That night was one of the best of my life. After we talked, Gerard hugged me softly, then all the other boys jumped in too. I ended up buried under all of them, still on Gerard's bed, laughing like a madwoman. It hurt, but I didn't care. They made me feel so... Loved. Cared for. Safe. I disentangled myself from them, giggling, and sat up, then stood slowly, inhaling sharply at the stabbing pain. At that, they all stopped their laughing and looked at me with concerned expressions. I rolled my eyes in an attempt to disguise the pain. "Dudes, I'm fine, honestly!" I fake-smiled at them. They didn't seem fooled. Frank ran over and stretched up to wrap an arm round my shoulders - he was so short, bless him. "But, Krissy, we worry. We love you!" I giggled and squeezed his waist. "Love me? You only met me today!" Frank laughed lightly. "Yeah, but, we still love you! You're funny and nice and pretty, and you've had such a hard time and you don't deserve it! We want to look after you. We are the band that wants to save your life." Frank's words bought tears to my eyes. Thanks, Frank, thats- wait, did you say band?" They all laughed at my surprised expression. "Yup, I did. We're a band, Gee sings, I play guitar, and so does the Rayster. Mikey's on bass. Oh, and Gee writes our lyrics, too. It's really fun! We'll play for you sometime!" I smiled. The other guys laughed at him. "Frankie, dude, we're four kids who occasionally make a whole loada noise in your mama's basement. We're hardly a band." Frank pouted at Gerard's words. "We are so a band!" We were all quiet a moment, as Frank sulked, then I giggled, and we all cracked into more laughter. "My goodness, what is all this noise?" I looked up to see a blonde woman in the doorway. "My mom," Gerard whispered to me. Oh. I smiled shyly. "Hello, Mrs Way," I said softly. Mrs Way flapped her hands as she beamed at me. "Call me Donna, dear. Mrs Way makes me feel old." I laughed and agreed. I liked her already. "Now, would you guys like to come grab some food? Dinner's ready!" Ray and Frank rose. "Sorry, Donna, I gotta run, I promised my mom I'd be home for dinner." Ray smiled and left, with warm goodbyes to everyone. Frank also couldn't stay, he claimed his family had dinners guests, so he had to 'sit there and pretend he has loads of fucks to give'. He grinned, and skipped over to me, hugging me. He kissed my cheek and bounced away, hyper as usual. Donna also retreated. "Mikey, come help set the table!" Mikey frowned and followed her, leaving just me and Gerard in his room. He laughed, shaking his head. "The people I hang with truly are insane," he,murmured. I laughed. "Yeah, but you wouldn't change them for the world." He glanced at me. "That's true, I guess. They make life fun." I studied him. I'd been wanting to ask him something, but I felt nosy and inappropriate. He raised his eyebrows. "You want to say something." A statement, not a question. "Come ln, Kriss, say it." I bit my lip. "Do you... do you still, you know, cut?" I couldn't look at him. "No," he whispered. "I decided to quit six months ago. I haven't relapsed since." I still stared down. "Just... Gerard, please promise me you won't do it again. I can't bear the thought of you hurting yourself that way. You... you don't deserve it. Please?" I looked up at him, pleadingly. He was studying me. "I'll promise you, if you'll promise me the same thing." I stared. "What?" "You heard. If you want me to promise not to cut, then you need to promise not to cut." He watched me. "I... I don't know if I can..." He stared at me. "What, you can't make that promise?" I shook my head. "I can make a promise, but I'll end up breaking it, and I don't want to break a promise to you." He looked at me, seeming a little confused. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "I, I've tried to stop before Gerard. I really fucking tried, and I got nowhere. I can't make that promise, because I will fail, just like before, and I don't want to break any promises I make to you." I put my head in my hands, feeling like such a fuck-up. Gerard put a hand on my shoulder. "Okay... How about this? Promise me that if you want to cut, if you get any urges or anything, come to me. Call me, text me, find me, whatever. Talk shit out with me, and let me try to make you better, kay?" I thought for a moment, then nodded silently. He smiled and hugged me. "Good. Now, come on, I'm fucking starved!"

Notes

Crappy chapter, I knooooow. I just couldn't get this one right, hence the long gap between updates. I still don't really like it, but hey, it's better than nothing. It's weird, I know exactly how I want this story to go, but getting the words right is tougher than I expected. Oh well. I'll make up for it in the next chapter. Mwah!