Frances had quickly become Gerard's muse.Nearly every minute, he was thinking of her, making him want to draw her, paint her, photograph her, in every new light, every new shot, every new way possible. If she wasn't modeling for him, he was trying to draw her by memory. One day, Gerard was showing Mikey his latest sketches, as he always did, and Mikey quickly realized that in one entire notebook, every page was a different picture of her.
"Whose she?" Mikey asked, an amused smile on his face.
Gerard blushed. "A friend." He said lamely.
"I didn't know you had a girlfriend." Mikey said. Gerard quickly shook his head and Mikey laughed.
"She's not my girlfriend." Gerard said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" he said defensively.
"Whatever you say."
After Mikey left, Gerard thought it over. He wasn't in love with her. He just loved what she made him think, and he wanted every single minute to capture whatever she gave him, because she never left his mind as it was.
At school, in between classes, Gerard searched for Frances. As soon as he found her, he quickly said "Can you come over after school today? I have an idea for some photos."
She nodded. "Should I bring anything?"
"Bring your makeup." With that, the two split.
Once Gerard got home, he cleared a space by one of walls, taking down any pictures he had hanging up. He took out his camera, trying to visualize the picture he wanted. He had decided on black and white pictures, because he felt Frances photographed best that way, and he knew he wanted her to wear his old leather jacket, but other than that, he decided he would work with it as it came along.
Frances walked in casually, flipping down on the bed.
"I brought the make up." She announced.
"Perfect. Sit up." He said.
Obediently, she did so. She looked down for a moment and then looked up, her hair falling back from her face, smiling.
"What do I have to wear for this?"
Gerard held up the jacket.
"I want you to wear this... Only this." He added. She nodded and swiftly reached behind her and unbuttoned her dress, pulling it off and placing it beside her. Gerard looked over at the make up she brought as she took off her bra and underwear, and then sat up on the bed, folding her legs underneath her. Gerard sat down in front of her, holding up the eye liner. Carefully, he took her chin in his hand and held up the pencil, when she suddenly pushed back.
"If you poke me in the eye with that I will not hesitate to kill you." She warned. He laughed, before realizing she was serious.
"I won't. Just trust me on this."
"I'm holding you on that."
"Go ahead."
The two stared at each other challengingly, before they both burst into laughter. Then Gerard reached back over and tried his best to do her eye liner. It wasn't supposed to look like how most girls would do it, or even how Frances always did it. He wanted it to look like a drawing.
"Have you ever done someone's make up before?" She asked as he started rubbing on eye shadow along her cheekbones. He shook his head and she laughed.
"I can tell."
"I'm not a make up artist." He said defensively. "Think of it this way- you're face is a canvas and I have to work on it."
"You're weird."
"Look whose talking."
They laughed again and then Gerard went back to working. Finally he stopped and moved to sit behind her, brushing out her hair. As he finished, he fluffed it up as best as he could, spraying in hairspray to keep it in place. Gerard used too much though, and soon they were both coughing.
"Congratulations, you single handedly destroyed the ozone layer." She said, waving her hand in front of a cloud of hairspray.
When she stood up, pulling the jacket over her, Gerard was suddenly very excited. His vision had worked- she was nearly completely naked, yet it was barely noticeable. It was subtle. The attention was kept to her face, at how dark her eyes were, how mysterious it made her look. Almost as mysterious as she seemed to be.
"Stand by the wall." Gerard instructed. "Lean against it and look at me."
On and on, they went with the pictures. Finally, Gerard stopped and she smiled at him, taking off the jacket.
"I gotta wash this off before I get off." She said. He nodded.
"You can take a shower if you want." he offered. She quickly took him up on that offer. She called him into the bathroom briefly so that he could turn the shower on for her, and Gerard gave her one of his mothers robes to put on after she got out.
As she showered, Gerard looked over at the photos happily. He started to clean up the room when Frances returned.
"Can you give me that brush?"
"You're saying you actually brush your hair?"
"Shut up."
Gerard smiled and passed it to her, watching as she brushed out the knotty wet mess. When she finished, she took off the robe, drying herself off with it. Gerard watched her out of the corner of his eyes as he put her make up back together. Frances walked up to Gerard and took her eye liner from him.
"You need to put some of this on." She declared. Gerard widened his eyes and shook his head.
"Are you serious?"
"Why not?"
"I'm a GUY, Frances." He said pointedly.
Frances playfully pushed on his chest and he sat down on the bed. Before he could say anything else, this naked girl sat on his lap, pressing her skinny knees on his thighs, her hands on his face.
"So?"
"Guys don't wear make up, especially eye liner."
"I think it'd look sexy. You'd look just like Bowie."
