Two days later



"One Caress." Frank said, his hand draped over the steering wheel as the Pennsylvania scenery passed by our eyes through the glass windows of the car.

I looked at him, "What?"

"This song, silly." He chuckled softly, "It's called One Caress. Depeche Mode."

"Oh." I mumbled. I was bored, to be quite honest. We'd been driving for two days straight, only stopping for food, lowkey makeout sessions, bathroom breaks and to let Sweet Pea run around at a few truck stops along the way. Frank never slept, he just drove and let me do all the sleeping. He was running on coffee, Twizzlers and a few bags of Cheetos. Yet, he never complained and let me do all the relaxing which kind of pissed me off. I couldn't have driven anyway, I didn't have my license. We didn't really know where the hell we were going, all we knew is that we needed to get as far away from Jersey as possible.

Frank did keep his promise and took me to an art store where he completely spoiled me. I ended up getting four packs of regular pencils, two packs of colored pencils, three sketchbooks, brushes, acrylic paint that he insisted I get, and two medium canvas' that were also his idea. Of course I felt guilty for causing him to spend so much money on me but I couldn't argue since he was more than happy to walk up to the cashier and pay for it.

Surprisingly, nobody in my family had tried to contact me. At some point within the first day of driving I concluded in my head that Ray had probably told Mikey what was going on, then Mikey told Mom and Dad, then Mom and Dad told the rest of the family. Thus, leaving me a disowned, edgy, teenager who was running away with his boyfriend of a seventeen year age difference. I was okay with it, though. I missed my mom. I really did. It wasn't worth it, she would've probably beat me with a dishrag if I ever dared to return home. I didn't miss Mikey that much, there was nothing to miss besides when he would make me coffee in the morning. I didn't need that anymore, I had a boyfriend to wake up next to that would make me coffee whenever I wanted.

Frank's phone had rang a few times. He easily tried to brush it off and tell me there was nothing to worry about. I'd seen the caller ID on his phone on the first night we'd left, the school was trying to get ahold of him over and over again. That did shake both of us up a little, causing us to hold each other's shaking hands so tightly that it stopped blood circulation almost. It was obvious they had a fucking search party out for him.

I leaned my head against the passenger door and listened to Frank's whiny voice sing along with the radio. I liked the song, I understood why he would've put it on his playlist and know it just from the opening instrumental. I felt as if Frank was directly singing to me. My heart swelled for him.

"So, I was thinking maybe a motel tonight?" Frank leered.

"We'll have to find a pet friendly one." I sighed, gesturing my head to Sweet Pea who was curled up in my lap again, snoring like an actual human.

Frank scrunched the end of his sculpted nose and shifted his hands on the steering wheel, "Not necessarily, she's small. We can sneak her in."

"She's rat-sized." I muttered and Sweet Pea's head shot up.

"She heard you talking shit." Frank said a little too seriously.

I shook my head, stifling a little laugh, "You're dumb."

"You're adorable."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"Can't. You're driving." I sang obnoxiously. Frank simpered and patted my knee gently, letting his hand linger there as I tilted my head back against the seat and let my eyes slip closed.

---

I woke up around two hours later. The car was parked with the air conditioner still on, Frank wasn't in the car but one of his flannels he had packed was wrapped around my shoulders. I smiled to myself, knowing he had put it on me to keep me from getting cold. I took in his scent that was stuck to the flannel, then looked out through the windshield to see where we were. Sweet Pea was still in the car with me, occupying Frank's drivers seat and scratching her ears with her back paw. I stared at her in mild disgust as she kept scratching, eventually falling over from the inbalance of having only three paws on the leather seat. That's when I came to the conclusion that she was a very special dog indeed. Maybe a little too special, and not in the good way either.

The car had been parked in front of a very secluded motel. It didn't look rundown, but it didn't look very well taken care of either. I turned back to Sweet Pea who was now distracting my train of thought with her annoying yapping that was barely even a yap. She was just so fucking old that she could barely bark anymore.

