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

Some Catching Up to Do (47)

"Holy shit! Way?"

The tone of the person's voice startles me and I jump back, my head snapping up in their direction. When I see them, my mouth falls open.

Raven is stretched out on the couch with their feet up on the low, unsteady looking coffee table in front of it. Their eyes just as wide as mine, their mouth just as gaping.

"No fucking way... Raven?"

In a frenzy, they try and prop themselves up on their hand, but it slips and they fall off the couch with a thud. Ryder steps forward to help them up, but they simply brush the hair from their mouth and jump onto their feet with a wild look in their eye. "This can't be happening right now, this is too much of a coincidence."

I consider asking if they're okay after that fall, but they seem just fine to me, so I ask the more pressing question instead. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? Way, what are you doing here?" Raven asks, approaching me as though they need a closer look at me, like they don't think I'm really standing in front of them. I thought maybe they'd go as far as poking my face to make sure I'm not just a figment of their imagination.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Ryder asks, standing in bewilderment, his eyes jumping between the two of us with a look of utmost confusion on his face.

"We know each other!" Raven and I blurt out at the same time. And although the circumstances in which we met weren't great, and to call the way our brief friendship abruptly ended simply "not great" would be a hilarious understatement, they hug me. The past doesn't matter in this moment. Not even the way we were forced to leave it off, with Frank yelling with fire in his eyes, spitting words that must've cut like knives, "You three should just go back to wherever the fuck you came from and stay away from Eve, or as you call her, Way. Okay? Just fucking leave right now."

"What happened to you? I was so worried, and then eventually I had to accept that I'd never see you again." They speak into my shoulder. "And when'd you get taller than me?"

"That is a long story," I say. "And the getting taller thing just kind of just happened naturally, I guess."

Raven and I sit at opposite ends of the couch, and Ryder shoves the coffee table aside and sits on the floor in front of us. He seems to have completely forgotten about the whole "going exploring" thing, and leans forward, watching us with that intent look I've already gotten used to, ready to hear whatever this long story I've got to tell is all about.

At first, I do nothing but wring my hands in my lap and trace with my eyes the rings left on the surface of the table by cans and mugs of coffee. My gaze flits across the room at a sudden movement, a flash of black and white. "Kitty!" I burst out like a child might on Christmas morning.

"That's Jersey," Raven says, and Ryder crosses the floor on his hands and knees to grab the cat. "And keep your voice down, cause I'm not supposed to have pets in this apartment."

"I'm pretty sure I saw a dead mouse on the stairs on our way up, but you can't have a cat?"

Raven shrugs and mouths, I know right, with wide eyes just as Ryder gently places Jersey in my lap. I stroke her soft head and she leans into me, purring.

"I can't have a cat at home cause my dad— Gerard— is allergic."

"I'd love to hear about your dad's allergies, and all," Ryder interjects, "But I'm still really fucking confused, so if you could get on with the story that'd be rad."

"God, you remind me of Frank," I say, shaking my head.

"I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks that!" Raven exclaims. "Lip ring and all."