Until You Met Me

Seventy

Tucking her legs beneath the mountainous pile of clothes that was sat on the floor in front of her, Molly exhaled a quiet sigh, her eyes flitting between the half packed cardboard boxes that were dotted around the room. They were everywhere. Since she and Gerard had found a place that they both loved a few weeks previous, they had both started to slowly pack up their current homes in preparation for the move, but with their move in date approaching quickly, the reality of leaving her apartment was starting to hit. She was excited to be making the move, and she was excited to be sharing her new home with Gerard, but she was also slightly sad to be leaving her apartment behind. She loved it. It had been her home since she had moved out of her parents’ home, and she was sad to be leaving it, even if she knew it was the right move. She knew that she would miss it.

Shaking her head, she pulled her stare away from the boxes and focussed it back on the pile of clothes in front of her, rifling through it until she heard a knock against the bedroom door, causing her to look up, offering a slightly embarrassed smile to Gerard who stood in the doorway, two beer bottles in his hand. “Need a hand?” he quipped.

Molly ducked her head, smiling down at her lap. “Depends” she said “Are you any good at folding?” she added.

Gerard huffed out a laugh as he moved further into the room. “I’m good at everything” he teased “You know that” he added.

Molly rolled her eyes, but nodded to the space next to her, encouraging him to sit down.

Gerard lowered himself into the space before he held one of the bottles out to her. “For you” he said.

Molly hesitated before she took it out of his hand and took a sip. “Aren’t you supposed to be at your place, doing the same thing right now?” she asked after a moment of silence.

Gerard, who’d been picking at the label on his bottle, shrugged, a faint smirk on his face. “Who says I haven’t finished already?” he teased.

“I know you too well to believe that you have” Molly retorted impishly “So, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Is it really that hard to believe that I just want to help you?” Gerard asked “I love folding clothes and bubble wrapping stuff” he added.

Molly offered him a flat look, something that caused Gerard to smirk before he shook his head, his expression growing slightly softer. “I didn’t want you to do this by yourself” he admitted “I know that things are still weird between you and Ava and Sofia, and Pop’s probably busy with the baby, and I knew that this was probably going to be hard on you, so I thought I would try and help. It might not be the same as it would have been if they were here, but I thought...I thought I would try and make it just a little better” he added.

He knew how much she loved her apartment. He remembered the moment she had first shown it to him, and the way her entire face had lit up, and he knew that leaving it behind was going to be tough, even if he was certain that she loved their new home and was excited to be there. Her apartment had been her place, and he knew that the prospect of leaving her place for a place that was theirs was likely to upset her a little, even if that feeling was tiny in comparison to the excitement of them living together. He just wanted to try and make it a little easier.

Molly’s lips quirked into a soft smile. “How do you plan on doing that?” she asked.

Gerard laughed. “I hadn’t really thought past being here and bringing beer” he quipped “I kind of hoped that that would be enough” he added.

Molly rolled her eyes, but smiled at him nevertheless as she leant over, pressing a kiss against his cheek. “It’s a start” she murmured.

~#~
“Have you got the box labelled books?”

Molly, who was sat at the foot of her bed, glanced up from the photo album she was studying, looking at Gerard who’d stopped in the bedroom doorway, a stack of books in his hands. They hadn’t made a lot of progress. Every time Molly or Gerard came across something they hadn’t seen in a long time, they had gotten distracted, and it meant that the number of packed boxes that filled the apartment hadn’t grown by many since the start of the night. It had been fun. They had spent hours reminiscing about memories they had shared and telling stories that they had heard a million times, but still made them laugh, and it was exactly what Molly had needed. It was a reminder that, whilst a lot of things around them had changed and were still changing, the memories that they had made weren’t going to be lost. They were going to have a new home, but she was still going to be able to tell the same stories, and Gerard would still laugh.

“Huh?” Molly asked.

“A box with the word ‘books’ written on it” Gerard repeated “Have you got it?” he asked.

“I thought it was in the living room” Molly replied “I didn’t move it” she added.

“I looked in the living room, and I can’t find it” Gerard said.

“Did you actually look?” Molly quipped.

Gerard offered her a lopsided smile, something which made Molly roll her eyes before she turned back to the album in her hands. “Did I show you this one yet?” she asked.

Gerard deposited the books in his hands onto a stack of boxes before he padded towards the bed, sitting down next to her. “What’s this one?” he asked, gently prying the book out of her hands.

“It appears to be pictures from my house-warming party” Molly answered “Were you at that party?” she asked.

Gerard flicked through a couple of pages before he found a picture of himself and Molly, something which made him grin. “It would appear so” he quipped “I liked your hair like that” he added, pointing the photo out.

Molly shook her head. “I never did” she replied “I can’t believe that I let Ava talk me into getting it cut like that” she added.

“You look beautiful in this picture” Gerard quipped “Though, I think I have always thought that. Even when you were missing your front teeth, I thought you were beautiful” he added.

Molly rolled her eyes despite the pink tint on her cheeks. Ignoring the soft laugh that Gerard let out, she flicked through a few more pages before she came to a stop at a picture of her, Ava and Sofia, something that made her sigh gently.

Gerard heard the sigh before he leant over, pressing his lips to her temple briefly. He knew how much she missed them. “Have you talked to them recently?” he asked.

“No” Molly murmured “I just...I don’t really know what to say. They hurt me, and I am still kind of hurting, but I miss them. I want to try and fix things, but I don’t really how to. We’ve never really had a fight like this before” she added.

Gerard pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “I think you start by calling them” he murmured “And then you figure it out as you go, but I don’t think keeping avoiding them is going to help make things easier. You’ve got to start somewhere” he added.

Molly leant into him and sighed. “I know you’re right” she murmured.

“There’s a first time for everything” Gerard teased.

Molly smiled despite herself. She knew that she and Gerard had had their bumps, and she knew that that was why Ava and Sofia had been worried about her, but she knew that, if they saw them when they were alone together, they would understand. She didn’t know why it worked, but it did, and it wasn’t something that was going to change any time soon.