“I can’t believe you have a Saturday off,” Gerard mused, his mouth full of baby carrots as he stood in front of my fridge, the bag in hand and the door still open.

“Me neither, but Rita gave it to me because we’re about to hit the holiday season and she said time off would be slim pickings during that time,” I answered from the couch in the living room as I checked my purse for what I would need for the day. Journal, check. Chewed journal pen, since I still refused to use the glorious pens Gerard got me for my birthday. Check. Cigarettes, phone, wallet. Check, check, check. Everything else was superfluous.

“Makes sense I guess,” Gerard answered, still chewing away on my stash of baby carrots.

“Going to shut the fridge or are we just air conditioning my apartment during November?” I asked as I looked at him in the kitchen, tying a bandana around my head.

Looking a bit sheepish Gerard stepped away from the fridge and closed its door, bag of veggies still in hand. I shook my head at him as I did one more check of everything before we left for the day. It had been two weeks since Frankie’s birthday and we were finally getting around to using his present from me. Paintball was the plan for the day, so I was attired appropriately as I had been instructed. I had donned a pair of old hospital scrub bottoms, an Anthrax t-shirt and my white Chucks. Comfortable and something I didn’t mind the possibility of getting paint on. Hell my scrub bottoms still had paint on them from when Gerard and I painted my apartment what felt like a lifetime ago. Pausing from my mental check list I looked over at the art Gerard had done in secret on the far wall. I smiled as I took in the scene with the figure that was both him and I, and little bit of the unknown thrown in as well.

“Do you have an extra set of scrubs I could borrow for the day?” Gerard asked, breaking me from my revelry as he came into the living room with me.

“Sure. I keep them in the second drawer down,” I answered as I took the bag of baby carrots from him and motioned with my head towards my bedroom.

“You know you resemble my brother wearing that damn Anthrax shirt,” Gerard grumbled as he let go of my little orange vegetables.

“Except I think I have the better wrack,” I teased as I bit off half a baby carrot.

“True, true,” Gerard replied as he went off towards my room for the aforementioned scrubs.

Finishing the few carrots I wanted I meandered into my kitchen to put them away where they belonged. Deciding it might be a smart idea I grabbed an empty water bottle and filled it up from the sink while I waited for Gerard to change. I started humming as I waited for the water to get cold and then to fill the bottle. I knew I was going to work up a sweat at paintball so I figured I would plan ahead and bring hydration.

“Did you really sleep with my brother?” Gerard asked from directly behind me, scaring the crap out of me.

“Shit Gerard,” I hissed as I jumped in the air and splashed water everywhere.

“Ugh,” I sighed as I put down my water bottle and turned off the faucet before looking for a dish rag to clean up the soaking wet mess that was now my kitchen counter and window.

“That’s not an answer,” Gerard interjected as he came to stand beside me.

“Did you sleep with Sharon?” I asked as I crouched down to a lower cabinet, still looking for a clean dish rag.

“Yes,” Gerard answered with an uninvolved shrug of his shoulders.

“Then you have your answer,” I grumbled, half in the cabinet under the sink.

“Have you slept with him since? Did you make Way babies? Are you dating?” Gerard fired off one right after the other.

“Gerard,” I huffed. “Why do you care?” I asked, falling into a sitting position on the floor in defeat as I hadn’t found a rag.

“Because,” Gerard answered as he crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against my wet counter.

“That’s not an answer,” I mimicked Gerard’s tone and voice from earlier, did a pretty damn good job of it too I thought.

“Ha. And maybe I care because it’s my brother. You don’t know where he’s been Jay,” Gerard sighed, letting his arms drop to his sides.

“I know he’s clean and that’s enough for me. And to answer you’re questions, no. No we haven’t slept together since, no we didn’t make Way babies, and no we’re not dating. Mikey and I are simply friends Gerard. Friends and nothing more. So yes we happen to get a little touchy feely, and yes we use each other for a quick sexual frustration fix but that’s it. He and I both know the stipulations of how we act. There are no feelings between us,” I sighed as I picked my nails before looking up at Gerard standing above me.

I watched him sigh before lifting an arm without looking, reach into the cabinet behind him and pull out a dish rag. I scoffed and rolled my eyes before taking the hand he offered in front of my face to help me up. Grabbing a hold of his hand I let him hoist me off my kitchen floor before I ripped the rag out of his hand and stuck my tongue out at his smirk.

“Careful or I’ll wipe that smirk right off your face,” I jeered as I threw the now very wet rag at him, hitting him in the face with it. Giving him my own smirk as he peeled it off his face I turned to leave my kitchen.