"Do you need to pee again?" I sighed and started grabbing her leash from the glove compartment. She ruffed in response. I clipped her leash to her tiny pink collar and gently picked her up, getting us both out of the car. I dropped her down onto the cement of the parking lot we were in and tugged her toward the front lawn of the motel. It was most likely disrespectful to let an animal piss on a motel lawn, but I didn't really care. My goal in that moment was to get that dog to shut up so I could have at least two minutes of silence to myself. I turned away from Sweet Pea, letting her do her business in the already half-dead grass. that cascaded across the motels front. We were in Lancaster, I discovered from looking at the motel sign that simply read 'Lancaster Motel.'

"There's my two babies." A familiar voice called out behind me. I turned myself in it's direction to find Frank walking to the dog and I while tossing a pair of keys up and down in his colorful hands.

"She had to pee again." I huffed, feeling Frank come up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.

"She has a sensitive bladder." Frank stated. He leaned his chin on my shoulder, "I got us a room, by the way."

"Thank God, I miss sleeping in a bed." I exhaled dramatically and pulled on the leash to bring Sweet Pea back over, "Take your damn dog."

Frank let go of me, making a face and then snatched Sweet Pea's leash from me. "I'm gonna have to hide her in my sweatshirt when we walk through the lobby."

I stared at Frank. "You're not putting the dog in your sweatshirt."

He raised his eyebrows at me with a smirk, "Say I won't."

"You won't." I retorted.

"Guess I gotta do it now." He picked Sweet Pea up off the ground and cradled her in his arms. We trudged back to the car to open the trunk and grab our stuff that we'd need for the night. I grabbed a bag of clothes Frank had gotten for me, then shoved a pack of pencils and a sketchbook between two of the sweaters so they wouldn't fall out. I turned back to Frank. He was locking the doors of the car with his backpack on his back and a very obvious, disfigured bump in his sweatshirt that was squirming.

"You did not." I uttered.

"Oh, but I did." He declaimed.

Walking through the lobby was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. When I say every single person in the building was staring at us, it's not an exaggeration. Frank didn't seem bothered at all, one of his hands interlocked with mine while opposite arm was trying to support the lump on his stomach that continued to wriggle around like some sort of demon. Thankfully, nobody stopped us and kept to themselves. Our hands stayed linked throughout our journey to the fourth floor, where we encountered a group of young kids in the hallway who just stared at Frank with horrified expressions on their faces. I rolled my eyes when Frank giggled at all the looks he was getting. He truly was a child in a grown man's body.

The motel room was a good size. There was a full bathroom with a decent sized walk-in shower that was excluded from the rest of the room completely. It was a perfect place to put an annoying dog. The only thing that shocked me about the motel room (besides the bright blue carpeting) was the single kind bed splayed in the middle. Frank recognized my expression as my my eyes locked on the bed."It was all they had left, I can sleep on the floor if you want." He said softly as Sweet Pea weaved herself out of his jacket and dropped herself onto the the carpet with a thud, then began running around our ankles.

"That's ridiculous." I remarked and placed my bag down, "You're not sleeping on the floor, that's so dumb, Frank."

He slid his backpack off. He grabbed both my hands in his own, looking me deep in the eye. "I want you to be comfortable, okay? I really don't mind sleeping on the floor. Don't feel obligated to let me sleep with you. Ya know? It's all up to you."

I wanted to sleep with him. He had no idea. I wanted to sleep with him in a different way than the way he was proposing, as wrong as it was. Straight up, I wanted to have sex with him. I really did. I knew in my mind that it was completely wrong, we'd barely been together for a week but I was a hormonal teenager, and I had feelings for this person. Very strong feelings that I didn't know how to express correctly. We were in a different state now, and the age of consent was most likely different. We could've been illegal in Pennsylvania for all we knew. Even if we wanted to do anything remotely sexual, it could have been considered pedophilia from where we were. Frank wasn't a pedophile, though. He was so far from one that I would have trusted him with my entire life if that type of situation came up.

