I'm excited about this one!
Title: Married With Teenagers
Author: opoloko_gerardx
Pairing: Bert/Gerard
Rating: PG-13 for language in this one.
POV: third person, goes back and forth between focusing on Bert and Gerard
Disclaimer: I only write fiction. Don't sue.
Summary: Gerard is a quiet artist who lives with his divorced mom. Bert is a loud kid who doesn't know who he is and lives with his lonely dad. When their parents get married they are forced to live together. But along with their hatred they may find some other emotions....
Prompt: Angry
Bert
“You got married?!”
“Bert, I’m sorry. We fell in love! It would be wrong of me to ask her to move across the country if we weren’t going to be serious about it.”
“You were only gone for two weeks! Who the fuck could you meet in New Jersey in two weeks?”
The man looked stern, eyebrows furrowed and lips forming a tight straight line. “Watch your language. You had better not talk like that when Donna and her son get here.”
Bert rolled his eyes. “She has a son? How old is he, like six or something?”
“He’s your age.” Bert grimaced and let his shoulders slump dramatically. “And I expect you to treat him nicely.”
“Well, you can ‘expect’ whatever the hell you want. Doesn’t mean I’ll do it.”
“You will treat him and Donna well or you will be punished. Do you understand me?”
“Oh, what are you gonna do?” he asked sarcastically. “Send me to my room?”
“I am your father and I’ll punish you however I see fit. You wouldn’t want to lose your new car, would you?”
A look of complete rage crossed Bert’s face and he turned around, stomping up the stairs. When he got to his bedroom he slammed the door as hard as he could. He fell back on his bed, looking up at the ceiling that was covered in posters of all his favorite artists and bands.
The walls in his room were painted a deep blue. The color reminded him of his first girlfriend’s eyes. He wanted to paint over it; maybe with a bright purple or orange or something. Anything that would piss off his dad.
How could he get married? After knowing this bitch for two fucking weeks he just married her!
His dad had gone away on business. It was a normal thing. He usually went away for a while once every couple months. Nothing strange there. But when he got back he was happy, all smiles and laughing. After business trips he was usually grumpy and tired and all he ever wanted to do was drink coffee and sleep.
He’d been that way for about a week. It hadn’t really mattered to Bert. He wasn’t home enough to see his dad for very long every day. But now he wished his dad had been his old normal self, miserable and grumpy. Because then he wouldn’t be married.
Knocking on his door brought him out of his thoughts. “What do you want?”
“Bert, can I please come in?” his dad asked wearily.
“It’s your house,” Bert answered grumpily. He’d always wanted a lock on his door but his dad wouldn’t permit it. He knew all too well how difficult it would be to ever talk to his son if he could shut himself in his room with no way of escape.
The man sighed and walked into the room, stepping over the massive piles of dirty laundry to get to the bed. “I understand that you’re upset.” Bert snorted. “But I really love this woman. We want this to work. You should be grateful that you’re staying in your own house. Her son has to move across the country. He’s leaving all of his friends, all of his family. He’ll need to start going to a new school.” Bert just rolled his eyes.
“They probably live in some dump anyway.”
“Bert,” his dad said in his warning voice. “You haven’t even met them yet. Don’t judge people you don’t know.” Bert scowled and stood up, walking to the other side of the room where he began to dig through the box he kept his CDs in. His dad sighed in defeat. “I’m sure you’ll like Gerard.” Bert smirked. “Just give him, and Donna, a chance.”
Bert waited for his dad to leave and shut the door behind him before bursting into laughter. “What kind of name is ‘Gerard’?” he asked himself, pulling out a Bowie CD and putting it into the player.
It wasn’t some teen angst thing, the reason he didn’t like the idea of his dad being married. It wasn’t because he didn’t want his mom to be replaced. He’d never known his mother. She died giving birth. Apparently his dad had really loved her. Or so he said. Bert wasn’t even sure if he believed in love.