Before he could say anything, she was already putting it on him. He tried to jerk his head back and she giggled.
"Careful, honey, or I'm gonna poke you in the eye."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
Frances quickly finished. As she put it down, she smiled and held up a mirror for him.
Gerard was shocked by the difference. His eyes looked much darker, much wider. He also thought he looked more like a girl, but in a way he thought it was cool. Frances leaned forward and playfully tousled his hair, pushing his bangs in his eyes.
"Jesus, when was the last time you had a haircut?"
"I don't know."
Frances leaned over and got out a pair of scissors. She looked back at him contemplating.
"I'm not gonna cut off too much." She decided. "Because I love guys with long hair. But we have to cut the back. And you have split ends, they have to go."
Gerard let her trim his hair for him. For some reason, he never in his life thought he'd have a beautiful naked girl sitting on his lap on his bed cutting his hair, but there was a first for everything. When she finished, she tousled his hair and smiled.
"How do I look?" he asked.
"Like a bad ass leather chick."
"Shit."
She shrugged, laughing and got up, putting her clothes back on. She picked up her make up bag and handed him the eye liner.
"Keep this." she said. "You look perfect with eye liner."
"Really?" he asked. He toyed with the pencil for a moment and then put it on his desk.
"One problem, Frances." he said.
"What?"
"I don't know how to put it on."
"I'll show you."
For the next hour, Frances somehow managed to patiently teach Gerard how to put on eye liner. In all honesty, he had no idea why he was agreeing to it, but it was fun. By the time they finished, Frances said she had to go home. Gerard was disappointed, but he walked her home.He hated walking home alone- it was always too silent, especially compared to how much she when she was there. And he always had this detached feeling when she wasn't with him, when he didn't have someone to talk to and laugh with.
As Gerard walked back up the stairs, Mikey called for him from his room. Gerard walked into Mikey’s room. Mikey was sitting cross legged on his bed, holding a book, but it didn’t look like he was reading it. He was twisting his hands together, the way he always did when he was nervous.
“Gee?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
Mikey paused, hesitantly. Then he tried again. “Do you know when mom and dad are coming home?”
“Why would I?” Gerard asked. Mikey shrugged and looked down. He looked scared. Gerard walked closer to him.
“Hey, come on, Mikey. You’re acting like they never left us alone before.”
“I know, it’s just that-“
“Give them another week. It’s only been 3 weeks.”
“Yeah, I know, but this time Mom didn’t return at all. I mean, normally she at least calls at some point.” He said.
Gerard sighed. “You want them back?”
“They can’t just abandon us. They’re our parents.” Mikey’s voice cracked slightly.
“They’re coming back. Don’t worry about it.” He said. Mikey nodded and Gerard got up to leave. But when he turned slightly, he saw Mikey’s shoulders droop, as he wrapped his arms around himself. He looked as though he was going to start crying, and Gerard instantly regretted how impatient he was acting. He didn’t want Mikey to cry. He quickly turned back around.
“Wait, Mikey,” he said. He walked back to Mikey. Mikey looked up.
“Yeah?”
“You’re not going to school tomorrow.”
A confused look went across Mikey’s face. “But I have to.” He said.
Gerard shook his head. “No, you don’t. Tomorrow, you and me, we’ll both skip school and we can take the bus into the city. We can spend the day there. I’ve got tons of money from selling, we can do whatever you want.”
Mikey sighed wistfully. “But we can’t do that.”
“Yes, we can.” Gerard said. He sat down on the bed across from Mikey and smiled. “We can go early. We’ll do whatever the hell you want. I’ll take you to those bars that don’t check IDs. I’ll pay for you to sleep with a hooker,”
Mikey burst out laughing. Gerard laughed too.
“No, but seriously.” Gerard added. “Just figure out what you want to do there, and if it’s humanly possible, we’ll do it. And you can get whatever the hell you want. Let’s do that. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Mikey sat further up excitedly. “Can we really do that?”
“Of course we can.”
Mikey grinned. “What time should we leave?”
“Whenever.” Gerard said. “And don’t worry about money. I’ll pay for everything. Just worry about what you want to do.”
Suddenly, Mikey threw his arms around Gerard and hugged him tightly. It caught Gerard off guard for just a moment, before he hugged Mikey back.
“Thank you!” Mikey kept saying. “Oh, thank you! Thank you!”
“Don’t worry about it.” Gerard said.
They pulled back and Mikey laughed again, pressing his hand against his mouth. Then he looked at Gerard, confused.
“Gee?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you wearing eye liner?”
And then, Mikey had no idea why Gerard suddenly started laughing so hard he fell off the bed.

Notes

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