House of Wolves

The next day went by smoothly. I went to all my classes and got to hang out with Frank, Ray, and Bob. After school, Frank and I went back to the bar and saw Ethan and had a beer. It was good time. My mom had to work the graveyard shift, and Mikey decided to go hang out with friends. I had the whole house to myself. I blasted my music and drew more pictures of Frank and other things. Before I knew it, Friday was here. I got up extra early that morning so I could look my best. I even made myself breakfast. Before I left for school, my mom wanted to talk to me.

“Is this Frank kid trustable?” she asked. I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, don’t worry, it’s just a small show at a small venue” she still looked concerned.

“How long will you be gone?”

“I don’t know, but it takes four hours to drive there, so maybe around 3 or so in the morning.” I managed to keep the drive part a secret from her, and right now she did not look pleased. A few moments went by and she finally spoke.

“Okay, just wake me up when you get home, okay?” I nodded and took the keys and drove Mikey and I to school. I parked and walked to our normal meeting spot. Ray was there, but Frank and Bob weren’t.

“Sup Gerard?” he exclaimed and fist pumped me. I sat by him under the tree.

“You and Frank gonna go to Portland today for that concert?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“That’s gonna be a fun time.” I nodded and then I saw Bob and Frank walking towards us. I stood up really fast, maybe a little too fast.

“Sup Gee,” Frank yelled. “You ready for the concert!?”

“Ready as I will ever be.” I replied and high fived him. Frank had his thinking face on. I could already tell what he was thinking.

“You know what, let’s just ditch the whole day and go to Portland right now. I have a buddy there that we can hang with for awhile if we wanted to.” I will say, I loved his plan, minus his buddy.

“I have my truck.” We both smiled and started walking.

“You guys are jerks, not bringing me along.” Bob shouted to us.

“Well maybe if you didn't ask your mom if you go, and just snuck out like I told you, maybe you could’ve been going with us.” Frank and I laughed as Bob flipped us off. We walked up to the truck and hopped in. We turned on some tunes that got us in the mood for a good show and lit some cigarettes and started our way to Portland. Frank had to point the way of course, I had never drove through Oregon in my life. We stopped halfway there to use the bathroom and buy a new pack of cigarettes. Then we got back on the road and about two hours later we were in Portland. I got pretty sick of driving, so Frank scootched across the seat and pushed away and drove instead. Portland reminded me of a cleaner New Jersey. At that moment, I got a little homesick, but soon that feeling went away. Frank drove on the Ocean Avenue for quite a while and pulled up to another place that looked very similar to the bar in Ashland. He parked and we went inside. We had about five hours to spare before the show.

The bar we went into was a little grosser than Ethan’s bar. It was still pretty cool though. We sat at the bar and the bartender, who of course knew Frank, came to say hi.

“You here to see Blur Frank?” he asked.

“Why would I not be seeing them?” he said and sat back in the chair.

“Carl, this is Gerard, Gerard this is Carl.” Carl, of course, took his hand out to shake mine. By habit now, I shook his hand. We sat and had another cigarette and talked and laughed for a good solid two hours. When we got tired of being in the bar, we said bye to Carl and went outside to the ports below. We took our shoes and rolled our jeans up and walked through the sand. I noticed that Frank had a tattoo on his ankle.

“When did you get that?” I asked pointing at it.

“Ha, you would be surprised how many I actually have. I've got them all in secret from a guy I know here in Portland and no one knows about them,” I blushed and he got a look on his face, “ Hey Gerard!”

“No. no. no. no. no, I’m scared of needles.” He laughed.

“Oh come on, it doesn't hurt as bad is seems. Come, at least lets go check it out.” He went behind me and started pushing me towards the car. When he touched my shoulders, I felt a rush curiosity that I couldn't help but blush at.

“Okay, okay. At least let me put on my shoes.” We started to laugh and we put on ours shoes and got in the truck. Frank told me where to go and we ended up at the tattoo shop. I was nervous but in a good way. As long as Frank was with me, I felt like nothing bad would happen. We got inside and the first thing we heard was the buzzing of tattoo machines.

“Frank? What are you doing here.” A really big guy covered in tattoos walked up to us and hugged Frank.

“I’m just trying to get my friend to get a tattoo before the Blur concert.” He looked at me and smiled. I just stood there. My nerves were getting the best of me.

“Ah, I see. Well I’m Tyler. Tattoos aren't that bad. I promise. Come and sit.”

“Okay.” I mumbled and followed him to the back of the shop with Frank right behind me. I sat in the seat. It was cold.

“Well, what would you want and where?” Wait, we were actually doing it. I was getting a tattoo without permission and I’m deathly afraid of needles. WHAT WAS I DOING! And the even crazier thing was that I kept answering his questions and going along with it as if my brain was it’s own person.

“I think I want to get a skull with a rose.” I don’t even know why I said that. That wasn't the tattoo I absolutely wanted. But that’s what I ended up getting.

“Coming right up.” Before I knew it, needles were on my shin and were ripping and poking my skin. I didn't realize it, but I had grabbed Frank’s wrist.

“I’m sorry. It just kind of hurts.” he laughed.

“No worries. Mine hurt like a bitch too, I just didn't have a wrist to strangle.” Then we both started to laugh, no matter how much pain I was in. That’s when I knew that I would be fine, and I stopped feeling the pain. We talked with Tyler and I eventually let go of Frank’s wrist, even though I didn't want to.

After about an hour and a half of pain, Tyler was finished, and I had a skull with a two roses on the bottom corners.

