My brother and I have been living together since I got back from art school in New York. I stay in the basement. That way, we both get our privacy and I do most of my work down there so paint fumes don't fill up the rest of the home.

We live in Belleville, New Jersey.

I spend most of my days painting, drawing, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, watching movies, and reading comic books. Yeah, I don't get out much. Sue me.

I never really had many friends growing up. I always hung out with Mikey. We never minded it. We have always been each other's best friend. Mikey is more sociable than I am. Mikey tries to get me to socialize with more people but I don't.

The thing is, I wasn't exactly the popular kid in high school. I was chubby and was ignored. Not picked on. I may as well not even existed at that school, I thought. I simply was there to get an education and that's what mattered.

I tend to shy away from possible relationships in fear of getting my heart broken again. Mikey advised me that it's not healthy and I will find the 'right one' eventually.

To be honest, I don't think I'm good enough for anyone. I'm not sure if I will ever be. I'm going to be 25 and aren't doing anything that's making an impact, is what scares me the most. Mikey assures me that things will get better, like a good brother does.

****
It's a Friday night and Mikey and his friend, whom also is his co-worker are on their way to the house. They have the rest of the weekend off so they decided to hang out. The two of them worked together for the past couple of months and decided they should finally hang out.

Mikey was the one to train Frank at work and they hit it off right away. They have the same taste in music and share a lot of the same interests. Mikey was ecstatic that work wouldn't suck so much. They slowly became good friends from the funny stories Mikey would tell me.

Yesterday Frank suggested they actually do something together instead of having some dumb work friendship. Mikey didn't know why they didn't do this sooner. At least they decided now.

****
Mikey and Frank climbed up the front stairs to the house. He pulled his house key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, and opened it. He let Frank go before him so he can lock the door back up.

"Hey Mikey! How was work?" I called from the kitchen.
"Eh, you know, the usual." He laughed.
I was making my way out of the kitchen when Mikey spoke again. "I brought a friend over. Would you like to say hi?"

I shrugged. Sure. Why not? I was in a particularly good mood today.

I quickly patted my long black hair down before exiting the kitchen, and went into the living room. I nearly stopped dead in my tracks once I caught a glimpse of the shorter guy standing with my brother. I kept walking.

I held out my hand in front of Mikey's friend. "The name's Gerard."
He smiled and shook my hand firmly. "Frank."

Holy crap. He is cute and has the nicest smile I have ever seen.
Okay stop thinking that, Gerard. You just met him.

"This is the infamous Frank, huh?" I asked my brother.
He nodded his head. "Yep!"
Frank grinned and sat down on the couch. "Nice pajamas."

I blushed and looked down to see what I was wearing. And of course I was wearing my pajama pants that had Batman symbols all over on them.

I kept my head down as I muttered a thank you and quickly went back down to my room in the basement. I was so embarrassed! I don't know if Frank was making fun of me or does he like Batman too? I wasn't gonna stick around to find out.

My basement bedroom has brown, wood paneling on the walls. There are wooden shelves nailed to the wall. I have bins piled up against the wall next to my desk. There's action figures and various things on top of the wooden shelves. I have comic books strewn around. I have a badass sword hanging at the head of my bed.

My bed has blue sheets on it right now and I have a light pink pillowcase, which surprisingly, noone makes fun of me for. My desk is kinda cluttered. I do most of my drawing there, so I always have papers laying all over it. Also, I have light sabers, a rather geeky DVD collection..super hero movies and horror mostly.

*Two hours later*

I was starting to get super hungry so I went upstairs to the kitchen. Frank and my brother were obviously playing videogames because I heard a string of swears coming from Mikey's mouth. He and I have that in common. Whenever we both play videogames, our vocabulary becomes quite vulgar.

I strode over to the fridge and pulled out my left over Chinese food from yesterday, and used my hip to shut the fridge behind me. I dumped the food onto a plate and put it the microwave for two minutes and poured myself a cup of coffee. I love coffee.

I peeked around the corner to see what the others were up to. Frank was attractive indeed. I could only see the side of his face from where they were sitting, but I knew he was cute. Just as the microwave beeped, I went back into the kitchen before any of them could see me.

