Gerard laughed at me, at first. He thought I was joking, and understandably so. Everything was going great for us, in his world. He didn't see the problem. But I did, and it had been in front of my face this entire time, and I had only just opened my eyes. It was like I had been going through our relationship blind, and now I could see the world and everything wrong in it.

We were wrong.

When I didn't say anything or laugh with him, he started to get visibly shaken. He asked if I was serious. I was scared, I was choked up, so I only nodded. He took a step towards me, then another and another, and I took the same amount of steps back towards my front door to keep distance.

"Olivia? Are you feeling okay? Let's get you inside and you can lay down-"

"No. No, Gerard. We're done, okay? I can't be with you anymore," I pulled the ring off my finger and slowly knelt down to set it on the top step of my porch, "You can see our child. We can be friends, I won't stop you." He watched with something I could only compare to downright heartbreak as I took the last few steps into my house, and locked the door behind me.

I almost screamed when there was frantic knocking on my front door, and I could hear him begging for me to open it. I dashed to the complete other side of the house, curled up in the corner of my kitchen, and decided to cry.

I could hear him crying, too.

---

Aching and sore, I briefly wondered where I was, and if Gerard had broken down my door and kidnapped me or something. Still groggy, I looked around and realized that I hadn't be kidnapped, but instead I had fallen asleep in the corner of my kitchen. I could no longer hear Gerard banging on the door or sobbing for me to let him in and talk.

When I peeked out of the window next to the door, I saw that he hadn't given up, but instead had fallen asleep sprawled out on the front steps of my house. I was afraid he'd suddenly wake up and see me, so I hurried to close the curtains and sit on the stairs.

I called Juno and Frank first, but they didn't answer. Mikey was my last resort, and he picked up halfway through the first ring. At the sound of his voice - it sounded frighteningly like Gerard's - I choked up and tried to sob out my story to him. I had to retell it again more slowly, and he finally understood and tried to comfort me.

"Mikey, he's still here.. can you come get him? Or at least come over here and stay until he leaves? I'm afraid he'll try to break in-"

"Yeah, I'll get Frank to come get him, and I'll stay with you. Are you going to be okay until I get there?"

I wiped my eyes with the hem of my shirt and nodded. I realized he couldn't see that though, so I mumbled a yes and asked him to hurry. He got to my house in minutes, and I watched through the window as he nudged Gerard roughly in the side. They spoke to each other, louder and louder until they were full-on yelling. Gerard pointed to the house, then to Mikey, and I could see from the pain on his face that he thought something else was going on.

I waddled quickly over to the front door and opened it to pull Mikey inside. Gerard managed to yell something to me when I opened it, and I realized that he had asked me why I was doing this.

"I can't talk to him right now, Mikey. My head's all messed up and I'm still kind of regretting it, I don't want to cave and take him back," I begged him and he nodded to me before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and leading me into the living room.

We sat together in silence watching Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake and Dr. Phil and it was hours before I realized that Frank had already arrived to take Gerard off my property, and Mikey was still at my house, arm wrapped around my shoulder and holding me.

I didn't want this, either.

Notes

Oh nooo, one more left!