want for breakfast," ask Mikey, "We have cereal, and we made pancakes. We have some of the batter left if you want. They're blueberry."

"Okay," I nodded with a shy smile, "Sure."

"You need to stop being so shy kid," said Frank, "Really, you're apart of the family now."

I smiled, not saying anything.

Mikey started up the stove and Gerard motioned for me to come to him. I did, and he hoisted me up onto the counter. I felt weird. I said nothing.

"Why are you so shy," Gerard asked.

I shrugged, "You guys are my favorite band…. I guess it's just weird."

"Well, we're your family now. You need to relax."

"Do you like your room," Ray asked.

"It's big."

"It is."

Turning to Gerard I said, "I'm sorry I snuck into your bedroom last night…. I'm not use to sleeping alone."

"It's okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's cool. It's what dads are for." He smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Here ya go." Mikey handed me a plate full of blueberry pancakes.

"Thanks," I said, taking the plate.

"So, what do you want to do with your room," asked Gerard before taking another sip from his coffee.

"Um… can I paint it?"

"Yes, you can paint it."

"Cool." I ripped off a piece of the patty and tossed it into my mouth.

"What colors?"

"I don't know yet."

"You want to go shopping for stuff today? You know… as a sort of bonding thing?"

"Um… yeah, sure, I would love to." Gerard smiled and I took another bite of the pancake.

Gerard drove to the local hardware store and I sat in the front seat. The radio was on some college station and they were playing Ghost of You. I hummed the song softly to myself. Gerard pulled into the parking lot and together we got out making our way to the front entrance.

"Do you want bright colors? Or dull colors?"

"I was thinking bright…. But I don't know what kind of bright."

"Okay."

Gerard and I headed over to the paint section to look at the wall of pain tabs. Gerard let me pick out all of the colors I thought I needed; also letting me know that price was not an issue. I looked at the great wall of color hues, and was instantly drawn to the bright colors. I chose bright yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink, holding the color cards in my hands, studying them. There were several walls, but I didn't want each wall to have a solid color. That would be way too daunting….. The yellow would probably have to go. It was too high light for my taste, and the other colors would do very well with each other.

"I would like to have big cans of the blue and the pink, but I would need medium cans of the purple and the green, and a small can of the yellow," I said, looking at my father.

"You're going to use all of the colors?"

Looking down at the cards in my hand I looked back at him and nodded, "Yup. I also have a question…."

"Shoot."

"You know that black board paint?"

"Yeah."

"Would it be alright if we got a small can of that?"

"Sure. And how about a can of regular black paint as well."

"Um…. Yeah, if you think its necessary."

"It's necessary. If you have all of those colors you need a little black to make them pop."

"Thank you."

"Anything for my little girl." Gerard flagged down an employee and handed her the cards that I held in my hand, telling her the can sizes and the other two black paint that we required. The assistant got everything we needed and helped us check out. Together we carried the paint back to his car and we headed home.