I filled up my coffee cup some more and took my food out of the microwave and took a fork out one of the kitchen drawers. I headed back down to my room. I popped in the first Star Wars DVD, climbed onto my bed, pressed play on the DVD remote, and started to eat as the movie began.

After I finished eating I sat my empty cup and plate on the floor. I'll take those upstairs later. My movie was over so I got up off my bed and shut off my TV and took out the disc and turned off the DVD player. I put the DVD away.

****
"Hey dudes. What cha doing?" I ask when I get into the living room after tossing my dishes into the sink.
Mikey smiled and turned to me. "Nothing much. Just kicked Frank's ass in some Halo."
Frank playfully hit my brother in the shoulder causing me to giggle. "That's funny. Mind if I sit with you both?"
"Sure, bro."
"Cool. Thanks. I was getting kind of bored down in my room."
"It's about time you come out of there. You damn vampire." Mikey joked.

Frank laughed a rather high pitched laugh at Mikey's remark.

My face reddened immediately. "Shut up."

My comment only made Frank laugh harder.

"Hey, fuck you, Frank."
Frank stopped laughing. "I'm sorry..that was just too funny."
"Well, you are pale. Always in the dark basement. Therefore, you're a vampire." Mikey interjected.
"You're an asshole, Mikey."
Mikey laughed. "C'mon Gee. You know I'm just messing with you."
"I know you are, Mikey."

We sat in silence for the next couple of minutes until Frank broke the silence.

"So guys...what should we do?"
"We?" I asked with a slightly amused look on my face.
"Yes. WE. Me. Mikey. You."

My heart started racing. Frank wanted ME to hang out with them? I couldn't believe my ears. He probably just felt sorry for me and was trying to be nice.

"Wellllll?" Frank asked as he tossed a dark blue pillow at my brother's face.
"Wanna watch a movie?" Mikey asked us.
I nodded my head. "Sure. That sounds good to me."
Frank nodded his head too. "Got any good horror movies?"

My eyes lit up. I don't even know this guy and I can already tell he has awesome taste.

"So.... you like horror movies, Frank?" I asked Frank with a tinge of nervousness to my voice.

Wait. Why am I nervous? It's just a normal question.

"I LOVE HORROR MOVIES!" Frank exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm.

I let out a giggle.

"So do we." Mikey responded as he got up from the couch and walked to his room to pick out a DVD I assumed.

I was correct because three minutes later, Mikey came back with Jaws. I was kind of shocked to see he chose that one but it works.

"Jaws okay?" He asked as he popped the disc into the DVD player.
"Hell yeah!"

Frank looked at me and smirked.

I blushed a little bit and sat back against the couch.

The movie ended and Frank went home. Mikey and I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watched The Goonies. After that, we went to our separate bedrooms.

Mikey was gonna play his bass then go to bed. I took a shower, put on plain grey sweat pants and a red t-shirt, brushed out my hair and layed down in my bed.

I wasn't quite ready for sleep yet so I grabbed my sketchpad and started to draw a vampire. Then I drew a mummy next to the vampire.

I looked over at my alarm clock on my nightstand and it was nearly 1:00 A.M. I tossed my sketchpad and pencil on the floor. I reached over and shut off my lamp and went to sleep.

****
I opened my eyes and yawned before I rolled over facing my alarm clock to see what time it was. 12:45 in the afternoon. Great. I slept almost 12 hours. I stretched and yawned some more before I found the will to pull myself up and out of bed.

I walked to my bathroom and did my business, flushed the toilet, and washed my hands. I brushed my hair a little bit. I get the worst bead head. Mikey always makes fun of me for it.
I went up to the kitchen and Mikey was sitting at the table eating Honey Nut Cheerios and drinking coffee.

"Morning." Mike said as he picked up his coffee to take a sip.
"Good morning."

I slowly went over to the dish strainer and took out my Darth Vader coffee cup. I poured the piping hot coffee into and and sat it on the kitchen table before going over to the counter to pick up a banana. I peeled the banana and took a bite.

"Got any plans for the day?" I asked Mikey.

He scooted his chair back and stood up with his empty cereal bowl and spoon and gently put them in the sink.

