Exhibitions- Gerard Way

Tease

Maxine wakes up to a note on the bedside table next to her. 

Have to go to work quickly, be back soon xx

She smiles at the note, not a clue about what the time is. She knows that they didn't go to bed last night until at least 3am, she glances at the small clock on the other table and sees that it's 1pm. After an internal debate about whether she should actually get up or not, she chooses to hop out of bed and throws on one of Gerard's t-shirts whilst she puts her small pyjama set in the wash. 

Soon after Gerard returns home, he's greeted by Maxine hovering over the stove and the smell of pasta cooking. He sneaks up behind her and wraps his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. She leans backwards and he sways her gently side to side. Eventually he lets go and throws down a sketchbook on the counter. Maxine pauses her cooking and picks up the sketchbook. "What's this?" She flicks through the pages of sketches, lots of perspective drawings of his studio. 

"That's just my rough sketchbook, I had to go and pick it up from the company that helps me with running my exhibitions. Those are just the drawings I left them with to give them an idea of how I was going to present my last exhibition." He explains proudly. Maxine puts the sketchbook down and starts serving up the dish that she's made. Gerard takes in the scent of the food whilst he pulls out a chair for her to sit down on. He takes a seat opposite her and they tuck into the pasta.

"This is great! I didn't know you were so good at cooking!" He says, playfully punching her arm. She wriggles away, smiling and blushing at his compliments. "This was me and my granddad's favourite thing to cook together." She says to him. He glances at her, not knowing what to say. He doesn't want to upset her, so he just grabs her hand and smiles. 

"It's okay you know, I don't mind talking about him." She rubs the back of his hand. "Well he was clearly an amazing chef!" He jokes, gaining a giggle from Maxine. He goes to ask a question, but decides against it when he sees her smiling. It would kill him if her smile faded at something that he says. He looks down frowning, trying to think of a way to quickly change the conversation before she gets upset. Maxine looks at him and reaches over the table to lift his head up. 

"Gee, what's wrong?" She says worryingly. "I don't want to upset you." He replies, looking into her eyes. "It's okay, I don't mind honestly." She reassures him. Gerard hesitates for a moment, "How did you get over it?"

Maxine pauses to think before she answers his question. "I don't know, I never fully got over it more just like come to terms with it. I was only 18 and I was just finishing college. I kinda just focused on getting into uni which took my mind off of it for a bit. But once school ended it actually hit me, sounds stupid but that's when I realised that I was alone. Daisy came and stayed with me for a few weeks and those weeks were fine, but when she had to go back I had no one again." Gerard's heart breaks for her. "But when I found out that I had gotten into a university in London, I felt relieved, again it sounds stupid but I felt like I had done him proud. All he wanted was for me to be successful, so I just focused on my studies and getting a place to live. I didn't want to stay at home anymore because it just hurt, so I decided to start completely new and move to the city! Which worked well, like I said though I'm still not over it, but I can just get on with my life and live with it now." She catches her breath after just blurting everything out. 

"It's not stupid at all, I completely get it. My Grandma was the one who inspired me to be creative, and I'll forever be grateful for that. I know how hard it is, and I can't even imagine how badly it hit you. But I'm so proud of how far you've come Max, and I know he is too." Maxine sheds a tear at his words, she knows he's right. He wipes her tear and she smiles into his hand. 

"Y'know, he raised the most beautiful girl that I've ever laid my eyes on!" He says with a smirk. Maxine laughs shyly at him, using his hand to cover her face. He removes his hand and stares deeply at her, softly smiling as he bites his lip. 

"Stop it!" She playfully hits him the same way he did to her earlier. He laughs and throws his hands up in the air sarcastically. They finish eating and Gerard cleans up whilst Maxine continues looking through his sketchbook. She looks at all of his sketches and is intrigued by a picture of a cat. "This is so pretty Gee!" She walks over to him and points at the drawing. It's a sketch of a cat amongst some flowers. 

"Thank you! I did that when I went on holiday one year, I liked how peaceful the cat looked so I drew it." 

"Gee this whole sketchbook is cool, there's so much random stuff in here!" Maxine says, still flicking through the pages whilst wandering around the kitchen. 

"Yeah I take that sketchbook with me everywhere, it's sort of like a representation of me and my life I guess!" Maxine enjoys looking through, it's quite interesting seeing what he would get up to during his day through his drawings. 

"What about recently?" She notices that the most recent sketches are the ones of his studio that he done for his exhibition. "Well, I've had other things keeping me occupied." He grins at her. She closes the sketchbook whilst walking over to him, places it back on the kitchen counter and wraps her arms around his neck. He lifts her up and she wraps her legs around his waist, she pecks him on the lips and smiles at him before jumping down. 

Gerard looks at her, jokingly shaking his head in disappointment. "You're such a tease!"