"Let's go, Frankie."

He slowly let go of me and we made our way down the stairs to the ground floor.
"Gerard, son! What ar- Oh, hi, Frank!"

My dad put on a big fake smile when he saw Frankie.
"H-hi!" Frankie waved.

"We're going out. We'l be back later."

I was halfway to the door when my dad stood between me and the door.
"Where are you going?" he asked. He sounded bitter and grim.

Frankie hid behind me, burying his face in my jacket. He was digging his fingers in to my hips.
"Out" I glared at him.

He'll move. He can't make me do anything...he doesn't have the balls.
A few seconds later he moved away. Frankie immediately ran out of the house, "Drive safe." he muttered before I slammed the door shut.

"Y-your d-dad is m-mad?" Frankie asked me one we were outside.

"I guess. Don't mind him, he's just old and grumpy."

Frankie giggled. I smiled and led him to the garage. We got in to my car, Frankie sitting up front with me, and then we drove off.
Frankie started to doodle on the window again and I had to refrain myself from staring. He was just so cute.

"Gee-rawrd?" Frankie spoke a few minutes in to the drive.

"What is it, Frankie?"

"W-what's y-your fa-favorite color?" he asked

"Uh, black?"

"M-mines ."
And so he started his interrogatory about all of my favorite things. He asked about everything, favorite color, clothes, shoes, movie, food, vegetable, fruit, cake, etc. He would answer them, too. And he would fan-girl when he found something we had in common.

It was so insanely cute. I couldn't believe I didn't die from cuteness overload.
When we got to the city Frankie stopped his questions and instead stared out the window and awed at the tall buildings and Christmas decorations. It was barely the first of December and they were already putting up Christmas decorations, holidays are so stupid. But Frankie seemed to like it, so.

"W-where a-are we g-gonna go?" Frankie asked.

"To the movies?"

"N-no. N-not now. W-wanna go s-see s-stuff."

"Uh, do you want to go to the mall?"

"O-okay." He turned to me and smiled.

I smiled back. I started to drive to the mall. I wonder if Frankie ever went there. Did Linda go out in public with him? That bitch is probably too embarrassed to take him out. Poor Frankie.
I drove in to the parking lot and parked the car. I got out and walked to Frankie's side, opened his door and undid his seat-belt.

"Come on, Frankie. Let's go."
He got out, I closed the door for him and then started to walk towards the exit of the parking lot.

"Gee-rawrd?"
I turned around to find Frankie standing in the same spot "What is it Frankie?"

"N-not like to w-walk a-alone."

I walked back to where he was, "Okay, now let's go."

He grabbed my hand and then started to walk. I was so not expecting that. But it's not like I objected. It was nice to feel his hand in mine, his fingers and mine intertwined. I liked it, as bad as I felt for admitting it -even to myself- I liked to be this close to Frankie. But I would never do anything, would never act on it. I don't want to hurt him.

But I can enjoy this, can't I? I held Frankie's small hand tighter. He looked up at me and smiled, a slight blush creeping up on his cheeks. He's so beautiful.
Once outside of the parking lot we walked to the entrance of the mall.
There were a few people at the entrance that stared at me with a funny expression.
It must have looked strange. A cute little looks-like-a-ten-year-old boy, holding hands with a nineteen year old guy that looks like he just came from a funeral.
Whatever, they can just go fuck themselves.

"Where do you want to go, Frankie?" I asked once we were inside.

"Uh, d-dunno." he shrugged.

"Uhm" I looked around.

What could he want to do? Play video-games? I doubt he would have the patience for that. Eat? We just had breakfast. How about...the toy store? I guess he'd like that.

"Do you want to go to the toy store?"

He looked up, smiling, "Y-yeah!"

I smiled and we started walking to one of the toy stores.
Once there Frankie scurried to the look at all of the toys.
I had never been stared at as much as I was on my way to the store. I felt like punching everyone that had stared.

Instead I followed Frankie to the part where the stuffed animals were. I stood back a little and watched him poke all of them. There were a few more kids there. Not many, that was good.
"Hi" I turned to see who had spoken.

There was a young lady, looking around twenty-seven, standing next to me.
She had long blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a too-small-pink blouse and a pair of skinny jeans.

"Hello" I answered.

"What's your name?"

"Gerard"

"Hi, Gerard. I'm Steicy"

"Hello, Steicy"

"Which one's your's?" she asked pointing to the kids, "Mine's the little blond girl."
I followed her line of view to find a miniature version of her.

"Oh"

"So?" she asked.

"So?"

She giggled, "Which one's your's?"

"Uh," How do I even begin to explain my situation to her? 'He's my mentally ill step brother which I'm taking out to the movies and shopping.'? I don't think that would work.
"Gee-rawrd?" Frankie walked over to where I was standing. He had a fluffy cream colored teddy bear with a red bow around his neck in his hands. He looked from me to Steicy and frowned. He walked to me and handed me the bear, then he wrapped his arms around me and glared at Steicy.

She looked stunned, then horrified.

"Uh, this is Frank, my step-brother."

"You-you...perv!" she exclaimed. She hurried to where her kid was and they left the store.

"B-bitch." Frankie muttered.

"Frankie. Don't cuss."

"...w-want the b-bear." he muttered. He pulled away from me and looked up at me with puppy dog eyes.

"Of course" he squealed and smiled and fangirled and hugged me all at the same time. I've never seen him so happy before. I smiled, I just love to see him happy, "Do you want anything else?"

"Y-yeah!" he squealed. The grabbed my hand and pulled me to a random aisle of toys.
I couldn't keep my eyes off him. The way he smiled, how he would just light up, how happy he was and especially when he would hug me. Just random moments when he found the need to tell me how much he liked me. I would do anything to see him this happy all the time.
I, of course, still got weird weird looks every once in a while. But most of the people where distracted with Frankie's cuteness, and some of them even thought he was my son.
All of the employees adored him. Since there were mostly girls, the second they saw him they would squeal and fan-girl over his cuteness.

Frankie didn't seem to mind. He didn't look exceptional happy with them but he didn't tell them to go away, so.

By the time he was done shopping for toys it was almost 2 p.m. He had bought two boxes of building blocks, a remote control plane, three sets of play-dough, seven coloring books, six packs of crayons, markers, glitter, a batman mask and the teddy bear he had chosen first.
Once I had paid, and arranged for an employee to take all that to my car, not a chance in hell I'm going to carry all that, we went to the side of the mall with all the food.
Frankie looked happier than ever and I felt just as happy by just watching him. He was still holding my hand and that made me even more happy.

"What do you want to eat, hun?"

He giggled, "A p-pizza"

"Okay"

I led him to the cafeteria and ordered the pizza. Then we sat down at on of the many empty table in the far corner and started to eat.

"Gee-rawrd?" Frankie spoke after he had finished his first slice of pizza, I had just taken my second bite.

"What is it, Frankie?" I asked once I had swallowed my food.

"T-thanks."

"For what, hun?"

He smiled sweetly, "F-for ev-everything."

I smiled, "It's nothing, Frankie."

"N-no, it is. N-nobody is n-nice w-with me. B-but you a-are, I l-like you."

I smiled, "I like you, too, hun."

We ate in silence after that.

Notes

Hi! Here's chapter 7, hope you like it!

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