"So...." Gerard said.
"So...." Ray said.
They were in Frank's room, which was the basement of his mom's house.There was band posters and a Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas movie poster scattered along the walls. Frank was strumming on one of his Guitars that he had named Pansy.
Gerard picked under one of his nails and looked at the ceiling.
"So...." Frank said.
The phone rang and he answered it. "Hello?"
"What's up Frank?"
"Not much. Who's this?"
"Josie, I decided to bug you instead of Charlotte and Tracy for a change."
"Okay then, I'll put you on speaker so you can bug Gerard and Ray too."
He hit the button on the phone labeled,"Speaker" and put the phone back on the receiver.
"Hi Guys."
"Hey," they said.
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
"Cool."
There was a long silence.
"Man you guys are boring. Were you talking about me or something before I called?"
"No. Just nothing much to talk about."
"I see..."
"Did you hear that Mindy's throwing a party tonight?" Frank said.
"Hear about it, I live two doors down, I know everything from what time it starts to what kind of toilet paper there's going to be," Ray said.
"Yeah, Brad's not happy about it," Josie said.
"Who?"
"Brad, you know, Charlotte's dad."
"Oh right, I herd him telling my dad that he's giving it until ten o'clock before he calls the cops on that party if he can't get any sleep," Ray said.
"Is there an occasion or is this just another party?" Gerard said.
"Charlotte said that Mindy's claiming that it's to get the team back on their feet after that lacross game that they lost horrifically yesterday. But you know how it is, cheerleaders, jocks, lost virginities, drinking..."
"And Mindy's parents are concerned that their daughter is an angel so they don't mind leaving for the weekend for 'business'," Ray said.
"You're being a bit hard on her don't you think?" Gerard said.
"Meh," Frank said.
"No."
"Not even. She used to be okay, you know, but ever since she became a cheerleader she's been a bitch. Hold on, I've got another call."
There was a few seconds of silence again before Josie came back,"I've got to go, that's my uncle for my dad. I'll talk to you guys later."
"Are you going to that party?"
"Yep, Charlotte, Tracy, and I are going soley to make rude remarks. We'll have to leave before ten though, Charlotte's dad will kill her if he finds out she went."
"How will she get out without him knowing?"
"We're staying at Tracy's house tonight."
"Oh."
"Okay, well I have to go, see you around."
There was a click and the phone turned off.
"So are we going to that party?"
"I don't know."
"I think I'm going to stay home and practice my guitar," Ray said.
"You always do that."
"I know."
"We could go and make rude remarks with Charlotte, Tracy, and Josie," Frank said.
"Okay," Gerard said.
"I'm still going to stay home and practice my guitar," Ray said.
"Fine, you'll more then likely have more fun then us anyway."
"Yeah, but it's fun tripping the drunk kids," Tracy said.
"Look who's talking, how many shots have you had?"
"Only about four...ish..."
"No more, I shouldn't have let you have any."
Tracy rolled her eyes and tripped someone else.
"Nice house she's got here," Josie commented, "But they've got awful taste in paintings."
"Excuse me, but who invited you?" Mindy said. Her speech was kinda slurred and they could tell that she'd had a bit to drink.
"That guy," Charlotte said, pointing in a random direction.
Mindy went over and started yelling at the coat rack that Charlotte had pointed at. "I don't know if it's more pathetic or funny."
"Pathetic, definitely," Josie said.
Gerard and Frank expected to be immediately sent back out the door once they came in but no one payed them any attention. "There's Josie," Frank said. Gerard glanced over and saw the three girls. A member of the lacross team walked over and put an arm around Charlotte. She glared at him as he started whispering things in her ear. She pulled her arm back and punched him in the nose. He doubled back and she began to whipe blood from his nose off of her fingers.
"Remind me to never get you angry," Frank said as they made their way over.
"Hey," Charlotte said.
"What did he tell you anyway?" Gerard said.
"Um..." Charlotte started turning red,"I'd rather not say...."
"Did he say you have a nice ass or something? Cause you do, you just can't tell when you're wearing the uniform," Frank said, soley to make Charlotte uncomfortable. She turned more red and leaned against the wall.
"Why were you looking back there Frank? Naughty, naughty," Tracy said.
"Shame, shame," Josie agreed.
They laughed and Tracy and Frank went off to trip some more people. Charlotte went to go wash the blood off her hand better.
