After a few minutes of silence, I was still munching away on my salad, letting the fact that I finally had a friend sink in, and Gerard was still drinking his coffee, humming some song between every sip.
I tilted my head to the side, trying to place the tune. "What song is that?"
"Oh, uh..." He turned pink, making me smile. I'd never seen Gerard blush before, but it was a look that he wore well. "It... Well, it doesn't really have a title."
"Oh! So did you write it yourself?"
He looked down at his coffee mug, gripping it tight with both hands as he brought it up to his lips. "Yeah," he said quietly, drinking a bit of his coffee.
"On the guitar, or do you sing, or-?"
"I play piano." He was still a slight shade of pink, and I couldn't keep the amused and interested grin off of my face.
"Piano? Really? How long have you been playing?"
"For a while, I guess... For as long as I can remember, actually... I don't really remember a time when I wasn't playing piano..."
"Could I hear sometime?" I asked.
His cheeks were nearly red by now, "Sure. I guess."
I smiled. "Yay."
Gerard laughed a bit, rolling his eyes, even though he was still obviously embarrassed. "You're easy to please."
"Not always," I said, truthfully. "I just like music."
"Oh, do you play an instrument?"
"Yeah," I grinned. "I play guitar." I was rather proud of that fact- it had taken a while for me to get the hang of it, considering my mom refused to pay for lessons. Everything I knew I either learned from the Internet, by watching other people, or was self-taught. "We should play together, sometime."
He smiled, one side of his lips pulled slightly higher than the other in a nervous smile. "Uh, yeah. Sure."
I grinned back at him. It was funny how nervous he suddenly was. He came across as someone who wouldn't get modest about things, but I guess everyone has things that they don't like to talk about because it embarrassed them. Mine was photography, his must be music.
We fell into silence again, and I couldn't help but notice how different this silence was then the ones that I'd grown up to so desperately hate. My house was always quiet, except for when my mom was telling me to do something, I was playing the guitar, or my mom and I were having another one of our screaming matches. This silence, the quiet that Gerard and I shared, was a lot different than the one my mom and I struggled with. It was a pleasant silence. It was comfortable. He sipped on his coffee and I ate my salad and for the most part, we were comfortable together.
Every few minutes we'd accidentally meet eyes- if he just happened to look over at the same time as me, or if he had been looking at me, I couldn't exactly tell, but I didn't exactly mind, either. Being looked at by Gerard was almost a compliment. It meant I was worth his time, and for some reason, that felt like a big accomplishment, when it came to Gerard.
Gerard rested his head on his hand, closing his eyes and sighing.
I looked at him for a few seconds before feeling myself frown. "Are you okay, Gerard...?"
"Yeah... Just... I just haven't been feeling too well today," he said, eyes still closed. "Besides the whole, uh, 'not in a good mood' thing..."
Now that I thought about it, he was right. He didn't look well, today. I felt instant regret for being so rude, earlier. "Did you get enough sleep last night?"
