Well Don't I Look Pretty?

Red lipstick seems to make everything better, like a good luck charm or a decoration. I was about to give up until I spread on my favorite shade of Manic Panic lipstick and looked in the mirror. “Vampire Red”, it ever failed me and for an 8 dollar lipstick I didn’t expect it to. I smiled and re-fluffed my hair for volume before I stepped out the guest bathroom, grabbed my messenger bag and hurried off to school.

It was my second week at Belleville and I was already making friends, I didn't have to worry about sitting alone at lunch anymore because I had Chantal and her friends to hang out with. They were cool, they weren't super snooty and popular like some of the kids in this school, but they weren’t completely nerdy either. With them I felt safe and accepted with them because they didn’t judge or try to convince me to smoke with them if I didn't want to or laugh at me when I didn’t want to take a drink from Jimmy’s liquor flask.

So why did I throw that all away? Was that small group not good enough? I ask myself this every time I look back at the day it all started. I ask myself why I didn't listen to Chantal and Kitty when they told me they were bad news.

We were sitting in the lunch room during breakfast, scarfing down the blueberry muffins the cafeteria had set out earlier. Jimmy and Steve were going on how they had won some rap battle held at the local basketball court when Kitty tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up as she pointed to a group of guys walking through the door of the cafeteria. “Those are the dudes Chantal and I were telling you about,” she whispered behind her hand. “See that guy with the long black hair? He’s Gerard Way. That’s sort of like their leader. His brother is the kid with the glasses”.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “He’s really gorgeous!”, I whispered back to Kitty who laughed and shook her head.

“Yeah, that’s how he gets you,” she said like it was obvious. “He pulls you in with those bedroom eyes. I heard about this one girl who slept with him at a party, got pregnant and then his family paid the chick off to keep quiet.”

My eyes widened, “Its like somethin off of a soap opera.”, I probably sounded like such a lame-o, but Kitty just laughed and ruffled my hair.

“You guys talking about the Ways and their gang again?”, Jimmy cut into our conversation.

“You sound almost jealous, Jimmy.” Chantal teased as she played with her hair.

Jimmy rolled his eyes in response, “I’m not, I just cringe at the mention of those guys. They’re bad news. Players, rich boys and I heard they got mafia connections, that’s why they’re so well off.”, he gossiped

“Oh please, the Ways are rich because their dad runs a funeral home. The funeral business a pretty big buck.”, Kitty waved her hand dismissively.

Steve shook his head at Kitty, “Not that big. My mom was the mall and she said she say Mrs. Way buying four fur coats and a full set of real diamonds last winter. Does that sound like funky old ‘funeral home’ money to you? Or something more?”

“So she caught a few Christmas sales, big whoop. I’ll admit the Way brothers are shady, but not that shady.”, Chantal the others continued to argue back forth as I snuck another glance over at Gerard and his friends. I hated to admit that he was really attractive, in a bit of a dangerous sort of way. I tried to forget about him and the rest of the guys but the curious side of me wouldn’t leave it alone.

And it wasn't until later on that I made a huge mistake.

Notes

I'm going to try to update as soon as possible and add a little bit more action in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. <3