6 Months Later

“It’s just a date.” Mikey pointed out, taking a sip of his milkshake. “Just one date.”
“Exactly! I don’t do dates.” Gerard countered.
“Just one date and then you never have to see him again if you don’t want to.”
Gerard just shot his brother a look, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Please? You owe me.” Mikey whined.
“For what?” Gerard shot back. He glanced at his own annoyed expression in mirror behind Mikey’s head. It was part of what he loved about the diner they were sitting in. The inside of the place was covered in mirrors like an homage to hideous 50s decor.
“You made me pretend to be your boyfriend for 20 minutes last time we hung out.”
“I don’t remember that. At all.” Gerard lied.
“When we ran into that guy you fucked?” Mikey added, a little too loudly for Gerard’s liking. “I totally covered for you, dude! You owe me.”
Mikey flicked a bit of whipped cream in his older brother’s direction. It landed on the sleeve of his black coat, smearing into the fabric when he tried to wipe it off.
“Well... I certainly don’t owe you now. Look what you did to my coat.” He grumbled.
“Of course you still owe me. That totally sucked.” Mikey replied, shooting his brother a fond grin.
“But why do I have to repay you by going on a date with your lame friend?” Gerard whined.
“Because! It’s about time you got yourself into back into dating. I haven’t seen you with anyone in like, over two years at least. Maybe three? Do you want to die alone?”
Gerard just shot his younger brother a warning look.
“Besides!” Mikey added, quickly changing the subject. “Frank’s not lame and he needs cheering up. And he’s a dog person, Gee. He likes dogs.”
“Great…” Gerard rolled his eyes, smirking at his brother’s insinuation.
“He likes all the same bands as you. And he doesn’t care that you don’t drink.” Mikey pleaded.
“So you already told him all about me, then?”
“Just the important stuff. He’s really cool and he really wants to meet you!”
“If you like him so much why don’t you just go on a date with him yourself?” Gerard asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because he’s my coworker! And anyway he’s not my type. He’s your type. Were you listening to anything I just said!?” Mikey complained, shoving the cherry from the top of his milkshake into his mouth.
“Okay… Maybe.” Gerard supplied. “But you have to tell me more about him first.”
“What do you want to know? Anything.” Mikey insisted.
“Well like, why does he need cheering up? And what the fuck makes you think I can cheer him up anyway? I can barely keep myself cheery.”
“Oh my god. You really weren’t listening to me this whole time.” Mikey sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Gerard just blinked at his brother vacantly, taking another sip of his coffee.
“His apartment flooded. All of his stuff got ruined. Like, his comic book collection.” Mikey said, annunciating carefully. “And all of his guitar pedals shorted out. The guy lost all his gear.”
“Didn’t he have renter’s insurance?” Gerard mused.
Mikey shot his brother a look and shook his head as if to say “Don’t be an asshole.”
“Look, I’m sorry but like, aren’t you forgetting something? You didn’t you tell him what I am? Did you?” Gerard asked softly, feeling the inevitable twinge of sadness that came along with the constant reminder that he was a freak of nature.
“Well… no. I left that part out obviously. I don’t just go around telling people about that.”
“So… how do you know he won’t go running and screaming when he finds out? Or what if I hurt him? See! This is why I don’t-”
“It’s just one date.” Mikey interrupted. “You don’t have to put a ring on it, Jesus.”
Mikey sighed dramatically and shoved a few ketchup-logged fries in his mouth. Gerard could see his brother was about to give up on the subject. He didn’t want that. He was just warming up to the idea of going on a date. Like, a real date.
“Please, Gerard?” Mikey whined in a tiny voice. Gerard could tell he wasn’t going to ask again.
“Okay? Okay.” Gerard nodded. “Maybe? Yes. Fine, I’ll go on a date with your work-friend...”
Mikey smiled, sipping his milkshake.
“I knew you’d say yes.” he gloated. “I’ll text him right now.”

Just one date. That’s all. Gerard thought to himself as he watched his brother tap buttons on his phone.
“So… where should I take him for this date? Can I bring him here?” Gerard asked, feeling out the words.
“Well here’s the thing… he’s vegan.” Mikey said softly, staring down at his cheeseburger and trying to hide a smile.
“Mikey!” Gerard whined.
~

Gerard left the diner with a stomachful of anxiety and a phone number scribbled on a napkin in Mikey’s messy handwriting.

Gerard went about his life following one very important rule:
“Don’t do anything you wouldn’t tell your brother.”

Gerard’s brother was extremely open-minded.
He still loved Gerard when Gerard came out.
He still loved Gerard when Gerard nose-dived into alcoholism.
He still loved Gerard when Gerard ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time and was bitten by that werewolf.
If Gerard was doing something he wouldn’t tell to someone who still loved him through all that then he was probably doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

Mikey knew his older brother liked to sleep around. They’d talked about it plenty. But to Gerard’s disadvantage, feeling slightly ashamed by his habits, he had perhaps skewed the numbers a bit. As far as Mikey knew, it was something Gerard did once or twice a month when in actuality, it was something Gerard did more like 3 times a week (...sometimes more).

Gerard sighed and stared down at the napkin pinned between his icy fingers as he floated down the cold, busy street. Mikey had told Frank that Gerard would be calling him shortly to set up a time and place. He didn’t want to be rude but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to give up his lifestyle.

He was terrified he’d actually like Frank and that Frank would like him. He’d have to stop sleeping around. He’d have to disappear on Frank 5 nights out of every 29. In the days before his disappearance his sex drive would be off the fucking charts. He couldn’t even begin to quantify the lies he’d have to tell just to get through the month.
Nobody deserved the misery that was dating Gerard.

