“Frank, wake up you’re going to be late,” someone said, shaking my shoulder.
“Five more minutes,” I muttered, turning away from the disturbance.
“No, Frank,” the voice insisted, pulling on my arm. “You don’t understand. You’re going to be late for work. You really need to wake up.”
I made quiet whining noises and tried to free my arm from whoever had a grip on it. There was a loud sigh and then there was a weight shift on the mattress. The mattress on either side of me sunk in and a pillow suddenly came down on my head.
“Frank, get up!” the person demanded. “You wouldn’t want Gerard to be mad at you all over again, do you?” she asked sweetly.
“I don’t care,” I waved her off. “And seriously, a pillow? I’m still asleep.”
“I know and that’s why I thought the pillow would do the trick to wake you up. At least I was able to get a half conscious response from you.”
I gasped as a weight came down on top of me.
“Come on, Sleepyhead.”
The person started poking my sides and I squirmed, letting out a few giggles.
“Aaammyyyy,” I whined. “Cut it out.”
I wriggled around under her until I was on my back and able to look up at her. I caught her wrists and brought them up to hold them over my chest.
“Stop it!” I said again. “I could always turn this around.”
“Are you going to wake up?”
“It’s not like I have a choice,” I sighed overdramatically.
Amy looked at me expectantly, still straddling my waist.
“I’m awake. I’m getting up,” I stated, sitting up and causing her to fall over at the unexpected movement. I cracked up not really helping the situation, because this slight action ended up causing Amy to fall off of the bed and land on the floor with a thud. I winced still giggling though.
“Frank,” there was a grumble from the side of the bed and I leaned over to look at her innocently. “Sorry. Are you okay?”
“I’m going to get you back!” she exclaimed instantly jumping up.
My sleep muddled mind immediately cleared up and I scrambled off the bed, running into the bathroom and locking the door behind me.
“Open this damn door, Frank!” she yelled, banging on the door.
“Why so you could kill me?”
“No, no, I just want to talk.”
“In that case I think…hm, nope,” I said, making a popping sound with my lips and laughing at her, mocking her over the fact that she couldn’t get to me.
“Frank?”
“Yes?” I dragged out the word.
“How old are we again?”
I laughed loudly at her question and stepped away from the door.
“Last time I checked I was five,” I laughed. “I’m going to take a shower though, because I don’t want to be late. I’m already late.”
As if to remind me, my phone started ringing again in the bedroom. Shit, now I had to go outside to answer it.
“Frank, your phone is ringing!” Amy called innocently from the other side of the door.
“I fucking know,” I grumbled quietly to myself before opening the door and making a dash for her bed, diving onto it and quickly answering the phone. “Hello.”
“Hey, Frank, I’m just calling to tell you that I might be five minutes late. It’s been a hectic morning at the house.”
I hit myself against the forehead and suppressed a groan. Shit, Gerard was going to want to pick me up and I wasn’t home. How was I going to explain to him that I spent the night at Amy’s place? Nice, Frank. No one was going to wonder why you spent the night over at the band’s legal rep’s house.
“No, that’s fine,” I replied coolly. “You don’t have to give me a ride today.”
“Why not? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine,” I hurriedly assured him, sitting up and watching Amy carefully. She was coming back from the kitchen with a plate of French toast. I tried to figure out where she got the time to make breakfast so quickly when we’ve been fooling around all morning and I‘ve barely been on the phone for a minute, but then I realized she must’ve prepared it before coming to wake me up.
“Frank?”
Oh, shit I was still on the phone with Gerard and he was waiting for an answer.
“Ah, you wouldn’t believe what an idiot I am,” I said, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I completely forgot to set my alarm for this morning and I totally overslept. If you didn’t call just now, I would probably still be in dreamland.” Gerard just forgave me the previous day and here I was lying to him again. Fuck my life. I’ll tell him the truth and explain it all to him later. “I’m not going to be ready, but I promise to be at the studio on time.”
“I don’t mind waiting a few minutes. Mikey’s still busy getting ready anyway. Huge drama when he couldn’t find his straightener this morning,” he chuckled and I could hear Mikey shouting at him in the background.
“Thanks, but I’ll just take the bus. I’ll probably still be a while,” I declined, knowing full well that even if he was willing to wait all morning there would be no point, because I wasn’t home.
I heard crunching sounds and smiled up at Amy who was chewing on some toast, but failing in her attempt to chew quietly on the crusty bread.
“Okay, sure, no problem. I’ll see you later then,” Gerard said and hung up.
