AKA Gerry Drew-Danvers

“Congratulations on having stated the obvious.”

“Right.” He sighed. “Right, right, eight.” Hands in his pockets, he leaned against the door. “What- uh- whatcha got goin’ on in here?”

“ YOU – YOU’RE WRONG. ” THE words are soft, but sound like a GUNSHOT ringing in her own ears. The Danver-Drew’s words echo in her mind that seems to be a million miles away, filled with thoughts of what to say, to do, of the sour truth that HE knows. Shaking her head, brown locks sway around her face, she offered up a worn smile, blinking in an attempt to focus on the blurry outline of his face. “ You’ve always been my friend – That’s what I need from you right now, please, just look at me?”

He wiped his face with his hand and look back up to her. No tears here, but he was biting his lip. He was formulating the next steps already. He was going to blurt it all out but reconsidered. He then was going to ask if she had tried absolutely everything. But what were all of those papers if not proof of her trying everything. Gerry then was going to ask her about how she was feeling and if she needed anything right this second, but she had already said what she needed. “I’m not going to leave again, okay? I promise.”

“Unless you are here to pay me for or rescue me from this mind-numbing task, go away.”

“This is not the combat building.”

“Laura’s?” Okay, that probably wasn’t what she’d been expecting…but then again, she really didn’t see Gerry too much anymore.  Things had been good until the breakup and then it just got awkward. She’d hated that - the two of them had been friends…  “I’ll walk with you for awhile - but I’m not going any where near alcohol tonight.  I don’t want to have to call for a ride…again.”

“You knowwww, my best friend Laura Kinney?? She’s got the-” Gerry tucked in his middle and ring fingers into his palm with his thumb and imitated Laura’s claws, slashing the air. “She is very graciously allowing me to live on her couch for now until my apartment is ready-,” actually, he could have left last week. “she’s coooool. But yeah, I’m done with alcohol tonight probably.” That’s what he had said an hour ago. “so...burgers?”

“Something like that…mostly trying to wear myself out.”  Adriana might actually kill her if she knew Kim wasn’t just walking off, but…hell, it was some stupid hour of the night, so why not.  And what Adriana didn’t know would hurt Kim.  

“When I want to wear myself out.” He placed his hand on his chin. “I walk to Laura’s, that’s where I’m living right now, instead of Ubering.” But he was exhausted. “You can walk with me if you want. I’m either going there or to Five Guys.”

“I have insomnia, remember?” Granted, it was sporadic and traded with nightmares for causing her to be up at weird hours, but only a handful of people knew about the dreams.  

He did not remember. Gerry was not a man of details. “Right.” Gerry would be more apprehensive if he wasn’t a lil’ tipsy. But no rightfully thrown table chucked his way yet. “So, what? Out and about?”

“Oh god, this is so embarrassing.” Elizabeth let out a small laugh as she didn’t even bother to get up from her epic fall. “How much of that did you just see?”

“I mean I wasn’t going to acknowledge it or anything.” He remained seated, staring at (not actually reading) his book. “But all of it.”

Tommy was sat crosslegged on the floor, concentrating on the pad of paper balanced on his knees. He bit his lip as he was writing, occasionally stopping to read through and correct a mistake that he’d found. He should have known better than to sit in the hallway, but it was quiet there and he needed some space away from the hustle and bustle of the school. He was perfectly content until someone stumbled over him and fell to the floor. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” He panicked, desperately scrambling to help them up. “Are you okay?”

“No worries. Reflexes of a spider and all that.” He tapped his index finger on his forehead. This, really, was the opposite of what had just happened. Gerry turned, not recognizing the voice, it had been some time. “Oh hiiii how ya doin’ Lang? No time no see. You’ve been running around the size of an ant to avoid me, again?” Actually, Gerry had been gone for two years and was once again, acting as if nothing had changed in his absence. 

@gerrydrewd

“It’s nearly two in the morning, what are you doing up?”

“Walk of shame.” He’d gotten asked to leave the bar because it was closing time and was stumbling his way back to Laura’s apartment. So, sure. It was in a way, a walk of shame. “You?”

