Catch Me If You Can - Part 5
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
After getting the car cleaned out and the tank filled back up, they headed off again with Bert once more driving. He’d picked up some more tourist maps and had also had the brains to use one of the computers tucked away in the corner to print out instructions to roughly where they were going.
They’d been driving 20 minutes when Gerard lit his 3rd cigarette in 15 minutes. At that point, Bert snapped.
“Hey, fucktard,” he yelled. “Either light me one or knock it the fuck off!” Gerard stopped, his mouth full of the last bit of his muesli bar. He made a questioning noise. “The smokes, dipshit!”
The older man swallowed the food. “Ah.”
“Yeah, ‘ah’. Now shut up and make with the smoke.”
Gerard blinked at him for a second before pulling out a fresh cigarette, lighting it and passing it off to his grouchy driver.
Bert took a drag, then sighed in relief. “Okay,” he muttered, then turned to Gerard slightly. “Where do I need to go from here?”
“Depends, where are we?”
They laughed at each other’s and their own expense, then looked for a street sign to tell them where they were.
“Ah,” Gerard chirped “We are here-”
“Gee,” Bert interrupted. “‘Here’ is not the least bit helpful to me.”
“It’s not meant to be, dingus. I was talking to myself.”
“You know, they say the first sign of insanity is talking to one’s self,” Bert informed, then muttered. “Isn’t that right? Yeah, yeah, that’s right.”
Gerard snorted at Bert’s joke.
“No, but seriously? We need to turn left up there and then continue to follow the US-322.”
Bert sighed and ashed his cigarette out the open window. “Can’t wait ‘til it’s your turn to drive again.”
----
Gerard, as per Bert’s instructions, turned off the highway at the Spring Valley Road Highway.
“Okay, now turn right.” Gerard did. A few seconds later, Bert read out another instruction. “Now left,” he said. “Ah, quick right.” Bert looked up. “This should be the road.”
“Yeah, but where’s the place... which direction is it in?”
“Oh..... shit....” Bert thought for a moment. “Hey, quick, pull over. I’ll ask this lady.” The younger boy rolled down the window. “Excuse me?” he called.
“Yes,” she said, coming to a stop.
“We’re a bit lost,” he said “Could you tell us which direction to turn to find ‘The Pagoda’?”
“Certainly.” She smiled brightly.
----
A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot next to The Pagoda. Bert gasped as Gerard pulled on the handbrake.
“What?” he asked.
“Look....” Bert whispered, pointing out past the five-story building.
Gerard turned his head and let out a soft ‘wow’. They looked at each other, and then bailed out of the car without another word. They darted over to the building and to the railing. The sight was stunning. They could see all the way out across the town of Reading that lay sprawling below them.
Strands of their hair fluttered lightly in the breeze, blowing across their faces. Gerard flicked a piece away and couldn’t help but stare at Bert who was doing the same thing.
The younger boy turned and looked at Gerard, smiling sweetly.
“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?” Bert said, turning back to the view.
“Yeah... it is...” Gerard whispered, still watching Bert.
----
They sat in the back of the car and watched the sun set as the city below lit up.
“Fuck, it’s so pretty,” Bert said, nestling back against Gerard’s body.
Gerard nodded mutely, leaning his chin on Bert’s head and putting an arm around his waist.
After a second, Bert made a soft noise then leaned forward and completely free of Gerard’s arm. He pushed his top half through the gap between the two front seats and grappled for the glove compartment.
Gerard was left with Bert’s lack-of-ass in his face. He blinked at it and turned to look at the back of the driver’s seat. “Hey, Bert?” he called “You will warn me if you’re gonna let one rip, right?”
Bert giggled psychotically and wiggled his hips at Gerard.
Gerard scoffed and rolled his eyes. “What’re you doing?”
Instead of an answer, he got more obnoxious hip-wiggling, Bert slipping and almost stomping on his crotch and an exclamation of ‘aha’.
Bert started pushing himself back into the back seat and eventually nestled back against Gerard’s pliant stomach. He held up a disposable camera to show Gerard. “Success!”
“Where did you get that?” Gerard asked with a hint of a grin.
“I got it from the gas station while you were in the bathroom,” he replied “Thought I told you.”
“Nope.”
“Oh, well..... I bought a camera while you were in the toilet.”
“Hmm, cool. Thanks for telling me.”
Bert snorted and Gerard giggled.
