"Will you hurry up!" Eric yelled impatiently while Gerard scurried across the room with a pile of papers in his right hand and a cup of deliciously smelling coffee in another one. His face is flushed red from all the running as he tries to hand the items to his new temporary boss. Eric merely gestures with his hand towards the table without looking away from his computer screen
"What took you so long? Did you stop by to fix your makeup on the way?" he asks taking a sip of his coffee
"For your information the coffee machine in the lobby broke down and I had to go-" Gerard starts off feeling insulted
"Yeah I don't really care since it's not my problem." the blonde interrupts finally looking up at him. "And I said I take extra sugar in my coffee, I can't drink this. It's your first day and you're already fucking up." he sneers.
Gerard closes his eyes and counts until he's feeling calmer I need this job I need this job he keeps repeating in his head.
"I want you to take these papers upstairs to the 16th floor and get a guy named Phil to sign them, then take these and get them to Bob and-"
"Wait, Bob who?" Gerard asks immediately. Eric stares at him like he's an idiot
"Bryar. Aren't you guys friends or something?" Gerard swallows painfully and answers
"Uh, yeah right." he takes another stack of papers and turns around heading for the elevator. He still manages to hear his boss yell "And get me some proper coffee!" Gerard huffs in annoyance and jams his index finger hard on the bright button with the number 16. He regrets it immediately when he feels sudden pain sear through it from accidentally bending it too much. When he reaches the floor he finds out there are about 3 Phil's working there so he spends a good 20 minutes until he finds the right one. As Gerard stands in the elevator feeling it go down his stomach turns nervously.
The doors open and he takes a couple of careful steps forward looking around the place where he hasn't set foot in for about a year. Where he met his friends, who made his days bearable. It seems so long ago, like in another life time. Everyone seemed to have moved on but the shitty equipment, scattered wires that he tripped over a lot, the warm golden light, smell of guitar strings and metal is still there welcoming him back like an old friend.
Gerard hears someone playing guitar in the room where they always used to eat but doesn't manage to catch much of the melody because he gets distracted by a door slamming shut at the back of the studio. A tall, big haired Ray walks towards him with his nose buried in some papers studying it carefully. Gerard doesn't know whether he should just say something to get his attention or go into the studio to look for Bob but before he can decide Ray lifts up his head and stops in his tracks staring right at him.
"Oh. Hey there." he says looking a cross between astonished and confused.
Gerard swallows hard before taking a few more uncertain steps forward
"Hey, is Bob here?" he asks clutching the papers unnecessarily hard. Ray still keeps staring at him like he's an alien
"Uh, yeah. Hey Bob!' he yells not taking his eyes of Gerard.
"What?" Bob steps out of the room opposite to the little studio where Gerard can no longer hear anyone playing guitar. While Ray looks exactly the same Bob changed. His hair is no longer short and soldier like but quite longer, even longer than Gerard's. With his blond hair like that and clean shaved face he reminded Gerard of those typical hippie surfers and he has to bite down a giggle.
"Hi. Eric told me to bring you these." Gerard says taking the last few steps towards him and handing him the papers. Bob looks just as surprised as Ray, opens his mouth ready to say something but closes it and takes the papers. Ray's face suddenly scrunches up
"Eric? Who's Er- oh you mean 9th floor Eric?" he says raising up his eyebrows.
"Yeah, the same one." Gerard answers nodding feeling uncomfortable now that he has nothing to do with his hands
"Why are you doing his work?" Bob asks
"I sort of work for him now." both Bob and Ray's jaws drop
"How the fuck did that happen?!"
"What happened with your arts thing?!"
"Did they fire you from there?!" the questions pour one after another and Gerard can't hold it anymore and lets a big wide smile spread across his face and a short laugh escape his lips. The tension from his shoulders and his whole posture decreases bit by bit and the air doesn't feel as heavy in his lungs.
"No it's just temporary, I need extra money and I thought about going there to sing since they offer me a lot of those, but now they didn't have anything and the only job available was an assistant, the pay is half bad so I thought why not." Gerard pours out freely like they never really stopped talking to each other for over a year.
