(Love)letters <<<ON HOLD>>>

“you want a lock? Gerard, you’re only 17 i’m sure you can live without a lock until you move out.” Gerard shook his head and wrote on the whiteboard: ‘I just want people to start knocking before they come on, that’s it. It’s not to lock people out or anything.’ He let his parents read it.

This is what had been going on all saturday morning. Gerard begging for the lock, Mikey helping him, and Pete and Ray eating their breakfast in silence. “Okay son, if you give me all the reasons why you NEED a lock on your door, your mom and i will talk about it.” Gerard reached in his pocket and pulled out a long list, the boys had put this together the night before and he had hoped that he didn’t need it, but this was important for him. He gave the list to his parents and went to do the dishes along with Mikey. The other boys joined them and they chatted for a bit. You could hear Mikey’s voice shaking, he was way too nervous for all of this. Even though most of it was his idea.

When they all got back down to the basement they decided that they should probably clean it up if someone was gonna stay and live here. Gerard folded all the clothes that he had lazily thrown in his closet. Mikey did the bathroom and Ray and Pete picked everything off the floor.

While they were doing this there was a knock on the basement door. An actual knock, someone decided to knock and not just chime in. “Come in” Mikey called from the bathroom after a good five seconds. He was probably just as surprised as Gerard was. Their dad came in and sat the boys down. “First of all” he started “Are you guys actually cleaning up Gerard’s room?” everyone just looked confused while nodding. “odd” Their dad said, as if deep in thought. “Okay boys, we decided that you can have a lock on the door but there will be a catch. You’re going to make at least 3 keys.” Gerard wrote ‘why?’ on the whiteboard. “because that way you’ll have one, Mikey will get one, and me and your mom will get one. We won’t use it unless it’s an emergency though.” Gerard was okay with that and gave his dad a thank-you-hug.

When the boys finished cleaning up they left to go get the lock and keys. There was this special store downtown that could make them within an hour so that’s where they went. Mikey did the talking part, as usual and told the guy what kind of lock they needed and then told him that they needed 3 keys. But before he finished his sentence Gerard held up 4 fingers. “Make that 4 keys” Mikey told the man, not fully getting why Gerard needed an extra one because Frank wasn’t gonna get out of there anyways. The guy told them to come back in an hour and thirty minutes so they were gonna do some major grocery shopping for shampoo, snacks and drinks that they would hide in the basement.

The shopping trip took about an hour so they were back early. Luckily the guy was done with everything already so Gerard just paid and they went back home. They got all their groceries to the basement without there parents noticing for some magical reason and Gerard hid the fourth key in his dresser before he went up to his dad to show him the lock and the three remaining keys he got. “Okay that looks like a good quality lock, Gerard.” Gerard smiled proudly. “I really gotta finish answering these emails and don’t forget that your mom and i are going to a play tonight and that we’ll be home late. I’ll fix your door tomorrow if that’s okay.” Gerard happily nodded at him and left the lock and keys with his dad so he could take a better look at it later.

Gerard’s and Mikey’s parents left before dinner so the boys just had some chips and dip that was meant as a snack for later, for dinner. No one was really hungry though. At about 7, twenty minutes after their parents left. The doorbell rang. “Ugh dad probably forgot something again” Mikey said.

As always, the brothers did a quick game of rock, paper, scissors. The loser would have to walk upstairs and open the door. Gerard chose rock but Mikey chose paper. Gerard rolled his eyes before running upstairs and opening the door.

But it wasn’t his dad at the other side of the door. It was a boy, and Gerard knew exactly who he was. This was Frank. He was soaking wet from standing in the rain and had just a backpack with him. But this was definitely him, it couldn’t have been anyone else really. And at this moment Gerard was thankful for the fact that he was a mute because this guy is pretty and he would’ve definitely let that slip. He wasn’t movie-star-pretty, more like boy-next-door-with-a-punk-vibe pretty.

“Gerard?” He asked. Gerard slowly nodded his head. Not breaking eye contact. “So, are you gonna let me in or…?” Gerard noticed that he had been standing in the door opening for way too long. He stepped aside and let Frank in. Frank took his shoes off but his socks were soaking wet as well so it didn’t really matter.

