Another Way | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Three)

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"Wait wait wait," Andy rushed out, "you didn't get in trouble? Not at all?"

Harley shook her head, amused by her friends' reactions. They were all sitting on their respective boulders, a pile of empty snack containers on the ground in the middle. "No, he was just like, 'Promise you won't do it again' and I was like, 'I won't' and he was fine! I swear, I had never known true relief until that moment."

"Ah, I see what you did there," Andy said, squinting their eyes at Harley.

She laughed nervously, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't promise," Pond chimed in because she, too, had caught what Andy had noticed.

"What? Of course I—no, you're right, I didn't," Harley admitted to her friends, her cheeks reddening despite how strongly she was willing them not to flush. "You just never know, right?"

"But do you even want to go to another party?" Remi asked. "Was it even any fun?"

Harley shrugged even though her instincts told her to say no. "It wasn't a lot of fun, honestly, but maybe that was just a bad party. I don't think I should base my judgments on that one experience."

"That's fair," Finn said. He was sitting on his rock with his knees drawn to his chest, his arms hugging his legs. The paint splatters on the stone matched his blue and green hair. "Like, if we go to a party—if we ever get invited to a party, I should say—we'll make sure it's a good time."

"Yeah!" Andy agreed enthusiastically. "When we do go to a party, whenever and wherever that may be, we'll all be more fun than Mason probably was."

She wanted to agree with him. She wanted to divulge to all of them the moment that had been plaguing her for the past three days since it had happened. She wanted to roll up her hoodie sleeve and show them the ugly purple bruises with tinges of green that incriminated him. And, once she'd finally spilled it and (hopefully) lifted that weight off her shoulders, she wanted to forget it ever happened. Then, maybe, the flashes of her father that loomed behind her eyelids once she fell asleep would dissipate and she could forget that, too.

"Honestly, you probably would be," she admitted instead, pulling her sleeves over her hands.

"Really?" Andy asked, surprised. "I thought you were gonna roll your eyes at me, or something, him being your boyfriend and all."

"He's not my boyfriend," she said immediately, an edge of defensiveness in her tone. "He hasn't even texted me since that night."

She got a chorus of whats, why nots, and that dick! in response. It made her feel slightly better about the whole thing, but only slightly. She couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Hang on," Pond said, standing up like she couldn't contain her anger, "he dragged you to this party, it sucked, but now he's ignoring you? You didn't even do anything!"

"I mean, I don't know, I guess I left him there alone when I got my uncle to pick me up?" Harley said sheepishly, grasping at straws.

"You didn't leave him there alone, he had plenty of friends! If anything, he left you there alone by getting drunk while you stayed sober!" Andy exclaimed, standing up like Pond.

The pair towered over her from their rocks. She hugged her body, intimidated. "Guys, it's really not a big deal. You can sit down." She didn't mean to let the fear shadow her face. Only someone who was really paying attention to the details of her disposition could've noticed.

Remi's features softened.

"Guys, quit yelling," she told Andy and Pond. They obeyed and sat down. When she turned to Harley, leaning forward slightly, she had a gentle look on her face, as though she was trying to approach a bird without startling it. "He's the one in the wrong, Harley," she said sincerely. "Mason has no reason to be mad at you right now if he is. You should be the one mad at him, 'cause he's the older one, he's the one with the car, he's the one that invited you to the party in the first place. You both could've gotten into a lot of trouble. He should've been more responsible."