“I’ll drop you off on my way to the office,” Amy offered, taking another bite from her toast.
“Oh, thank you darling,” I said slightly high-pitched and then laughed.
“Shut up and eat your toast,” she laughed in response, pushing the plate towards me.
We made small talk while we finished eating breakfast and then I quickly jumped through the shower before Amy dropped me off at the studio.

***

It was a long day in the studio, but Gerard finally pulled the car up into their driveway and the three of us poured out of the doors.
“Thanks, Gee.”
“No problem. I’d invite you in, but I’m guessing that you and Brittany haven’t talked yet,” he guessed, looking at me questioningly.
I shook my head, “No, but don’t worry about it. We can be civilized if need be. Besides, it’s been a long day and I had a bit of a late night so I’m just going to head home and do absolutely nothing.”
The raven-haired male chuckled, “You do that and then maybe tomorrow you’ll explain to me what you got up to last night.”
I just laughed, starting in the direction of my own house. There would come a time when I would probably have to explain my friendship with Amy, because it obviously wasn’t a platonic relationship anymore. I was just about halfway across the road when I noticed someone sitting on our porch and my eyes grew wide when I recognized Brittany. So she was finally fed up with me not answering my phone and finally saw it fit to talk to me face to face. I guess I was finally worthy of a personal apology.
She stood up and dusted off her jeans as I drew near.
“Hey, Frank. It’s about time you got home. I was starting to think that I was going to have to wait out here all day,” she joked when I eventually reached her.
“I’m sure you would’ve left sooner or later,” I bit back unintentionally and winced at my own words. “Sorry, uhm, do you want to come inside.”
“Thanks, I’m sure it’ll be better than arguing out here,” she replied coolly as I unlocked the front door and stepped aside to allow her to walk before me.
“What did I do to deserve this unexpected visit?” I asked, dropping my keys on the small end table by the door.
The girl stood in the middle of the room suddenly looking small and nervous.
“We need to talk.”
“I promised you that we will so let’s talk. What’s on your heart?”
“You wouldn’t believe how much Gerard has lectured me this past week and how much he scolded me over certain things. He’s not very happy with the way I handled things or with how I treated you,” Brittany explained as if it should hold some meaning to me, as if I should feel sorry for her. As for Gerard being somewhat protective of me, I knew that, because we’ve been best friends since the beginning of time. We took care of each other. I was a little surprised though that he took my side over Brittany’s, because one, she was his sister and two, he was pissed at me for sleeping with her. Thank goodness that was over now.
“Get to the point, Brittany,” I said shortly, because the more she talked around the problem the more I got the idea that she wasn’t here to apologize, but rather to get what she wanted not that I was sure exactly what that was.
“Patience is a virtue…” she started, but I cut her short, “Don’t change the subject. Why are you here?”
The blonde teen sighed and then smiled that infamous smile, the one she used when she was trying to sway people in her favor.
“Be patient, Frankie. I’m getting to it. The point of my explanation is that everything my brother said was true and he said quite a lot of things. You know him, wise beyond measure that one. Anyway,” she continued, shaking her head slightly as if to rearrange her thoughts, because she once again strayed from the topic of discussion. “I did some thinking and I’ve decided. I don’t want to be with Tray so,” she said, placing a tentative hand on my shoulder. “I broke up with him.”
Her last statement surprised me and I was unable respond for a few moments. When I finally regained my senses, my mouth formed a small round shape as I said, “So?”
As expected, Brittany suddenly looked a little pissed off, pulling her hand back. “So? What do you mean so? Now we can go back to the way things were before you found out about Tray.”
I laughed sardonically, “You’re kidding me right?”
She looked taken aback by my response.
“You come in here after more than a week, you don’t apologize, you still act bitchy towards me, making demands and then you tell me that you broke up with your high school boyfriend and just expect that everything’s okay again. Life doesn’t work that way, Brittany. It’s time to wake up or at least grow up.”
“I said I’m sorry, okay! What more do you want?”
“But you didn’t,” I pointed out. “Even if you did, I don’t know if things could go back to you and me sleeping together.”
The apprehensive look that crossed her face at this was impossible to miss.
“Gerard just started talking to me again. He just forgave me for the first time. I’m not going to go behind his back or disappoint him again.”
“You’re seriously going to choose my brother over me?” she demanded incredulously.
“Yes,” I responded with conviction. “I can trust Gerard…”
“You can trust me,” she tried, stepping forward and reaching a hand towards me.
