Love Me Anyway

The next morning was like any other. Mom comes in first; begging me to get up because its already noon, getting upset because I wont budge, and honestly I don't bother. Next in comes Mikey, who nicely yells. I usually get up by my second human alarm but I felt sick from whatever madness I was dreaming of in my previous sleep. I shot my head up to the sound of my door being slammed open this time. I looked at my phone. 2:42 pm. Shit, I thought. I turned my head from my phone, to my door. I saw my already drunken step father, slouching and stumbling against my door. The smell of alcohol swarmed my room. It was already muggy and hot in my room. His toxic odor of beer and two week old vodka just made it worse. I felt sicker than I already had, and wanted to vomit in his face. Let's just say I'm very sensitive to the senses..

"Gerard!" He roared in his slurredness. "Get your fuckin ass outta bed, or I'll-"
"You'll what? Sit on me fatty?" I snarled. Fatty was the only thing I could say to Don's face without cussing at him.
"What did you say, faggot?" he chuckled. I shot my head down and bit my tongue. If I hadn't, I would have gotten beaten the shit out of me. "Yeah that's what I thought. I saw the way you looked at that kid, Fred."
"His name is Frank-"
"I don't care and don't argue with me, Gerard. I've hit you once and I sure as hell do it again, if you make me." He said, inches away from my face. I swear I could have gotten drunk just from his breath. "So don't make me." He smirked and held my face with one hand. "Now get up, fag, before I make you." And with that, he left.
I got up after he left and hopped into the shower. I got dressed and made my way upstairs to get my late breakfast.
After eating and not talking to neither mom or Mikey, I decided to go for a walk, like I had everyday this summer. It was the only way I could smoke without having the chance of Mikey snitching on me again.
"Gerard," mom chimed, "I need you to pick up some stuff from the store on your walk today. Your Aunt Kathy is coming over tomorrow and I wanna..." Was all I heard from her before taking her stupid list and kissing her goodbye.
"K ma." I sighed as she rambled on and I walked out the door.
As soon as I turned the corner, I pulled out smokes and lit one. I immediately felt more awake with every drag I took. The sweet, hazardous smoke filled my body with a warmth that made me shiver in pleasure. Just like it always did.
I decided not to go straight to the store, when I saw a figure laying in the grass, in the park near my house. As I got closer, I saw the cute, little body I met the day before. He was laying on his back, his hands laced together on top of his stomach. His hands were dressed in black and white skeleton gloves, that had holes at the tips of his fingers. He was wearing a skeleton sweatshirt to match, black skinny jeans, and of course, black vans. His hood covered his head and his fringe looked like it was stuck to his head. He had sunglasses and headphones on. By the way the sun was shinning, I could tell his eyes were closed. He was listening to Polly by Nirvana. He shifted his tiny body but didn't notice me until I nudged him lightly with my foot.
"Frank?"
He jumped out of shock and sat up on his elbows and just looked at me. He pushed his hood back, revealing his beautiful red and black hair. "Hi."
"Hi." He said softly, sniffling and taking out his headphones. Sex and Candy by Marcy's Playground was blaring from the buds. "Gerard right?"
I laughed lightly and sat down next to him, my cigarette in my mouth. "Yeah."
"You and your brother look so much alike.."
"You think?"
"Yeah, he's just a.. Pointy Gerard.." We laughed a little and he sniffled again. After a moment of silence, my curiosity got the best of me.
"Frank?"
He looked over at me. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
His lip quivered but he nodded slowly. He looked down and wiped his eye. I saw what looked like a bruise and became more curious and concerned.
"Frank, can I see your glasses?"
He shook his head frantically. "No.. I.."
"Frank," I said softly, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanna see.."
Even though I couldn't see his eyes now, I knew he was giving me a hesitated look by biting his lip ring. I quickly tamed myself from biting it myself by clutching my fists. He sighed and them off slowly, his hands trembling. The eyes that I took in yesterday, were now dull and blackened. The beautiful hazel glow was now gone and watering. My heart sank with every tear that fell quickly from his precious orbs of light. The dullness brought out the yellowish bruise, painted on the right side of his face.
"Who..?" I asked softly.
He shook his head and dropped his face into his hands. I quickly brought him into my chest. He looked so innocent in that moment. He clutched my shirt. I ran my fingers through his hair and shushed him until he calmed down.

