I'm Too in Love to Let This Go

I casually slung my messenger bag over my shoulder as I slammed my locker door shut. It was the end of the day and to be honest I couldn't wait to get out of school. Not for any particular reason, just so that I wouldn’t be quite as bored.

I quickly skipped down the front steps of the school and tugged my coat closer to me, as a light wind had picked up since I had been outside last. I kept my head down as I exited the school gates, letting my dark brown hair blow out from being tucked into my jacket, and my mind away with my usual thoughts of that certain boy.

I looked up briefly, just to make sure there was no one immediately in front of me that I could bash into, before looking back down again. I was just about to take out my MP3 player before I heard my name being called in front of me somewhere.

"Melanie!" I looked up again to see my idiot of a twin brother over on the other side of the road waving frantically at me. It wasn't like I could just ignore him and pretend I didn't know him as he was making it pretty obvious it was me he wanted to speak to.

I groaned and looked both ways before crossing the street and walking up to my brother and some guy he had with him. I'd never seen the guy before and wondered briefly whom he was as he looked quite a bit older than Frank and I.

"What did you want moron?" I asked while I dragged my eyes off the mystery man and to my brother with a frown.

"Nice to see you too sis. Mel this is Gerard, a mate I met at a show one night. Gerard this is my adorably annoying twin sister Melanie," Frank introduced. I looked back over at "Gerard."

"Yo." I said with a nod in his direction. He smiled showing off freakishly small teeth and making his lips disappear completely.

"Hey," he said extending his hand. I rose my eyebrows but shook his hand anyway wondering why he was being so strangely polite. It was rare to find any guy around here polite enough to shake hands. Although, for all I know he could have just given me some rare skin disease.

With that thought running through my head I let go of his hand and tried to discreetly wipe it on my jeans. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses so I couldn't tell if he noticed or not. He was still smiling so I guessed not.

"Gerard's asked me to join his and his brothers band. Isn't that awesome?" Frank said excitedly. His face was all lit up and smiling like a kid on Christmas morning. Although to him this was probably like a Christmas present.

"Fantastic. Was that it?" I asked hugging my body trying to retain heat. I still had to walk quite a bit home yet and I didn't feel like getting frostbite.

"It's not that cold. I suppose that's what you get for being skin and bone," Frank said noticing how cold I was.

I scowled at him. "At least I'm not fat like you," I said. He knew I didn't mean it but I always said it anyway. It was a sort of running joke we have going.

"She's like Mikey, a tiny little bit of cold weather and bang- shivering all over the place," Gerard said. Really all I heard was Mikey's name before my mind went into over drive and tuned the rest out. I looked at him with slight surprise and alarm. That was the last name I expected him to say.

"W-what?" I asked. Gerard looked from Frank to me and smiled. I'm sure I looked a bit eager but at that moment I didn't care. I wanted to hear the name come from someone else's lips again, to prove I wasn't just hearing things.

"Mikey, my brother, is thin like you. He can't stand the cold either. Speaking of the devil here he is," Gerard said looking over the top of my head and waving at Mikey who was obviously somewhere behind me.

Before I could think of anything that actually made sense, said boy was standing next to me, him clinging to his own jacket, hugging it close to keep warm. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. He was right next to me, within touching distance, and all I could do was stare up at him dumbly probably with my mouth hanging open.

"Why do I get the feeling like you were just talking about me?" he said. His voice. Oh godhis voice. I'd heard it once or twice while he was in the hallways speaking to some friends, but heck never this close, never this clearly. I think all the bones in my legs just melted.

"Because we were. We were talking about how you get cold so easily because you're skinny and how Melanie here, does too," Gerard explained. His voice seemed a bit far away as I continued to look at Mikey. He looked down at me and I only just caught him smile before I looked away blushing like a maniac. Fuck, why couldn't I play it cool?

"I see." Mikey said. I kept my stare away from him, still embarrassed at being caught staring, and over at Frank. He was staring at me with a small smirk on his face. Oh damn, he knew.

"Can we get in the car? Like you said, I can't stand the cold." Mikey said.

"All right, here," Gerard said handing over the car keys to Mikey. Mikey smiled and went around the passenger's side of the car and started to unlock it before he stopped.

"Hey, why don't we give you a lift home? You're walking right?" he asked. I quickly looked at Frank again, willing him to say yes.

"Well if that's alright?" Frank said directing the question to Gerard. Gerard smiled once again and nodded.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. I'm going to be in the same car as Mikey. All right. Calm down. I can handle this, surely? He's only a guy; he's only human like everyone else. It wont be that hard. Right?