“No, I can’t,” I slightly growled, stepping back from her outstretched hand. “You’re a lying, manipulative bitch,” I blurted out without remorse.
The blonde looked taken aback by my hefty response for only a split second before a small appealing smile crept onto her lips.
“That’s harsh.”
“It’s the truth.”
Her lips thinned, but the determined look on her face didn’t wane.
“Frank, you’re angry and that’s completely understandable. You hate me, because I hurt you and you love me.”
“That’s a contradiction,” I pointed out spitefully.
I wasn’t this person, but Brittany always had a way of rubbing me the wrong way. She got under my skin and made me say and do things I never would’ve otherwise.
“It’s the truth,” she smirked in satisfaction at using my own words against me. “Frank…”
Why did she have to keep saying my name? She was toying with me. One part of me wanted to accept her lame apology and just go back to the way things used to be, because, let’s face it, all I wanted to do was to ravish the hell out of her, but another part, the self-preservation part of me, wouldn’t allow it, wouldn’t allow her to have her way so easily.
Brittany walked forward until our chests were nearly touching.
“I get it, I lied and I cheated, but I’m done. It’s over. Gerard told me that I would have to offer up my dignity, sacrifice my pride if I want you to forgive me, but are you really going to make me beg, Frank?”
There was no end to her vanity and I couldn’t decide whether or not to hold it against her. It was just the way she was and there was no helping it. On the other hand, she was never going to change and I didn’t want to have to always wonder. She was a liar with a complete disregard of the feelings of everyone around her. She was manipulative and a spoiled brat to boot. I would be an idiot if I allowed her to fool me with her sweet attitude and innocent words, stupid to let myself be drawn in again. This thought barely entered my mind… and there it was… A smile, the perfect smile, so sincere and yet so devastatingly beautiful. I’ve only seen it about once before after we slept together the first time and at that point in time I could already tell that that smile would destroy me.
I guess I’m an idiot after all.
Our chests crashed together and my lips smashed down on hers, claiming them greedily. It’s been too long… too long since I’ve kissed her perfect, pink lips, too long since I’ve held her in my arms. You are almost definitely going to regret this, the rational part of my brain told me. The less rational part figured that it’ll all be worth it, one kiss would be worth the hurt that will inevitably follow, because this girl is incapable of returning your feelings.
In the end I should’ve known better than to think that it would only be one kiss.
One kiss would never be enough when our senses collided. The attraction between the two of us was just too strong and got its grip on us without us even realizing it. Lust would always have the upper hand. However, this time was different. Our movements were less feverish and the shared kisses more desperate than demanding. There was no struggle for dominance either. Brittany was surprisingly submissive. My hands, previously having a stronghold on her waist, moved up and around her alluring body, pulling her tighter against mine. Her hands ran down my upper arms and then back up until they came to rest on either side of my face. I let out a small pleasurable sound as she gently tucked on my lower lip. My feet started to walk backwards in the direction of the couch, but instead the back of my legs hit the small coffee table in the middle of the room and I sat down on the dark wooden surface. Brittany sat down on my lap, her hands still holding my face and her forehead resting against mine, allowing us to look into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Her emerald colored eyes seemed to search my face and I assumed that she found what she was looking for when she plastered her lips back to mine, hands burying into my semi-long hair.
Her hands slowly moved down the front of my chest while my lips pursued her cheek, her jaw line, her neck and finally finding her collarbone. There was a tugging sensation at my abdomen and then we had to break apart in order for the blonde to pull my shirt off and drop it somewhere on the floor. Her own shirt met the floor soon after.
Brittany pulled my face back up to hers, but soon drew back to lie back down on the couch, my lips following hers until I was lying on top of her. I hooked my thumbs under her bra straps and slid them down her shoulders, leaving kisses as I did. I could feel goosebumps forming under the tips of my fingers as my hands moved down her sides and came to rest on her hips. Her own fingers curled around the waistband of my jeans and started pulling them down. I never even noticed her unbuttoning them or pulling down the zipper. I helped her get rid of them and didn’t miss her staring at me in nothing but my boxer-briefs.
“Frank,” the blonde girl whined when I hadn’t moved for a while.
“Patience is a virtue,” I said a little huskily, remembering her words from earlier and trailing a teasing finger down her inner-thigh.
“Frank, stop being a little tease,” she grumbled impatiently, sitting up in order to grab me by the shoulders and pulling me back down on top of her, kissing me deeply.