He’d had plenty of girlfriends, sure. Girls he enjoyed spending time with, girls he enjoyed fucking. But never any girls that he “loved”. In his opinion, “love” was just a word people used to describe feeling happy when they wanted something more in their life. You’re feeling depressed? You want your life to have meaning? Find someone you like, marry them, and say you’re in love: problem solved! You are guaranteed to be happy for the rest of your life! It was like some cheap infomercial they’d play at three o’clock in the morning.
Where’s this guy going to sleep? Bert asked himself while he sat on the bed, listening to the deep voice of his favorite singer melt out of the speakers. Dad had better not stick him in here.
Bert had a good life. His dad had always had a well paying job, even though it meant there were times when he wasn’t home. He was able to pay for a nice big house in the suburbs outside Salt Lake City, Utah. It wasn’t a very exciting place to live, but Bert did like the house.
He went to public high school, which he didn’t really like. Well, he just didn’t like school in general. He was the kind of guy who never did any of the work just because he didn’t care. Getting in fights seemed to be his main priority, not getting decent grades.
Bert was the kind of kid who had always gotten basically everything he ever wanted. He was an only child since Mr. McCracken had never found anyone else he liked enough to get pregnant. And he felt that, since he made such a surplus of money, it would be wrong not to spend it on his one and only son.
It was because of this that Bert was unhappy about his dad being married. He wasn’t used to sharing. And he didn’t want to get used to it. With the addition of two people to his home what would he end up going without? His own room? His car? His space in general?
Another thing that made him mad about this though was that his dad had waited until the day these people were moving in to tell him about it. Good move, Dad. Now I’ll really be calm when they get here.
When the doorbell rang Bert winced and sighed. This was it. The woman and boy who would ruin his life were standing right outside his front door. “Bert!” he heard his dad call up the stairs. This was the moment.
Slowly, he got to his feet, opened the door, walked down the stairs. His dad was standing in front of the door, hand on the knob. He was apparently waiting for Bert to be watching before he opened it. He flashed Bert a warning look. “Remember. Be nice, introduce yourself. Talk to Gerard a little bit.” Bert rolled his eyes but nodded, remembering his dad’s threat about his car.
And then the doorknob was turning and the door was open.
The woman was fairly short; she went up to his dad’s shoulder. Her skin was tanned and she had wavy blonde hair that flowed a couple inches past her shoulders. Her deep brown eyes were immediately locked on his dad. Bert quickly lost interest in her and moved his gaze to her side.
The boy was about his height, maybe a little shorter. He had black hair that tangled around his pale neck. He was heavier than Bert but not really heavy. There was a backpack slung over his shoulder, which he was gripping with elegant fingers.
“I’m Gerard,” he said quietly, in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Bert.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gerard
Gerard’s initial reaction to his mother’s statement had been calm. He wasn’t very happy about having to leave his friends but he loved his mom and he understood how she felt. The past couple of weeks she’d been very happy, going out with the same man every night and coming home late. Yet in the morning she would be chipper instead of cranky, like she was most of the time after staying up late.
When she told Gerard that she was in love he was happy for her. He knew what it felt like to be in love. And he knew it could be hard.
Then, one morning at about one she had come home to find that Gerard was still awake, watching an old Dracula movie on the couch. She sat down next to him with a huge smile and asked him to turn off the TV. That was when she told him she married the man she’d been seeing.
For a minute he didn’t really feel anything. He wasn’t happy but he wasn’t angry or sad either. “We’ll be moving in with him and his son, Honey,” she’d said carefully. She didn’t want to upset him.
Gerard nodded. “Where do they live?”
“Right outside Salt Lake City.”
“Utah?” Gerard had asked, stunned.
“Yes. I know it’s far away and it’ll be hard but I’m sure you’ll like Rick’s son. And you’ll make new friends.”
Gerard had smiled weakly and gone back to his movie after that. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. He still loved his dad but he wasn’t a big part of his life anymore. His parents had gotten divorced when he was eleven and now he only saw his dad a few times a year.