“Gerard, are you okay up there?” Mikey shouted at him from downstairs. That was a really stupid thing to ask, it wasn’t as if he was going to answer. Mikey probably realized that because a moment after that they could hear footsteps running upstairs. Mikey froze when he saw the guys. “You are not who i think you are, are you?” he asked Frank. “I’m Frank” Frank responded. He was shivering because even though it was summer, it was pretty damn cold. “Hey Frank, i’m Mikey, the basement is this way.” He motioned for Frank to follow him and Frank immediately told him. “Gerard hasn’t said a word to me since i got here, should i be worried?” Mikey stopped before going downstairs. He looked at Gerard who nodded at him. “Not really, Gerard is a mute. That means he doesn’t talk, not because he doesn’t want to but because there’s just no sound coming out. Just treat him like you would treat anyone else though, he just talks in his own way.” Even though Frank didn’t really know what that meant he just said “okay” and gave Gerard a smile.When they got downstairs, the other boys had already predicted that it was Frank.


Gerard went straight to his closet and pulled out a hoodie, some pajama pants and some socks. He got his whiteboard and wrote, ‘take a shower and change, after that we can talk’ He pushed the clothes in Frank’s hands and showed him the whiteboard. “Okay, thanks, i guess” Gerard gave him a smile and pointed to the bathroom.

“That was awkward” Pete mentioned. Gerard agreed. “Gerard thinks he’s pretty though.” Ray said. Gerard gave him a confused look. “Because you look at him like he’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen and not to mention that your first instinct when he came down here was to make him take a shower.” Gerard rolled his eyes, even though Ray was right. ‘i just feel responsible now, i guess’ Gerard wrote down. “Sure, Gerard” Ray told him.“Maybe we should do some clothes shopping for Frank tomorrow” Mikey offered. “He probably doesn’t have much if anything and we gotta get him out of here when dad puts the lock in the door.” The boys agreed and Gerard decided that he would pay. It was the same thing to him as giving his money to charity.


When Frank came walking out of the bathroom, the first thing they noticed was that Gerard’s clothes were way too big on him. He joined the circle the boys were sitting in and Mikey went upstairs to make some hot chocolate for everyone and Gerard got some blankets and gave everyone one. They sat on the floor in a circle and waited and Frank started telling what had happened.


“So i figured that you all probably read the letters?” everyone nodded “Okay i’ll just fill you guys in. So i actually took a whole suitcase with me when i left. And when i was at the motel i went and got some dinner and then when i got back i opened the door and my dad was standing there so i ran. I’m way faster than him so i ran a few blocks until i was sure that he wasn’t following me anymore. I asked for the closest post office so i could let Gerard know that i wasn’t at the motel anymore i wrote and posted the letter as fast as possible because it was getting dark and i needed a place to stay at. Didn’t take me long to find a place though, i just went to the train station, places like that are open 24/7 so that seemed like the safest place.”


He took a long sip from his hot chocolate before he continued: “Then the next day… Today? Whoa today has been a long day… anyways, so this morning i went out to get breakfast and then i went to the post office around maybe 4 in the afternoon and i got your letter. I just kind of walked around the streets to kill some time and i found this small park. So small it didn’t even have a playground. I decided to take a nap on a park bench since there was literally no one there for some reason. It had probably been an hour until i was shoved off the bench by my dad. He started kicking me and punching me for running away. I told him that he could never be a real father to me because of all of this and so i ran again until i couldn’t see him anymore. That’s when i just knocked on someone’s door and asked them if they could call a taxi for me since i don’t have a phone. I just went to this address because i didn’t want to be chased anymore. I wanted to wait until it was dark and then knock on the basement door but when i saw your parents leaving i just went up to the front door and that’s all i guess.”


“That’s a lot, Frank.” Mikey told him. “You must be hungry and tired.” Frank answered right away. “Tired, not so much but if you’re offering me food i won’t pass that up”

Notes

Sorry this took so long to write, got injured today during gym class and can't move my right (and dominant) hand so that sucks.

Oh well, i'll start chapter 7 as soon as possible, maybe tomorrow after my doctor's appointment since my hand might be broken.

So what do you guys think of Frank coming in early?

-Nyxx