Now there was the Brittany I knew. However, she still didn’t try to dominate and allowed me to stay on top the entire time. I liked it, because it allowed me to see everything and I didn’t miss a single detail. I could see every facial expression she made and caught every short breath or shudder she let out. I could see the small beads of sweat forming in her neck and kissed them away. The quiet sounds of pleasure she allowed to escape from her lips drove me insane and at one point her eyes shut tightly and her mouth opened in a silent exclamation, no sound coming from her. It was a huge turn-on not that I even understood why.
Her hands found their way to my back and I could feel her nails digging into my skin, sending chills down my spine. I hated that she knew what an effect this action had on me. Her eyes were still screwed shut while she dragged her nails painfully slow down my back. I knew they were going to leave scratch marks all over my back, but in all fairness, the grip I had on her was probably going to leave bruises as well. At this thought my movements slowed down and I moved my hands back up to her sides. Brittany didn’t like this change of pace though and her eyes shot open as she let out a no in complaint. I cupped her face in my hands, staring into her deep green eyes for a few short moments before my mouth covered hers once more.
Brittany pulled back slightly and let out a loud scream as she peaked and I followed soon after, arms buckling under me and causing me to sag down on top of her, letting out a ragged breath. One of her hands came up slowly and started stroking my now sure to be messy hair. I lifted my head up to look at her.
“I…” I stopped to take a deep breath and continued, “I missed you.”
“Me too, Frankie,” she breathed, pulling my face towards hers and planting a firm kiss on my lips. It wasn’t good enough though and I kept our faces together, kissing her passionately.
“You were really going to give this all up?” she asked jokingly, still holding my face in her hands.
She looked beautiful with her hair slightly messy and her skin flushed like that.
“Probably not,” I admitted sheepishly, averting my eyes and Brittany giggled in pure delight. “Things are going to have to change though,” I told her seriously, looking into her emerald colored eyes.
Her brows furrowed together in confusion, but before she could respond we heard a key being placed in the lock. Our eyes grew wide as we simultaneously realized that my mom was home and we were still curled up together on the couch.
“Fuck,” Brittany whispered in horror, jumping up and scurrying around to pick up her clothes.
I did the same, pulling on pieces of clothing as I went. Brittany didn’t bother trying to get dressed, but instead collected all her clothes and ran upstairs to my bedroom. She just managed to reach the top of the stairs and I just finished pulling my shirt over my head when the door opened and my mom stepped inside the house. She looked up and seemed surprised to see me.
“Frank?” she almost asked, narrowing her eyes at me.
I gulped nervously, wondering what she saw when she stared at me like that. My eyes quickly scanned the room, but didn’t see anything that could give us away. I inconspicuously smoothed out my shirt and wiped my sweaty palms on the front of my jeans.
“Let me take that,” I offered, starting forward to take the brown paper bag of groceries from my mom’s hands.
“That’s okay,” she hurriedly said, pulling the bag away from me. “I’ll go put these in the kitchen.”
I watched the older woman as she walked towards the kitchen, suppressing a sigh of relief that she didn’t walk in on Brittany and I. That would have been the worst thing ever.
“Frank.”
I came back to reality and saw my mom standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking at me.
“You can tell your friend that she’s welcome to join us for dinner. I brought more than enough food.”
I gulped and felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment.
“Thanks,” I replied, grinning sheepishly.
Mothers are always all-knowing, but I had no idea how. One thing I did know was that this was going to be one hell of an awkward dinner.
I turned on my heel, unable to help a small smirk from spreading across my face as I made my way up the stairs to my bedroom where I found Brittany fully dressed and standing in front of the mirror.
“Did your mom suspect anything?” she asked nervously, turning away from the mirror and looking at me expectantly.
“Uhm,” I started, slightly closing the door behind me and stepping closer to her. “I think she knows. She invited you to stay for dinner.”
Brittany’s cheeks flushed furiously.
“Oh shit, I can only imagine what she must be thinking, what she must think of me.”
She looked up and our eyes locked and then we both burst out laughing. There was no better way to handle this awkward situation than to laugh about it.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” I informed her, cocking my head in the direction of the door to indicate that we should go downstairs and have dinner, get this over with.
Brittany smiled and approached me.
“Frank,” she stopped me before I could leave the room and I turned to look at her. Her hands reached up and started to flatten my hair. “As irresistible as I find your sex hair, I doubt that your mom would appreciate it that much,” she said softly, pushing the last few strands of hair into place.
