I Think I Like It

I felt slightly better when I woke up the next morning, having sorted stuff out with the guys. I gave both phones a quick check and, after seeing nothing, stumbled downstairs for breakfast. Mom wasn’t up yet, which was fine by me – it meant I didn’t have to put on pants. I grabbed myself a pop tart and a glass of orange juice and returned back to my bedroom to get ready, drinking and chewing as I went. I wasn’t doing anything special today, just playing videogames at Chris’ house, and we might hit the skate park for a bit. I pulled on ripped jeans and a plain black t-shirt. At some point, while putting my lip ring in, my Mom poked her head in the room and smiled, wishing me a good day, and then went about her business as normal. I found this particularly ironic, as not even two minutes after she closed the door, my phone rang.
My old phone.

I nearly fell over trying to answer it, but did, just in time.
“Gerard.” I said, breathlessly. I could almost hear the smile in his voice when he replied.
“Good morning.” He said warmly.
“What’s going on?” I asked, checking the clock. I’d need to be at Chris’ soon, but I couldn’t risk leaving my room while on the phone to Gerard, just in case.
“I was just checking that this was definitely your number before I put it into my phone.” He explained. I was a little disappointed, but understood.
“Oh, okay.”
“I need to give you a nickname. What do you want?” he asked. I laughed.
“Call me Mr. Sexy.” I teased. He laughed.
“How about I don’t?”
“I don’t have a preference, then.”
“Okay, what about Vampire Boy?” he laughed. I chuckled, but agreed that it was pretty accurate.
“Right, see you tomorrow then.” He said, hanging up. I slid my new phone into my pocket and, after deliberating for a moment, slid my old one into my other pocket, just in case.

Joe was already at Chris’ place by the time I got there, and I stammered an excuse, before I realized that they weren’t bothered that I was late, but rather, were both staring at me with wide smiles, expectantly.
Oh yeah.
I sat down on Chris’ bed and ran my hand through my hair.
“So, what do you wanna know?” I sighed.
“Everything. You promised me gore.” Joe said immediately. I laughed.
“Okay, so I guess I’ll start from the top. I got there a bit late, as you know, and couldn’t find you, so I went to get a drink, and was approached by this…” I said, then trailed off. I’d never mentioned to the guys that I was gay, and wasn’t sure how they’d react.
“This guy.”I said finally. They nodded, waiting for me to continue, and I fought back a smile at their immediate and immutable acceptance.
“Okay, so we got talking and…yeah. Made out.” I said, shrugging. Chris smiled politely, but Joe frowned.
“You promised gore.” He pouted, causing Chris to hit him playfully on the arm.
“He doesn’t have to tell us.”
“He does.” Joe disagreed.
“It’s fine.” I laughed, launching back into my story.
“Well, while we were talking he was…uh, talking about how much he wanted to…um…fuck me.” I said, shifting uncomfortably. Both boys stared at me, mouths wide-open.
“Did you do it?” Joe said urgently.
“No…it didn’t seem right.”
“What was he like?”
“He was gorgeous, from what I could see. Just…I don’t know. Beautiful.”
“Aw, Frankie.” Chris said sarcastically, and I flipped him the finger.
“Could he kiss?”
“Fuck yes.” I laughed.
“I guess we can forgive you then.” Chris snickered, and I beamed at him appreciatively. He turned around to continue playing his video game, while Joe came to sit next to me, putting a hand on my arm.
“Dude, next time, get dick okay?” he said seriously.
“It’s fine, I’m happy to wait.” I said happily. He furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head.
“No exceptions bro. If a guy ever offers it to you again, you grab that dick and never let go.” He said, and I couldn’t help the fit of hysterical laughing that I fell into.
“So who is he?” Chris said, not turning around. I breathed deeply a few times to calm my giggles, and wiped the tears from my eyes.
“Who?”
“Your guy. Who is he?”
“Oh. Um. I don’t know. I never found out.” I stammered. Chris turned around, and both he and Joe gave me looks of pure horror.
“What? I wasn’t really thinking about-“
“We have to find him.” Joe said.
“No, it’s fine.” I said, blushing.
“No way, Frank. We’ll help you find this guy at school tomorrow.” He vowed.
“He might not go to our school. Maybe he was a plus one.” I said. Joe nodded.
“True. We’ll just go over the guest list then, and deduce who it might be.” He said, determined. I felt my stomach drop. If they looked too deeply into things, they might be able to find out who my ‘mystery guy’ was, and I couldn’t deal with that.
“I don’t even really want to find him. It was just fun.” I said quickly. Joe smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Well, we’ll help you have even more fun. Don’t worry, Frankie, we won’t stop until we find this guy.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.