“My moms gonna kill me if she finds out.” I said. Frank bursted out laughing, and soon, all of us were laughing. Tyler wrapped up my leg and I rolled down my pant leg. Frank and I thanked Tyler and we “limped” out of the shop.

“Oh my god, look at the time! We got to go!” I screamed. We ran (skipped for me) to the truck and sped across the town. My leg throbbed the whole time. Finally, we got to the concert.
Blur was spectacular. Frank had front row tickets and I can’t tell you how fun it was. Not to mention how much of a rocker Frank was. It was like he completely lost himself in the music. After the show, it was around eleven o’clock. We were exhausted, but we had a long drive home, so we climbed into the truck and I started to drive home. Frank took a short nap and but woke up about a half hour later. We kept driving, no stopping, and we kept ourselves awake by talking to each other and blasting the misfits.

We finally arrived in Ashland around two in the morning. Frank told me to stop a block before we got to his house. So I turned off the truck and we sat in the dark.

“Hey Gerard, would it actually be okay if I stayed over at your house tonight? It’s okay if I can’t. I can just go home.” I felt myself turn bright red. Yeah, you can stay. Why can’t you go home.” I looked over. He looked white as a ghost. I saw him gulp.

“I just think it would be better. My dad just gets mad sometimes if I come home late. He just prefers if I come home the next day.” I could tell something else was bothering him, but I didn’t bother him about it. Instead, I started the truck and drove to my house. When we got there we hopped out. I walked around the truck to find Frank staring at the willow tree.

“That is one fucking big ass tree.” he said. I bursted out laughing.

“I’m serious dude, I don’t think I've seen a tree that big before.” At this point we were both laughing practically on the ground. After we were through with our laughing fit, I walked Frank to my basement window.

“I think my mom would freak if I brought you here in the middle of the night without asking, so I’ll just sneak you in tonight. So just jump down there and go in, the windows open. I’ll see you in there.” I told him.

“Okay.” He replied and he jumped in the whole. I watched him climb in before I went through the front door. I slowly went through the hallway and checked the kitchen to make sure nobody was in there. Then I checked Mikey’s room to make sure that he was asleep, and sure enough he was. I finally walked to my moms room. I slowly opened the door and crept into her room. She was asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up so I just closed the door and went to mine, locking the door behind me. Before I went down the stairs, I took a deep breath, then I skipped down the stairs.

“Okay, so I have an extra pair of clothes and-” I stopped mid-sentence. I had completely forgot about my drawing I had hung up on the wall, and Frank was staring at it, his eyes wide. I was speechless. I was totally fucked. I tried thinking of excuses.

“Your a great artist.” he said really quietly.

“Thank you.” I said under my breath, even quieter.

“Is it me?” he asked. Oh god. That’s it I’m moving away. I’m gonna move to Australia, change my name to Bobby and sell shrimp. I took a deep breath and decided that it would be a good idea to answer him sometime soon.

“Uh, yeah, yeah it is.” Frank turned around and stood in front of me. He looked completely normal, like nothing was wrong.

“Well, it’s really good. Although, I don’t think I’m not as good looking as the picture.” He laughed. I tried to laugh. I felt my guts explode inside.

“Ha, yeah well um, I drew other one’s of other people too and-,” I couldn’t keep lying, I just kept word vomiting all over him as he kept looking at me with his god damn beautiful eyes, “I uh,” and that’s when it happened. Before I said another word I leaned into him and kissed him. And I kept kissing him. His lips were so soft and sweet. I didn’t want to stop but I finally pushed myself off of him. Way to fuck things up Gerard.

“Oh my god. I am so sorry, it just happened. I didn’t mean it, you probably hate me-” Frank just stood there. He stood there with his stupid hands in his pockets, and his stupid eyes locked on mine, and had his stupid smile on his face!

“What!” I yelled. He let out a taunting giggle, I couldn’t take the pressure anymore. He walked up to me. I felt a tear drip down my face.

“Why did you stop?” then he leaned in and his lips met mine. It all started out slow, but soon it grew faster, and faster, and soon I felt his tongue meeting mine and I started to pull his hair. He slowly walked me to my bed and we both fell onto it, him on top. His hands touched my torso and mine met his necks. Before we went any further I pulled away. I had so many emotions that I couldn’t tell them apart.

“Are you even..” I wanted to ask him if he was even interested in guys, but I was too ashamed of my own sexuality that I couldn’t clarify his.

“Well, I am now.” he knew exactly what I was talking about. I pulled his head back in and kissed even more passionately. We kept indulging in each other. I felt him pull my shirt over my head and I did the same to him. He pulled away and looked straight into my eyes.

“I’m glad I met you Gee.” He kissed me one more time softly on the lips then laid his head on my chest. I think we were too tired to go any further. I looked down and saw all of Frank’s secret tattoos. They were beautiful.

“I’m glad you accepted me.” I replied quietly. He looked up at me again. His same mysterious hazel eyes were telling me something, and I wanted to uncover it. He kissed me one more time and laid his head close to mine, wrapping his arm around my hip. I nuzzled myself close to him and closed my eyes. Our noses touched and our free hands entangled. For the first time in my life, I found out what love felt like.

Notes

HOLY FRICK!
Here it is, the ice breaker (somewhat). From the beginning to the middle I didn't really know what I was doing so I just wrote some random shit, BUT WHATEVER THAT ENDING!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! and thanks for reading it!

(Can't wait for chapter four... I may or may not have already wrote most of it...) ;)