Unknown Identities

Frank walked from art towards his locker with Gee following him. Walking side by side and talking the whole way. It drove Frank crazy to no end that their hands brushed each other every now and then and he had to convince himself that it was just accidental and not on purpose. Unknown to him, it actually was deliberate on Gee’s side.
“So, I’ll see you later?” Gee asked as they reached Frank’s locker.
“Define later,” Frank said sarcastically.
“I don’t know, probably tonight,” the other boy said quietly as Frank gave him a questioning look.
“What do you mean?” Gee only shrugged and walked away. Way to answer the question. Frank thought shaking his head and then proceeding to space out staring at the spot the boy was standing only moments before.
“Iero! What are you staring at now?” Bob questioned as he leaned against the locker next to Frank’s.
“Nothing,” Frank said truthfully, well as truthfully as he could.
“You’re a terrible liar sometimes,” Bob said
“Whatever,”
“Come one hurry up I don’t want to wait here all day!” Bob said as Frank began to get lost in his own thoughts again. Bob sighed and watched as Frank finally snapped out of it and began stuffing books into his locker. I can’t wait to see the look on his face tonight, Bob thought a smirk appearing on his face. That will make dealing with Frank’s stupid crush all worth it. “Come on Iero, you’re so slow,”
“What’s got you so anxious?” questioned Ray joining their circle around Frank’s locker.
“Don’t worry about it,” Bob said, shaking his head.
“Then I should definitely worry about it,” Mikey said coming up behind Ray, effectively scaring the crap out of the taller boy.
“Don’t do that!” Ray shouted at Mikey.
“We should be asking you what’s got you so jumpy,” Bob laughed.
“Shut up,”
“Come on, let’s go,” Frank said closing the locker loudly and stopping any argument that might have occurred soon.
“Sure,” Mikey said, smirking at Ray as he walked past him.
The group of four walked out of the school, all of them happy that school was finally over. Even though they still had a lot of studying to do, just that fact that it was Friday at last made them happier.
“So, five o’clock at Mikey’s?” Ray asked as they reached the corner where Bob and Frank would leave them to go to their own houses.
“Yep,” Mikey said, “Hopefully my mom and her friends will be gone by then, if not we’ll kick my brother out of the basement,”
“Isn’t that his room though?” Ray asked as the two of walked on towards their houses while Bob and Frank went towards their own.
“Yeah, he won’t mind. Besides he doesn’t really have a choice, I made him promise not to bother us. I had to pay him to finally clean the basement though. It was really disgusting down there,” Mikey said with a distant look as if remembering the state the basement was in before.
“You’re really mean to your brother, Mikey,” Ray said, sympathetic for Gerard.
“Yeah well, I don’t think any of us wanted to see him flirting with Frank the whole time,”
“Why would he be flirting with Frank?” Ray questioned
“Shit!” Mikey said, “Forget I said anything,”
“No, spill,” Ray said
“Fine, don’t tell him I told you,” Mikey said and Ray nodded in agreement, “He’s sort of got this huge infatuation with Frank,”
“Really,” Ray said smiling slightly. This will work out nicely.
“Yeah, it’s annoying as fuck and I don’t feel like dealing with that tonight,”
“Again, you’re really mean to your brother,”
“Yeah, well I’m saving you from being scarred for life,”
“Thanks so much,” Ray said sarcastically, “He can’t be that bad,”
“Just wait, you’ll see,”
“Whatever you say,”
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An hour later, Frank was walking back down the street towards the usual meeting spot. Surprisingly enough, Bob was standing there waiting for him.
“Thought you would’ve already gone on ahead,” Frank said, a little surprised that Bob actually waited for him.
“Well you thought wrong,” Bob said
“Frank normally thinks wrong, what’s your point?” Ray asked joining the two of them.
“Why’d you walk back here? Isn’t your house like only a few away from the Way’s?” Bob questioned.
“I didn’t want to be the first one there for once, is that a problem?” Ray defended
“Whatever,” Bob said, “I still don’t see what your problem is, and you practically spend all your time at Mikey’s, so seriously?”
“Let’s just go,” Frank said, saving Ray from being questioned further. Ray gave him a thankful look and Frank shrugged. I really just want to find out if Mikey’s Gee’s brother or not. It’s seriously driving me crazy.
