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

Time Flies When You're Being Gay (33)

"You're gonna be seventeen tomorrow," I tell Emerald, gazing up at her from where my head lays in her lap. "That's like... almost an adult."

She laughs. "I'm not an adult as long as I still have to sit at the kids table on Christmas."

"Kids table?"

"Yeah, you know, the adults sit at one table and the kids have their own table. My sister even still has to sit there with me and our cousins even though she's almost done college."

"We don't have that," I say, picturing the full table at Grandma and Grandpas. "If we did, the kids table would just be me and Frank throwing bread rolls at each other like snowballs."

Em laughs again and I feel the weight on my chest lift, if only slightly, and the corners of my mouth turn up. One of the first things I noticed about her aside from her eyes, her slightly crooked front tooth she's always been a bit self conscious of whether she lets it show or not, only makes her smile more adorable in my opinion. I can't help but push myself up and connect our lips. Mine are chapped, and hers are perfectly smooth.

My hair is always disheveled no matter how hard I try to get it to stay neat and how annoyed I get when I don't succeed, but hers is always perfect even with the amount of times she's dyed it.

Every outfit she wears I'd describe as hot even if it's just a band T-shirt and skinny jeans, and I live in oversized hoodies I've stolen from Gerard.

She's bright and bubbly, cares too much about her grades, and makes friends easily, and I am, quite frankly, the opposite.

I don't understand how I got to be fortunate enough to have my arms around her now, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Our lips move in sync and suddenly all my worries melt away, the court case out of my mind, Laura Barry's name is even forgotten. I'm transported to some place where it's only Em and I, maybe that bench in the park with snowflakes falling around us, or perhaps stuck in time within the blissful split seconds of our very first kiss when we were both a lot more innocent. Either way, nothing could ruin this—

"Are you two ever gonna go to— woah, didn't meant to interrupt."

Em and I jump apart, my stomach drops when I almost fall off my bed, but she grabs my hand before I do. Flicking hair out of my face that I feel quickly begin to grow hot, I meet Gerard's eyes from where he's leaning in my doorway. He has an amused expression on his face and his arms are crossed over his chest.

I can't blame him; we're the love-stricken idiots who forgot to close the goddamn door.

I brush my fingers through my hair and clear my throat. From the corner of my eye I see Em turn her face away, biting her lip. "You were saying?" I ask Gee as casually as I can manage.

He fights to keep the grin off his face. "Were you two planning on going to sleep tonight?"

I glance at the clock and see that it's nearing 12AM. Time flies, I guess, when you're... being gay?

"It's not that late," I say. "Sleep is for the weak of heart anyway."

Gee laughs. "Guess I'm weak then, 'cause I'm going to bed."

"Me too," Em says through a yawn, hopping off my bed and onto the mattress on the floor next to it. "I'm getting pretty tired, Eve."

That mattress isn't really going to get used, though, we just put it there to keep Gerard from wiggling his eyebrows at us. I'd much rather drift off to sleep with my arms around her than know she's on the floor mere feet away from me.

"G'night," Gee says and flicks the lights of, leaving the door open just a crack. He goes off down the hall then, but when I listen closely he definitely didn't go to his bedroom. The unmistakable sound of his office door clicking shut from the opposite side of the hallway tells me he's probably going to be up for a while more, writing, or something.