He was also terrified that he’d end up flirting his way into Frank’s pants, love him, and leave him, just like he always did He swore to himself that he wasn’t allowed to pull that shit on Mikey’s friend. Mikey wanted Gerard to take Frank on a traditional date. The kind where you call them the next day to see if they had fun and ask for a second date.
Mikey would violently kill Gerard if it didn’t go down that way.

And here he was getting all caught up in his thoughts, when, as Mikey had pointed out, it was just a date.

Gerard tapped the number into his phone and pressed the call before he could give himself any more reasons not to.
A large truck sped by just after the first ring, making a loud crashing sound as it rolled over a metal grate in the middle of the road. Gerard panicked, realizing a loud busy street wasn’t the best place to call someone to ask them on a date. He also had nothing to write with. Fuck. Gerard usually had way more game than this.
Before he could hang up, someone on the other line picked up.
“Hello?”
“Uh yes… Hi. May I please speak to Frank?”
“Uh yeah. This is Frank. This is like, my cellphone? So there’s not really anyone else that would answer it.” he chuckled. “Who’s this?”
“Oh cool. Well uh, this is Gerard Way. Mikeyway’s brother?”
“Hi Gerard.” Frank said in a singsong voice. He sounded hot, Gerard decided.
Gerard walked past a guy shouting about some news headline, holding a stack of papers in his hand. He cupped his hand around the bottom of his phone to block out the noise.
“Sorry…It’s really loud where I am. I didn’t really think about where I was before calling you. I don’t normally uh… make calls of this nature.” Gerard confessed, scouring the street for a quiet alleyway to duck into. No beans.
“Calls of what nature?” Frank asked. It almost sounded like he was mocking Gerard, but he couldn’t tell.
“Well, Mikey said you and I would uh… get along.” Gerard faltered, cringing at his word choice. “So I thought I’d call and see if you wanted to hang out. We could go for coffee or something?”
“Like, on a date?” Frank asked.
“Yes.” Gerard replied, feeling his heart flutter.
“Cool.” Frank said. “Are you busy now?”
“Now?” Gerard squeaked, staring down at his less-than-perfect clothing ensemble.
“Yeah. Now. I’m not busy.” He laughed. “Where are you? I’ll come meet you.”
“Well I kinda wanted to like change and stuff befo-”
“Don’t!” Frank interrupted. “I look like shit today so it’s totally fine. Don’t dress up for me.”
Gerard scratched at an ominous looking glob of some dried whitish substance, standing out against his black pant leg. Cream from his morning coffee, maybe? He tried to remember if he’d eaten anything white at the diner.
“Okay.” Gerard sighed, running a hand through his hair to give it some tasteful, messy volume. “Well… I’m in the east village. Any places in particular you like around here?”
Frank rattled off some place that apparently carried the kind of almond milk he liked and gave Gerard the cross streets.
Frank was about to hung up when Gerard stopped him.
“Wait! How will I know it’s you?” Gerard asked.
“Oh yeah. Forgot about that.” Frank chuckled. “I’m uh… wearing a stupid red beanie. Like, blood red.”
“Cool. I’m wearing a…” Gerard looked down again, cringing at his outfit. White button-down, black jeans, a thick black wool sweater under his usual black coat. The only identifying factor was his, “big, stupid, striped scarf.”
“Big, stupid, striped scarf.” Frank repeated with a giggle. “Okay. See you in like, twenty minutes!” Frank said, dropping the call. Either Mikey had told Frank all the right things about Gerard or Frank was just a really nice guy because he sounded excited.
~

Gerard was only about 2 blocks away, standing on a street corner waiting for the light to change when he heard someone clear their throat to his right. He turned and glanced at a short, chubby guy with thick glasses and… a blood red hat. He wanted to kill Mikey as he tried not to stare at the guy’s protruding nose hairs and weird possibly greying hair.
“Are you um… Frank?” Gerard asked as politely as he could.
The guy looked at Gerard like he had just been beamed down from outer space.
“Um, Frank?” The guy asked with a thick accent.
“Nevermind, sorry.” Gerard mumbled awkwardly.
“Freak.” The guy muttered, rolling the ‘R’ and storming off across the street.
That was New York City for you.

Gerard quickly paced down the street, immediately spotting the place Frank had mentioned. A little sandwich board sat outside the door. There was a chalk drawing of a little monster drinking a cup of coffee, next to a list of the daily specials. Gerard glanced at it, thinking he could draw a way better monster. A monster that looked a little less, wolfish.
He pushed his way inside and stepped up to the counter, glancing around for a blood red beanie. He didn’t see one so he ordered 2 black drip coffees from the barista.
He was staring at the weird ads tacked to a corkboard by the counter when the barista called his name.
He spun around grabbed the cups, smiling at the barista before turning to glance around again for a blood red hat… and there he was, sitting at a table by the window, staring out at the people walking by.
Gerard crossed the room and slid into the seat across from him. Sliding a cup in front of the unbelievably attractive guy. He had short black hair with bleached tufts mixed in poking out of his vivid blood red hat. A silver lip ring contrasted with his pale cracked lips. A complimenting nose ring was on the other half of his face. His eyeliner was all smudgy and slept in.
He had that sexy just-rolled-out-of-bed look that Gerard usually went crazy for.
He could just kiss his little brother right now.
“You must be Frank.” Gerard smirked.
The guy’s face went from excitement to horror in record-breaking speed.
“Oh hell no!” Frank spat, brow furrowing.
Gerard blinked at Frank. This wasn’t typically how the first 5 seconds of a coffee date played out.
Not in Gerard’s experience anyway.

Notes

am i the only one who gets discouraged by less-than-perfect ratings???????

whatever i know i'm perfect. ; )

-m