You're So Dark

It's Christmas Eve. Well, actually, it's the Christmas-Eve-morning, but it's Christmas Eve and Gerard is so fucked. And yes, you know what kind of fucked- not the good one.
He’s agreed to go out for coffee with Hayley just because he wants to hide from Brendon’s calming down routines- Hayley’s really fun and carefree, and besides, she knows so much shit about hair dye.

But it just so happens that it doesn’t work shit for Gerard. Because nothing ever does. Because Gerard is doomed for life by [a] Satan himself.

Their plan was to meet at Starbucks at eleven am. And what’s the time now, you ask? It’s eleven fifteen and Gerard is hiding behind a trashcan outside of the already mentioned coffee shop, freezing and hoping Lindsey, who’s currently sitting with Hayley in a booth [right next to the window, because life obviously hates Gerard’s guts], won’t notice him.

He and Lindsey have been on the ‘you don’t exist, I don’t exist’ stage of their relationship for a while now, and Gerard’s grown quite used to it- he’s a little afraid she might chop off his left nut if he doesn’t stay away. He really hates himself for it, though, but he’s aware of the fact that everything might just blow up right in front of his face if he makes one single wrong move with her.

She knows about him and Frank and he isn’t sure if she’s okay with it or not, and according to her [possibly previous, he wouldn’t know] state of mind towards Frank- Gerard guesses it’s something close to ‘N to the O to the nO WAY IN HELL SHOULD I GET ON HER BAD SIDE’.

Even though he probably has already- I mean, dude- who the hell doesn’t hate the supposed ‘friend’ who steals their crush from them? Nobody, that’s who.

And yes, that is the exact and completely and utterly valid reason Gerard is currently forced to sniff the morning trashcan smell and hope they’ll leave soon.

At one moment his phone rings and he jumps, knocking the can with his elbow and yelping into the phone as he answers it. “Shit, sorry for owch-ing, I’m such a clumsy person. Way talkin’.”

“’Way talking’ is the lamest way someone can answer a phone,” Hayley’s voice says and Gerard turns around, “and stop hiding behind that fucking trashcan, please.”
His face falls when he meets her smirk through the window and she sticks her tongue out at him. “Come on, Gee, we need to talk.”

He hangs up rather violently, hoping she catches the exact way he brutally smashes his finger against the key. It’s important to be hardcore in a hardcore situation, Gerard reminds himself.

He drags himself towards the coffee shop, almost tripping over some hipster gang that was currently exiting and cursing on his clumsiness the entire beeline he’s made to the booth Hayley and Lindsey are sitting in. He slumps on the spot beside Hayley, glaring at her and trying to ignore Lindsey’s presence as well as he possibly can. If he doesn’t look at her, she doesn’t exist and can’t possibly yell at him or make him cry and call for mommy.
Gerard? In denial? Never.

‘Darn’ races through his mind when she clears her throat. “Gee?”

It’s fine, he thinks, she called him by his nickname so she probably won’t kill him. “Mhm?”

“Look,” now he dares to actually look at her [submissive much?] and is genuinely surprised when he sees the awkward look she’s carrying on her face. “I’m sorry for avoiding you for such a long time, I really am. And I’m sorry I ever made you feel uncomfortable when I was fantasizing. I just… didn’t know and it came to me as a shock. I mean, I know why you couldn’t tell me and I… I’m sorry.”

He bites his lip, looking at her and mentally punching himself for even thinking she’d be capable of killing him. She’s like, the epitome of kindness. “Shit, I’m sorry, too. I mean, it’s not like I made it hard for you to avoid me, have I? I kind of thought you’d murder me or something. And I feel really guilty for yelling at you when, uh, y’know, and… I know how you felt and I know how I’d feel if someone were to do that to me. But like… I wish I could’ve told you in the very start so you wouldn’t… I don’t even know, I’m sorry.”

Lindsey looks at him, kind of relieved but also somehow determined. “I guess we’re even? We’ve both been acting really stupid lately, obviously. And I know what you’re thinking- I’m not going to report you or something, fucking hell. I’d never do that. I just really hate this and I want things to get back to how they used to be. So… how ‘bout a start over?”

Gerard smiles, genuine. “I’d like that.”

“Now come here, you fucker, I’ve missed your clumsy-ass hugs.”

And Gerard really doesn’t have to be told twice because he runs over to her seat and hugs her as tight as he can [even though that’s not really tight, he’s like a slack-off-it’s-raining-no-push-ups-today queen].

“I’m not wearing waterproof mascara, you fucking idiots,” Hayley yells and Gerard just sticks his tongue at her.

*

“So, it’s all good now,” Frank asks, for the twelfth time.

“Yes, it’s all good now, you don’t have to worry,” Gerard answers – for the twelfth time. And don’t forget the eye-roll. The eye-roll is sempi-fucking-ternal. It’s a shame Frank can’t hear it over the phone. [He probably knows Gerard is doing it, though.]

“Okay, case closed. I have a very important question now.”

“Hit me,” Gerard blurts out. And then bursts out laughing. “That’s what she said.”

He can literally hear the exasperated face Frank is spawning currently. “Please see yourself out.”

“I bet she said that, too,” Gerard is still cackling and Frank sighs, sharp, directly into the phone’s microphone.

“You’re such a child.”

“Your question?” Gerard coughs.

“Ah, yes. Ray’s just gone to his mom’s. And he won’t be coming back until, like, January fourth or something. Are you, by any chance, available to join me tonight in this oh-so-beautiful time of the year, to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?” Frank recites dreamily and Gerard cracks up, again.

“We’re going to eat brownies and have sex, aren’t we?”

“We most definitely are, baby,” Frank chuckles.

Notes

It's been sixteen days and Milo is officially alive.
Don't worry about me, children, I haven't been brutally slaughtered in an alleyway yet. [Can you be non-brutally slaughtered?]
Yet.

How've you been? How's life? How're your ducks?

*Arnold Schwarzenegger voice*
There is only one more chapter of You're So Dark left. One. More. Chapter. This story will be terminated after one more chapter.

I will link ya to the sequel in the grand finale.

Love y'all,

- Milo The Geese Kingdom Knight