Suddenly, he was blinded by a flash of light.
“Dp- ooh....” Gerard blinked slowly, trying to get the spots to go away.
“Whoa...... Was I the only one blinded by that?” Bert asked in a high voice.
“No, no.... I was too.”
Bert cranked the dial on the camera and snapped a shot of the glowing city beyond The Pagoda. He then sat up, stood and hopped over the edge of the door of the open-topped car. “C’mon, I want photos of us over by the rails.”
Gerard grinned and hopped up and out of the car. He had to run to catch up with Bert who was already almost there. He lightly shoved into him. Bert staggered, spun around and shoved him back. They continued shoving at each other for a couple of minutes until another bright flash stunned them.
“Dammit,” Gerard half-growled, half-groaned.
Bert shook his head in an attempt to fight off the dazzling effects of the camera flash. He then lifted his hand and glared at the small device that was clutched there, seemingly innocent. “I know you did that on purpose,” he said. He could almost imagine the camera snickering at him.
“Oh yeah... and I’m the one who’s insane?” Gerard muttered in mock annoyance.
Bert laughed. “Well, this oughta be an interesting photo....” He shook his head then walked the final few yards over to the rails by the 5-story oriental-style building. He turned and looked to Gerard. “C’mere,” he said as he crooked a finger, gesturing that he should come to him.
Gerard rolled his eyes and walked over, leaning on the rail. “What?”
“Nothin’,” Bert mumbled as he looked at something on the camera. “Okay.” He suddenly brought it up and snapped a photo the ever brightening city below. There was no flash. He then took one with the flash on. He then swung the camera around and snapped a photo of Gerard as he stared out at the city.
“Bert?”
He snapped another.
“What’re you doing?”
“Smile for me?”
Gerard gave the smallest, most sincere smile possible. Bert clicked more photos. Suddenly, before he could snap anymore, Gerard snatched the camera away. He poked his tongue out at Bert and started clicking photos of the beautiful, blue-eyed boy and the city lights behind.
----
Gerard frowned up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the sound of Bert snoring on his chest, the sound vibrating through his ribcage.
“Jesus....” he muttered, wondering exactly why he’d agreed to this sleeping arrangement.
They’d finished off the roll of film and then stood and stared at the city until the sun was fully gone, they’d smoked 5 cigarettes each and it was beginning to get chilly. Then they’d gone back to the car and turned on the heater for a while after putting the car’s soft top back up. The comfortable warmth eventually made them drowsy. At that point they’d turned off the heater and the car, cracked the windows and crawled into the backseat together.
Bert’s head was currently rested right over Gerard’s heart and he seemed completely at ease and in the deepest sleep possible. It would be peaceful, Gerard thought, if only he weren’t snoring so obnoxiously.
Gerard sighed and shifted slightly, petting Bert’s hair. Bert let out a soft noise of either pain or content; the older man wasn’t sure which and either was entirely possible if the bony wrist in the small of his back was anything to go by.
He lay there in deep thought for longer than he could keep track of. He closed his eyes for a moment and.....
....... bright sunlight streamed through tree branches and played across his eyelids, causing him to stir.
-----Day 3-----
He opened his eyes slowly and sat up slightly to look down at Bert who was still sleeping on his chest. He also saw that at some point Bert had freed his left arm from its place wedged underneath Gerard’s body. It was slung heavily almost over Gerard’s shoulders. He sighed and let his head flop back onto the seat before sitting up (as much as he could) and staring at Bert again. He saw the boy’s eyelids scrunch up and figured he’d be awake soon. He once more let his head fall onto the seat and shut his eyes against the harsh sunlight. He felt Bert squirm, shift and finally sit up. Gerard sat up to find Bert mid-yawn.
“Morning.”
Bert screamed, long and loud.
After Bert’s screech finished, he stuck his finger in his ear to try and halt the shrill ringing in his ear. “Fuck,” Gerard cursed “Love you too, honey bunch.”
Bert gasped and threw a hand over his mouth. “Sorry,” he squeaked “You scared me.”
Gerard grumbled. “A likely story.”
Bert smacked him on the arm. “Shut up, your breath stinks.”
“Hey!” Gerard smacked him back “Yours isn’t exactly pleasant either, thank you very much!”
“Don’t hit!” Bert smacked Gerard.
“You hit first!”
SMACK
“Bitch!”
SMACK
“Dick!”
SMACK
“Fuckwit!”
