"That was the worst movie ever!" Sharon exclaimed as we walked out of the budget theater.

It was one of those that played movies that played movies that had gone out of normal theaters already. Where for five bucks you got a ticket, a medium popcorn and a large soda.

"I loved it, it was hysterical!" I said happily as I dance my way back to her car.

"Gah. It was stupid," Sharon exclaimed as she unlocked her door and then unlocked mine.

"Oh don't even. You laughed at parts," I teased as I got in.

"Uh huh," she said skeptically as she started her engine.

"Come on, Kung Pow will go down in history as the greatest spoof EVER!" I said cheerfully.

It really had been awesome. At first I had been wary, but by about ten minutes in I had been laughing so hard I had spilled my popcorn. Partially onto Sharon's lap. Gerard had texted during the movie saying it was okay that I go back.

"Fuck!" Sharon swore as we came to a stop light.

"What?" I asked as I tapped my fingers, craving a cigarette but knowing she didn't like smoking in her car.

She had said how she hated that Gerard always pushed the subject, saying that he smoked in his. I didn't feel the need to do the same, I liked her.

"I have to be at work in like twenty minutes and my uniform is at home. Shit!" she exclaimed as she hit the steering wheel as we turned the last corner to my apartment.

I found out that she worked third shift at a nursing home as a CNA. I had found it interesting as she didn't seem like the type of person to work at a job like that. But whatever paid the bills I guess, I couldn't say much, I worked in a diner. If any of my friends from school saw me they would laugh at me and ask me what I was doing with myself for working there, ask me why I was wasting my education at place like that. But I liked it. So it wasn't a high paying comfy job where I put my major to work. But I was happy. And the people I had met here didn't seem to judge me based on it, based on where my paycheck came from.

"Well just drop me off and run," I suggested as we pulled into the parking lot.

"Is that okay? You don't feel like I am abandoning you do you?" Sharon asked as I gathered my small bag and stuffed it into my large bag.

"Uh, no. You have to work, point in case. You'll get to see it at some point," I said as I placed my hand on the door handle.

"Alright then. I'm glad you're here Jay, for whatever reason. I'm glad to have another female in the mix. You might just be good for us," she said as I opened the door and heard loud music blasting from one of my apartment windows.

Thank god Reta didn't mind about loud noise.

"Thanks. But I think it's the other way around, I think you all are good for me," I said as I smiled and then looked up to the noise.

"That was said before you saw the condition of your apartment. Don't be too hasty," she teased as I got out and shut the door slowly.

I smiled and waved at her as she peeled out of the parking lot and made her way home at lightning speed to be able to get to work on time. Slowly I turned and sighed before making my way inside the building and up my stairs.

I paused on the staircase, at the fifth step and smiled as it creaked under my weight. It was too dark to snap the shot I wanted of the stairwell, but made a mental note to do it tomorrow during lunch break. At the top of the stairs in front of my door I paused to knock first, before entering.

"Gerard?" I asked loudly to be heard over the music.

I heard shuffling and then the music was turned down.

"Wait right there. And close your eyes, I'll get the door," Gerard said loudly as I heard the lock on the door being turned.

I closed my eyes like he said and waited to be led in.

"Okay, give me your bags and stand right there," Gerard said once I was inside my door.

I held out my bags for him to take and squeezed my eyes closed so not to be tempted to open them before he said. I felt him take my bags and then shut the door behind me. I patiently waited till I felt him take a hold of my hand and lead me forward. His hands were warm.

"Okay. Open," he said softly right next to my ear.

He must of been standing directly next to me.

Slowly I opened my eyes. And gasped.

"Oh my god Gerard. It's, it's, it's beautiful," I said, feeling at a loss for words.

The white wall was no longer completely white anymore. Now it was graced with color. Not only color, but the most beautiful painting I had ever seen. Nothing I had ever seen in museums could ever compare to the piece sitting before me. It combined techniques from my favorite artists and paintings I had told Gerard about during our day in the museum, but then it held something else. There was a sky painted similar to Starry Night, but then underneath it was incredible black work, highlighted with blue. I walked closer to inspect it, wanting to run my fingers over the work but not knowing how dry the paint was.

"I've never seen anything like this," I breathed softly as I held my hand up, aching to run my fingers over the line work.

"You can touch it, it's been dry for hours," Gerard said from behind me a ways, still back at the couch.

Taking his word for it I reached out and traced the black strokes, letting myself memorize the texture and direction of every stroke. There was a giant tree made from broad strokes mixed with quick smaller ones. The Starry Night sky line faded into white and then his personal work took over. The tree graced most of the right side of the wall, and was not only highlighted by blue but silver as well, and it's roots were shown growing and weaving their way to the bottom of the wall. There was a figure standing on what had been painted as the road horizon, in quick barely visible strokes. Almost as if it didn't matter what they were standing on, only that they were standing on something solid. The figure had it's hands raised and stretched outwards, as if trying to fly or to absorb everything around them. And a few stars had fallen from the skyline so thick with color, seeming to almost turn to dust as they fell down on the figure. It was gorgeous.

"Why? I. It's. Oh my god Gerard. It's unbelievable," I said as I turned to look at him standing behind me.

