Chapter 16 – What Happened? (Gerard’s POV still)

I wake up and find that Jacquie is awake and watching TV with Ray.
“Heya” I say to them.
“Ooo sleeping beauty has awaken” Jacquie replies.
“ Yeah from your kiss” Ray laughs.
“You kissed me?” I asked Jacquie.
“No” she giggled “Rays joking”. We hear a groan.
“Somebody’s waking with a hangover” she laughs.

She gets up and walks to Matt’s room letting herself in. Ray follows, as do I. Matt is lying on the bed holding his head.
“Oww” he yells.
“MORNING MATT” Jacquie yells with a smile.
“Ow shut up be quite please” he says holding his head.
“This is pay back for last night” she said walking out the room.
“Payback for what?” Matt asks sitting up “What happened?”
“Let’s just say she’s not really happy with you and your antics when you’re drunk” Ray says.
“I GOT NAKED” He yells and then holds his head again “Oww”.
“No you kissed her right on the lips and wouldn’t let go until she pinched you” I said angrily.
“Oh man really?” he asks trying to remember what happened.
“Yes” I say and then walk out the room.
“Man” I hear him moan.

I walk to Jacquie who is in the kitchen getting some tablets for Matt.
“Why are you getting him that after what happened last night?” I ask her.
“Well he is a friend and he didn’t know what he was doing, so yeah,” she said filling a glass with water and then walking back into Matt’s. I walk in after her. She hands him the tablets and water.
“Thanks so much Jacquie, I’m so sorry about last night” Matt replies taking it out of her hands and swallowing it.
“It’s okay,” she said giving him a hug and taking the glass off of him.
She walks out the room. Matt holds his head again.
“CRAP” he yells.
“Man get over it, your fault we told you to stop” Ray says.
“We wish you did,” I mumble under my breath making sure he didn’t hear. Matt lies down on his bed again.
“We better leave him to wallow in his pain and suffering” Ray says with a laugh.
“Shut up” Matt says.

Ray and I leave the room and find Jacquie on the couch watching TV again.
“So what are we doing today?” she says.
“Guys I don’t mean to alarm you but it’s MONDAY AND IT’S 10AM” Rays says. Jacquie looks at Ray and laughs as do I.
“What?” he asks.
“Public Holiday” I reply with a laugh. Ray goes a bit red.
“Oh” he says and plops himself on the couch. I join them.


2 hours later … (Jacquie POV)
“All we have done is watch TV” Ray complains.
“Well Mr Adventurous What do you wanna do?” I ask him. Gerard lets out a cute giggle and covers his mouth. Ray looks at him and glares and then looks at me “I dunno shopping?” he says.
“Okay Ray that’s like the first time I’ve ever heard a guy say shopping as something to do” I say “Are you… Gay?” I laugh.
“Well yes” he says. I look at him serious.
“No” he says laughing. I laugh too and Gerard joins in.

Matt walks in looking much better than what he was before.
“Better?” I ask.
“Yeah” he replies and sits next to me. I move a bit down still not really wanting to sit next to him after last night. He looks at me and then at Gerard who looked quite mad.
“Gerard” he says.
“What?” Gerard replies.
“I need to talk to you” Matt says.
“Ray I think we should leave them to talk” I say to Ray.
Ray nods and gets up. I get up to and walk out the house.
“What do you think they are talking about?” Ray asks me as we sit on the driveway.
“I don’t really know but I think we should let them talk” I reply.

I pick up my board and Ray picks up a random one. We skate up and down the road for a while. Ray had only really just gotten it.



20 minutes later…
Matt's house door slams open and Gerard walks out. Ray and I get off the boards. Gerard is walking to his place. Matt walks out of his.
“Gerard I said I’m sorry” He yells.
Gerard opens his door and goes in. Matt looks at us and we look at him. Matt turns away and walks back into his place closing the door after him.
“This is probably the first time I’ve seen that happen between Gerard and Matt” Ray says.
“Really?” I ask.
“Yeah” he says.
“You go see Matt I’ll go see Gerard okay?” I say.
“Yeah” he says and walks to Matt’s. I walk to Gerard’s.