“Yipe!” I squeaked as I jumped in the air, grabbing my ass before turning to glare at Gerard who was leaning nonchalantly against the door frame with the wet cloth in his hands, wound into a whip.

“Be careful about turning your back to me after making a statement like that,” Gerard purred evilly as he wiggled his eyebrows at me. I glared at him as I rubbed the sore spot on my ass, hospital scrubs didn’t do much for protecting one’s ass.

“Careful,” Gerard drawled out. “Or I’ll do it again, only this time it will be for sleeping with my brother,” he finished, raising an eyebrow at me warningly.

“What? Can’t take the idea of your brother and I making hot, sweaty, sticky nasty sex in your den in the garage? The sound of creaking rubber, the smell of hot vinyl,” I teased, giving him my all as I tried not to burst out laughing.

“Oh you’re so dead!” Gerard yelled as he dove at me with his wet rag ready to smack me again. I yelped and ran around the couch, trying to get away from him.

“You’re not going to survive this. So you might as well just surrender now and get it over with. It will be less severe if you just come gently now. The more you fight it, the worse it’s gonna get,” Gerard tsk tsked at me.

I tried moving to the left, he followed. To the right, he followed again. I wasn’t going to get anywhere as we circled around the couch three or so times. Deciding on a plan I feinted to the left, like I was going back towards the kitchen and when he went for it I bolted away from the couch hoping to make it to my bedroom where the door locked. Apparently my plan was completely see through because next thing I heard a thud that could only be Gerard’s feet hitting the ground. He must have jumped over the couch. I screamed as I felt arms encircle my waist, my outstretched hands almost on my bedroom doorknob. I felt myself being picked up and I kicked and wiggled, trying to get myself out of Gerard’s arms.

“Careful or I’ll drop you,” Gerard cackled below me as he hoisted me onto his shoulders.

“Gerard put me down!” I laughed, hitting him on the ass to try and get him to let me down off his shoulder. “I’m going to break you!” I squealed.

“Tut tut, you’re not that big. Now that we’ve got things under control I say it’s time we go so they don’t think we’ve killed each other,” Gerard said nonchalantly as I watched him grab my bag from my upside down position.

“Gerard put me down this instant!” I yelled playfully as I pounded on his back, his shoulder digging into my stomach. “Don’t you dare carry me outside like this! We’ll die on the stairs!” I shouted as I watched his feet carry us towards my front door.

“We’ll be fine! Don’t worry so much,” Gerard tsked as he made our combined way out the door, locking it behind us.

I gave in and just laid there over his shoulder. I figured it was best not to fight it as we were on the landing and going to be going down the stairs regardless of my pleas. It seemed in our combined best interests for me not to cause the two of us to tumble down my long narrow staircase. Sighing I just watched the ground move below us as Gerard slung my bag over his shoulder and start walking down. I thought I was going to vomit by the time we reached the bottom landing in front of my outside door.

“Now?” I whined as he pushed open the outside door and locked that behind him as well.

“Nope,” Gerard answered simply, continuing to carry me.

“What the hell Way?” I heard a familiar voice exclaim.

“Hi Ray,” I said, waving over my shoulder at where I judged him to be standing.

“Is Mikey going to like you man handling his woman like that?” Ray asked as Gerard stopped at the car. Apparently we were riding with Ray to the paintball place.

“Last time I checked Jay Bird wasn’t Mikey’s woman,” Gerard answered flatly, I could almost feel him tensing.

“Yeah but neither is she yours,” Ray stated, sounding as clueless as Frankie at that moment. Uh oh. I felt myself being dropped unceremoniously off Gerard’s shoulder and had to grab hold of the car so I wouldn’t fall onto the parking lot.

“Oomph,” I exhaled as I grabbed my sore stomach and gained my bearings on flat ground again, not paying attention to the way Gerard had simply dropped me. Nor did I pay attention to the tension in the air at that moment, passing it off as the cooling of the November air outside.

“Shotty!” I called as I stumbled around to the passenger door before Gerard could grab it and force me to ride in the small back seat of Ray’s car.

“Let’s go, let’s go! The day is a wasting and I want to riddle somebody with paintballs! Come on!” I yelled through the car to where Ray and Gerard were still standing by the driver’s side door.

My exclamation seemed to break the staring contest the two of them were having because Gerard came over to my side to crawl into the back and Ray opened his door.

“Now let’s freaking go!” I shouted excitedly. I hadn’t been paintball-ing since I was little, as it wasn’t something the friends I had back home considered decent appropriate fun, and I was anxious to get there already.

Notes

Yaaaaaay paintballing!!!
Hollers!!!