A Way Back Home | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Two)

Is There Really A Brightside? (37)

On day two of my three days before being sent to Hell, I woke up late in the morning with Emerald in my arms. Her presence was comforting throughout the night and I didn't even find myself bolting up, covered in sweat thanks to another nightmare. For once, they stayed away.

When she felt me stir, she rolled over. "Finally, you're awake."

"How do you always wake up so early?" Unlike her bubbly voice, mine is groggy.

"I don't know," she says, kicking the blankets off us. "I'm just a morning person, I guess."

I'll never understand how someone can open their eyes in the morning and not feel at least a little sad that they couldn't have slept for a while longer. Even five more minutes can do some days, but other days I wish I could stay in bed until the sun goes down again.

"You amaze me," I say, getting up after her and snaking my arms around her waist from behind. "What do you wanna do today?"

"Well I'm gonna get a quick shower, but the rest is up to you," she says, then suggests, "We could go out for breakfast?"

"Good idea, Love." I kiss her cheek and then she goes off to my bathroom.

I quickly get dressed in something less elaborate than yesterday's outfit, simple jeans and one of Gerard's hoodies I stole months ago. When I go downstairs to find him sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, he doesn't even acknowledge that I stole his clothes. He's used to it by now.

"Morning, Eve," he says, taking a sip of his drink. He doesn't look up, his eyes scanning the comics page of a newspaper. "Get a good night's sleep?"

I think back to late last night under the sheets when Emerald's body was pressed up against mine, our lips moving in sync, my fingers tangled in her hair. I can't say I got a full night's sleep, but it was definitely a good one.

I nod. "Yeah, Dad. We're gonna go to the café, okay?"

He peers up at me and I fight off a smirk at the way his eyes are squinting through his tousled morning hair. "The last time you did that some motherfucker dumped a smoothie over your head."

"It's not gonna happen again."

He pushes his chair away from the table and stands up, then wraps me in a tight hug. He kisses the top of my head and mumbles into my hair, "Okay, Evie. Be safe."

• • •

Em and I spent the morning first by going to the café we always used to go to before everything went wrong. We sat in at a table near the front window where the morning sun was streaming in and ate warm muffins, then walked hand in hand with our coffees in silence that would've been comfortable if it wasn't for the dwindling time we had together. We'd concluded that a long distance relationship would have to work and that she'd always wanted to visit Rhode Island anyway.

Why did she want to visit? I'm not sure. I didn't ask, assuming she was just saying that because she always saw the glass as half full. And why does my mother live there of all places? I'm not sure of that, either.

We went to the park. She started walking towards the centre, back to the bench we carved as snowflakes fell gently around us on one of the best nights of my life. It wasn't even two months ago, but somehow it feels like it's been an eternity. Seeing that carving, though, running my fingers over the paint-chipped wood, would be too painful. I don't think I'd ever leave. So, I pulled her off track. Through the woods we went, ducking under branches, following a path that had long overgrown.