"Probably gonna hang out with Frank again."

I smiled. Why am I smiling?

I quickly took another bite from my banana. "Oh that's cool."
"Yup yup."
"Know what you're gonna do?"
Mikey shrugged his shoulders. "No, not really."
"Ah. I see." Is all I said.

I finished my banana and tossed the peel into the trashcan. and took a huge gulp of coffee even if it was still pretty hot. I was thirsty. Mikey went to the living room to call Frank.

I walked to my closet to see what I felt like wearing today. I took my black t-shirt off a hanger and pulled the shirt over my head and shook my hair out. My hair is long.

Next, I waltzed over to my dresser, and opened up the bottom drawer, which contained jeans. I took out a pair of black skinny jeans and sat on my bed to put them on. I zipped up the jeans and buttoned them. I stood up and went to my dresser again to get out clean socks. I stood on one foot to put on my socks, nearly falling over as I did.

Then, I went to the bathroom and brushed my hair and plugged in my hair straightener. While I waited for that to heat up I applied my eyeliner.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that it looks like I'm making myself look nice and Frank is coming over. I shrugged it off. Hopefully noone will notice it. To be honest, I just didn't want Frank seeing my looking a mess in my pajamas again.

I set my eyeliner down on the white, porcelain sink and picked up my now ready hair straightener. I finished in a couple of minutes and unplugged it. I flicked off the bathroom light - and the basement light and went upstairs.

Mikey stared at me and laughed.
"What?" I turned to face him with a confused look on my face.
"Nothing. I was just expecting you to be in your pajama pants again."
"Shut up."
Mikey laughed again. "You look good."
I grinned. "Thank you."
He nodded. "What're you looking so nice for anyway?"
Mikey used his left pointer finger to push up his glasses.
"U-um....no reason..."
"Oh c'mon, Gee. You did your hair AND put eyeliner on. What's up?"
My face went from pale to cherry red within seconds. "I just felt like it."
"Uh-huh. Okay.."

There was no way I was going to tell him the real reason why...which is I don't wanna look like a weirdo in front of Frank again.

I don't have any clue why I care so much about what Frank thinks about me when he isn't even MY friend. He's Mikey's friend. I shrugged it off and grabbed my cigarette pack off the counter. I must have left them there at some point yesterday.

I slid a cigarette out of the pack and lit it with my black lighter and placed the lighter on to the table as I placed the cigarette in between my lips. I took a puff and reached over across the table to slide the ash tray closer. I flicked an ash into the ash tray.

"Anyway....Frank will be here in ten minutes."
"Okay, awesome." I say casually as I take another puff from my cig and blow the smoke out into the air, but inside I'm squealing in delight.

Ten minutes later, there's a small series of knocks at the front door. My cigarette is finished as well, so I stub it out in the ash tray. Mikey isn't in sight. I assumed he is in his room or in the bathroom. I got up from the kitchen table and slowly open the front door.

"Hi, Gerard. Where's Mikey?" Frank asks with an eager smile on his face.
"Uh, bathroom I think. I'm not sure."
"Oh okay."

God. His smile. I could get used to seeing that all day......

"Are you gonna let me in? Or am I gonna stand on the front porch all day?"
"Oh, right." I blush as I open the door wider and step aside so Frank can come in.

Frank laughed as he shook his head and plopped on the couch. My face became redder and I went to call for Mikey but Mikey was already in the living room when I turned around. I awkwardly shuffled out of the living room as I felt Frank's eyes stare at me until I was out of sight.

I went down the stairs and hopped onto my bed, face planting into my pillow. Why do I always make myself look so stupid? Frank probably thinks I'm a freak.

****
(Frank's P.O.V.)

"Dude, what's with your brother?" I said with a small laugh.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"He's so weird."
"Oh. Yeah. That he is."

I laughed again.

"He's soo shy. It's cute." I clapped my hand over my mouth at the last part and felt my cheeks flush.
Mikey's eyes widened behind his glasses. "Oh my God..please don't tell me you think my brother is cute."
I shrugged. "Maybe..."
"Ugh gross."
I giggled. "Hey. I said he's CUTE. I didn't say I liked him."

Mikey simply shook his head.

Notes