Escalators {Frerard}[COMPLETED]

➳obliquity

❝Obliquity- a deviation from the truth intended to obscure or confuse❞

Yawning hugely, I stirred awake the next morning with only a faint nagging pain as a remnant of my previous hangover. Every muscle in my body was stiff with under-use, from spending the majority of yesterday in bed. Bizarrely, the idea of work today was almost a pleasant one, a welcome reason not to have to spend any more time in this house, which was subject to the worst atmosphere I'd been involved in for quite a while.

There'd been another argument last night after I'd locked myself in my bedroom and- granted probably childishly- refused to come out. It wasn't with my mom, though. It was with Ryan. The idea of having my little brother yelling under the door about how I was upsetting everyone and had turned into a 'rubbish' version of myself wasn't one that I particularly relished. Therefore, six and a half hours standing in the mall was, pathetically and horribly, a very, very welcome distraction.

My uniform was lying in a crumpled heap at the end of my bed, where it had been chucked at the end of the last shift and left for two days. Seeing as I had no experience with an iron and didn't want to sustain grievous harm, I decided that I would just have to deal with the creases. Rob might see his ass, but at the moment I couldn't care less.

Shoving my phone down into my pocket, I made my way down the stairs and left, straight out of the front door without bothering to say goodbye. Halfway down the street I realised suddenly that that was the first time I'd ever done that in a really long time. Since the Iron Maiden immersion accident- when I was close to dying pretty much- I'd made it so I never left the house with at least saying goodbye. Although it was biting at me as I crossed the road, my pride wasn't about to let me go back and apologise. Childishness seemed prevalent at the moment, and ironically; I didn't care.

My eyebrows were knitted together in annoyance as I walked, my mood doing well in making sure the usual old-people conversations didn't happen. I was suddenly aware, however, of my phone ringing. It wasn't a very common occurrence so I figured it was probably just my mom, asking if I'd left yet. Nevertheless, I pulled it out of my pocket and checked for the caller ID, pleasantly surprised when I saw it wasn't my mom at all, but Gerard.

"Hello?" I asked, aware rather painfully that my voice sounded a little accusing. With the mood I was in, anything I said would have sounded accusing.

"Good morning," Gerard replied, sounding typically bright, despite the fact it was horribly early.

I sighed, and tried to right my tone of voice. "Good morning. It's early isn't it?"

I knew that if I'd have been Gerard, I sure as hell wouldn't have been awake at this time. In all honesty it was probably a bit offensive seeing as he was wasting a sizable amount of time that could be spent in bed, when some of us had to go to work.

Wow okay, I needed to tone down the asshole if I wanted to have a decent day, despite the awfulness that I'd left at home.

"Nah, I've been awake ages. Thinking, actually."

I couldn't say exactly why that phrase made my stomach sink so spectacularly. Maybe the knowledge of an underlying possibility that he could agree with my mother at any point, and as pathetic as it made me sound; the fact he could cut me off completely whenever he decided to. Although I didn't think he would, but paranoia was a side-effect when I'd not had enough sleep. And it was a pain in the ass.

"About what?" I asked carefully.

"If you'd want to come somewhere and do something with me today." The way he said it near damn broke my heart, as though it was the highest honor he could imagine, to spend time with me, and he would like nothing more. That wasn't helped any by the fact I knew I had to decline, seeing as the looming threat of work was still hanging over my head. I found it odd; how the prospect of work had seemed like a good one when I'd been leaving, and now it was the worst one currently possible because all I wanted to do was whatever Gerard had been planning.