"Do you have anything to say for yourself at all?"

And Lindsey didn't, and Alicia wasn't good at being angry, and Jamia was the worst third wheel known to mankind, but still, this was happening, and there was very little escape from reality at this point.

Because although it hadn't exactly been a full scale Romeo and Juliet esque kind of tragedy, guilt had seeped in and twisted and corrupted the whole damn world, and perhaps that was just enough to destroy everything.

Or perhaps it wasn't, but at this point, none of three particularly wanted to find out all that much.

It was taking chances, and it was taking them too far, and it was the fallout, and it was the screaming inside your head, and it was surrender of sorts; it was an awkward smile, it was an apology not quite verbalised, an attempt not quite good enough, and on Alicia's part, patience not quite strong enough.

And Jamia was still clinging to the belief that she was straight, even after Alicia had finally shown up to meet them, and had found her girlfriend kissing a 'straight girl', and Jamia was a straight girl, seriously, but this kind of situation most certainly didn't paint her to be so.

"Lindsey, fucking say something... anything, please." She was distraught, and confused, and feelings were nothing but mutual as Lindsey continued to kick the dirt with the toe of her shoe, perhaps working on digging herself a tunnel across the world as a way out of here, but putting hope into that was just about as logic as this mess itself, and she knew that.

"I kissed her, there you go."

And they both knew that was exactly all they were getting from Lindsey from now on.

"Yeah, I fucking got that." Alicia rolled her eyes, wishing that she was just back with Gee, wishing that she'd never even come, in fact, and where the fuck was Frank in all of this, and for the most part, Alicia reckoned that perhaps she didn't even want to know.

"I'm straight." Jamia added, not that it counted for much under the circumstances, and especially when Alicia already wanted to slap her across the face as much as she did.

"Yeah, fucking 'straight' enough to kiss a girl. Who are you, Katy fucking Perry? Did you like it? Or is this the no homo phase, because come on, fuck off, and leave my girlfriend alone, how about that for a fucking idea, huh?"

Alicia had never really had the chance to form much of an opinion on Jamia, but she reckoned now was her chance, and she reckoned that in terms of chances, Jamia had just about destroyed hers.

Alicia glanced again at her girlfriend, or perhaps ex at this point, she didn't know, and it was killing her, even if she couldn't quite bring herself to admit that it was.

"Lindsey, fucking come on-" She reached out for her girlfriend's hand, glaring at Jamia a little as she did so. "Let's just go, let's just forget about this, forget about her, let's just go."

"No." Lindsey was defiant, and red cheeked, and not looking at either girl, because at this point, she had fucked up, and she knew it. "Because it's not Jamia's fault, it's mine."

"Alright then, go on, go fucking marry the straight girl, yeah, go fucking do that, Lindsey, what a fucking great idea, don't you think?"

They'd both lost it at this point, and Alicia knew she was seconds, moments, away from crying, and if there was anything in the world she could possibly hate more than this situation itself, it was Lindsey and Jamia seeing her cry in this situation, because Alicia didn't quite know who she was yet, but most definitely didn't want to be the one who cried, the fucking wimp, the mess, the ex-girlfriend, someone Lindsey Ballato once knew, but there was very little she could do about that now.

"Lindsey, fucking- call me... please. Promise me you'll do that, just later maybe, just whenever, even if it's when you're fucking thirty years old, just call me, will you?" And with that, Alicia bit her lip, attempting to hold the tears in as she turned and left on a beeline home and to her bedroom and to an hour long phone call with Gee before Lindsey could get in there first.

And Alicia hated to think of Gee as a competition or a fucking commodity, but Lindsey could fucking twist any situation to make herself look like the motherfucking second coming of Jesus Christ himself, and Alicia both loved that and hated it.

-

Lindsey and Jamia still stood there in silence, and it was a kiss her or slap her kind of situation, and hey, maybe Frank would possibly turn up this time, and they could run through the same mess of an argument again, but, no, Frank did never and would never turn up, and Bert McCracken did a pretty good job of ensuring so.

"I'm not straight." Jamia said after what felt like hours.

A smile tugged at the corners of Lindsey's lips. "I know."

"I think maybe you turned me gay." She blushed a little, giggling like a small child.

"No, no I didn't - that's not how it fucking works, Jamia." Lindsey lit another cigarette, because at this point, she badly fucking needed one, and there was no denying that. "You're this way from the very fucking moment you're born, although, you may not fully realise it for a long time, it's there deep down, and you're bisexual, I'd say, not gay. You've dated guys, if you want to date people of your own gender and people of a different gender, then that's bisexual, okay?"

