Witness

The week passed pretty uneventfully, with not much hassle from James, but enough for it to put me down a couple of times.

It was currently Friday and I was lugging a sleeping bag, a pillow, and a bag of over-night things towards the end of my road where Gerard was supposed to be meeting me to show me where he lived.

I’d agreed to stay over at the Ways tonight, like both Gerard and Mikey had seemed so desperate for me to do. I think I heard them mention something about proof to their mum that I am real and they didn’t just make me up as an imaginary friend. I wasn’t really listening, but was too busy weighing out the pros and cons.

I mean, what if I woke up in the night having that scary-ass dream again? I’d had it once more over the week.

I got to the top of the road, where it turned into a ‘T’ shape and saw nothing around except an old and dirtied silver Subaru XT parked on the curb. I glanced at my watch and was certain that Gerard would have been here by now. I heard a familiar chuckle and then the beep of a car horn. I looked up to the Subaru and saw that the window had opened and Gerard was smiling at me through it.

I laughed at my stupidity and walked over to climb into the passenger seat, throwing my things into the back.

“When I said I’d meet you here Frank, I meant to pick you up,” he laughed a cigarette hanging from his lips.

“I didn’t know you had a car,”

“Well, it’s too risky to take it to school,”

I chuckled. “I’m not sure it’d make much difference to it,”

“Oi, you,” he laughed, a warning look on his face. “Diss this piece of shit and I kick you out,”

“Bu you just dissed it,”

“It’s my piece of shit,”

“Touché,”

* * *

The smell of home hit me as soon as the front door was opened. Fresh cooking and a house that’s been lived in for a long time. It’s so much nicer than the synthetic ‘just moved in’ smell that my house currently possesses. This house was a home, as cliché that is to say.

“Just take your shoes of here,” Gerard said as soon as we stepped into the small entrance room where there were several pairs of shoes all lined up together. I slipped my shoes off and discarded them with the others before being ushered quickly through a thin hallway, a door on the right hand side that was closed but appeared to have different colours on that didn’t match the colour scheme.

There was also things on the walls that caught my attention, but I didn’t get enough time to look. I was pushed into a kitchen, where there was food cooking and I reveled in the delicious smells as they filtered through my nose.

“Uh, I hope you don’t mind pizza…my folks already ate…which is what the smell is,”

“No that’s cool, I probably wouldn’t have been able to eat whatever I can smell anyway,”

“Why?”

“Smells meaty,”

“You vegetarian?”

“Yep,”

“I’ll remember that,” he grinned, before stepping through a door to the left of the dining table.
There was some talking and then someone stepped through the threshold to the room in a flurry of colourful clothing and blonde hair.

“Mum this is Frank,” Gerard smiled, laughing slightly at his mother’s eagerness. “Frankie, this is my mum, Donna,”

“Nice to meet you,” I smiled politely and held my hand out for her to shake.

“Not only is he real,” Donna mused, looking hard at me before breaking out into a smile and pulling me into a hug. “But he’s polite too!” she shrieked hugging me to the point where I was sure that my face was going blue.

“I swear,” Gerard started as his mother pulled away from our oxygen depriving hug. “Mothers are just genetically programmed to embarrass you in front of friends,”

“I’ve never really had this opportunity before,” Donna smiled sadly, touching her sons cheek delicately. Gerard just rolled his eyes, but let his mother continue with her mother-ish ways before gesturing for me to follow him back through the small hallway. This time I wasn’t so afraid to stop.

I looked up and saw many photos adorning the walls of the whole family together, when Gerard and Mikey looked to be a lot younger.

“Well,” I cooed, as Gerard came back for me, obviously wondering why I wasn’t following him. “Wasn’t someone adorable,” I giggled.

“Yeah, and it wasn’t me,” he rolled his eyes, taking a hold of my elbow and pulling me over to the ‘out of the colour-scheme door’ I’d seen on the way in. It was painted black, but it also had some rainbow colours like blue or green or red splattered carelessly across it, I even caught a hint of pink glitter all over it, which made me smile. It was messy yet effective, and I undoubtedly loved it.

“That’s just the door, Frank. It’s not that big of a deal,” Gerard mocked, pushing it open. I looked on confused as all I saw was darkness and I began to worry about what was actually in here. “Careful, there’s stairs,” Gerard said quietly, placing his hands on my hips to help guide me down without any casualties.

I was thankful for the dark, because I’m sure my face would actually be the same colour as a tomato right now. I’m such a girl.

A light came on and it made me wince slightly, since I appeared to be already used to the pure darkness.

“I –uh,” I looked up to see Gerard also blushing as well as stumbling over his words. “You know, it’s dark and most people aren’t sure about where the stairs actually are unless they’re used to walking down them and…and you had all that stuff…” he rambled, there was a slight hesitation when we both almost simultaneously realized that even though I’d turned around to face him, his hands were still on my hips. He removed them quickly as I stepped back, both of us laughing embarrassedly.

“Gee, it’s fine. I appreciate the help,” I chuckled nervously, masking it by making it look like I was laughing at him for rambling. Well, technically I was, but I was nervous at the same time.

“Gee?” He smirked, suddenly glad for a subject change.

“I well… you know I assumed it was a nick-name because I’ve heard Mikey use it and well if you don’t want me to use it…” I rambled, stopping quickly as I realized I was doing exactly what I’d just laughed at him for.

“No, it’s cool, I don’t mind. No need to ramble,” he laughed in a mocking tone. “Just drop your stuff wherever. You don’t mind sleeping in here tonight do you?” he asked looking around the messy room, turning his nose up a little. “Believe it or not; this place is actually cleaner than Mikeys,”

I laughed and dropped my things on the floor before looking around at the walls.

“Wow,” I stared dumbly. “You said you were good, but I thought you were just being over-cocky or something. These are amazing,” I ran my fingers softly across the paintings, drawings, sketches and even a couple of photographs.

“They’re not that good. I put them on the walls because I hide all the better ones. I guess these are like goals. Reminding me not to go back to this,”

“Shit, Gerard! If I could draw like this, I’d be selling it or something,”

“I despise people who sell art,” He hissed quickly.

“Why?”

“It’s so personal, and then to just…to just give it away? That’s not right,”

“What about music? Someone has to share that. And comic books,” I smiled at the pile on his desk.

“That’s different,”

“No, it’s not. Music especially. It’s just like a painting except it’s not being put down on a canvas in colours and pictures, but instead it’s written down and performed. It's just as personal,”

“Okay Mister I-Just-Want-To-Get-One-Up-On-Gerard. Mikey should be back soon, so we can get the pizza and watch a movie. Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” I smiled, following him back out up the stairs and out of his small and dark basement room.