"Nice ass, right," Charlotte muttered to herself as she locked the bathroom door. She rubbed soap onto the blood and rinsed off the suds. Before she left she straighted her red t-shirt and adjusted her jeans. She turned to the side and looked in the mirror. "Hm...." she said,"I dunno, I guess it's not too bad...."
She left the bathroom and went back to where they had been standing. No one was there anymore except for the guy she'd punched who was still bleeding.
"Where'd they wonder off to?" She thought.
"Hi," Someone said behind her. She turned and saw a boy that was in her math class.
"Hi. Simon, right?"
"Yeah, so how'd you find yourself here?"
"I live next door."
"Sorry about that."
"Yeah."
They started talking for a while. Right away they had two things in common: They hated math and they were sober.
Gerard was a few feet away from where they were singing, sitting on the ground asleep. He flinched slightly every so often but that was about it. He woke up after a few verses and stood up. He stumbled a bit, the amount of shots he'd had does that to a person, as he tried to walk back into the house. "Which door do I go through?" he said. His vision was doubled and he couldn't tell which door he was suppost to walk through. After walking into the wall a few times he made it inside.
"...Sure, my number's- Gerard!" Charlotte said once she saw Gerard stumbling in. She rushed over to him, completely forgetting about Simon. She put an arm around his shoulder and led him over to the couch and sat him down. "Gerard! You're a moron. God, where's Josie? JOSIE!"
"Huh?" Josie said walking over.
"Where've you been?"
"Trying to convince Mindy to eat her lipgloss."
"Okay, where's Frank and Tracy?"
"Pirates," Gerard said.
"Sure, Gerard, Pirates. Josie, go look for them will you?"
"Aye-aye Cap'in," Josie said, saluting her unenthusiastically.
"Pirates... outside," Gerard said.
"There isn't any pirates outside Gerard," Charlotte said.
Josie went to the back yard to find Tracy and Frank singing. She helped Tracy in first and put her on the couch by Gerard then went back out and got Frank.
"Gerard was right, they were singing 'A Pirate's Life for Me.'"
"Oh... interesting."
"What are we going to do?" Josie said.
"We'll have to take them home."
"Your car only seats three people."
"Gerard's seats five," Charlotte said, digging through his pockets for his keys. Josie opened her mouth to comment and Charlotte said,"Don't! I'm just looking for his keys."
"Yep, sure you are."
Charlotte turned red again and found the car keys. "Okay, we'll take Frank back to his house first, then I'll drop you and Tracy back at her house, then I'll take Gerard back to his place and leave his car there. After that I'll have to walk back here to get my car. Hopefully my mom will make my dad wait until midnight to call the police like she usually does."
"Okay, who are we loading into the car first?"
"Tracy. She's got crutches."
"Right."
They put her arms around their shoulders and helped her out to Gerard's car. They put her and her crutches in and went back to get Frank. Josie sat between them while Charlotte went back to get Gerard. "Hey Gee, it'll be okay, I'm taking you home. C'mon," She cooed. She lead him out to the car and helped him into the passenger seat.
Charlotte parked in front of Frank's house and she and Josie walked him to the door. "How do we get in?" Josie said.
"Get his house key from his pocket."
"Why don't you?"
"Because you'll comment like you did when I was getting Gerard's car keys."
Josie sighed and dug through his pockets until she found his key. They crept into the house, Charlotte nearly tripped over the leg of a chair and they made their way down to the basement. The second Frank's head hit the pillow, he was asleep. They left his house key next to his alarm clock and went back out to the car.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you to Gerard's?" Josie said.
"No, you need to keep an eye on Tracy."
"But it's not safe to walk all the way back to get your car. You know how dangerous it is around here."
"I know, It's not that far, I should be fine. But if I'm not back at Tracy's house within an hour after leaving for Gerard's, take that as your cue to call for help."
"Okay." In all honesty, they didn't live in such a nice town, but there was bad areas no matter where you lived.
It took a while to sneak past Tracy's mom and get her upstairs. Once they did, Charlotte left and got back to Gerard's car.
"Why are you driving my car?" He said,"Get out of my car."
"No," Charlotte said.
Gerard didn't argue, but he did ask why she was driving his car a few more times, and each time she said she was taking him home.
She pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. "C'mon Gerard," She said. He was still seeing double so she helped him through get to the porch and up to the door. His house keys were on the same key chain as his car keys so she didn't have to dig through his pockets again.