The group of three walked a few blocks down to the Way household. The house was relatively small but had a nice feel to it. Like it held so many memories even though it had only been inhabited for a year by the Ways. They walked up to the front door painted a dull white and rang the doorbell.
A few shouts could be heard from the inside of the house as what sounded like many people scrambled for the door. Frank could only catch a few bits and pieces. From the sounds of it, Mikey and his mom were arguing but there were other voices as well. This wasn’t going to end well.
When the door finally did swing open, a group of middle aged women stood around the door.
“You must be Mikey’s friends,” said who Bob and Frank assumed to be Mikey’s mom. Ray, having been to this house more than he could count, knew that it was her.
“Hello, Mrs. Way,” Ray said
“Nice to see you again, Ray” she said nodding in his direction, “Now, let me guess,” she said thoughtfully. She pointed to Bob, “You must be Bob, and this means,” she paused a minute, smiling slightly as she looked over to Frank, “You’re Frank, both Mikey and Gerard have told me about you,” she said. So his name is Gerard.
“No wonder your sons are gay,” One of Mrs. Way’s friends piped up, “With friends like these I would be too,” All three guys mentally gagged. Bob snorted as Ray flipped his hair back dramatically.
“Excuse me, that’s enough of that,” Mikey said pushing his way through the four women. “Don’t let them in or anything,” Mikey said throwing a tired glare at his mom. She smiled back
“Why don’t you all come in,” She said then looked back to her son, “Happy?” She moved out of the way to let the three boys come in.
“Yes, thank you,” Mikey said sarcastically. “Come on, just leave your shoes by the door,” Mikey said as the three of them took their shoes off and left them by the front door. “We’re going to head to the basement until they leave,” Mikey said as they walked into the kitchen and towards a door that stood in the corner. He opened the door and shouted down the stairs.
“Gerard! We’re coming down, you and the basement better be decent,”
“I thought you said you were kicking him out of the basement,” Ray said, coming up behind Mikey.
“Yeah, well, once we’re down there. He might be in the bathroom or something,” Mikey said starting to descend the stairs.
Ray, Bob and Frank followed down after.
“So he did clean down here,” Mikey said looking around the almost spotless basement. The bed pushed up in the corner was made up almost neatly. (Though Mikey suspected that his mother did that when she changed the sheet this morning). It looked as if someone was lying there for a while and screwed up some of pillows but otherwise it looked okay. There wasn’t anything on the floor for once and the coffee table in front of the TV was free of any leftover food and drink that was there yesterday. The only hint of mess was that on the desk, cluttered with charcoal, paints, and a few comic books that Frank doesn’t recognize. “But where is Gerard?” Mikey wondered out loud. He could’ve sworn that Gee had gone down here the second he got home from school an hour ago. Where could he have gone?
That’s when they noticed that the bathroom door was shut and the light was on. The faint sound of a shower could be heard…and singing. Very familiar singing. Frank looked to Ray the exact second Ray looked to him. They both recognized the voice from earlier today. Frank smiled, I can hit two birds with one stone. Mikey’s brother and the singer are the same person. This makes things so much easier. Ray smirked slightly as he saw Frank smile, Frank, you lucky bastard. You’ve got it so easy. Now if only you or Gerard had enough guts to do something about this and we would be good to go. Bob and Mikey shared a glance as well, this one of confusion rather than recognition.
“Well, let’s get started shall we?” Mikey questioned moving over to the three couches that surrounded the coffee table in front of the TV. Bob ran and jumped onto the one directly in front of the coffee table.
“This one is mine,” Bob said, “For when we sleep I mean,”
“Since Bob claimed that one,” Ray said, taking the one to the left of Bob’s, “This one’s mine then,”
“I call that one!” Mikey shouted before Frank even had a chance.
“So where am I supposed to sleep? On the floor?” He asked feeling defeated.
“Nah, you can take the bed,” Mikey said a smirk forming on his face as Frank looked at him incredulously.
“But what about your brother, doesn’t he need to sleep somewhere?” Frank said, really not wanting to take the bed.
“He can go upstairs…” Mikey paused and then added, “….Or you could take pity on him and share the bed with him. I’m sure he’d love that,” Ray snorted not at all discretely and Frank glared at the both of them.
