“Okay, so now you have to roll for charisma,” Gerard instructs.
Frank frowns, confusion creating creases in his forehead. “Why?”
Gerard sighs, pushing the Dungeon Map to the side. “If you want to convince this person to help you, you have to be charismatic. Since you didn’t consider charm when making your character, it’s going to be hard.”
“I don’t understand this game,” Frank replies plainly, staring at his card blankly.
Gerard groans but can’t hold back a smile. Frank is so cute, trying so hard to understand such a simple game.
“Help me pick up,” Gerard instructs, scraping up the numerous dice and putting them into their mesh holding bag.
Frank whines and kicks his legs like a pouting child. “I don’t want to!”
Gerard narrows his eyes at him, and Frank immediately starts folding up the board.
There’s a clumping down the steps, and Mikey’s passing through the room like a rocket, shirt off, stumbling from no glasses, and hair a mess.
“Mikes, what are you doing?” Gerard asks.
Mikey’s already out of the room. Gerard scowls, but in a second Mikey’s on his way back up the steps.
“MIKEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!” Gerard shouts.
Mikey stops, startled. He then shifts his footing and replies, “Ray Toro is having a party tonight.”
Frank squints. “But you HATE Ray.”
Mikey shrugs. “So? Everybody’s going to be there.”
Gerard looks at Frank worriedly, shaking his head. “No Mikey, you can’t go. I don’t want him hurting you.”
“But Gerard!” Mikey begs. “I won’t even run into him, it’ll be so packed!”
“Damn it, Mikey! You can’t go!” Gerard scolds.
“I’m going,” Mikey challenges, sticking one of his bony hips out.
Gerard gets up and begins to charge towards his younger sibling. Mikey squeaks in fear and begins running up the steps. Frank leaps to his feet and follows Gerard, pulling his arms around him and restraining him. Gerard lets him, but he gives Mikey a menacing look.
“Or! Instead of beating up our younger siblings,” Frank begins. “We could go to the party and keep somewhat of an eye on the kid.”
Mikey frowns, but then his expression returns to its usual emotionless state. It’s a shit deal, but better than Gerard sitting on his head.
“Fine,” Gerard agrees. Frank lets him go. Gerard pulls Mikey close and grinds his fist into his brother’s skull.
“Gee! Quit it! You’re messing up my hair!” Mikey huffs, squirming out from under him. He flips his hair before continuing upstairs.
Gerard grins before saying, “Frank, do you want something to wear? Or we could go to your house…”
Frank looks down at himself. He’s still in his uniform; he’d gone over to Gerard’s house straight after school. Gerard, in his own home, had gotten the opportunity to change whilst Frank didn’t.
“Um, sure,” Frank replies. “I’ll borrow some stuff.” He says this mainly because wearing Gerard’s clothes sounds like one step closer to becoming his boyfriend.
Gerard leaves Frank locked in his room, left to his own devices. Frank rummages through Gerard’s dresser, looking for some skinny jeans to replace his dorky school required slacks.
Frank accidently opens Gerard’s underwear drawer, and he goes crimson before slamming it shut. He then slowly reopens it and peeks inside, feeling like a total pervert. He feels like even more of a pervert when he digs around and pulls out a pair of pink American Apparel boxer briefs. He feels like the biggest pervert in the world when he tucks them into his bag.
Frank dresses himself in a Jawbreaker t shirt and black skinny jeans. The jeans fit great, except they’re much too long, and Frank has to cuff them so they don’t drag against the ground. He lets himself out and heads downstairs.
“Hey, you look great. Who are you wearing?” Gerard jokes, flipping off whatever show he was watching.
Frank giggles and poses dramatically, a hand on his hip. He tosses his hair and replies, “Vera Wang.”
Mikey trots down the steps, literally lifting Frank and moving him to the side to pass. Frank turns a bit red and frowns at Mikey.
“You know you could’ve asked me to move,” Frank mutters, going down the stairs.
