FRANK

“Gerard!” His name escaped my lips as a very angry, very shirtless, Gerard stormed in from the porch.

“You filthy liar! I knew you had it. Give it back before I kick your ass.” He seethed. I was too shocked to understand what he meant.

“Woah, what’s going on?” Pete’s step-sister asked as she entered the living room. “Frank? Pete what’s-“

“We were going to give back Gerard’s sketchbook so we headed to his store but he wasn’t there so Frank and I walked home I didn’t think you would be bringing him home today or we would’ve gone somewhere else.” Pete interrupted.

“Just give me my sketchbook and give us some space and we’ll be good.” Gerard said, his beautifully pained green eyes burned into my soul.

I handed over his sketchbook, still too shocked to speak, and he and his red-haired friend went back down what I guessed was a hallway.

“Well, I was not expecting that. You okay, Frank?” Pete broke the short-lived silence. I just nodded my head. Gerard came back out just a few moments later, his friend following close behind him.

“Iero! Where are they?” He barked.

“Where are what?” I asked, still slightly dazed.

“The drawings! Where are the drawings?” Right. Drawings, sketchbook. I was starting to come to my senses now.

“They should be in your book.” I tried to be sarcastic, but I was getting really angry really fast. I almost didn’t notice my shaking hands.

“Well, they’re not. And guess who had them last.”

“I don’t have your fucking drawings!” I was shouting back now. How dare he accuse me of having his stupid drawings! What would I do with them anyways?

“I don’t either so I guess we have quite the dilemma here, don’t we?” He sassed.

“They’re just drawings, Gerard. Calm down.” Pete’s step-sister interrupted. I could tell by the look on his face that was the wrong thing to say to Gerard just then.

“Just drawings? Just drawings! They’re not ‘just drawings’ Hayley!” Hayley looked hurt to say the least. I doubted Gerard snapped at her often so I sent a sympathetic look her way.

“Gee, come on. Chill, and let’s get back to dying your hair. ‘Cause I’m not letting you walk out of here looking like that. Then you can storm off back to your house, okay?” Her voice was slightly watery like she might start crying. I wanted to go and give her a hug or something because she did not deserve to be yelled at. Especially not while trying to comfort someone else.

Gerard’s chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath and finally let out a way too bitter “Fine.”

They headed back down the way they came as Pete and I just continued to stand there.

“Wow.” I finally concluded.

“Wow indeed.” Pete agreed. He started walking towards a kitchen hidden behind a breakfast bar. I followed suit and soon he was handing me a soda from his open fridge. He nudged the door shut and grabbed four cookies from a jar on the counter behind us, handing me two of them. I accepted his offer and we talked and joked about Gerard’s outburst as we ate our snack.

After we’d finished, we went down the hall the other two had disappeared into. I heard laughter coming from behind one of the doors and I wanted to go find out what was so funny, but Pete stopped us at the door just before the one I wanted to be in front of.

Behind Pete’s door was where all the mess I had expected to see originally lived. I though my room was bad but I couldn’t see his floor.

“Yeah, sorry about the mess.” He scratched the back of his head.

“Mess? I can’t tell what’s room and what’s trash!” I teased.

“You sound just like my step-mom!” He joked back.

We ended up having to play hopscotch in order to move around his room, which then turned into a game of “the floor is lava” because we are as mature as newborn babies.

“Y’know Franklin,” Pete started as he jumped from the pillow he had been on to the pile of dirty shirts I was standing on.

“Yes Peter?” I responded.

“I saw the way you were looking at Gerard earlier and I think someone has a crush.” He said in a sing-song voice.

“I- what?” I do not like Gerard! That’s just gross!

In my shocked state, Pete had pushed me. I fell over on top of an old pizza box, but not without kicking his legs and taking him down with me.

“You want to hug him, you want to kiss him.” He sang after he landed next to me.

“No way! That’s gross!” I punched his arm before getting up and making my way to his bed.

“Yes way. Gerard Way.” He continued to tease.

“That’s a terrible pun.” I belly flopped onto his bed, moving it back into the wall and creating a loud thud. “Sorry, I didn’t know your bed moved.”

“It’s okay. But are you crushing on him, though?”

“I don’t know. He’s really attractive, I can’t deny that, but it’s Gerard. I can’t be crushing on Gerard.” I answered. I heard a door slam shut. Pete froze.

“Shit.” He whispered.

“What?”

“I think that’s my dad.” His wide eyes looked at me.

“So?”

“So, he’ll kill me if he finds out I had someone over, especially you.”

“Rude.”

“I’m sorry man. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just; he’s not really cool with the whole ‘me being bi’ thing. He’s always paranoid that I’ll bring a guy home and ‘do the do,’ y’know?” Pete’s terrified voice replied.

“Yeah, I get it. Do you want me to sneak out the window or something?” That’s when Hayley opened the door and stuck her head in.

“That was just Gerard, guys. Don’t worry.” Pete breathed a sigh of relief. “Your dad will be home soon, though, so Frank might want to head out.”

“Okay, thanks Hayls.” I grabbed my backpack and Pete walked me to the front door. “You sure you don’t want me to walk home with you?”

“I’ll be fine, Pete.” I smiled trying to reassure him.

“Alright, I’ll see you Monday.”

“Bye Peter.” I said as I opened the door.