I excused myself to the bathroom a short time after that, using the time to call Mr. Way and warn him that my friends were going to be playing detectives. He didn’t answer straight away, and I got worried – after all, it’s not the times that we’d agreed to.
He picked up, though.
“Frank?”
“Um, hi.” I murmured, feeling nervous.
“What’s going on?” he asked, sounding tired.
“Did I wake you up?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I was just marking papers.” He explained.
“I just wanted to let you know that uh, Joe and Chris are hell-bent on finding the ‘mystery guy’ I was at the dance with, and since that was you, I thought you’d want to know.” I said quietly. He chuckled.
“I appreciate the warning, but I’d like to think I’m careful enough that two kids 20 years my junior couldn’t find me if I didn’t want them to.” He said reassuringly. I wasn’t listening though – I’d just realized something.
“You’re 37?” I asked, incredulous. He paused.
“Yes…is that a problem?”
“No. I mean, you look, uh. Younger.” I said, shuffling awkwardly on the spot.
“Have I put you off?” he asked, his voice sounding amused.
“No. I mean, I’m surprised because, um, you could actually be my Dad.” I said, only realizing how it sounded when the words poured out of my mouth.
“Well, that’s a risk you have to take when sleeping with your teacher, isn’t it?” he sniffed. I sighed.
“Forget I said it. I was just surprised.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. S’ya tomorrow.”
“Okay, bye.” I said, hanging up and feeling like an asshole. Of course I knew he was probably a lot older than me, but I never realized how much older. It didn’t put me off, but it did make me feel a little bit weird. I mean, he was older than my Mom.
I tried not to think about it as I walked back into Chris’ room and saw that he and Joe had switched places, and he now sat on his bed, reading a Geology textbook. Boring. I pulled out my old phone (trying to be discreet), and sent Gerard a quick text to apologise, and to say that I still found him attractive, but turned my phone off after that, so I wouldn’t have to deal with the questioning when he replied.
“So, Frank, your mystery guy. Do you remember anything about him?” Joe asked suddenly.
“Uh, not really. His face was pretty much covered, you know?”
“Hair colour?”
“Nah, couldn’t see.”
“So it could be anyone. Literally anyone.” Joe sighed.
“It’s fine, we’ll just look through the guest list tomorrow and narrow it down from there.” Chris reassured him. I groaned.
“Guys, please don’t.” I grumbled.
“Dude, you need dick. As your best buddies, we’re going to get you some dick. End of story.” Joe snapped.
“I don’t need dick.” I sighed, falling backwards onto the bed.
“Yes you do. We didn’t even know you liked dick, that’s how much you need it.” Joe laughed.
“I knew.” Chris interjected.
“Dude!?” Joe said, pausing the game and turning around. I raised my eyebrows.
“What?” I said, sitting up. He laughed.
“Dude, you literally check out Mr. Way’s ass every time he walks. Every. Single. Time.”
“I don’t.” I said, blushing.
“You totally do, bro” he laughed.
“Well. I could do worse.” I said, laughing breathlessly. Chris and Joe both nodded.
“That’s true. He’s a bit old though.” Chris said wrinkling his nose. I groaned and fell backwards again, covering my face with my hands.

I remembered to turn on my phone only when I was already halfway home. I had three messages from him, and none of them seemed particularly happy.

FROM: Gee.
(11:46am)
No need to apologize.

FROM: Gee.
(11:49am)Actually, yes need to apologize. You’re an asshole.

FROM: Gee.
(11:56am)That was harsh. Sorry. I’ll just stop now.

I sighed and typed out a quick message asking if it was okay to call him, and, when he didn’t reply after 5 minutes, decided to do it anyway.
“Speak up, my old ears aren’t what they used to be.” He said in greeting.
“Shut up. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Well. I am old, though.”
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am. I’m 20 years older than you.”
“19.”
“Don’t be an asshole.”
“Sorry.” I sighed.
“You don’t have to-“ he began, then stopped himself. I chewed my lip.
“What?”
“I’m just saying, I don’t expect anything, you know? Just…I don’t know. If you ever want to do stuff with someone else…younger…that’s fine.” He said weakly.
“Stop being such a fatalistic ass.” I snapped, offended at his assumption. It took me a few moments to realize that he’d hung up. That ass.
I tried calling him back, but it just went straight to answer phone. I sighed and shoved my phone back in my pocket – for someone older than me, he sure could be a fucking child sometimes.

I didn’t hear back from him all night, even though I tried to call him and sent him several apologetic texts. I was surprised at him – he usually didn’t take stuff like this seriously, or at least he’d let me explain myself. Surely he could see where I was coming from? I wasn’t upset by his age, it’d just surprised me because he looked so youthful, and was so energetic. To be honest, though, 37 wasn’t even that old – it’s not like he was in his 50s. I sent him one, final message telling him just that, before I gave up and fell asleep.

Notes

Sorry about the lack of content, I just wanted to give some background.
Don't worry though, Gerard gets a chance to prove just how youthful he is in the next chapter...