“Gerard, can I borrow your eyeliner?” Mikey asks, already on his way to the bathroom.
Gerard gives Mikey a “Shut the fuck up!” look and nervously looks at Frank.
“Gee, I know you wear makeup,” Frank scoffs. He sits next to Gerard and grabs his knee. “Wanna hear a secret? I do to.”
To prove it, Frank licks his hand and runs it under his eye, smearing his eyeliner.
Gerard smiles and relaxes. He licks his own finger and places one hand against Frank’s cheekbone and runs his wet thumb underneath Frank’s other eye.
“What are you doing?” Frank asks. He breaks apart and crosses his legs, hiding his boner effectively.
Gerard looks hurt. “I was just evening it out.”
Frank realizes that it probably looked like Gerard had weirded him out, when in reality, Frank had just gotten an erection and was desperate to hide it.
“Thanks,” Frank replies, not wanting Gerard to feel shitty.
Mikey renters, eyeliner carefully applied and glasses in his fist. “Let’s go!”
Gerard gets up and leaves, and Mikey stands there, watching Frank. Frank rises slowly, his boner showing obviously through his tight jeans.
Mikey laughs and points at Frank, stamping a foot on the ground as he guffaws.
“Real fucking funny!” Frank snaps. He grabs his jacket off of the floor and casually places it over his lap, leaving with Mikey on his tail.
Frank sits in the passenger seat and Mikey crams himself into the back, sitting on the floor rather than in the seat like he’s supposed to. As soon as they pull up to the party, which is already swamped with cars, Mikey darts off in his own direction.
“Thanks for the ride, Gerard!” Gerard scoffs sarcastically. He shakes his head and rams his keys into his pocket.
He leans his head back against the headrest and smiles at Frank.
“Ready?”
Frank’s breath catches with anxiety before he nods. “Ready.”
They enter the house, a large mansion looking like deal. Frank’s never been to a party before. No one at his old school liked him, remember? Not only was it his first party, but it was the party of his new sworn enemy. So yeah, Frankie’s feathers were a tiny bit ruffled.
Gerard sensed this and slipped his hand around Frank’s to comfort him giving it a quick squeeze before releasing it and letting his own arm fall to his side.
Gerard leads Frank to the back yard, where some kids are lounged out in lawn chairs. Others lay out on blankets spread across the dead grass. Gerard sat on an empty lawn chair and, not seeing any other available seats, patted his lap in a welcoming way.
Frank reddens a bit but still sits on Gerard’s lap. Gerard silently prays that this won’t give him a boner, because Frankie will surely feel it with his ass right above Gerard’s cock and all.
A girl walks over to them, swaying her hips alluringly as she does so. She looks too sweet to be doing it on purpose, with shoulder length dark hair and brown puppy eyes. She places a hand on Frank’s shoulder when she arrives.
“Frankie?” she asks.
Frank finally notices her. “Jamia! Hi!”
Jamia giggles and rubs Frank’s shoulder. “You’re so thick sometimes.”
“Jamia, this is Gerard,” Frank introduces, possessively slinging an arm around Gee’s neck.
“Hi Gerard,” Jamia greets, but her eyes are fixed on Frank.
“Hey,” Gerard mutters, uncomfortable.
Jamia stands there quiet for a few moments, her eyes moving up and down Frank. Then she looks directly at him, saying
“Well I have to meet up with a friend. Nice to meet you, Gee.” Jamia hugs Gerard, who’s taken by surprise. He awkwardly pats her back. She breaks the hug and smiles at Gerard for a couple seconds before turning over to Frank and hugging him as well, but planting a small peck on his lips.
Frank blushes and sheepishly scratches his head as she leaves, waving like a dork.
Frank and Gerard sit there quiet for a moment.
“Well she’s affectionate,” Gerard observes.
Frank chuckles. “Yeah, she’s like that with everyone.”
After a few minutes of light conversation, Frank gets up.
“Where are you going?” Gerard asks. He leans his head against his hand and smirks up at Frank.