He was a little sad that he’d be moving so far away, though. He didn’t have many friends, but the ones he did have were close. He was going to miss them a lot.
But his mom was very important to him and so he would do what she wanted him to. He would go to Utah without a fuss, meet this Rick and his son, and try his hardest to enjoy it.
He looked at the guy in front of him now, taking in his “homeless” look. He had long scraggly black hair that looked like he hadn’t washed or combed it in about three weeks. He wore a form-fitting blue t-shirt and khaki shorts that were too big for him. His shirt had ridden up slightly, enough so that Gerard could see his prominent hipbones.
But his eyes were amazing. They were a striking blue that almost seemed to have tiny shards of ice sparkling inside. His eyes were lined with blonde lashes that made Gerard seriously doubt that his black hair was natural. Upon closer inspection he realized that it was dyed, like his own.
Just by the way he was standing Gerard could tell that this Bert was not happy that he was here. He had his arms crossed over his chest tightly and he was standing right in the way of entrance, as if unconsciously saying he didn’t want Gerard or his mom invading his home. Or maybe it wasn’t so unconscious.
“Gerard,” the man who had been previously speaking to his mom suddenly said. “I’m Rick and this is Bert. Bert, Gerard and Donna.” Bert raised his eyebrows in response. “Gerard, why don’t you follow me and I’ll show you to your room. Bert, help him with his things.”
Gerard noticed Bert roll his eyes when he picked up one of his two suitcases. He followed Rick up the stairs and down the hall to a small room with a twin-size bed. The bedding was decorated in a hideous floral pattern, which he was happy to cover with his suitcase. The walls were white and there were two windows. A lot more sunlight than he was used to. He decided he’d have to get some good curtains.
“Feel free to do with it what you like,” Rick told him and he and Bert left him to unpack.
Gerard sighed and walked to the window, separating two of the blinds with his fingers so he could look down on the street. It was a quaint little neighborhood. Big white houses, much like the one he was in now, lined the street. It was all small children in wagons, perfectly cut lawns and trimmed bushes. A far cry from what he’d known in his sixteen years of life.
He decided that he should start to unpack. There was a truck out front with all their stuff in boxes. All he had with him were his clothes.
Dragging his suitcases over to the dresser against the wall, he began to pull his clothes out, one piece at a time, and toss them into the drawers. It didn’t take him long, he didn’t have much.
He walked out of the room, glad to be away from it’s brightness. It made him think of a mental institution he’d seen in a movie once. The ceiling in the hallway was high and when he looked up at it he saw a chandelier hanging in the center. It wasn’t one of the ornate old-fashioned kinds, but more modern.
As he continued on his way down the hall he heard music, it sounded like David Bowie, from one of the rooms. Once he figured out what room it was coming from he stopped outside the door, which was slightly open. He touched it gently and pushed it open a few more inches so he could see inside.
The walls, what you could see of them, were painted dark blue and the floor was so buried in dirty clothes and other random things that he was amazed that anyone could walk on it. He looked over the whole room quickly before spotting the unmistakable form of Bert sprawled out on the bed.
Gerard quickly moved away from the door and decided to explore the downstairs instead.
The kitchen actually had a theme, something he wasn’t expecting in a house with only two men living in it. Everything was red and white. He smiled when he saw the counter and bar stools. He’d always thought those were cool and wondered what it would be like to eat at one. He sat on one of the stools and spun around on it a couple times before getting up to look inside the fridge.
There were a lot of things that he’d never had at home. His mom didn’t buy brand name things because they were too expensive. It was strange to see actual Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup.
He jumped when he closed the door of the fridge and stood up. Bert was standing in the entrance of the kitchen. “Look,” he said, his tone angry and firm, “just because you’re living here now doesn’t mean you own the place. Don’t go in my room, don’t touch my car, don’t talk to my friends and when I want the TV, it’s mine. Got that?”
Gerard nodded and pushed his way past Bert, going back to his room.