"Yeah but still. I mean it's Eric, that guys a fucking jerk!" Bob says smiling now as well. Ray checks his watch and looks up to him with a careful expression
"It's nearly lunch time, do you want to stay for a bit? Tell us more about it?" Gerard looks towards the direction of the little studio and hears the guitar melody start again louder than last time and a bit more rushed
"I don't know, I still have work to do and you know how pissed Eric can get." he says carefully avoiding looking them in the eye. Ray takes another step forward so they're less than a foot apart
"Dude, it's none of our business what happened between you and Frank. C'mon stay for a bit, we missed you, he won't mind it either." he breathes out quickly. Gerard can feel a stone rolling off of his chest in hearing those words, but he can't just fall back into everything simply like that, not when Frank is there. He doesn't trust his thoughts around him.
"Sorry guys, maybe some other time. I still have stuff to get to Eric's and he'll give me hell if I don't." he says trying to sound apologetic. Ray lets his head down in defeat
"Okay, it's alright. So another time then?" he asks lifting up an eyebrow carefully. Gerard takes a pause thinking of how to get away with this but finds that he has no choice except to say
"Yeah, sure."
"Alright! Another time it is." Ray says no longer looking disappointed, he even seems a bit ecstatic. He shares a brief look with Bob who's fighting away a smile making his mouth twitch noticeably. They both wave him goodbye and head towards their usual little dining room. Gerard stands there a little dumbfounded for a moment or two before turning around on his heels and heading towards the elevator. His stride is much wider and confident than before.
…
The 2nd day of working for Eric McDickson isn't any better. For some reason he comes to work all bitter and tired, snapping at anyone who gets close to him. Gerard quietly accepts all the work he gives him and listens to the nasty remarks patiently. Even though he has developed a type of dislike towards the guy he can tell the difference between someone being purposely annoying and when there's actually something wrong. His heart got so soft at one moment from seeing his boss sitting by the table with his head in his hands, shoulders slumped, barely moving, he considered going over and asking what's wrong before shaking his head and taking a stack of contracts and heading towards the elevator.
His job mainly consisted of running across the whole company building receiving, giving documents, bringing Eric his coffee and sometimes answering his phone on the second half of the day.
Gerard slumps down in the comfy office chair wiping the sweat off his face. Though, before he has the chance to properly catch his breath the phone rings, he groans in response and picks it up reluctantly
"Hello?"
"Yes this Bob Bryar and I'd like to address a serious issue, can you send someone down here please?" he hears Bob's familiar voice in an overly polite voice
"What's the problem?" he asks automatically
"I'm afraid it's difficult to explain, you'll just have to come down here and see it for yourself." Gerard sighs tiredly
"Alright we'll send someone down." he says and hangs up immediately. Gerard huffs in annoyance from not getting even 5 minutes of rest and gets back on his feet. First he quickly steps into his boss's office seeing him in no better state than he was yesterday
"Bob just called, said there was some kind of problem and that it needs to be solved, should I go or do I need to ask someone else to go?"
Eric merely gestures with his hand for him to leave so he does and sets towards the metal box where he spends half the day in. His thoughts keep going back to his warm bed, the laziness getting to him as his feet barely lift off the ground as he walks into the familiar studio. He yawns loudly before yelling
"Bob? What's this problem you mentioned?" he walks around the studio but doesn't see any sign of them. Maybe it was a joke of some sort. Oh great he thinks, just what he needs on a busy day like this, someone messing with him. Just as he thinks he'll turn around and head back he hears the shout back
"In here! Come quick!" Ray's high voice rings in the studio, the source seems to be their little dining room. Gerard walks fast towards it and swings it open, eager to get it over with and finds the 3 of them sitting around their table eating away their lunch. Frank's the only one of them who looks just as surprised as Gerard is
"What the hell? Where's this big problem of yours?" he asks scrunching his eyebrows together
"Right here! We ordered way too much pizza and it's going to go to waste if someone doesn't eat it and we can't just throw out food." Bob says trying to keep a straight face. Gerard takes one big sigh
"Guys this isn't funny."