“I have to piss,” Frank answers. He frowns at his borrowed jeans, whose hem is completely covering his shoes. He quickly rolls up the ends before continuing on to the bathroom.
Gerard sits there. Fuck. She liked him. And by the looks of it, he liked her back, at least a little. Enough to react well if she made the first move. Gerard was slightly annoyed by Frankie’s little girlfriend, but he took it as a sign. A friendly reminder that, hey, Frank’s a great guy, hot too, and he’s not going to be single forever. Gerard has to jump on it if he ever wants to date the little thing.
Gerard builds up the courage, fixing his hair as he passes a mirror on his way to the bathroom. He knocks on the door and waits. He knocks again, and a boy yells
“Occupied!” through the door.
Gerard turns red as he realizes Frank’s already left the bathroom.
“Sorry!” Gerard calls before quickly walking away. He passes a door and behind it, he swears he hears Frank’s high pitched laugh. He takes a chance and slowly opens the door, peeking behind it.
Frank’s back is to him, and he’s up against the wall furthest from him, talking quietly to someone. Frank begins kissing the person. He moves down to the girl’s collarbones, and as the girl whips her head back, eyelids shut, Gerard recognizes it as Jamia.
Gerard feels his heart drop. He shuts the door as silently as he can, thankful only that he wasn’t seen by them. He begins trudging down the hall, when he runs into something hard. He looks up, only to see he’s run directly into the chest of Bob fucking Bryar.
Bob grins at him evilly. “Where’s your boyfriend?”
Gerard blushes and replies, “He’s not my boyfriend, and he’s not here!”
Ray appears behind Gerard, and he shoves him into Bob, who shoves him back. The two easily toss the smaller teen back and forth.
“Quit it!” Gerard demands. He tries to stop himself, but Bob suddenly catches him.
Ray knees Gerard in the stomach, and he falls to the floor. The two begin kicking him, and Gerard cries out for help, his shrieks a perfect soprano.
Frank charges into the hall, and he’s on Ray like Uggs on a white girl. He leaps onto him, an arm wrapped around his neck. He pulls him to the ground and rolls out from under him to head butt him in the face.
Ray shrieks pain and runs his hand up to his nose, which is now covered in blood.
Bob throws himself onto Frank, knocking the much smaller boy to the ground. Bob is all over the poor thing, punching and cursing as he attacks. Gerard puts Bob into a headlock and, in his sitting position, is able to knee him in the face. Bob lays on the ground, whimpering, and Gerard releases him.
Gerard looks down at their two huddled figures, his eyes wide. He looks up at Frank.
“We have to find Mikey,” they declare in unison.
The two rapidly search the house, looking for any signs of Mikey. They finally find him in the basement, doing shots. Mikey’s so plastered he can barely stand, so Frank and Gerard have to drag him to the car. They sit him in the backseat but he slides out, curling up on the car’s floor. Gerard shrugs and gets into the driver’s seat, and Frank slams the passenger door and they’re off.
They get home, and luckily Gerard’s parents are out of town, or else they surely would’ve noticed that their youngest son was drunk.
“Mikey you reek!” Gerard scolds.
“Youuuuu stink,” Mikey retorts, poking Gerard in the chest.
Frank sighs and helped Mikey up the steps. Mikey throws up twice in his bed, but they don’t want to disturb him. Besides, no way in hell are they touching Mikey’s vomit. He can pick that up when he’s sober.
Frank and Gerard sat on the couch watching Home Movies.
“Thanks for helping me,” Gerard says, glancing over at Frank.
Frank shrugs. “I heard you scream. I did what anyone would do.”
“Yet you were the only one to intervene,” Gerard laughs.
Frank giggles. “Yeah, good point.”
They watch TV in silence for half an hour, and this time Gerard is the one to fall asleep on Frank’s shoulder. Frank lays himself down, and Gerard sinks against him. Frank yawns and falls asleep, feeling warm and protected so close to Gerard.