SMACK
“Asshole!”
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
“Okay, enough!” Bert yelled.
Gerard froze, hand mid-strike. He then sighed and dropped the still poised appendage.
“That was about to get kinda messy, wasn’t it?”
“Meh, we’ve had messier fights in the past. Like that time we both gave each other a blood nose and a black eye.”
“Hmm, yeah... what was that even over?”
“Uhh.... actually, I have no clue.”
“Neither do I,” Gerard shrugged.
Bert let out a soft ‘hmm’ and they settled into an odd, yet comfortable silence.
Several moments into their silence, Gerard noticed that Bert was leaning against the opposite door with his legs laying over the top of his own. It was actually quite awkward, considering that if he scooted just a foot forward he’d be..... He blushed lightly and looked up at Bert. He had a bit of pink on his cheeks too. Obviously he’d realized the same thing.
Bert cleared his throat and started moving. “Are you hungry? I’m hungry,” he rapid-fired. He pushed up onto his knees. “We should, y’know, like, go and um... get food and uhh...” He crashed into the roof. “Ow, fuck!” He tried to move and instead fell forward and landed right on top of Gerard so they were chest-to-chest with their mouths almost touching. His blue - almost purple - eyes widened. He stammered, “Um, I , oh-” He then suddenly pushed himself up and squirmed through the gap between the two front seats, opened one of the doors and darted out.
Gerard blinked in shock at the space where Bert had been mere moments ago before managing to move and open the door he’d been sitting against. He climbed out and walked to the obviously fretting boy.
“Bert?” He didn’t respond and seemed to be frozen in place. Gerard scanned the ground in front of him, looking for a spider. He didn’t see one, so why was he frozen. He walked up behind the young man and wrapped his arms around him, nuzzling his head into his shoulder. He felt Bert jump, then relax. “Bertie? What’s wrong?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing,” he said “I was just a bit embarrassed.” Gerard’s green eyes were focussed on the side of his face. He turned his head. His face was a mere inch from the older man’s . “Gerard?”
“Yeah...”
“Nothing...” With that he lightly shook his head and turned around in Gerard’s grip to hug him back. He felt Gerard’s smile against the side of his neck and tucked himself further into the hug.
Part 6
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
After getting the car cleaned out and the tank filled back up, they headed off again with Bert once more driving. He’d picked up some more tourist maps and had also had the brains to use one of the computers tucked away in the corner to print out instructions to roughly where they were going.
They’d been driving 20 minutes when Gerard lit his 3rd cigarette in 15 minutes. At that point, Bert snapped.
“Hey, fucktard,” he yelled. “Either light me one or knock it the fuck off!” Gerard stopped, his mouth full of the last bit of his muesli bar. He made a questioning noise. “The smokes, dipshit!”
The older man swallowed the food. “Ah.”
“Yeah, ‘ah’. Now shut up and make with the smoke.”
Gerard blinked at him for a second before pulling out a fresh cigarette, lighting it and passing it off to his grouchy driver.
Bert took a drag, then sighed in relief. “Okay,” he muttered, then turned to Gerard slightly. “Where do I need to go from here?”
“Depends, where are we?”
They laughed at each other’s and their own expense, then looked for a street sign to tell them where they were.
“Ah,” Gerard chirped “We are here-”
“Gee,” Bert interrupted. “‘Here’ is not the least bit helpful to me.”
“It’s not meant to be, dingus. I was talking to myself.”
“You know, they say the first sign of insanity is talking to one’s self,” Bert informed, then muttered. “Isn’t that right? Yeah, yeah, that’s right.”
Gerard snorted at Bert’s joke.
“No, but seriously? We need to turn left up there and then continue to follow the US-322.”
Bert sighed and ashed his cigarette out the open window. “Can’t wait ‘til it’s your turn to drive again.”
----
Gerard, as per Bert’s instructions, turned off the highway at the Spring Valley Road Highway.
“Okay, now turn right.” Gerard did. A few seconds later, Bert read out another instruction. “Now left,” he said. “Ah, quick right.” Bert looked up. “This should be the road.”
“Yeah, but where’s the place... which direction is it in?”
“Oh..... shit....” Bert thought for a moment. “Hey, quick, pull over. I’ll ask this lady.” The younger boy rolled down the window. “Excuse me?” he called.
“Yes,” she said, coming to a stop.
“We’re a bit lost,” he said “Could you tell us which direction to turn to find ‘The Pagoda’?”