She opened the door slowly, the hinges squeaked and she looked into the house. It was still and silent. The lights were all out, but her eyes were already adjusted to the dark.
"C'mon Gee," She said. She walked him in slowly and closed the door. She winced as the hinges squeaked again.
It took a while to make it up the stairs, they kept tripping. Once they did get to the top of the stairs, Charlotte came to see Mikey leaning on his door raising an eyebrow to her.
She opened her mouth to say something, but didn't have a clue what she should.
"Hello," Mikey said, nonchalantly.
"Hi, Mike," She said.
"You've got my brother on your shoulders there."
"Oh, I do don't I? See, there's a perfectly good explanation for that..."
"And that explanation is?"
"Um...."
"Did he get himself drunk again?"
"Yes," Charlotte said,"You going to tell your parents?"
"I don't know."
Gerard started coughing. "Oh great," Charlotte said sarcastically,"Mikey, the bathroom?"
Mikey opened the door to his left and clicked on the light. Charlotte shoved Gerard in and lifted the lid to the toilet, before pulling his hair out of his face. Mikey came in and closed the door behind him as Gerard vomited.
"Turn on the sink," Charlotte said,"It'll drown out the sound." Mikey turned on the sink, but they could still hear Gerard slightly.
"Can I ask how you know to do that?"
"I read an article about someone with an eating disorder," She said,"They said that they turned on the sink to drown out the sound of them getting sick and that's how they got away with it for as long as they did."
"I see."
"So do you think your parents are going to wake up?"
"No, you can't hear anything over my dad and dog snoring."
Gerard coughed some more and continued to retch. He was as okay as he was going to get within a few minutes. Charlotte helped him stand up and Mikey turned off the light and opened the door. He opened the door to Gerard's room and Charlotte lowered Gerard down onto his bed.
"So why'd you bring him back?" Mikey said.
"Gerard's my friend and I care about him," Charlotte said. "I took Frank back home too."
"Why are you in my house?" Gerard mumbled.
"Because I am," Charlotte said.
"You're pretty," Gerard said.
"Thank you." She turned to Mikey,"He's delusional."
"You don't think your pretty?" Mikey said.
"No, why would I?" Charlotte said,"Do me a favor? When he wakes up will you give him some water? He needs to stay hydrated."
"Okay," Mikey said.
"You going to tell your parents?" She asked again.
"No," He said,"But you both owe me for this."
"Thank you," She said, pecking his cheek. "Here's his car keys."
"Okay."
She snuck down the stairs as Mikey closed Gerard's door and went to his room. After slipping out the door she ran down the street and took a left. After running a few blocks she stopped and ran behind a tree and some bushes in someone's front lawn. She crouched down and held her breath as five guys in their late teens and early twenties walked by, two were smoking and three were sucking down bottles of beer. She waited until they turned the corner and she counted to fifty before starting to run towards Mindy's house again. She saw a police officer in his car talking into his radio across the street. "Shit," she said, starting to walk as innocently as she could. She hoped that her dad hadn't called the cops yet. Once she turned the corner she and could no longer see the police car she ran again. She got to the street and got to her car. She got in and started the engine, not noticing Simon waving good-bye to her as she left the street.
Mikey opened the door and put a glass of ice-water on the bedside table,"Your just lucky I like you," he said. Before Gerard could ask anything, Mikey had already left the room. He picked up the glass and drank the water before putting it back. He still had the taste of vomit in his mouth. He looked at the clock. It was half-past noon. His phone rang and he clutched his head before picking up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Gerard? How are you feeling?"
"My head.... who's this?"
"It's Charlotte. How are you?"
"Head hurts, don't remember what happened. What did happen?"
"Well, you got drunk. And Frank got drunk. And Tracy got drunk..."
"Then?"
"Then Josie and I took Frank home, then I dropped her and Tracy off at Tracy's house, then I took you home."
"Doesn't your car only seat three people?"
"Yeah... we took your car. I hope you don't mind, it's in your driveway and I gave Mikey the keys."
"How'd you get back to Tracy's house?"
"I walked."
"You <i>walked?</i>"
"Well, ran, actually, but you know."
"When did you give Mikey the keys?"
"Last night, he herd us coming in I guess, cause he was waiting for us once we got upstairs."
"Oh."
"I'm going to let you go now, I'll talk to you later. Feel better."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye-"
"Oh, Charlotte, wait."
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for bringing me home."
"You're welcome. Bye."
"Bye."
"Trust Me"