Common People

Luckily Mikey wasn't there and we got back to his house without any problems. We went inside and took of our shoes before we went up to his bedroom.

I scanned the room and my eyes landed on a worn leather arm chair in the corner. Gerard followed my eyeline.

"Go ahead, sit." He pushed me towards it gently before sitting down on the carpet clad floor. "Do you want to watch a movie? I have the new X-Men movie, or I have some older ones if it's not you're deal." Gerard rushed out awkwardly.

"I feel like something older? If you're okay that, I mean." Trying not to sound rude. Gerard just nodded and turned to a DVD rack and started scanning over the titles, humming under his breath. I caught sight of a familiar case.

"Donnie Darko, can we watch Donnie Darko?" I jumped up from my seat and Gerard smirked, laughing under his breath.

"Okay, okay. Calm down." He joked, pulling the case from the shelf before putting the disc in the DVD player. He stood up and sat down on his bed, grabbing a pillow and placing it behind him. He pat the space next to him and I placed myself on the mattress.

The film was about halfway through and there was the sound of keys in the lock of the front door.

"That better not be-" Gerard stood up from the seat and grabbed the remote, pausing the movie. He continued speaking indecipherably under his breath. Gerard hurried around the room, straightening up some pillows and kicking away some stray pieces of paper. He stopped when Mikey stuck his head around the door, catching him in his frantic state.

"Gerard, can we just talk?" Gerard jumped, not noticing Mikey beforehand.

"Shit, Mikey. I thought you were Sandra!" He exclaimed with a hand on his chest and I sat back feeling confused but not wanting to interfere. Mikey roamed the room quickly with his eyes before landing them on me.

"Oh, Y-you're busy we'll do this later." Mikey stuttered as he turned away and closed the door behind him. Gerard sat back down on the bed and sighed loudly, turning to face me.

"Pizza?" I smiled and he took it as a yes before standing up to grab a menu from his desk across the room and pulling his phone from his jean pocket. "What do you want?"

"Just a vegetarian one would be great, thanks." Gerard nodded with a smile before dialling the number and placing the order.

The pizza delivery man came not long after and we sat back down with the two boxes. Gerard grabbed a slice and played the movie again. After a while my curiosity took the better of me. "Who's Sandra?" I asked and Gerard went pale. I was about to take it back, noticing that I'd touched a tough subject but Gerard spoke first.

"I was hoping you'd missed that, or at least forgotten about it. I guess- I can tell you, we're friends right? Yeah, friends. You wont tell will you?" Gerard managed to stutter out all at once.

"We're friends. Of course I wont tell anyone." I reassured him. Gerard paused the film again.

"Okay, well, I guess I kind of lied before. You remember a while ago when we went to your house and I said I moved around a lot because of my dads work?" I recalled the memory in my head and nodded. "Well, I don't actually know my dad. Or my mum. Or any of my family other than Mikey. Sandra is our foster parent. Me and Mikey have never had a permanent home because we've been shipped from care home to care home all of our lives. Sandra is great and all but she likes order, that's why I was running around and tidying. I don't want to upset her and be kicked out all over again." Gerard wasn't looking at me anymore, but at the blank wall on the opposite side of the room. I jumped forward and pulled him into a tight hug, not saying anything and he didn't either.

We stayed there for a while in a messy bundle. "I'm sorry." I whispered into his shoulder, eventually.

"You don't have to give me sympathy, it's fine." Gerard replied quietly into my neck.

"I know, but sometimes it's nice to do it anyway."

Notes

A/N Wow it's been a while and updates will probably be a bit slow for a little while because im staying at a friends house for a bit because of some family stuff but I'll try. We're finally getting into the proper story now.

I really really love Donnie Darko, can you tell? If you haven't watched it then you should, that is todays advice. You guys are awesome, I'll update when I can.