Say Your Prayers and Light a Fire
Chapter 1: ¡Viva la Gloria!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own American Idiot, or Gloria, or anything here (as much as I'd love to)
It's not right. It's not right. He'd been loyal to St. Jimmy for years, then this new kid comes in for no more than a week and Jimmy starts playing favorites. It isn't FAIR! That kid didn't deserve to be near Jimmy, let alone take up all his attention. Andrew knew he had to do something, something to make Jimmy feel the same pain that he felt. He knew what to do. Jimmy had one weakness. Andrew just had to pay her a visit…
Gloria opened the door to her apartment and stepped inside. She walked over to her patio and opened the door, letting a warm breeze blow in. A figure came up behind her and put a knife up to her throat. Gloria gasped and tried to look behind her.
"Don't move," a voice said. He wrapped his other hand around her torso and pulled her back into the apartment.
"What do you want?" she growled.
"To send a message," the man said. "If you cooperate, it'll be less painful." Gloria scoffed and brought her right elbow hard into his gut. She turned and brought the heel of her hand into his nose, hearing the crunch of a bone. The man swung at her with the knife but she ducked, getting a long, shallow cut along her arm, and tripped him. He lay facedown on the apartment floor. Gloria straddled his back and grabbed his head by the hair, momentarily lifting his head off the ground before smashing it back onto the wooden floor.
"I guess my brother forgot to warn you about me, did he? His mistake." She lifted his face and smashed it to the floor again. "You know what he used to call me? Demon. You wanna know why?" Lift, smash, she could hear his already broken nose shattering even more. "Because I can make your life a living fucking hell." She grabbed the knife off the floor and held it to the back of his neck, then fished her phone from her pocket and dialed her brother's number.
"Hey, Saint. You might want to stop by my apartment. I got something you'll wanna see."
When Jimmy opened the door to his sister's apartment, he was welcomed by a strange – though not too surprising – sight. Andrew lay facedown on the floor, his face bloodied and his nose offset. Gloria sat over him predatorily, a knife pressed against the back of his neck. Jimmy sighed.
"Only you, Dee…" She smirked and stood up, setting one foot firmly on Andrew's back, the knife still clutched in her hand. "We should probably get him to the hospital," Jimmy mused.
"I don't care where you take him," Gloria said, "just get him out of here. He's getting blood all over my floor…" Jimmy lifted Andrew off the ground and dragged him to the couch. Andrew moaned slightly with pain. "Aw, now you're getting it on the couch! Come on, Saint!" Jimmy rolled his eyes and pulled out his cell phone.
"Hey, Theo. Listen, I need you to come by Gloria's apartment. We need a ride to the hospital." There was a pause and Jimmy smiled. "No, no, she's fine. It's Andrew. Alright, see you in a couple minutes." He hung up the phone and looked over at Gloria, who was perched on the arm of the couch, glaring at Andrew. "So, what exactly happened?"
"I came home from work and this – " she jerked her head in Andrew's direction "– was waiting for me, with a knife." She held up the one she had gripped in her hand. "So, I took care of him," she said matter-of-factly.
"I was worried he'd do something crazy. He's been acting really strange lately…. You know, in a way I was hoping he would come here." Gloria looked puzzled.
"Why?" Jimmy smirked.
"Because I knew you'd do this."
When Theo reached the apartment Gloria was scrubbing the blood off the floor and Jimmy stood next to the couch, holding the knife.
"You're paying to get my couch cleaned, Saint," Gloria said, not looking up from the floor. Theo sighed in relief. When Jimmy had called he was worried that something might have happened to Gloria. She looked up and smiled at him. "Hey, Theo." She hugged him tightly then set back to work on the floor.
"What happened?" Theo asked.
"Andrew was waiting in the apartment to attack Gloria," Jimmy told him.
"Stupid son of a bitch," Gloria muttered.
"AS you can see, it obviously didn't work." Theo looked over at Andrew who lay sprawled on the couch. "We need to take him to the clinic. We should probably put something on Dee's arm, too…" Gloria rolled her eyes as Theo looked at the long cut down her arm.
"Then we should get going now, before he gets anymore of his blood on my couch," Gloria said, and glared in Jimmy's direction. She took the knife from him, closed the blade, and slipped it in her back pocket, heading for the door. Jimmy and Theo lifted Andrew's body off the couch and headed for the door.
Once they were in the clinic, Andrew was rushed into a room, no questions asked. They were used to getting beatings, usually from rival gangs or dealers.
"Excuse me, do you know how to get blood stains out of fabric?" Gloria asked a passing nurse, who looked at her with alarm. Gloria indicated her arm. "I, uh, cut myself – accident, of course – and I needed to get the stain out." The nurse found a few gaps in her story, but told her anyway. "Thank you," Gloria said and walked back over to Theo and Jimmy.
"You gonna get your arm wrapped?" Jimmy asked her. She shrugged.
"I'll do it when I get home. It's not that bad." Jimmy rolled his eyes and turned to the doctor who was taking care of Andrew.
"He should be fine," the doctor said, "but it's a pretty bad beating. You can come check on him tomorrow."
"Thanks," Jimmy said, and the three of them walked out of the free clinic. Theo dropped Jimmy off at his apartment building, then drove over to Gloria's.
"So," Gloria began. "You know, this whole experience just left me feeling, uh, unsafe. I would feel a lot better if maybe I had someone staying with me tonight." Theo smiled.
"I'd be happy to help," he told her. She smiled and kissed his cheek.
"I knew you would."