Memories

"So," Gerard spoke up, grinning slightly. "How was school?"

"Frank drank chemicals and peed in the lab!" Mikey exclaimed, and I spun around, flashing him a dirty look.

"Almost pissed in the lab," I corrected sternly.

"I'd have loved to see that," Gerard muttered, causing me to shrink into the car's seat.

"Lovely," I sighed, and he chuckled, glancing sideways at me.

"Stop being a pervert, Gerard," Mikey warned, glaring at him through the rearview mirror.

"I was talking about their reactions," Gerard promised, and Mikey seemed to nod. "What are you guys doing when we get home?"

"Studying," Mikey and I both replied, then glanced awkwardly at each other, all of this in synchronisation. "Well, that was-" we said in sync again, and Gerard finished the sentence.

"Weird..." he muttered. Nobody spoke for the rest of the ride home.

As we climbed out of the car when we were parked in the Way's drive, Mikey grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me up to his bedroom.

"Dude, Gerard likes you," he stated when we were alone, and I stared at him, confusion written all over my face. "You know that, right?" He added when I didn't reply. My mouth hung open.

"Shut up," I managed to get out. "No he doesn't."

"Okay, it's not like he told me or anything," he muttered, and I grabbed him as he turned towards his desk. I spun him back around to face me.

"He told you?" I breathed. Mikey just smirked slightly and I released my grip on his arm. He turned and started fumbling with something on his desk, before turning to his doorway. I glanced around too, to see the same raven haired boy quickly stumble away from the doorway and down the hall, thinking we couldn't see him.

"So, what were we studying in English again?"

It took me a few moments to gather my thoughts before I could speak. "You're the genius, you should know."

"Uh, I think it was John Steinbeck," he mumbled, walking over to his CD shelf. "Why don't we listen to some music?"

"Sure," I sighed, flinging myself onto his bed in starfish-mode. "Whatever."

I found myself deep in thought. Gerard had told Mikey he likes me, but he's 21. I'm 17. Is that even legal? Isn't that paedophillia? No, I'm 18 in two months, of course it's not. It's only four years difference. I found myself questioning why I was even considering it. Mikey's lying. Of course he is. Gerard doesn't like me.

"You were shitting me, right?" I asked, glancing at him.

"I'm not. Dude, he told me." Mikey flopped his arms in defeat, clearly done with the subject.

We studied in an awkward silence, with random grunts or mumbles coming from Mikey every few minutes or so. He sat cross-legged on his bed, whereas I stuck to lying on the floor on my stomach.

"I need to pee," I murmured without thinking. Mikey glanced up and smirked at me.

"Sorry, I don't have any chemistry equipment."

"Ha ha," I fake-laughed as I stood, awkwardly stretching my legs. "Bitch."

"Jerk."

I stuck my tongue out and made my way out of his bedroom and towards the bathroom before stopping. The door was closed, which meant someone was in there. I knocked quietly and got a mumbled reply.

"Who is it?" It was Gerard's voice.

"It's, uh- it's Frank."

"Ha, I should have known. Nobody else knocks."

I laughed quietly, feeling slightly awkward as I talked to him through the bathroom door when he was in there doing God knows what.

"I'll be two minutes," he called, and I nodded before replying an, "okay" when I realized he couldn't see me.

When Gerard finally opened the door, he almost walked straight into me. He jumped, obviously not expecting me to be right outside the door. I blushed slightly and slipped past him into the bathroom, closing the door on Gerard who was now turned facing me. By the looks of it, he was about to say something to me. Was I avoiding him? Yes. Did I want to? No, not really. I didn't know why I was acting this way.

I did my business and exited the bathroom, a part of me hoping Gerard would be out there so I could confront him about what Mikey had said to me. Yet, another part if me didn't want to have to deal with any of that. To my relief, he was just stepping across the hall towards the stairs. I glanced at him and he smiled slightly, but I hurried towards Mikey's room, closing the door behind me.

"Did you see Gerard-?" Mikey smirked, but I cut him short.

"No," I snapped."I mean, he- he was in the bathroom, then he went downstairs."

"He'll be going to his room," Mikey told me, and I tilted my head slightly.
"Downstairs?"

"He lives in the basement."

I hesitated for a moment as I felt myself being dragged into a flashback of when we were kids. I remembered Gerard when we were 10. He was 14, and a cute little chubby kid. He invited me in to this house to play the first time we met, which is where I actually met Mikey. We went in to ask Donna if it was okay, and I ran into Mikey. We were friends straight away, and I remember Gerard getting a little jealous of that, actually.

