Finding a Way | Adopted by Gerard Way

Pretend Wishes

After school on November 21st, also known as my birthday, I get in the passenger side of Mikey's car. "Hi," I greet him. Gerard is probably setting up something extravagant at home for me. I told him I didn't want a party, that it wasn't worth the effort, but he wasn't having any of that.

"Hey, Eve, happy birthday!" Mikey says, quickly leaving the school parking lot as soon as I've shut the car door.

"Thanks," I say flatly.

"How was school?" He asks, not dwelling on the birthday thing. He can always tell when to change the subject with me. It's like he can read my mind.

Even though he's my uncle and everything, we've barely hung out just the two of us. Despite that, I really feel like I can trust him. When people say that I can 'tell them anything,' I usually don't take it too seriously, but with him, I feel like I really could.

"It was crap."

"Why's that?" He asks.

"Well, for starters, I'm pretty sure I'm failing math, and also some guy called Nathan won't leave me alone."

"You mean... he likes you, or something? Or he's picking on you? Cause if he's picking on you, Evelyn, I'll—"

"No, no, don't worry, Mikey. He's just really annoying." Annoying is an understatement, though. In math class today, Nathan decided to raise his hand. I didn't think anything of it until I heard him say, "No, Sir, I don't know the answer, but I'm pretty sure Evelyn does."

It turns out I did not know the answer and I humiliated myself by guessing the number seven. We were doing trigonometry. The answer was 'isosceles'.

"Teenage boys usually are," Mikey points out.

"Yeah," I breathe, then stare out the window for the rest of the silent car ride home.

When we get there, he makes sure I go in the house ahead of him, and upon entering the living room I'm greeted by the other guys and a few people I've never met.

"Happy birthday!" They yell in unison.

Gerard steps forward and wraps me in his arms, saying something about how his little girl is growing up.

"Don't hog her, Gee!" Frank nudges him, hugging me in turn.

After that, Gerard takes me to introduce me to his parents. My grandparents. Mikey comes too, greeting them both with a hug.

Forget my birthday, this is just a group of people hugging.

I used to be terrible with physical contact; it would make my skin crawl. Light touches were the worst, though. Now, it's just an inconvenience. I simply don't need a bunch of people wrapping their arms around me, you know?

Anyway, they are really nice and insisted I call them 'Grandma' and 'Grandpa', which, I decide is doable. It feels different to calling Gerard 'Dad' somehow. He probably doesn't even want me to call him that yet anyway.

After meeting them, I was pulled over by Frank to a group of people on the other side of the room. He introduced me to his girlfriend.

"Oh my god, she's so small and adorable," she whispered to him after I shook her hand awkwardly. Or, at least she whispered something along the lines of that. I couldn't hear much over the chatter in the room.

She was very nice, though, and super pretty. Jeez, everyone in this room is more attractive than me... then again, what's new?

Next, I was introduced to Ray's girlfriend. Equally as nice. The handshake was equally as awkward.