"Okay." Jamia smiled. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Ruining your relationship." Jamia pointed out the blatantly obvious.

Lindsey smiled to herself, finding herself not quite giving as much of a fuck as she really should have done, and well, that was weird all round, but there was very little she could do about it. It was just a thing, after all, and it was bound to pass, wasn't it? Sure Lindsey cared for Alicia, but with the mess her head was in right now, she was in no fucking state to be trusted with making any kind of decision whatsoever, but still, she did.

"Oh, yeah, that." She managed after a moment, holding her cigarette between too fingers in a lose, kind of cared for, yet careless manner.

Lindsey turned to Jamia once more.

"I'm sorry." She corrected herself, because that was how things were going to be.

Jamia smiled.

And Lindsey did too.

-

Lindsey's life fucking sucked right now, to say the least, and goddamn, everything seemed to act as the same kind of fucking reminder: happy couples everywhere, and Jamia fucking Nestor everywhere, because she couldn't get her out of her head, and she couldn't get Alicia in there, and she was falling apart, to say the least, and she knew that Frank was going to be with Gerard just at the very end of this motherfucking corridor, and she knew that Jamia would be with Frank.

And with Jamia's presence, she doubted that Alicia would even be there, and then she'd have to fucking hunt her down just to try her hand at some sort of shitty apology, because she was sorry and this just wasn't working, but she wanted to try, and holy fuck, Lindsey needed to stop and smirk at the Bert McCracken shaped dent in the wall before continuing.

Bert McCracken always made her feel better- well not Bert himself, but more so the frequent reminders of the truly unfortunate accidents that had befallen him.

Because there was no denying the fact that Bert getting thrown into a wall was more than just a little amusing.

However, as she did eventually near the usual spot, she came to note that Jamia wasn't there, but Bert motherfucking McCracken, and well, she found herself stood there, staring, fucking wide eyed and like some sort deer in the headlights, or just a girl who could not be bothered to put up with that kind of asshole so early in the morning, and especially when she didn't even fucking have to.

"Uhm..." She approached the three with raised eyebrows. "What's he doing here?"

"Lindsey, honestly, things just went a little out of proportion, he's a nice guy really." And quite honestly, never thought she'd see the day when Gerard Way was standing up for Bert McCracken, but as things happened, she did, and to say the least, she wasn't happy about it.

"Yeah, I find that fucking hard to believe, you know?" She snapped, ignoring Gerard completely, and turning to Frank, who nodded in support of Gerard's argument. "Oh for fuck's sake, Frank, you threw this guy into a motherfucking wall-"

"And I used to think Gerard was pathetic - people fucking change." He shrugged her comment off and turned back to Bert, who couldn't help but feel a little awkward under Lindsey's overly judgemental gaze.

"What? Bert changed? Or did you?" Lindsey remained apprehensive like it was what she was born to do, not having even granted Bert the gift of one fucking glance at him yet.

"We've both changed, of course we have, people fucking do." And Bert changed that, as he chose to speak up for the first time, having chosen a good day not to immediately get stoned before even arriving at school, because otherwise, he reckoned he would have come out with something far less comprehendible.

"The fact that you're an asshole still stands." Lindsey wasn't out of touch with bitterness, to say the least.

"And the fact that you're a stubborn bitch remains the same too." He retorted, and well, if you were ready to start an argument with Lindsey Ballato, you were ready to risk your goddamn life.

"I'm not a bitch, though."

"Alicia says different," Frank piped up, and well, with the state that Lindsey was already in, it probably wasn't the best of ideas, especially considering the fact that she could hardly think less of Frank at this point, "just saying - it's what she said, isn't it, Gerard?"

And Gerard hated to be dragged into this, because Lindsey was like a big sister to them, but Alicia had said it, and thank god she'd fucked off before Lindsey had turned up. "She did, she left a few minutes ago, but she said."

"She said you kissed Jamia." Frank continued, like he had a death wish or something, but still, he was speaking nothing more than the truth. "Jamia said you kissed her too. Kind of hypocritical of you to point out Bert's flaws, don't you think? At least he's trying, at least he's apologised, you haven't."

"Fucking when did I become public enemy number one?" Lindsey exclaimed, slamming her fist against her locker, just inches away from Bert, and well, Bert stepped back after that, to say the least, because Bert maybe a bit of an idiot, but he wasn't stupid, and he didn't want to imagine snorting cocaine with a busted up nose, because you know, priorities?