Laura raised her eyebrow teasingly at him, looking at the phone and actually having an impressed look on her face, “Add in 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale and you’ll have a serious list,” she chuckled. She grinned and sat at the table, running her fingers through her hair and letting out a small sigh, “maybe you should put that last book at the top of the list, read it a couple of times,” she teased, stealing a piece of garlic bread and beginning to eat it when he wasn’t looking.

“Oh, this is temporary. Just wait until I have my own place. Then I’ll only be on your couch every other night.” He turned, catching her with the garlic bread and not particularly caring. They weren’t really say grace kind of kids. He began to place pasta on to plates. “unless you allow me to sleep on your couch forever as a permanent fixture. Could you imagine? It would be like this now but EVERYDAY.”

“You thought you would give me what; an explanation, an excuse? Because so far you haven’t given me any of those.” Her mind was screaming at her to shut up, to push him until he was no longer standing in her living room and close the door on his face like she would have gotten to do had he not decided to sneak into her apartment and give her the surprise of her life. Or one of them. But instead, she looked at him for a very long minute, silence filling the room. “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how you could think so little of me after all those years. I don’t understand how you thought it was better to leave a note than telling me it was over and you were going away. We were friends for fuck’s sake. You just don’t walk out on your friends like that. You don’t do that to someone you supposedly love.” Out of all the things, that was what hurt the most. Knowing that all those years of friendship meant nothing to him. Because they were friends before they were a couple. And they were friends while they were a couple. And even if it would have broken her heart she would have let him go if that’s what he needed. They could have worked it out. They could have gone back to being just Gerry and Adriana, not Gerry and Adriana. Their friendship could have been saved. But now they were just two strangers with a shared past. And that was one of the saddest things two people could be. It hurt as if a part of her had been ripped away. Like a healing wound someone cuts open before it had the chance to properly close. Her eyes fell to the floor and she shook her head, teeth digging into the inside of her check to keep the tears at bay. “No, I missed you. You had my number. You knew where I was. You could have called, send a text or a fucking letter. But you didn’t do any of those things. So don’t come here and tell me you fucking missed me.” The worst part was that she understood it, the need to scape, the urge to leave everything behind and start fresh somewhere else. 

“Don’t hurt myself like this?” she asked, darkly, digging her nails further into the skin. “Would you rather I hurt you? Would you rather I broke things?” Grabbing a plate she let it fall to the floor, the china broking in one thousand tiny pieces, a glass followed, and then other until the carpet was shining with the remainings of what used to be a dish set. “Are you fucking happy now? Or do you want me to throw things at you?” The lasagna flew in the air towards him, along with the bottle of wine and a chair. And the table. And everything she could grab until her strength abandoned her and she fell on her knees, crystal digging into the skin. “I can’t do this. Leave." 

He considered leaving, but this was not the way of Gerry Drew. He was not one to leave when it was appropriate. He let himself in to places. He stayed until he got what he wanted. He hit and he screamed and he fucked and he cried. He was, for the most part, the idiot alpha male villain in every coming of age movie. He was Gerry, and she was Adriana. They weren’t docile people.

“oh god dammit Adriana. Light yourself on fire, why don’t you?” He fussed as the bottle of chardonnay broke on the wall just to his right. He stepped out from behind the flipped table to see her on her knees, asking him to go. 

He huffed, rolling his eyes as he headed toward the kitchen entry way. She could have mistaken him for finally leaving, but he was just going for his backpack and the first aid kit within it. Gerry was fuming, he’d pumped himself up for a week about how he deserved what she had for him and he would take it in silence. Or at least in a calm, collected manner.  

He knew what he was going to next was going to get him hit. Or cursed at and questioned even more. With some struggle, he wrestled her fingers from her palm, exposing the fresh injury. God, he hated blood. He was now kneeling next to her. “You’re wrapping this or I’m wrapping this and then I’ll go.” Probably true. He loved her, he had loved her, he loves her. She hates him in some deep way he can hardly fathomed because he had never been wronged. She had never, would have never, wronged him. He knew that. He knew that he had fucked up. But we cannot take back our fuckups despite how much we want to.