“Why don’t you sleep there, it’s your brother,” he was trying to find anything to get him out of this.
“I can’t stand the way his sheets smell,” Mikey said, “Coffee and cigarette smoke don’t really work together,”
“Fine, whatever,” Frank said giving up. It seemed Mikey would have an excuse for everything he threw at him.
He grabbed his bag and pushed Bob’s legs off the end of the couch so he could sit somewhere for now. Bob glared at him slightly but turned his body so he sat normally, the couch was big enough for another person to sit in the middle of Frank and Bob.
Five minutes later, the group of four teens heard the shower turn off, but the boy hidden behind the door still doesn’t come out.
It’s not until after thirty minutes of staring confusedly at his paper does Ray begin to wonder what’s taking Gerard so long.
“Hey, Mikey? What’s taking Gerard so long in there?” Ray asked finally after trying to figure it out himself and obviously getting nowhere with the chemistry homework.
“I don’t know, he’s probably dying his hair, he said he was going to today,” Mikey replied crossing something off. Frank was immediately reminded of his conversation with Gee on Tuesday. He had also said something about dying his hair on Friday. This just confirms my suspicion even more. Frank forgot about though, having more important things to think about. Yeah, because math equations are so much more important.
It’s another thirty minutes later that the bathroom door finally swung open and out stepped a boy with a towel over his head as he rubbed his hair dry.
“Okay, Mikey, tell me what you think,” an oh-so-familiar voice said, as he pulled the towel away from his head dramatically. Gee’s smiling face is revealed but that’s not it.
“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” Ray questions, Mikey completely ignored Ray’s comment and observed his brother’s newly dyed hair.
“I really didn’t think you would go through with that color, but it looks good on you,” Mikey said then turned back toward his English paper that he was writing.
“Thank you,” he said.
Frank was completely awestruck. Gee, Gerard, Mikey’s brother, the mysterious singer were all the same person. Though they looked different now. Frank wasn’t complaining however, bright red hair looked really attractive on the boy. It made him look a lot more feminine but still deathly attractive. Now if only this boy was the writer and everything would be perfect.
“Oh hey Frank,” Gee said as if noticing for the first time that he was sitting there staring at him. “Nice to see you again,”
Frank didn’t trust himself to speak. It would’ve either come out as something he really didn’t want to say in front of his three other friends or completely unintelligible. So he just nodded and the newly red head laughed at him.
“Gee? Why did you dry your hair off with a white towel?” Mikey said looking over at the towel discarded on the floor.
“It was the only one that was in there,” he said simply, walking over towards the couch and sitting in between Bob and Frank with arm across the backrest behind Frank. Frank also noticed that the boy was sitting really close to him, this is just not going to work. He thought briefly still gawking at the boy.
“You turned the towel pink,” Mikey said tiredly. He loved his brother but sometimes he could be incredibly stupid.
“Oh well, I didn’t like that towel anyway and that’s not all that I turned pink,” Gerard said smirking at Frank.
“That’s nice,” Mikey said not even paying attention to Gerard’s overly obvious flirting, “Now get out,”
“No,” Gerard said simply.
“Hey, you promised,” Mikey said without any venom in his voice. He really wasn’t trying to be mean about it but they all needed to study and without anything to shove in Gee’s mouth he would just keep talking and talking and talking. So kicking him out was the best idea.
“But Frank doesn’t want me to leave, right?” He asked, taking his arm off the back rest and sliding on to Frank’s shoulders as he leaned in to the smaller boy. Frank immediately started blushing the same shade as Gerard’s newly dyed hair.
“You’re making Frank uncomfortable,” Mikey said and you’re doing this overly exaggerated just to spite me. He thought rolling his eyes. “Now seriously please leave,”
“Fine,” He got up off the couch his hand lingering on Frank shoulder as long as it could. “See you later Frank,” He said walking off towards the stairs.
“Way to be subtle, bro,” Mikey called after him, causing Ray to laugh and Frank to blush even more if possible. Gee just shrugged and walked up the stairs leaving them alone again to study.
But the only thing Frank could focus on was that sleeping in Gee’s bed was definitely not going to work anymore.

Notes

Thanks for reading!