Another Way | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Three)

16

Although the Friday night movie was put on hold until Monday night, there was still a scene straight off the big screen. Harley swung open the front door to reveal Mason, leaning with his elbow against the door frame, his black hair falling in front of his face before he smoothed it back to reveal his dark eyes. He wore a black button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone.

"Hey, skater girl," he said, a smirk playing at his lips.

Harley could do nothing to suppress the nervous giggle that escaped her before running her fingers through her hair out of habit and managing a weak, "Hey," back.

"You ready to go?" he asked, removing his elbow from the doorframe and standing straighter, pulling his shirt down a little before stuffing one of his hands in a pocket of his black jeans.

"Yeah, I am," she replied eagerly, patting her own pockets to make sure she had her money and phone on her.

"Great, let's go," Mason said, flashing her a genuine smile before taking her hand which caused the resurgence of the colony of butterflies in her stomach. He lead her to his car (which was his mom's car), parked in front of the house where he'd left it running. The music he'd been listening to was faintly booming from inside— Harley recognized it immediately as being something off of Folie à Deux by Fall Out Boy, which she wasn't surprised about in the slightest.

Gerard and Lindsey watched them leave, smiling to themselves. They'd decided against cooing at the young couple or even making their presence in the hallway known to save Harley some embarrassment, but Lindsey didn't hesitate to snap a photo with her phone of the sight of the kids moving towards the car hand in hand, their footsteps in sync.

"Did you just take a picture of them?" Gerard hissed.

"Yeah," Lindsey whispered back, "You know, for posterity or whatever."

"That's not creepy or anything."

Lindsey tapped Gerard playfully on the shoulder saying, "You know what I mean, don't you? I don't want it to be creepy, I think it's cute... don't you think it's cute?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's— don't you have a feeling about Mason?" Gerard asked apprehensively as he swung the front door closed.

"A feeling?" Lindsey asked, a puzzled look on her face as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, you know, like, he seems a little full of himself and I don't like how he called her skater girl like there's so much more to her than that, you know? But he had to go and give her a nickname like that. And- and I heard Miles saying some things about him, how he talks back in class and he picks on kids."

"So, what you're telling me here is, he seems like any other teenage boy," Lindsey said, her puzzlement turning to amusement.

"N- well, kind of? Maybe. All I'm saying is I'm keeping an eye on him and at the first sign of trouble I'm gonna put him in his place."

"Okay," Lindsey said slowly, taking a moment to think about it. When she opened her mouth it was as though she was reading off a script, "Three things: one, I'm sorry, but you're the least threatening person I've ever met and he could probably take you in a fight easily. I mean, he's like six feet tall, young... you know what I'm saying. Two, Gee, like I said he's just being a teenager. Going through the phase when they think talking back is cool and they're trying to prove themselves to God-knows-who. You can keep an eye on him, but it's probably nothing to worry about; you're overthinking like you always do. And three, don't overstep, okay? You can't swoop in and be all overprotective, especially not for Harley. She's independent and she can take care of herself. Remember that."