But there was this rug in his bathroom that smelled suspiciously of milk, and well, if he couldn't smell that every time he took a shit, it certainly would be for the better.

"When you cheated on your girlfriend, I think." Bert added, expression completely fucking neutral, which Lindsey reckoned pissed her off more than if he had been grinning like some fucking idiot. "But I'm not exactly one hundred percent caught up with the situation, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but Alicia was totally way nicer to me than you're being, so I'm totally far more inclined to believe her."

And at that point, Lindsey did not fucking hesitate to punch him, leaving Bert falling back into his best friend, the wall, with the impact, and Lindsey an opportunity to grab Gerard and pull them away and down the corridor for a word in private.

"Seriously, Gerard, what the fuck has she said, and why does everyone hate me? Do you hate me?" Lindsey's tone grew softer: a desperate kind of plead at this point, because things were different when it was just Gerard and she didn't have to pretend to be tough anymore.

"Of course I don't hate you, Lindsey, I could never hate you, but yeah, you were kind of horrible to Alicia, I mean, I haven't heard your side of the story, I haven't even heard Jamia's, just a few extracts from what Frank's told me, but you shouldn't cheat on anyone ever-"

"I know, I know." Lindsey sighed out, leaning back against Bert McCracken's best friend (the wall). "But it was just- I didn't mean to, I just... Jamia's very good at listening and she's very good at understanding things I can't tell you or Alicia, and I really needed someone to talk to about those things."

"What can't you tell me? I tell you everything, Lindsey, I thought that's what best friends do..." Gerard trailed off, biting their lip a little as they did so.

"Things about Frank mostly, because you love him, and you don't want to hear me ranting about how he annoys me at times, you just don't okay?" Lindsey sighed, shaking her head, because she should have never even began to explain. "Look, I... Jamia is just willing to listen and understand everything."

Gerard remained silent for a moment, before nodding slowly, "okay... I'm not sure how that led to you kissing her, but please, just apologise to Alicia, try and explain. She's gonna be stubborn about it, but just do it, I promise, she wants to make this work - she loves you-"

"I know."

"No, like... loves you loves you. For serious."

"Fuck."

"I know."

-

Jamia was quite easily in as much of a mess as Lindsey was, but in an entirely different way, with very little blame pinned on her, even not the blame she deserved, because it was her fault too: after all, it wasn't like Lindsey could cheat on Alicia with herself, could she?

She reckoned Alicia still wanted to shoot her down, though, so at least she wasn't getting away entirely unscathed, not that there was really anything she could do about it, though.

She'd spoken to Frank about it at length, and still, she didn't feel like he even really cared. Sure, Frank was her best friend, but Frank's mind was a solar system, and the sun was Gerard Way themself, and everyone knew that, but still Jamia had tried, and Frank didn't seem fussed, he seemed somewhat sympathetic, but he didn't seem at all prepared to go out of his way to help her with the mess that Lindsey had gotten her into.

Sure, Frank had sided with her, secretly and almost instantly, but that was simply due to the fact that Frank and Lindsey weren't on the best terms, in fact, Gerard was like the glue between them, and Jamia just wondered when everything was going to fall apart.

Perhaps it already had, perhaps this was the beginning: perhaps this was the fallout, perhaps this was the ending and the start of something new.

It was too early to tell yet, but Jamia knew that wherever Gerard was, Frank would stand beside him; it was more pathetic than romantic by this point, but Jamia had to respect just how much he cared from Gerard, it was dedication, to sugar-coat it, and it was obsession if she didn't bother.

Still, Jamia felt herself a little perplexed by the fact that Gerard had continued to share such a mutual like of Frank all this time, because Jamia knew Frank, and Jamia knew Frank was her best friend, but Jamia knew that Frank Iero was sure enough a nice guy, but nowhere near the kind of God Gerard treated him like.

Perhaps it was just a matter of perspective, perhaps she could just never see Frank in that way, or perhaps, there was something deeper between Gerard and Frank that no one could even attempt to know nor understand. Soulmates, or something like that... not that Jamia particularly believed in, nor cared for things of such a nature, but sure enough, if soul mates did exist, it was Gerard and Frank, and without a moment's thought.

Well, it had to be that, because it certainly wasn't Frank's dick; Jamia had seen it, and it was really anything but impressive. If she had to compare it to a fruit, Frank Iero's dick would be a grape, because it was small and shit (and slightly green but you weren't supposed to talk about that), much like Frank himself, but whatever.

She wondered if Alicia and Lindsey were anything near soulmates, and then she wondered if she'd fucked that up for them now. She put her mind at rest with the consolation that she simply didn't believe in soulmates, and perhaps that was enough, but it wasn't, but it certainly was enough to distract her enough to send her walking straight into another person.

