Belonging

I Will Try To Find My Place, In The Diary Of Jane

Gerard watches from one of the big windows of the pack/alpha/high families/whatever you call it house, toes brushing against the carpet as he sits slouched. He sees the people that scurry around below in their small clearing. People that are moving into homes. A restaurant seems to be moving large containers of meat and the like through their doors in large styrofoam boxes.

It all looks small, from how high up he is, their small square of space for business and homes about four football fields, the woods around everything sparse before it thickens much later on.

Gerard sighs, pulling his feet up and curling into a small ball. Lyn-z had to go with her father to the McCracken pack to schedule some things and he misses her comforting touch. He misses when's she would play bass with Mikey in his basement bedroom.

Thinking of his brother, Gerard sighs. Mikey was back in Los Angles with his mates pack, the Wentzs. He would've switching each month between the two territories.

Of course, for an alpha like Mikey, the pack rules could be bent a bit. But, for an omega, nope. Gerard had to be shipped away right the moment Bert saw him and decided to lie. Now he was stuck, with no say in anything.

Gerard doesn't blame his younger brother. No, he blames his parents. This was all wrong and unfair.

                                    *

"Listen!" Gerard mother bangs her hand on the table next to Gerard, causing her son to squeak and jump. "Now," She says, pointing at the map below her. "This is the McCracken territory. It's exactly five acres and five feet in land space."

She points to a red piece of land on her map, it's labeled MC. Donna moves her finger to Gerard's right, to a white patch little less than half the size of the MC patch.

"This is us. We cover exactly two-point-three acres of space all around." Donna moves her hand further right, pointing to a large black patch, a white I labels it. It swoops around and hugs the right and bottom side of Gerard's territory. The black also expands to reach under them and touch the bottom of the MC patch.

"This is the Iero pack, covering exactly five hundred acres." Gerard laces and un-laces his fingers together under the table.

"Now," She says, dropping the big pile of laminated photos Gerard's found an odd hatred for onto the table. "People."

*

Gerard finds his way back to his room after lessons, a headache growing with every step inside his skill. He has to stop and ponder at some points, unused to the big house.

A sliver of the moon hangs in the sky, taunting him and causing an uneasy shift under his skin. Gerard closes and locks the door behind him, ignoring the light switch and letting his eyes adjust to the poorly lit room.

He sighs, crawling on top of the bed and pulling a blanket out of his suitcase. Gerard also grabs his photo frame, curling up on top of the sheets up it.

The orange of Haley's hair is the first thing his eyes are drawn to. It was right after she dyed it and it was as vibrant as ever. She's sat on the steps of their high school, smiling bright and hugging Gerard from the side. On the other side of Gerard is his friend Ash, her hair just a solid black back then. Behind them on the next step up is Lyn-z, smiling wide. Her hair and light blond back then.

The picture was taken from an only front facing camera. So, his friend Andy, who was determined to be in the picture, is seen in the right bottom corner, his arm extending out from where he was holding it. Only his nose is seen, eyes crinkling with a smile framed by long black locks. In the background, Mikey and Pete's backs are seen as they look down to their phones, huddled together.

Gerard sniffs, hugging the photo frame to himself and laying back. He shivers at the cold, the blanket not doing much. It smells like home and sunshine through, and the warmth in his chest makes up for it.