There was just something about the coast New Jersey that was indeed fucking terrifying. There was a great difference from transitioning from a slightly warm college dorm to a fucking freezing small crack house bungalow in New Jersey. And that difference was trading in not sleeping til 5am studying and in a warm dorm with a peaceful yet below zero temperature sleep in a shit house that smelled like weed.
But Gerard way the local smoker and Ioanna toro the official mom friend , traded in their warm dorms with a freezing house to get away from their problems. Three years ago Gerard and Ioanna had been dorm mates and on goes the story of Frank,Gerard, Jason, Pete, Patrick,Josh,Tyler , Ryan , and Brendon. Ioanna had stolen Gerard's half life savings and car keys and drove off into the city the exact same day she fled to the coast. She slept in his car parked in an abandoned parking lot with a certain boys arm draped around her shoulder. As cliche as it seems there's a twist in this plot. Ioanna soon woke at exactly 3:46 am having had a dream of horrid things that would never be described with words. She had woken the boy on the drivers seat and had rapidly told him what she had dreamt. the boy looked in worry and hugged her and unsurprisingly , she cried. Ioanna let out the bottled emotions she had had in basically all her life. They talked. Then kissed. Then Ioanna let him slip. She couldn't take the pressure and told him to get out the car. The boy with long brown curls questioned why. Ioanna only repeated her words louder. The boy complied and she started the car speeding off in the direction they had came from. Leaving the boy stranded in the snow.
The boys name was Jason. And Jason had cried, shivering in the snow because Ioanna toro had indeed kept his jacket as a memory.
Ioanna parked in an alley way and with shivering hands called Gerard. Gerard leant up against a marble countertop at least a mile away had bags under his eyes and listened to every word she had cried out. Gerard packed everything he could leaving his room bare and dragging on ioanna's suitcase. And that's how Gerard left everything behind because secretly he too needed a break from his own life .
They sped to the coast of New Jersey where they could walk and see the ocean whenever they pleased. The first week they slept on the streets, hoods over their heads. The second week they rented a shitty bungalow. Third week Ioanna didn't sleep and Gerard started to get on drugs . Fourth week everything wore off and life felt as if they were in the first year of high school all over again ,just two best friends in a shitty home without a worry in the world.
Three years later they were still stuck in the same state as they were before, regret and denial. But that Christmas morning would change life around for both of them bringing back nostalgia , memories, and the all too familiar memory of the blue sweater Ioanna toro wore like it was against her religion not to.