Gerard tried to convince me to come down and see his room, but Mikey was tugging me in the opposite direction towards the front door. I wound up going with Mikey; he was my age, after all. I guess I just clicked better with Mikey back then.

When the flashback ended, I found myself standing in the doorway of Mikey's bedroom, him staring curiously at me. "Dude? You okay?" He murmured.

"I wanna see Gerard's room," I choked out. I suddenly felt like shit. It was 7 years ago, but I had a huge knot of guilt eating away at my stomach and I needed to get rid of it before it made me sick. I remembered Gerard's heartbroken face when I had walked off with Mikey and I felt like tearing myself in two just to get rid of the way I was feeling right then.

"He might be drawing, he doesn't like being disturbed when he's drawing-"

"Well, I'm sure he won't mind if it's me." I wandered out of Mikey's room and down the stairs, looking aimlessly around the house for the basement door. How on earth could I have missed it? As it turns out, it was a huge, painted black door at the end of the hall, just beside the door to the dining room. I laughed quietly to myself and took in a deep breath. I turned and looked behind me, jumping when I saw Mikey emerging from the staircase. He smirked slightly at me and I flipped him the finger before knocking quietly and opening the door. Poking my head around, I mumbled a, "hi" that caused Gerard to jump.

"-The fuck-? Oh. Uh, hey Frank. What are you doing?"

"I just- I'm not sure," I admitted. I noticed Gerard covering something on his desk with his arm, and it triggered my curiosity. Was it a drawing? Why would he hide it from me? Then I remembered what Mikey had said to me the other day.

"He was just happy," Mikey had said to me when he said Gerard was acting strange. "And he was up drawing most of the night. I caught a glimpse of one of his pictures." I'd pressed about what it was, and Mikey had told me it was someone, not something.

"Oh," Gerard mumbled, and I glanced up at him from the paper under his arm. "You wanna' sit down?"

"I- sure," I smiled slightly, and sat down on his bed in the center of the room. It was then that I realized I hadn't had a proper look at his room yet. It was dark. The light wasn't on, and the curtains were closed, with just a lamp on Gerard's desk where he was sat. I followed the wall along and took in his millions of pieces of artwork all pinned up to it. They were extraordinary, to say the least.

"Hey, Frank?" Gerard spoke up, snapping me out of my trance. "Could you look at me a sec?"

I tilted my head slightly, a hint of a smirk playing on the edges of my lips when he smiled and turned towards his desk, removing his arm from the paper, and he began scrawling away with the pencil.

"That's perfect," he muttered. "Stay like that."

"Is that me-" I started, but he cut me off by holding up a finger to signal for me to shut up. I closed my mouth and tried not to laugh when he stuck his tongue out in concentration. After a few minutes, he looked up and stood, leaving the piece of paper on the desk. "Can't I see?" I protested when he made his way over to me.

"Nope."

"Why-" I began to protest.

"Come with me," he laughed, and pulled me up by the wrist. We made our way to the kitchen and I sat down at the table while Gerard fiddled with the kettle. "You want coffee?" He called over his shoulder, and I nodded, again forgetting he couldn't see me.

"Sure," I answered. "Should I see if Mikey wants one?"

Gerard didn't reply, he only nodded, and suddenly I felt kind of bad again. Why did I always bring Mikey up when we talked? I stood and wandered upstairs and into Mikey's room, startling him. He was still studying, and I snorted.

"Hey, geek, want a coffee?"

"Sure," he smiled, and I nodded, once again making my way downstairs. When I entered the kitchen, Gerard wasn't alone. I looked the girl up and down when she wasn't looking and took in her appearance as she talked cheerfully to Gerard, who was standing, casually drinking his coffee. I took note of the other coffee on the table in my spot, where the girl was now sat.

"Oh, hey, Frank," Gerard smiled when he noticed me. The girl turned to look at me again, eyes widening when she heard my name. "This is Lindsey. We went to college together."

"So, this is Frank? Wow, Gerard's told me so much about you," she noted, and I blushed slightly, glancing at Gerard who was also becoming slightly pink. She outstretched a hand in my direction. "It's nice to finally meet you," she smiled.

Notes

As you've probably noticed there's a lot of flashbacks and references to previous chapters in this story, hence the name "Memories" c: I hope it makes sense. I'm really not happy with the quality of this chapter.