“ GERRY PLEASE – YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT I, I was, ” Lies and excuses play on her rosy lips, shoulders shaking as her breaths became ragged, and only as she is pulled closer to him does she understand why her words die to easily on her tongue. “ I am sick, the type of sick that doesn’t get better, the type that – That only hurts those around you and I desperately wanted to keep that from happening.”

Her gaze has gone blank and glazed, but her hands don’t stop clinging to his shirt, holding him, not wanting to see his look of terror, disappointment or a million other emotions that were too much. She blinks once, twice, three times in an effort to hold back her tears, but they begin to fall despite her attempt. “ Please – Say something.” She murmurs.

Gerry had been backed against a wall, looked some sort of doom or despair in the face, and always managed to get out of it. Many called it dumb luck. Many said that he was just really, really lucky he was able to crawl up walls. Up the wall and away from the problem. Regardless, he always got out of it. He always made it out alive. Not everyone was lucky but, his people were always okay. As he continued to hold her, he didn’t know what to say next. He couldn’t say something. Where was the going up the wall with this one?

fffffuuuuucccckkkkkk

Okay. He was never one to hide his emotions, she knew that, but he had to hold it together. Getting upset would only make things worse for the both of them. in through his nose, out through his mouth. in through his nose, out through his mouth. He had left her under the assumption that she would be there when he came back. “I do everything all wrong, I say everything wrong. Let me just, do this for a minute, okay?”

“Sorry…” She said, tapping someone on the shoulder who was now sat in her seat. “I think I left my e-mails logged in and onscreen by mistake.” Adore added, playing with a lock of her blonde hair.

“Already saw. There’s about twelve million spam emails from Victoria Secret and a Barnes and Noble discounted membership offer. And another from- I didn’t recognize the name.” He shrugged, clicking through the buzzfeed quiz he was taking. It was seriously time to get to the bottom of which type of dog he would be. “I clicked out of it though, you’re fine.”

@gerrydrewd

She had kept her eyes on him from a distance before she finally spoke up. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, handsome.” The goddess smirked, still keeping her dark gaze on him. It was just like her to watch others as in her opinion, she was the queen around here 

“Oh, it’s fine, I’ve got a permit.” Gerry did not have a permit. He had a crumpled piece of paper in his wallet that had ‘I can do what I want’ typed onto it. “You know, it’s very kind of you to be watching out for me like this. Thank you.” the sarcasm seeped through his tone as he returned to his work.

 GENIEVE HAS KNOWN FOR MOST of her short like that fate was rarely kind & liked to make those who have suffered, suffer far worse if that was possible. ( Of course, she had now made it her mission to take anything life had to give her – And make it work, just to spite the fates. ) It was what she wanted to remember, to believe as she walked across campus with a stack of reports on her health – That seemed to be deteriorating.  The thoughts that raced through her mind went a million miles an hour, wanting to hide them, burn them, pretend they were lying, it was easier. But life was so rarely ready to be easy. Her foot caught on a curb, lurching forward, she barely catches herself, but as she does the papers are scattered everywhere.

A gasp leaves her parted lips, forcing herself to catch herself on her hands. Kneeling, she barely has time to register that someone is picking up the papers. “ Don’t! I’ll take care – “ It all stops. “Gerry,” His name is a painful gasp, one that shakes her very core. // @gerrydrewd

Gerry was leaving his last class of the day (which happened to be his favorite lesson so far, breaking and entering without leaving a trace) when he saw his friend walking toward him. Well, not toward him, but in the general direction. Quickly. Why were people always walking so fas- she fell. Now he was walking quickly toward her. Placing a hand on her elbow and taking her hand in the other, he gently helped her up. “Oh, shit, I’ll grab your papers.”

He kneeled and began to stack. Gerry wasn’t much of a reader and he hadn’t intended to look at the contents. But when he did look, he expected to see large science words like algorithm and placebo and cognitive dissonance. Instead, words like poisoning and phrases like deteriorating condition stood out. 

Frowning, it didn’t take long for him to skim what he needed to infer what was going on. “Ginny, you’re si-.” Adriana’s words flashed through his head do you ever listen to yourself speak? God why was he so stupid. This wasn’t about him. Why was he always making it about him? Too afraid he’d say more dumb shit, and too afraid of letting her see his face drain of color, led to him pulling her into a hug.