Okay. Now he was getting angry.
Author: opoloko_gerardx
Pairing: Bert/Gerard
Rating: PG-13 for language in this one.
POV: third person, goes back and forth between focusing on Bert and Gerard
Disclaimer: I only write fiction. Don't sue.
Summary: Gerard is a quiet artist who lives with his divorced mom. Bert is a loud kid who doesn't know who he is and lives with his lonely dad. When their parents get married they are forced to live together. But along with their hatred they may find some other emotions....
Prompt: Angry
Bert
“You got married?!”
“Bert, I’m sorry. We fell in love! It would be wrong of me to ask her to move across the country if we weren’t going to be serious about it.”
“You were only gone for two weeks! Who the fuck could you meet in New Jersey in two weeks?”
The man looked stern, eyebrows furrowed and lips forming a tight straight line. “Watch your language. You had better not talk like that when Donna and her son get here.”
Bert rolled his eyes. “She has a son? How old is he, like six or something?”
“He’s your age.” Bert grimaced and let his shoulders slump dramatically. “And I expect you to treat him nicely.”
“Well, you can ‘expect’ whatever the hell you want. Doesn’t mean I’ll do it.”
“You will treat him and Donna well or you will be punished. Do you understand me?”
“Oh, what are you gonna do?” he asked sarcastically. “Send me to my room?”
“I am your father and I’ll punish you however I see fit. You wouldn’t want to lose your new car, would you?”
A look of complete rage crossed Bert’s face and he turned around, stomping up the stairs. When he got to his bedroom he slammed the door as hard as he could. He fell back on his bed, looking up at the ceiling that was covered in posters of all his favorite artists and bands.
The walls in his room were painted a deep blue. The color reminded him of his first girlfriend’s eyes. He wanted to paint over it; maybe with a bright purple or orange or something. Anything that would piss off his dad.
How could he get married? After knowing this bitch for two fucking weeks he just married her!
His dad had gone away on business. It was a normal thing. He usually went away for a while once every couple months. Nothing strange there. But when he got back he was happy, all smiles and laughing. After business trips he was usually grumpy and tired and all he ever wanted to do was drink coffee and sleep.
He’d been that way for about a week. It hadn’t really mattered to Bert. He wasn’t home enough to see his dad for very long every day. But now he wished his dad had been his old normal self, miserable and grumpy. Because then he wouldn’t be married.
Knocking on his door brought him out of his thoughts. “What do you want?”
“Bert, can I please come in?” his dad asked wearily.
“It’s your house,” Bert answered grumpily. He’d always wanted a lock on his door but his dad wouldn’t permit it. He knew all too well how difficult it would be to ever talk to his son if he could shut himself in his room with no way of escape.
The man sighed and walked into the room, stepping over the massive piles of dirty laundry to get to the bed. “I understand that you’re upset.” Bert snorted. “But I really love this woman. We want this to work. You should be grateful that you’re staying in your own house. Her son has to move across the country. He’s leaving all of his friends, all of his family. He’ll need to start going to a new school.” Bert just rolled his eyes.
“They probably live in some dump anyway.”
“Bert,” his dad said in his warning voice. “You haven’t even met them yet. Don’t judge people you don’t know.” Bert scowled and stood up, walking to the other side of the room where he began to dig through the box he kept his CDs in. His dad sighed in defeat. “I’m sure you’ll like Gerard.” Bert smirked. “Just give him, and Donna, a chance.”
Bert waited for his dad to leave and shut the door behind him before bursting into laughter. “What kind of name is ‘Gerard’?” he asked himself, pulling out a Bowie CD and putting it into the player.
It wasn’t some teen angst thing, the reason he didn’t like the idea of his dad being married. It wasn’t because he didn’t want his mom to be replaced. He’d never known his mother. She died giving birth. Apparently his dad had really loved her. Or so he said. Bert wasn’t even sure if he believed in love.