After about ten minuets of sitting in the grass in silence, Frank pulled away and wiped his eyes. He put his sunglasses back on and looked up at me. "I'm sorry I got your shirt all wet. I-"
"Frank, its okay." I said, pulling the both of us up and out another cigarette. I offered one to Frank and then remembered he didn't smoke. "Do you wanna come shopping with me?"
He shot me a confused look.
"I was supposed to get some stuff for my mom at the store, do you wanna come with me?"
"Uh sure," he chuckled and gave a small smile.
"And you can come over after and I can help with your wounds. Frank?"
"Yeah?"
"Are there more?"
He looked at me again, innocently, and nodded.
"Okay, we'll see and talk more about it when we get to my house."
----------------

After spending almost two hours at the store, Frank and I had to run home because of the sudden storm that was coming our way. We were both soaked and tired by the time we got home.
When we entered the house, we put moms stuff away and went downstairs. I gave Frank a shirt and a pair of sweatpants and put his clothes in the dryer. Without thinking, I started undressing in my room, unaware that Frank was still sitting on my bed. I heard him gasp softly as I took my shirt off. I quickly turned around and turned bright red.
"I-m..I'll... Go into.. The bathroom.." I said quickly and rushed into the bathroom. "Fuck.." I said to myself. I changed and walked back out to see Frank was still in shock.
"I'm sorry, Frank.. I thought-"
"No no, I'm sorry.. It's your room. I should have-"
"Frank, its okay." I sighed.
"Okay.." He said, still bright red.
I made my way to my bed but laid down on the floor. I turned to Frank who was looking at the ground. "Can I see the rest of them?"
He wrapped his arms around himself. I watched his eyes widened.
"Frank, I just wanna help you," I said, sitting up and facing him. My heart sank as I watched his eyes water again.
"It was my dad.." He said so quietly, I almost missed it.
"W-why? What did he do?"
He hesitated at first, but once I told him he could trust me, he proceeded to tell me what happened. "He came home after work. He was drunk. He started to pick little arguments with my mom. When they started to get bigger, they started to get louder. They started arguing about me." He paused and took a deep breath. "About how being.. " He trailed off but continued. "And he hit her. I became so mad. I didn't understand why he did it."
"What did you do?"
"I hit him. And he didn't like it so he hit me harder and harder and harder..."He trailed off again and started spacing out.
"Frank," I said, hoping to get his attention. He snapped his eyes at mine. "Let me see."
He sighed and stood up. He lifted his shirt, revealing several different bruises, painted against his skin. I gasped as I saw the darkest bruise on the side of his chest.
"Are they broken?" I asked.
He shrugged, "I haven't even looked at them."
I nodded and then noticed an irritated area on his other side. He scratched it and winced from the pain. It was scabbed over already. He cut himself. I knew because I get the same way. It always itches.
I refocused before Frank noticed I was looking at his cuts. "I'm sorry.." I said.
He looked at me and got really close to my face, the closest he's ever been to my face. He was almost intimidating. "Don't ever be sorry for something that isn't your fault, Gerard. Ever."
I gulped and nodded. He realized how close he was but didn't move immediately. I watched his eyes move across my face. Only if he knew how much I wanted to kiss him in that moment. I just wanted him to feel nothing but happy in that moment. I wanted him in that moment.
"Gee.." Mikey called from my door. By then, Frank had recovered his old spot and played with his thumbs.
"Yeah, Mikes?"
"Ma said dinner was ready. She said Frank could stay."
I looked at Frank, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged and we walked out of my room to eat.
-----------------------

When dinner ended, Frank and I washed the dishes, because it was my turn. He asked me why Don kept giving me dirty looks. I had to lie and say he was joking.
"That's a weird way of showing it." He said.
"Yeah, well let's just say Don isn't my favorite person."
"Oh, I understand."
We both fell silent the rest of the time we washed. After we were done, I asked him if he wanted to stay the night. He hesitated at first. I convinced him it wasn't the half a mile walk because it was still pouring outside. He texted his mom and then we went to bed.

It wasn't until we got into my room that I hadn't thought about where we were sleep.
"Uh, I can sleep on the floor if you want." I said. I mean I had queen size bed but I didn't know how he felt about sharing.
"No, it seems big enough for the both of us." He said, smiling slightly.
As we both climbed into bed I looked at the clock. 10:20 pm. I wasn't even tired. I would usually be drawing or playing video games with Mikey.
"Gerard?" Frank chimed. The way he said my name made me melt inside. He rolled over and faced me. The moon light from my room shined perfectly on his face.
"Yeah?" I said, turning over also.
"Do you think that guy that murdered all those people should feel guilty?" I was caught off guard by his question and had completely forgotten about that.
"Well it all depends if he regrets it.."
"Would you feel guilty?"
"I don't know... Maybe if I saw their families afterwards.. I don't know. Are you okay, Frank?
"Yeah, yeah. Just thinking. Not that tired."
"Do you wanna play some video games?"
I saw his face light up a little and the glow I saw yesterday was coming back. "Hell yeah!"
"Okay, just let me have smoke first and then we'll play."

We played for five hours, changing games every now and then. Talking a lot. Talking about the randomest shit. We laughed a lot too. Trying not to wake up everyone but secretly hoping we did.
It was 2:30 when I realized I was falling asleep while playing and so was Frank. I turned off the game and crawled back into bed. I faced Frank and he did the same.
"Thank you, Gerard."
"For what?"
"For being so kind. No one has never been so nice to me here."
"It's nothing, Frank."
"No really. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Frank." That was the last thing I could say before closing my eyes and falling asleep, Frank's eyes being the last thing I saw before falling asleep and the first thing when I woke up.

Notes

Holy shit this took me forever to finish.
I love you guys
Stay Ugly