"Fuck- I-... sorry." Jamia pulled away, stumbling and blushing like the embodiment of hell itself, because that was certainly her heart right now, and then everything, and quite literally everything changed when she looked up and met the gaze of the stranger she'd collided into the chest of.

And by chest... boobs, and to put it bluntly, Jamia's lesbian senses were tingling.

"It's fine, I'm fine." The girl smiled, playing with her dark brown hair a little as she did so, and it wasn't the cutest thing Jamia had ever seen, and she wasn't dying inside, and she wasn't even gay, like no homo, come on, no homo, oh fuck everything.

"I'm Jamia, hey." She continued to smile like an idiot, because walking straight, well gay, into a girl's chest was a perfect pick up line and first impression.

"I'm Kitty, well, that's not my real name, but it's what everyone calls me." She explained, blushing a little as she spoke, and Jamia reckoned that she was the cutest thing since cats, and well, her name was Kitty and Jamia did love pussy.

"That's cute." Jamia spoke without thinking, but at least she wasn't directly staring at her boobs, so she was doing pretty good so far, well she was doing better than Mikey Way had ever done in his life, and somehow he'd dated Alicia for several months, not that anyone spoke of the 'wretched heterosexual times' anymore, but still, it had happened.

"You're cute." Kitty countered, homosexuality in full swing, and this was quite easily the best thing that had ever happened to Jamia, and life fucking sucked because it was so not social acceptable to just make the fuck out with her right now.

Jamia blushed, biting her bottom lip a little, "you're cuter." And she fucking meant it, like seriously, she'd fight her on it, like she'd fight her, that wasn't even a euphemism or whatever, she would pull a Frank Iero and shove her into a wall until she admitted it, and well, that was doing an even worse job of not sounding like a euphemism, but Jamia was deadly fucking serious, and totally blushing like motherfucking hell.

"You should give me your number, you know, because I've totally got to go, but I want to see your cute face again." And before Jamia knew what she was doing, she was pulling a marker pen from her pocket, and scribbling her phone number down across Kitty's forearm.

"Call me, or whatever, please." Jamia stepped, away still staring and grinning at Kitty like an idiot as she rolled her sleeve down over the phone number.

"I will, of course, I will, how could I forget about someone as cute as you?" And with that, Kitty was walking off, and Jamia was blushing so hard she needed to dig her own grave right here and right now - no questions asked.

But, this was fucking amazing, and Jamia was dying, and suddenly, within mere seconds, Lindsey Ballato was a thing of the past, a distant kind of memory or something like that - she still mattered, in a way, but she mattered because she had to, and not because Jamia really wanted her to.

Whereas Jamia wanted Kitty to matter more than she'd ever wanted anything in the whole damn world.

And this was day one, and she didn't know what it meant at all, but if she believed in them, and if she was lucky, this was soulmates, day one.

-

"I don't know, Mikey, I really don't know."

The Way siblings were sat on edge in the living room; Mikey with his knees pulled up to his chest, and Gerard leaning against him.

"It'll be fine, you know, mum was fine with you liking dudes, so I don't see how this should be any different." Mikey reassured Gerard, running his hand through their hair a little. 

The two were sat at home, anxiously awaiting their mother's arrival home, because today was the day that Gerard finally reckoned they had the courage to tell their mother about their gender, or well, the courage to let Mikey do it for them.

"You don't know what it's like, though, Mikey, come on, you don't." Gerard let out a sigh, causing Mikey to pause momentarily, thinking something over as he ran it through his mind.

"What would you think of me telling her about me and Pete at the same?" Mikey asked after a moment, taking Gerard by surprise.

"She'd probably die on the spot, oh god, do you remember last time?" Gerard exclaimed, their face breaking into a smile, because the time when Gerard had originally came out to their mother, well, that had been interesting, to say the least.

"Yeah, but it'd stop her solely focusing on your gender, if that's what you're worried about, because then she has me to worry about as well, and she's going to get all teary, and come on, Gerard, she's not going to be weird about it - you're just scared and you're making up excuses for the sake of it."

"Fuck." Gerard cursed, pulling away from Mikey a little. "How do you just always know?"

"I'm your brother, silly, of course I always know." Mikey giggled, grinning a little, and the two shared a smile for a moment, before Gerard's heart fell to the bottom of their chest at the sound of keys in the door.

"She's home." 

