Memories (frerard)

5

I stood on the front porch for a moment longer as I waved off Hayley and Ray, before closing the door and heading back into the kitchen to Gerard.

"So, Gerard. Do you have a place to stay?" I asked him curiously, his arrival being pretty sudden by the sounds of things.

"Uhm" he started, glancing over to mom who was putting away the dishes.

"Gerard's staying here for a few days. In the guest room until his parents are back in town" She answered for him, my eyes glancing back over to where he was sat by the table wearing a sheepish smile.

"you're okay with that, right?" He asked nervously, obviously not getting the hint that I was.
"If not I get it, Mikey and my parents are back in town soon and I could probably find a way into the house earl-"

"Gerard, calm down. Of course I'm okay with it." I said, cutting off his rambling with a laugh.

"You wanna head upstairs?" I asked while grabbing a drink from the fridge. "I can help you settle in and unpack some of your things if you want."

I looked back at the raven haired boy to see him nod and stand up from his seat. I walked out of the kitchen, Gerard following close behind.
As we walked up the stairs, I wondered how me and Gerard were with each other as kids. Obviously we were close for him to have made the effort to come back. But I wondered what it was like; what we argued over and laughed about together.

"Hey, Gerard?" I began as we walked into the guest room.

"Yeah?" He replied, moving over to the bed as he began unpacking his things from the few bags on it that he must've placed as I let Hayley and Ray out.

"Tell me more about us. Before the accident." I asked, sitting down on the floor in front of him on the bed and helping by unpacking another bag.

"What do you mean? Like some stories of what we would do?" He asked, obviously not understanding why I had asked the question. I didn't blame him though, it was a bit out of the blue.

"Yeah, I guess. I just wanted to know since, ya know... I can't really remember." I chuckled dryly, sorting the folded clothes so they were easier to put away.

He furrowed his brow as he concentrated, a light expression in his features.

"When we were twelve, the old fair ground was holding a firework display for New Years." He started, moving onto the last bag and shoving the empty one under the bed.
"But we'd done something bad so our moms wouldn't take us. They did however let me stay here for the night but only because we begged them until they gave up." He laughed to himself quietly as he relived the memory and I couldn't help but find myself smiling with him.

"Anyways, later that night you were pretty bummed about not being able to go. And me not being able to stand seeing you upset had to change that, so we snuck out." I smiled along as I noticed Gerard used a lot of hand gestures while speaking, making the story sound more suspenseful than what it actually was.
"We ended up climbing down from your window and then walked the entire way there. It was pretty close to 12 by the time we arrived since everyone was gathering closer to where the fireworks were." As he said that I felt myself get fainter and I knew what was going to happen. Soon enough, blackness had once again taken over my vision.

~Flashback~

We walked through the gates of the fairground, the night chill causing me to shiver, especially with the lack of coat I had. Gerard seemed to notice though and pulled me closer to him, sharing his body warmth as we followed the crowd.

Just as we reached the display, people seemed to be checking their phones for the exact time, not wanting to miss the countdown. I felt some nerves in the pit of my stomach but they were just from the excitement I had for the fireworks.