"Really? I thought it was hilarious" Bob smirks
"Just stay, we're not taking a 'no' for an answer." Ray chimes in.
"Fine, but what do I tell Eric then?" Gerard says going to them and taking his usual seat
"We'll say there was a problem with the papers you handed me a few days before and that we sat discussing them. I'm gonna give you some more documents I know he needs to get back to him so you won't go back empty handed. It's perfect." Bob explains and Gerard had to admit, that was a pretty good plan.
"Wait, you work for Eric now?" Frank pipes up out of nowhere. Gerard smiles and explains the whole thing he explained to Bob and Ray a few days ago. Though halfway through his story, Gerard realized that Frank should've heard that yesterday when he came by.
"So yeah that's what it's like working for him I guess." he finishes his story "Now are we all just going to sit here and ignore what has Bob done to his hair?" he finally points out. The rest of them laugh in agreement
"Oh believe me we had full interventions going on at one point, we just figure it's a phase he's going through." Ray says barely containing his own giggles
"Oh ha ha, I think it's a nice look okay?" Bob says defending himself
"Yeah it is, for 12 year old girls I mean." Frank adds and gets a punch in the arm right after that.
"But seriously though, how's the band and everything?" Gerard asks after he stops laughing himself.
"Pretty good, the tour was awesome, we met a whole lot of people. It was wild." Bob starts off "oh and Ray got engaged during it too."
"No shit! Congratulations man!" Gerard says patting his friend on the back seeing him blush slightly and smile wide.
"Thanks. What about you? Seeing anyone?" Rays asks automatically but as he's finishing his question, he wishes to take it back immediately. Gerard feels the tension settle in amongst them. Bob is trying to look anywhere else but Gerard or Frank, Frank is focusing on the slice of pizza in his hands, and Ray looks the most uncomfortable. He opens his mouth to take his question back, but Gerard answers nonetheless
"No not really, went on a couple of dates but nothing really worked out" he mutters the last words almost to himself "what about you guys?" he asks quickly
"Well I'm still seeing the same girl but you probably don't know about her. I'll have to introduce you one day, you'll like her, she teaches art to elementary school kids." Bob goes on "and Frank here is the same as y-"
"Yeah I'm seeing someone too" Frank interrupts Bob. Both Ray and Bob look at each other with concern but don't say anything else.
"Oh? That's nice" Gerard manages to say after a short pause, but his face expression doesn't match his words. Now there was no escaping the awkward silence between them. Gerard averts his eyes trying to think of how to quickly change the topic but nothing comes to his mind, leaving right now wouldn't be a good idea either. Bob's head suddenly jerks up
"Did you see the new batman movie?" he asks. It seemed he wasn't the only one trying to think of a new topic. They go on discussing the movie, directing , effects, acting, anything to get them as far away from what just happened. Gerard can't relax properly though, and immerse himself into the conversation. After discussing all they could over that one topic Gerard checks his watch
"Whoa, guys I've been here almost an hour, I've got to go back." he says his eyes wide with the thought of what he'll get when he comes back to Eric.
"Oh okay, sorry for holding you up like that." Ray says standing up from his seat
"Nah, it's alright, it was fun." he says walking towards the elevator and pressing the button knowing it takes it some time to get down. The three of them stand near by
"So do you think you can come down here again?" Ray asks carefully
"Yeah if you guys want to I'm sure I can work something out." he says shrugging uncertainly
"Of course we do!" Bob agrees enthusiastically. Gerard tries not to look at Frank and see his reaction. He hears the doors behind him open and turns to step in
"Gerard wait!" Frank's voice echoes and he turns back around in a flash, seeing Frank grab something from a table nearby and brings it to him
"The documents Eric needs, just like promised."
"Oh… yeah right." Gerard sighs, feeling the brief brush of his fingers against Frank's as he takes them and meets his big dark hazel eyes so close to him. "Thanks" he says finally after a few seconds and turns away stepping inside the metal box.