‘What the hell happened?’ I think to myself. I knock on the door. Mikey answers.
“Hey Jacquie” he says.
“Can I see Gerard” I ask.
“Yeah he’s in his room” he says and lets me in.
I walk to Gerard’s room and knock. There’s no answer.
“Gerard It’s me,” I say trying to open the door but its locked. There’s still no answer.
I continue trying.

Gerard’s POV
“Gerard please” I hear Jacquie ask for me to let her in. ‘I should let her in’ I think to myself. My phone rings. I look at it (Ray: Calling). I answer.

“Hey” I say and then open the door letting Jacquie in after feeling a little guilty and then close the door after her.
“Hey” she says and then stops realising I’m on the phone.

“Hey” Ray says, “Umm Gerard What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say to him.
“It does he has already started drinking and he won’t talk to me Gerard” he says.
“I hope he dies,” I say.
“Gerard you don’t mean that” Ray says. I hang up.

“So what are you doing here?” I ask Jacquie and sit. She sits next to me.
“I’m checking you're okay, what’s up with you and Matt?” she asks.
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” I say.
“Okay…” she says until she is interrupted by her phone “One Minute” she says pulling out her phone.

“Hey” she says. She’s quiet for a bit and then she looks a bit upset.
“Okay I’ll be right over” she says.
She hangs up the phone.
“Hey Gerard that was Ray, Matt’s drinking again and he can’t stop him please come help” she says.
“Why should I?” I say.
“Come on please” she says.
“I’m looking after you not him though,” I say getting up.

We walk out the house and to Matt’s. Jacquie opens the door and walks in I reluctantly walk in too. Matt’s is sitting on the couch drinking from a bottle, Ray yelling at him to stop.
“Matt please stop drinking” Jacquie says. Matt turns around and sees her then me.
“Gerard” he says. I look at him angrily.
Jacquie goes over to him and takes the bottle out of his hands.
“THAT’S IT NO MORE DRINKING” She yells.
Matt gets up and attempts to take it from her I move a little ready to stop him but he stops as soon as he sees me move.
He walks a little closer to me “Gerard buddy I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry” he says.
“Yeah Yeah” I say.
“What happened?” Jacquie asks. There is silence.
“Are you gonna say it?” I say. He looks at his feet.
“Well?” I ask.
“Don’t,” he says, “Please don’t”.
“Just say it already” Ray blurts out.
Matt breaths heavily “I wasn’t completely drunk last night” he says slowly.
“WHAT?” Jacquie yells.
“I was trying to annoy Gerard most of yesterday and I didn’t think I was gonna go so far and actually kiss you okay” he says in a quick out burst.
I look at Jacquie “You mean…” she says “arhhhhh” she moans.
She walked off grabbing her bag as she left.
“Jacquie I’m sorry” Matt yelled. Matt looked at me. I shook my head. Ray looked like he was gonna punch something. He walked out of the house too.
“You happy now NOBODY LIKES ME,” Matt says.
“Why the hell did you do that anyway?” I ask him.
“Ever since that chick has been around all you do is talk to her and not me” he says.
“Not true” I say “I spend heaps of time with you”.