"Goddamn it, Gerard, she's your mother, not the fucking wicked witch of the west, look come on, it'll be fine - I promise you." And Mikey did, because there was nothing he wanted less in the world than to see Gerard hurt.

"Oh, you two are actually being both civil and social for once?" Mrs Way approached the two with surprise after locking the front door behind her, and peering her head into the living room.

"Yeah," Mikey glanced at Gerard, who remained deadly silent and something close to petrified, and came to the swift conclusion that he was going to have to do practically all the talking. "Can we talk to you about something?"

"Yeah, of course." She smiled, nodding as she put the bags full of groceries down.

"No, mum, like, talk to you... this is something you might want to sit down for." Mikey blushed a little at that, because okay, he was nervous too, just perhaps a little better at hiding it.

Mrs Way took off her coat and made her way to the armchair, taking a seat and turning to her children, her gaze hovering over Gerard's curled up form for a moment too long.

"Gerard, are you, are you okay, honey?" She asked, watching as the seventeen year old, moved a little so their face was more visible.

"Yeah, I... it's... this thing... I- I-..." Gerard's face fell into another horrifying blush. "Mikey, can you... I... I'm-"

"You want me to tell her?" Mikey asked, meeting Gerard's gaze with concern for them.

Gerard nodded.

"Well, okay, mum, this might take a bit of explaining, but, Gerard's non-binary, which basically means they don't identify with either male or female genders, and fit somewhere else on the gender spectrum. So, like, Gerard prefers that people call them they or them instead of he or him. And they aren't a boy, it's like transgender, but they're not a girl either."

"Oh... okay..." She paused for a moment, thinking for a moment, before turning to face Gerard, "so, it's like neutral, like gender neutral, or something?"

"Well, non-binary is sort of a broad term meaning not male or female, and there are lots of different things under that kind of umbrella, but yeah, sort of... I still haven't exactly gotten everything figured out, but, yeah... I just... it's complicated." Gerard blushed a little pulling their knees back up to their chest.

"It's fine, Gerard, whatever makes you happy, okay? I haven't actually heard of this before, but I'm old, I'm out of touch, I guess. So does this affect your sexuality in anyway?"

"No, I still like guys, I'm still with Frank, and he's super cool and nice about it... Frank's just, really, really nice, and I like him a lot." Gerard blushed, because they knew they were being kind of pathetic about this, but Frank just mattered one hell of a lot, and there was little denying that.

"That's good, honey, I'm glad he's making you happy." She smiled, before turning to Mikey, who was blushing a little. "Are you having any such luck in your love life, Mikey?"

"Well..." Mikey's cheeks burned up, and he sat up a little, placing with the hem of his shirt, because fuck, okay, when it actually came down to it, he was just as nervous as Gerard. "There's this guy called Pete."

"Oh, for god's- not you too?" Mrs Way exclaimed, smiling a little as she shook her head firmly, "unbelievable, do tell me, I am a single woman, and I just can't see what's so great about dick."

And well, to say the least, that was absolutely the most awkward thing a mother has ever said to her children.

"I'm bisexual, not gay, though, so I still like girls, just guys too, and Pete's... Pete's... nice."

"I want to meet him, you know, I'll be the judge of whether he's nice or not, you hear me, young man?" Mrs Way raised her eyebrows, grinning a little as Mikey considered throwing his head through the wall. "Any other bombshells you want to drop on me?"

"Oh... uhh, I may or may not have been stealing your make up for the past few months."

"Gerard!"

-

hey guys okay you might want to read this important news, well kind of 'bad' news, i don't know, i wouldn't say it's bad, it may be disappointing but better in the long run, so basically i did some planning which is why this chapter has some plot for once, and yeah i'm wrapping up this story and getting it finished as soon as I can, because it's over 110k words now, it's run its course, and I want more time to be able to focus on Wintertime and Spectrum, which you should read if you haven't already, because I think they're pretty damn good, anyway, chapter 28 is the last chapter, and it's short notice, I know, but last night I wrote out all the plot points and realised I could wrap it up in these last two chapters, but this is good for you, because you get this chapter now and probably the last one on tuesday like normal, anyway, i hope you're not too angry and no there will not be a sequel, because as you all know, i don't write sequels lmao never.

like seriously this ending was a long time coming and like it was either this or demolition lovers that had to end and then i came up with some really good plot for demolition lovers so like, anyway, of course the real question is in the fact that no one's died yet, and therefore make your bets now, in the comments, just how many characters are going to die in chapter 28.

or maybe it'll be a happy ending for once?

who knows?

anyway I love you all lots and it would be really cool and nice if you could vote and comment <3