He’d had plenty of girlfriends, sure. Girls he enjoyed spending time with, girls he enjoyed fucking. But never any girls that he “loved”. In his opinion, “love” was just a word people used to describe feeling happy when they wanted something more in their life. You’re feeling depressed? You want your life to have meaning? Find someone you like, marry them, and say you’re in love: problem solved! You are guaranteed to be happy for the rest of your life! It was like some cheap infomercial they’d play at three o’clock in the morning.
Where’s this guy going to sleep? Bert asked himself while he sat on the bed, listening to the deep voice of his favorite singer melt out of the speakers. Dad had better not stick him in here.
Bert had a good life. His dad had always had a well paying job, even though it meant there were times when he wasn’t home. He was able to pay for a nice big house in the suburbs outside Salt Lake City, Utah. It wasn’t a very exciting place to live, but Bert did like the house.
He went to public high school, which he didn’t really like. Well, he just didn’t like school in general. He was the kind of guy who never did any of the work just because he didn’t care. Getting in fights seemed to be his main priority, not getting decent grades.
Bert was the kind of kid who had always gotten basically everything he ever wanted. He was an only child since Mr. McCracken had never found anyone else he liked enough to get pregnant. And he felt that, since he made such a surplus of money, it would be wrong not to spend it on his one and only son.
It was because of this that Bert was unhappy about his dad being married. He wasn’t used to sharing. And he didn’t want to get used to it. With the addition of two people to his home what would he end up going without? His own room? His car? His space in general?
Another thing that made him mad about this though was that his dad had waited until the day these people were moving in to tell him about it. Good move, Dad. Now I’ll really be calm when they get here.
When the doorbell rang Bert winced and sighed. This was it. The woman and boy who would ruin his life were standing right outside his front door. “Bert!” he heard his dad call up the stairs. This was the moment.
Slowly, he got to his feet, opened the door, walked down the stairs. His dad was standing in front of the door, hand on the knob. He was apparently waiting for Bert to be watching before he opened it. He flashed Bert a warning look. “Remember. Be nice, introduce yourself. Talk to Gerard a little bit.” Bert rolled his eyes but nodded, remembering his dad’s threat about his car.
And then the doorknob was turning and the door was open.
The woman was fairly short; she went up to his dad’s shoulder. Her skin was tanned and she had wavy blonde hair that flowed a couple inches past her shoulders. Her deep brown eyes were immediately locked on his dad. Bert quickly lost interest in her and moved his gaze to her side.
The boy was about his height, maybe a little shorter. He had black hair that tangled around his pale neck. He was heavier than Bert but not really heavy. There was a backpack slung over his shoulder, which he was gripping with elegant fingers.
“I’m Gerard,” he said quietly, in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Bert.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gerard
Gerard’s initial reaction to his mother’s statement had been calm. He wasn’t very happy about having to leave his friends but he loved his mom and he understood how she felt. The past couple of weeks she’d been very happy, going out with the same man every night and coming home late. Yet in the morning she would be chipper instead of cranky, like she was most of the time after staying up late.
When she told Gerard that she was in love he was happy for her. He knew what it felt like to be in love. And he knew it could be hard.
Then, one morning at about one she had come home to find that Gerard was still awake, watching an old Dracula movie on the couch. She sat down next to him with a huge smile and asked him to turn off the TV. That was when she told him she married the man she’d been seeing.
For a minute he didn’t really feel anything. He wasn’t happy but he wasn’t angry or sad either. “We’ll be moving in with him and his son, Honey,” she’d said carefully. She didn’t want to upset him.
Gerard nodded. “Where do they live?”
“Right outside Salt Lake City.”
“Utah?” Gerard had asked, stunned.
“Yes. I know it’s far away and it’ll be hard but I’m sure you’ll like Rick’s son. And you’ll make new friends.”
Gerard had smiled weakly and gone back to his movie after that. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. He still loved his dad but he wasn’t a big part of his life anymore. His parents had gotten divorced when he was eleven and now he only saw his dad a few times a year.