“Certainly.” She smiled brightly.
----
A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot next to The Pagoda. Bert gasped as Gerard pulled on the handbrake.
“What?” he asked.
“Look....” Bert whispered, pointing out past the five-story building.
Gerard turned his head and let out a soft ‘wow’. They looked at each other, and then bailed out of the car without another word. They darted over to the building and to the railing. The sight was stunning. They could see all the way out across the town of Reading that lay sprawling below them.
Strands of their hair fluttered lightly in the breeze, blowing across their faces. Gerard flicked a piece away and couldn’t help but stare at Bert who was doing the same thing.
The younger boy turned and looked at Gerard, smiling sweetly.
“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?” Bert said, turning back to the view.
“Yeah... it is...” Gerard whispered, still watching Bert.
----
They sat in the back of the car and watched the sun set as the city below lit up.
“Fuck, it’s so pretty,” Bert said, nestling back against Gerard’s body.
Gerard nodded mutely, leaning his chin on Bert’s head and putting an arm around his waist.
After a second, Bert made a soft noise then leaned forward and completely free of Gerard’s arm. He pushed his top half through the gap between the two front seats and grappled for the glove compartment.
Gerard was left with Bert’s lack-of-ass in his face. He blinked at it and turned to look at the back of the driver’s seat. “Hey, Bert?” he called “You will warn me if you’re gonna let one rip, right?”
Bert giggled psychotically and wiggled his hips at Gerard.
Gerard scoffed and rolled his eyes. “What’re you doing?”
Instead of an answer, he got more obnoxious hip-wiggling, Bert slipping and almost stomping on his crotch and an exclamation of ‘aha’.
Bert started pushing himself back into the back seat and eventually nestled back against Gerard’s pliant stomach. He held up a disposable camera to show Gerard. “Success!”
“Where did you get that?” Gerard asked with a hint of a grin.
“I got it from the gas station while you were in the bathroom,” he replied “Thought I told you.”
“Nope.”
“Oh, well..... I bought a camera while you were in the toilet.”
“Hmm, cool. Thanks for telling me.”
Bert snorted and Gerard giggled.
Suddenly, he was blinded by a flash of light.
“Dp- ooh....” Gerard blinked slowly, trying to get the spots to go away.
“Whoa...... Was I the only one blinded by that?” Bert asked in a high voice.
“No, no.... I was too.”
Bert cranked the dial on the camera and snapped a shot of the glowing city beyond The Pagoda. He then sat up, stood and hopped over the edge of the door of the open-topped car. “C’mon, I want photos of us over by the rails.”
Gerard grinned and hopped up and out of the car. He had to run to catch up with Bert who was already almost there. He lightly shoved into him. Bert staggered, spun around and shoved him back. They continued shoving at each other for a couple of minutes until another bright flash stunned them.
“Dammit,” Gerard half-growled, half-groaned.
Bert shook his head in an attempt to fight off the dazzling effects of the camera flash. He then lifted his hand and glared at the small device that was clutched there, seemingly innocent. “I know you did that on purpose,” he said. He could almost imagine the camera snickering at him.
“Oh yeah... and I’m the one who’s insane?” Gerard muttered in mock annoyance.
Bert laughed. “Well, this oughta be an interesting photo....” He shook his head then walked the final few yards over to the rails by the 5-story oriental-style building. He turned and looked to Gerard. “C’mere,” he said as he crooked a finger, gesturing that he should come to him.
Gerard rolled his eyes and walked over, leaning on the rail. “What?”
“Nothin’,” Bert mumbled as he looked at something on the camera. “Okay.” He suddenly brought it up and snapped a photo the ever brightening city below. There was no flash. He then took one with the flash on. He then swung the camera around and snapped a photo of Gerard as he stared out at the city.
“Bert?”
He snapped another.
“What’re you doing?”
“Smile for me?”
Gerard gave the smallest, most sincere smile possible. Bert clicked more photos. Suddenly, before he could snap anymore, Gerard snatched the camera away. He poked his tongue out at Bert and started clicking photos of the beautiful, blue-eyed boy and the city lights behind.
----
Gerard frowned up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the sound of Bert snoring on his chest, the sound vibrating through his ribcage.
“Jesus....” he muttered, wondering exactly why he’d agreed to this sleeping arrangement.