I smiled gratefully at her and took one of her hands in mine, linking our fingers together before continuing our walk to the kitchen. By the time we got downstairs, my mom already unpacked the paper bag and I saw several boxes of Italian. I loved my mom, though I’m not sure the feelings were quite mutual at this moment.
“Hi, Mrs. Iero,” Brittany greeted the older woman sweetly.
My mother didn’t even look surprised to see that she was the one at my side.
“Hello, Brittany. It’s been a while since the last time you were here.”
I noticed the girl’s cheeks flush slightly and suppressed a chuckle, because that wasn’t even close to the truth. Brittany has been here several times since the last time my mom actually saw her, but Brittany was smart and nodded, smiling sheepishly.
“Yes, not since the last time I came to visit Frank.”
At this I couldn’t contain myself anymore and burst out laughing.
“Frank, behave,” my mother scolded playfully, pulling out a chair and sitting down, Brittany and I following suit.
I only finished laughing when there was a bunch of pasta stuffed in my mouth. My mom and Brittany seemed to be getting along perfectly well though and I grinned to myself. I could always count on my mom to be polite even in the most awkward situations. There was no point in thinking about the fact that she just almost walked in on us having sex on her couch, was there? At this thought, another fit of laughter escaped my lips and the two women sitting at the table looked at me enquiringly.
“Nothing, it’s nothing,” I giggled, shoveling more take-out into my mouth and looking innocently back at them.
We finished the rest of the dinner without any awkwardness and I finally stopped laughing. My mom offered to clear up and Brittany and I headed back upstairs to my room.
“Okay,” she said seriously, turning around to look at me as soon as I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me. “Let’s talk.”
Her sudden change in attitude caught me off guard, because mere seconds ago she was still laughing and smiling and now all of a sudden she was so serious and seemingly upset.
“Did I miss something?” I wondered cautiously, not wanting to start an unnecessary confrontation.
“Right before your mom almost walked in on us, you said that things are going to have to change. What did you mean by that?” she almost demanded.
“Oh,” I relaxed and walked over to her, leading her to the bed and sitting her down. “Nothing by it. All I meant was that we can’t simply keep having sex. It didn’t work out the first time and I’m positive it won’t work out a second time. I’m not going to have another blow-up-disaster like that.”
“But… Frank,” she quietly hissed. “What about what happened less than two hours ago? What about everything that happened today? I thought we got over the whole boyfriend incident.”
“We did…”
“Then what the hell?” she wanted to know confused. “Please explain it to me,” she continued, jumping to her feet and looking me dead in the eyes. “Is this still about Gerard? Are you really that worried about his reaction, because we can both go talk to him. If we don’t go behind his back again there won’t be any problems. We just have to be open about what’s going on,” she rambled in almost one breath.
“What is going on between us, Brittany?” I asked calmly.
Her mouth fell open and she stared at me speechlessly.
“That’s all I’m trying to say,” I told her with a small amused smile. “If we’re going to do this all over again, let’s do it right. No more sex on the sidelines/ friends with benefits thing.”
“In other words, no more hate sex?” she checked, her own smile forming.
“No.”
“Damn, it was so good!” she quietly exclaimed as if outraged by the prospect of it ending.
I chuckled, “I agree, but, Brittany the only way I’m doing this again is if you agree to be with me and only me, officially. I don’t want another unexpected boyfriend surprise like before.”
She took a deep breath and nodded, “Okay, I understand.”
When it became clear that she wasn’t going to say anything more I looked at her questioningly, “So?”
“Come on, Frank not with the so’s again,” she smiled.
I ducked my head. “Sorry, but I can’t read minds. I don’t know what you’re thinking,” I explained a little helplessly. “What do you mean with okay?”
“Frank,” she said, giving me that smile again. “You are a genius, but sometimes you can be really slow.”
“Okay, great, now you’re insulting me,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “I just want to be sure, because I don’t want to make any wrong assumptions.”
“Okay, we’ll do it right this time. Okay, we’ll stop being friends with benefits. Okay, I’ll be with you, officially,” she finished, smiling up at me.
“You will?” I questioned surprised, because I didn’t think she was going to agree to it so easily.
“It’s about time you asked me out, don’t you think?” she teased, poking my chest. “And yes, I’m serious,” she added, placing one hand under my chin and pulling my face forward to kiss me.
I suddenly envied Tray, the ex-boyfriend, because he knew Brittany better than I did. I never knew the soft and kind girl that sometimes fought her way to the surface only to be suppressed again. From this one gentle kiss I could tell that things were going to be a lot different from now on.