Before The Basement Days

Chapter 2: Unknown boy and Mystery girl.

March 18th,1999

8:45 AM

The following morning was bitter. A grumbling Mikey scurried to get ready for school and grumbling from Gerard, who just wanted nothing more than to sleep his entire life away, though he unwittingly crawled free from the holds of his warm, safe bed and threw on some pants. He slid on a sweatshirt and grabbed his messenger bag of school items. He walked all the way to his stop for the train before boarding. He rode to the WTC complex and got off. He sat in front of a random building and drew, mostly focusing on landscape, but drawing a few people too. Just in and half out of the frame of his drawing.

Danielle saw Gerard as she was headed to work and furrowed her eyebrows. She smiled at him and continued walking to her correct building, and towards him. She went inside and worked, however, she did not expect him to still be sitting there when she came out to go get her lunch. He smiled faintly as he added her into his picture. She waved at him and started walking again. He looked up, smiling big and waving at her. "Hey.. Wait!" He shouted after her. She heard him shout and went over. "Dinner?" he asked with a shy grin. "What?" Dani asked, as she didn't hear his question that well.

"Dinner?" He repeated. "Oh uh. Sure I guess. You're not a rapist or anything, right?" Dani asked. She figured she might as well, even if he was and he could lie about it and say no." Nah, I wouldn't hurt a lady. My mom raised me better than that. "He said softly, looking up at her. Dani smiled. "That's sweet. " She said. She wrote down her number for him and gave it to him. He smiled faintly " Tomorrow at 8?" She nodded gently. "Okay..." She murmured,smiling faintly, no, glowing, because little did she know, this was Just the new start that she needed, and little did he know, she was his shiny new thing. She glowed all the way home. Gerard just quietly wondered to class, because little did he know, tomorrow, at 8 PM, his life was going to change.

...Forever...

March 18th,1999

9:31 PM.

Later on that same day, Gerard arrived home. He fixed himself his usual Ramen and coffee. Once he was done, he had a smoke and went to the kitchen where the Land-line was Located. He called the number that the mysterious girl had given him. Dani got up and answered the phone. A faint smile rose to Gerard's face when the ringing stopped and a soft breath could be heard.

"...Hey..."

"Hey, stranger." Dani chuckled. She couldn't help but laugh. She didn't even know this boy's name and he already sounded so shy. She kind of loved it.

"Its Gerard...My name- Its Gerard.."

...Gerard...

The unknown boy finally had a name.

"Well, I'm Danielle..Dani...You can call me Dani..." she said, a faint blush rising to her own face. She smiled to herself. He smiled shyly " I was just wondering if you w-wanted to go to dinner- " he decided more formally to ask,His heart fluttering away,Because wow

...His mystery girl finally had a name...

"Where would you like to go?" asked Gerard,She smiled "Where ever is fine..I kinda just moved here, so I'm kinda new to the area." Danielle said. "Really? Where are you from?" Gerard asked softly. "Monroeville... I moved here because of my job." Danielle explained softly. He smiled faintly " Nice. I live in Jersey. " He said softly. "That's cool too. At least there it doesn't snow like two feet in August." Dani Laughed softly.Gerard joined in on her laughter briefly.

"So, do you have any family?" Dani asked, twirling the phone cord around her nimble fingertips." I have a little brother.." He said gently "Really?"She said "That's nice...", "Yeah...I Love him a lot..","That's good. I have an older sister. She's okay, she just an overachiever." Dani said. "That's ashamed...My brother's great..."He murmured quietly,he sat on a chair that belonged to the dinner table, no plans on hanging up anytime soon."That's good. So I noticed you had a sketchpad with you, are you an art student?" He smiled " Yeah. " He said gently,letting out a breath he didn't realize was being held as he relaxed into the chair. Making sure he wasn't too loud, not wanting to wake up his parents or his younger brother.

"That's pretty cool." She said."Its really nice..."He said softly. "I bet. I wish I had that kind of money to go to art school or something." Dani said. "Same..I Just do really weird things to afford to go..."He said truthfully."Oh. " Dani said. "But I keep my clothes on for said weird things..I don't think anybody wants to see that. They'd pay me to put my clothes back ON" He blushed. He definitely wasn't body-positive.."Oh don't be like that I'm sure you're very decent looking." Dani said, not sure how to tell this perfect stranger that they probably weren't bad looking naked.

" I'm just jiggly"

"And? There's nothing wrong with that." Dani said.

" I'm not in shape..."

"There's nothing really wrong with that either, or at least it doesn't matter to me." Dani said.

"I Just don't like myself."He admits softly, his voice going meek and shy again."Well, I already think I like you, Gerard. " Dani said,Deciding to test the name out on her tongue. An innocent blush crossed his cheeks as he let out a soft, tired yawn. "Hey,I'll talk to you tomorrow,Okay?" Dani said softly."Of course"Gerard said gently."Alright,Goodnight..."She hung up and went to bed. Gerard did the same, except he didn't do much sleeping. He tossed and turned and thought about this. This Dream girl...Who probably would never even like him like that..