I walk out the house I should go check on Jacquie and Ray.
Jacquie is sitting at the front of her place with Ray. I run over to them.
“You alright?” I ask.
“I’m okay, I’m just locked out of my house and my friend used me as a joke” she says.
Ray looks at me.
“I told you I’m not ever doing it again,” I say to him.
“Huh” Jacquie says. I breathe in then out.
“Do you really need to get in your house?” I ask.
“Well yeah” she says.
“Okay fine” I say.
I walk to the side of the fence and jump over. I walk around the back looking for something metal. There we go an old coat hanger. I pick it up and jump over again. I walk to the door and bend the coat hanger and shove it in the side of the door until I hear a click the door opens.
“There you go” I say.
“How did you do that?” she asks.
“Matt and I used to be really bad kids and hang out with bad people,” I say.
“Oh that explains a lot” she says “Thanks”.
She walks in and so do Ray and I. Jacquie goes into her room and I close the door after us and then Ray and I sit down. Jacquie comes back.
“So what are we gonna do now?” she say obviously trying to make the day light up.
There’s a knock on the door. Jacquie walks over to the door and opens it. It’s Matt. She lets him in.
“What do you want?” she asks.
“I’m really sorry guys seriously I didn’t mean for that to happen” he says.
I pretend to ignore him even though I’m listening to everything he is saying.
“Come on please I’m sorry, I wish I could go back and change it” he says.
“But you can’t” I say quietly but loud enough so everyone can hear.
“I know listen Gee I really regret it you guys are my best friends and I thought that you were just gonna ignore me” he says. I turn and look at him.
I smile a bit “Ignore you, my best friend, the dude who has been with me since year 1?” I say.
“Well yeah” he replies.
“I never could” I say.
“Really? We cool again?” he asks.
I look at Jacquie and Ray and expect them to be saying no but they nod.
“Yeah” I say. He comes over to me and gives me a hug.
“Umm you're squishing me” I say. He lets go.
“We cool guys?” he says to Jacquie and Ray.
“Yeah” they both say. He smiles “sorry guys”.
“Build a bridge and get over it” Jacquie says jokingly and hugs Matt.
Ray smiles “I think its time to shop” he says.
We all look at him.
“Hey I need to buy my aunt a birthday present” he says.
“Sure” Jacquie laughs, “Lets go I wanna buy some clothes”.
Jacquie writes a note and leaves it on the bench and grabs her wallet.

We walk out and close the door and walk to the shopping mall. Gerard and I go into the music store looking though the CD’s, while Matt and Ray went off and looked in random shops.
“Whoa this place has like nearly every CD ever made” I say to Gerard.
“Yeah” he replies. I look over at another store.
“Hey Gerard I’m gonna go in that store over there” I say to him.
“Sure” he says looking at a CD.

I walk over and go inside. OMG its like a Goth shop.
“Hey” someone says to me.
“Hey” I say.
“Do you need any help?” she asks I relies she must work here.
“No thanks” I say.
“Well if you need any help just ask also there’s big discounting as this shop is going to be moved to another place”.
“Oh why?” I ask.
“Not many people buy this sorta stuff here” she says with a sigh.
“Oh” I say.
She walks off. I look around Oh My God I love everything here. Someone taps me on the shoulder. “arhh” I yelp not excepting it. I look and see its Gerard.
“Hey” I say.
“Hey I haven’t seen this place before” he says.
“Neither have I, obviously” I say with a giggle.
We look around. I buy a couple of jackets, shirts, pants, shoes and accessories. Gerard buys a jacket and pants.
“Who the hell is gonna carry all that for you?” Gerard asks with a laugh.
“I didn’t think of that” I say.
My phone rings. (Mum: Calling) I answer.
“Hey mum” I say.
“Hey hun” she says “I got your letter, need a ride home?”
“Well actually yes” I say.
“Cool I’ll be there in a couple of minutes” she says and then I hang up.

“Okay my mum is gonna be here in a couple of minutes to pick us up” I say to Gerard.
“Okay” he says and pulls out his phone and calls Ray and tells him to meet us out the front of the shop we were in.

Ray and Matt appear. Ray is holding a bag and Matt isn’t.
“Hey Matt” I say he looks at me and realizes I’m holding bags.
“I’m guessing you want me to help” he says.
“Yep” I say handing him a couple, which he takes off me. I smile at him.

We walk to the front of the shopping mall and walk outside. My mum’s car pulls up. She hops out and looks at the guys.
“The guys aren’t all carrying your stuff are they?” mum asks.
“Matt and I are carrying my stuff,” I say.
Mum shakes her head and laughs.
She opens the boot and puts my stuff in there; the guys decide to keep their stuff with them. We all get into the car and my mum drives us home.