He was smiling, but not smirking for once. Just smiling. Slowly he walked towards where I was standing.

"You had said you had wanted to see some of my personal art, some of what I did. Well here it is, this is what I do when no one is looking," Gerard said as he himself traced some of the lines of the dried paint.

"Who is it?" I asked after a few moments of silence as we stared and admired the painting together.

"I don't know really. It's a combination really. It's a little of me, it's a little of something else I don't know but just felt seemed right. And, and it's a little of you. The you I've come to know and the you I see you becoming as you stay here. It's a message, about finding your way I guess. Because sometimes you don't have to aim for the stars, sometimes the stars come to you, sometimes they choose to grace you with their presence," Gerard said without looking at me.

I was in awe. It was parts of me? He had painted me into the piece? I didn't know what to say really, once again his words had left me without.

"Come on, that's not all. There's a reason this has been dry for hours," he said suddenly after the silence I was unable to fill.

Softly he took my hand and led me towards my bedroom.

"You painted my room?" I asked all of a sudden as we reached what I now saw was my closed bedroom door, which had been left open earlier.

"Uh huh. Don't worry I didn't go rifling through your drawers or anything," he said teasingly as he dropped my hand to open the door for me.

"Close your eyes one more time," he said as he cracked the door and I had tried to peer in.

Obediently I closed my eyes and let myself be led into my room.

"Okay open," he said once I heard him flick on the lights.

Slowly I opened them and gasped once again. The room had been painted in stripes of black and white, with stripes of purple and red thrown in randomly. The stripes were of varying degrees of thickness, not unified in size.

But that wasn't even the best part. In two corners he had left the wall white, it looked almost as if the painted stripes had been removed with a giant eraser, the white space not being a solid shape. And then in the white spots were paintings similar to the one out in the living room, though slightly darker, sadder.

As I gazed at them I knew that I was getting a glimpse of what it was like inside his head, inside his thoughts. It was dark, sad, trapped yet beautiful to the point of bringing one to tears. It was where his lyrics came from, where his passion came from and it left me feeling small. But not in a bad way. Small in the sense that I was in the presence of something greater than myself, greater than anything fabricated in this modern world, something so great that it was misunderstood by those around it.

Finally I stood up from my crouched position and then saw the rest of the detail. He had taken gold, silver, and yellow and painted over the stripes. There were stars littering the walls, they almost seemed to shine on their own accord. And then there were words scrawled about in a handwriting that I guessed could only be unique to Gerard. Words that I didn't quite know. I turned to look at Gerard to ask him what they were.

"They're lyrics of mine. From songs we do, songs we have yet to do but hopefully will at some point. And lyrics I don't know if I'll ever let be published," Gerard answered me without me having to ask.

"I, I don't know what to say. How lame is that," I joked to cover up my lack of words.

"It's okay. I mean as long as you don't hate it," Gerard said all of sudden sounding scared that I might reject what was inside of him that he had brought out for me to see.

"Oh never. It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's haunting, and sad, and tumultuous, and makes me never want to leave my apartment. I don't know how I could ever thank you," I said as I turned to look at him.

"I would settle for you never leaving Jersey," Gerard said as he smiled back, more of his infamous smirk than anything else.

"We'll see," I joked back.
-xXx-
Gerard had stayed to help clean up the mess, even after I had said that it was preposterous that he do so since he had painted everything. He gave me the look, one that I was guessing he had learned from Bob. And that had been that, I let him stay. We cleaned and then he said he should get back so Mikey didn't think he had dropped off the planet completely.

After he had left I had made myself dinner and smiled at how Sharon had said he never did dishes at their place and how she had said she was going to let the apartment go to see if he would. I had eaten in silence in the living room, staring at the white wall with it's glorious painting on it, forgetting about the other colors gracing the main room.

Afterwards I had left my plate on my coffee table type thing and showered to remove most of the paint dried and crusted on my body from the days earlier work. Crawling into bed I took out my book, making a mental note to photograph the paintings later. Taking my trusty heavily chewed pen I wrote an entry.

"I never knew how much paint it took to create a whole new world, till today. Spring green, ochre red and sun yellow clash in a way that brings a smile to my face. I was found in still frame, painted in uneven strokes on a wall that once held so much potential and now just held me. And Gerard. Stars choose to fall from time to time, on their own accord. I found a similar mindset in a girl so unlike myself, yet just the same. Chimpmunk nunchucks will make the world a better place. I hope the fifth step never gets fixed, it's a warning to all mankind of what's to come. The inevitable. Jersey feels more and more like home, but does it feel like me? I don't know. But it's speaking to me, through every creaky step, coat of paint, and tuned amp."

I smiled a bit as I grabbed the color paint chips from the hardware store, the ones we had decided on. I ripped off the color swatches we had used in the apartment and stuck them in as a reminder, taped together into a new strip. Closing the journal I turned over and went to sleep.

Notes

*sigh* Another favorite chapter of mine SIMPLY for the art that is created in it.
Every time I reread the part about what Gerard painted on the walls I get goose bumps.
And I've been writing this story for years.
That should tell you how much I love this chapter!!!