“Later Frankie.”

“Don’t call me ‘Frankie.’” I deadpanned.

“Whatever Frankenstein.” I left quickly after that horrible nickname.

The walk from his house to mine wasn’t very far, ten minutes tops. Either way, my mother wasn’t very happy after not knowing where I’d been the last few hours.

“Frank Anthony Iero!” She yelled as she caught me trying to sneak up the stairs. “Where in God’s name have you been?”

“I was at a friend’s house.” I tried to stay calm, but my hands had started shaking.

“Damnit Frank! Don’t lie to me! You were drinking, weren’t you?” I was pissed. I was telling the fucking truth!

“I wasn’t drinking1 I told you, I was at a friend’s house!” I raised my voice.

“You’re such a bad liar! I know you don’t have any friends.” Her voice was like venom.

“His name’s Pete. I can call him up right now.” I pulled out my phone to show her his contact.

“Go ahead.” I dialed Pete’s number.

It rung once.

Twice.

Thrice.

“Frank?” Hayley’s voice answered.

“Hayley? Is Pete there?” My mother’s angry eyes bore into me.

“Um, now’s not exactly a good time, Frank.” I could hear yelling in the background and I realized Pete was in the same predicament I was. My mother grabbed the phone out of my hand and started talking to Hayley.

“Hello, this is Frank’s mom. I just need to know where he was today.” I watched her as her face grew even angrier and the sound of a girl’s voice and not a boy’s like she was expecting. “Thank you.” She closed as she hung up. I stuck my hand out for her to give me my phone back, but of course she put it in her pocket instead. “You were with a girl? Frank, not only did you lie about who you were with, but God knows what you were doing with her! Because of that, I’m keeping your phone until further notice.”

“I wasn’t lying! I wasn’t even hanging out with her! She just happened to live there!”

“You really can’t come up with something more believable?” She ended the argument. I started stomping up the stairs towards my room before she called after me. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“In my room.” I said through gritted teeth.

“No, you’re coming down here and you’re going to eat the meal I provided you for once.” She waited for me to trudge down the stairs and lead me to the kitchen to serve up some pasta. I was just relieved that there wasn’t any meat in sight.

We ate in silence before I was dismissed to go hole up in my room.

*****

My alarm blared and I groaned as I woke up on Monday. I rolled myself out of bed and grabbed the first shirt in my closet. I slipped on my skinny jeans I had left on the floor and went into the bathroom to do my hair.

I walked into science and was met by bright red. Gerard had changed his hair color. He was drawing something in that damn sketchbook of his.

“Nice hair.” I muttered as I sat down next to him.

“Thanks.” He said as a blush creeped up his neck.

I turned away as class started, much more interested in the whiteboard than in his eyes or his hair or the way his hands would glide across the page as he drew.

I stole a glance back at him to find he was also looking at me through his slightly-shorter-than-usual bright red hair.

"Um..." I cleared my throat.

"Hm?" He asked, still annoyed by my existence, but clearly not as much as he once was.

"I was thinking the other day, about attraction, and, uh, faces. I actually started out thinking about faces which led me to think about attraction, and, well, not that that usually follows thinking about that sort of thing. It's not like I'm attracted to any faces in here, especially not... your face..." Once I started, the words wouldn’t stop. I might as well just have shouted out to the entire school that I think Gerard was attractive.

He was amused. He had a little grin on his face, and the difference between a scowl and a grin took me by so much surprise, I found myself grinning as well.

"And, I mean, it's just so weird. Faces and attraction. I mean, you just pick a face and you decide you like it and some people like more faces than other people do, and some people like faces that other people don't like, and some faces are just universally accepted, and some are universally hated. Some people's faces are so nice, everybody agrees on the fact that it's a nice face. Isn't that crazy? Tell me it's crazy." I don’t know what made me continue rambling, but Gerard liked it.

"You're crazy," He said, but the insult seemed only halfway there.

"And then there's people like me, with boring and unattractive faces, and it's like, why. Why am I being put down because of my unattractive face and that other person isn't because they have a better face than me?" Ah yes, admitting you hate your face to your enemy. Good job, Frank.

"I don't think you have an unattractive face," Gerard said.

"Ok, well, I don't think you have an unattractive face either. As a matter of fact, your face is quite attractive."

I sat for a moment, letting this sink in.

"Well then, it seems like we have come to an agreement, for once. We are attractive people.” His face was becoming about as red as his hair, which was quite the accomplishment because his hair was really red.

I nodded. We worked and talked a bit more until the bell rang and we left the table and went our separate ways. He took his attractive face with him, I took mine with me, and we didn't speak again for the rest of the day, as per usual.

*****

Pete and Patrick were sitting at our table as usual.

“Hey.” I greeted them.

“Hey Loverboy.” Patrick responded.

“What?” Loverboy? What was he talking about?

“I told him.” Pete confessed to me.

“Told him what? What’s going on?” Patrick pulled a napkin out of his pocket.

“This is what’s going on.” He said as he as he slid the napkin over to me.

There was something written on the napkin.

“I will never like Gerard Way.”

Notes

I have an excuse, but you don't wanna hear it and I don't wanna write it. Anyways, here's the next chapter to help you get through your week. I'll start working on the next one right away. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Stay Alive, Sunshine
-Bluebell