He was a little sad that he’d be moving so far away, though. He didn’t have many friends, but the ones he did have were close. He was going to miss them a lot.
But his mom was very important to him and so he would do what she wanted him to. He would go to Utah without a fuss, meet this Rick and his son, and try his hardest to enjoy it.
He looked at the guy in front of him now, taking in his “homeless” look. He had long scraggly black hair that looked like he hadn’t washed or combed it in about three weeks. He wore a form-fitting blue t-shirt and khaki shorts that were too big for him. His shirt had ridden up slightly, enough so that Gerard could see his prominent hipbones.
But his eyes were amazing. They were a striking blue that almost seemed to have tiny shards of ice sparkling inside. His eyes were lined with blonde lashes that made Gerard seriously doubt that his black hair was natural. Upon closer inspection he realized that it was dyed, like his own.
Just by the way he was standing Gerard could tell that this Bert was not happy that he was here. He had his arms crossed over his chest tightly and he was standing right in the way of entrance, as if unconsciously saying he didn’t want Gerard or his mom invading his home. Or maybe it wasn’t so unconscious.
“Gerard,” the man who had been previously speaking to his mom suddenly said. “I’m Rick and this is Bert. Bert, Gerard and Donna.” Bert raised his eyebrows in response. “Gerard, why don’t you follow me and I’ll show you to your room. Bert, help him with his things.”
Gerard noticed Bert roll his eyes when he picked up one of his two suitcases. He followed Rick up the stairs and down the hall to a small room with a twin-size bed. The bedding was decorated in a hideous floral pattern, which he was happy to cover with his suitcase. The walls were white and there were two windows. A lot more sunlight than he was used to. He decided he’d have to get some good curtains.
“Feel free to do with it what you like,” Rick told him and he and Bert left him to unpack.
Gerard sighed and walked to the window, separating two of the blinds with his fingers so he could look down on the street. It was a quaint little neighborhood. Big white houses, much like the one he was in now, lined the street. It was all small children in wagons, perfectly cut lawns and trimmed bushes. A far cry from what he’d known in his sixteen years of life.
He decided that he should start to unpack. There was a truck out front with all their stuff in boxes. All he had with him were his clothes.
Dragging his suitcases over to the dresser against the wall, he began to pull his clothes out, one piece at a time, and toss them into the drawers. It didn’t take him long, he didn’t have much.
He walked out of the room, glad to be away from it’s brightness. It made him think of a mental institution he’d seen in a movie once. The ceiling in the hallway was high and when he looked up at it he saw a chandelier hanging in the center. It wasn’t one of the ornate old-fashioned kinds, but more modern.
As he continued on his way down the hall he heard music, it sounded like David Bowie, from one of the rooms. Once he figured out what room it was coming from he stopped outside the door, which was slightly open. He touched it gently and pushed it open a few more inches so he could see inside.
The walls, what you could see of them, were painted dark blue and the floor was so buried in dirty clothes and other random things that he was amazed that anyone could walk on it. He looked over the whole room quickly before spotting the unmistakable form of Bert sprawled out on the bed.
Gerard quickly moved away from the door and decided to explore the downstairs instead.
The kitchen actually had a theme, something he wasn’t expecting in a house with only two men living in it. Everything was red and white. He smiled when he saw the counter and bar stools. He’d always thought those were cool and wondered what it would be like to eat at one. He sat on one of the stools and spun around on it a couple times before getting up to look inside the fridge.
There were a lot of things that he’d never had at home. His mom didn’t buy brand name things because they were too expensive. It was strange to see actual Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup.
He jumped when he closed the door of the fridge and stood up. Bert was standing in the entrance of the kitchen. “Look,” he said, his tone angry and firm, “just because you’re living here now doesn’t mean you own the place. Don’t go in my room, don’t touch my car, don’t talk to my friends and when I want the TV, it’s mine. Got that?”
Gerard nodded and pushed his way past Bert, going back to his room.
Okay. Now he was getting angry.