They’d finished off the roll of film and then stood and stared at the city until the sun was fully gone, they’d smoked 5 cigarettes each and it was beginning to get chilly. Then they’d gone back to the car and turned on the heater for a while after putting the car’s soft top back up. The comfortable warmth eventually made them drowsy. At that point they’d turned off the heater and the car, cracked the windows and crawled into the backseat together.
Bert’s head was currently rested right over Gerard’s heart and he seemed completely at ease and in the deepest sleep possible. It would be peaceful, Gerard thought, if only he weren’t snoring so obnoxiously.
Gerard sighed and shifted slightly, petting Bert’s hair. Bert let out a soft noise of either pain or content; the older man wasn’t sure which and either was entirely possible if the bony wrist in the small of his back was anything to go by.
He lay there in deep thought for longer than he could keep track of. He closed his eyes for a moment and.....
....... bright sunlight streamed through tree branches and played across his eyelids, causing him to stir.
-----Day 3-----
He opened his eyes slowly and sat up slightly to look down at Bert who was still sleeping on his chest. He also saw that at some point Bert had freed his left arm from its place wedged underneath Gerard’s body. It was slung heavily almost over Gerard’s shoulders. He sighed and let his head flop back onto the seat before sitting up (as much as he could) and staring at Bert again. He saw the boy’s eyelids scrunch up and figured he’d be awake soon. He once more let his head fall onto the seat and shut his eyes against the harsh sunlight. He felt Bert squirm, shift and finally sit up. Gerard sat up to find Bert mid-yawn.
“Morning.”
Bert screamed, long and loud.
After Bert’s screech finished, he stuck his finger in his ear to try and halt the shrill ringing in his ear. “Fuck,” Gerard cursed “Love you too, honey bunch.”
Bert gasped and threw a hand over his mouth. “Sorry,” he squeaked “You scared me.”
Gerard grumbled. “A likely story.”
Bert smacked him on the arm. “Shut up, your breath stinks.”
“Hey!” Gerard smacked him back “Yours isn’t exactly pleasant either, thank you very much!”
“Don’t hit!” Bert smacked Gerard.
“You hit first!”
SMACK
“Bitch!”
SMACK
“Dick!”
SMACK
“Fuckwit!”
SMACK
“Asshole!”
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
SMACK
“Okay, enough!” Bert yelled.
Gerard froze, hand mid-strike. He then sighed and dropped the still poised appendage.
“That was about to get kinda messy, wasn’t it?”
“Meh, we’ve had messier fights in the past. Like that time we both gave each other a blood nose and a black eye.”
“Hmm, yeah... what was that even over?”
“Uhh.... actually, I have no clue.”
“Neither do I,” Gerard shrugged.
Bert let out a soft ‘hmm’ and they settled into an odd, yet comfortable silence.
Several moments into their silence, Gerard noticed that Bert was leaning against the opposite door with his legs laying over the top of his own. It was actually quite awkward, considering that if he scooted just a foot forward he’d be..... He blushed lightly and looked up at Bert. He had a bit of pink on his cheeks too. Obviously he’d realized the same thing.
Bert cleared his throat and started moving. “Are you hungry? I’m hungry,” he rapid-fired. He pushed up onto his knees. “We should, y’know, like, go and um... get food and uhh...” He crashed into the roof. “Ow, fuck!” He tried to move and instead fell forward and landed right on top of Gerard so they were chest-to-chest with their mouths almost touching. His blue - almost purple - eyes widened. He stammered, “Um, I , oh-” He then suddenly pushed himself up and squirmed through the gap between the two front seats, opened one of the doors and darted out.
Gerard blinked in shock at the space where Bert had been mere moments ago before managing to move and open the door he’d been sitting against. He climbed out and walked to the obviously fretting boy.
“Bert?” He didn’t respond and seemed to be frozen in place. Gerard scanned the ground in front of him, looking for a spider. He didn’t see one, so why was he frozen. He walked up behind the young man and wrapped his arms around him, nuzzling his head into his shoulder. He felt Bert jump, then relax. “Bertie? What’s wrong?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing,” he said “I was just a bit embarrassed.” Gerard’s green eyes were focussed on the side of his face. He turned his head. His face was a mere inch from the older man’s . “Gerard?”
“Yeah...”
“Nothing...” With that he lightly shook his head and turned around in Gerard’s grip to hug him back. He felt Gerard’s smile against the side of his neck and tucked himself further into the hug.
Part 6