"Frank, I'm more than comfortable." I told him.

He gave me a crooked smile and pulled me closer, connecting our lips softly for a few seconds, "As long as you're okay with it." He whispered. I nodded and and flopped myself down on the bed. Frank followed pursuit and laid himself down next to me.

"You're okay, right?" He asked faintly. We both stared up at the ceiling.

"With what?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"We never thought this through, Gee." He sighed, "You have to go to school, get into college. You have this whole life ahead of you, ya know? You have so much in store for you and right now, honey, you're wasting it on me. I really shouldn't have taken you out of Jersey, I should've faced my own consequences. It's just...I don't deserve you. I can't be away from you and I don't know why. You drive me fucking crazy, in a good way. And...and we're moving so damn fast with each other and it makes me worry about you. I feel like you feel obligated to be with me-"

"Don't say that." I spat, turning on my side to look at him as he continued to stare straight up.

"Gerard, baby, you don't get it." He rubbed his eyes that were slowly glazing over with wetness, "I've been through this before. Through this 'let's fall in love and runaway without thinking about the real world' kind of shit-"

"It's not shit." I hissed.

"I didn't mean it like that, alright? I'm just scared. I'm a fucking pussy, Gerard. I get afraid of my own feelings sometimes...I'm fucking terrified of the feelings that I have for you. And it's not some Romeo and Juliet type bullshit either. I've been in love before, plenty of times, for years even. But nobody has ever made me feel so much all at once like you do. And that's awful for me, because you're young. I'm old. You have so many opportunities, so many other people that you could be with..." He didn't finish speaking before his voice broke off and his eyes welled with tears that threatened to fall at any second.

"Please don't cry." I choked. I moved closer to him, placing my head in the crook of his neck whilst laying my arm across his middle.

"I fucking care about you."

"I know."

"And I only want what's the absolute best for you, you know that?"

"Yes." I listened to his choppy breathing from how he began to cry as silently as he could manage. It hurt my heart. I was unknowingly hurting him just from being with him. I traced my finger over the letters on his sweatshirt, "You're not a pussy. Or old. I'm scared too, but it's okay. We have each other, don't we?"

"You have all of me." He sobbed lowly, "And it's so wrong. So fucking wrong because we can't even be together." I closed my eyes and pulled his head into my chest only to feel his tears fall onto my shirt.

"I know. I know, I know." I sighed. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't force tears out of my eyes. Feeling Frank's body shake against mine while my shirt became soaked, that should've been enough to tearjerk me. It didn't. I was shocked, to say the least. His mood went from 'happy-go-lucky, let's put a dog into my sweatshirt' to him being utterly self doubtful. I was fucking with his emotions just as much as he fucking with mine. He brought up falling in love a few times, which scared me half to death. I knew from about the second day of us being together that he was already falling for me, it was undeniable. I wasn't sure if I was falling as fast as he was.

I felt his body shift against mine as he moved his face to rest his cheek right above my heart, "You're everything that's good in the world. I'm just, I'm sorry you had to see me so emotionally fucked up like this."

"Don't apologize. I understand." I whispered. He kissed the curve between my neck and shoulder before relaxing and melting into my touch. I held him for awhile until I felt his breathing slow and his body still telling me that he was asleep. Sweet Pea had eventually climbed next to us and snuggled herself up next to Frank's side. I starting pondering what he said earlier. He was right in some aspects of it, I did have a lot of life ahead of me. Frank was undoubtedly going to be my first love, but it would've been a miracle for him to be my last too. I cared about him immensely, so much that it hurt and to see him like this, really made me feel like shit.
I knew we didn't have a lot of time left with each other. We were going to go back to New Jersey whether we wanted to or not. We had to. All we were doing was avoiding our problems until they decided to come and bite us in the ass.

We were going to have to make the most of whatever allotted time we had left together.

Notes

ok i have no idea why the paragraphs separated but im too lazy to fix it tbh
i didnt edit this cus im exhausted so bare with me
anyway look at how sad this was ill make it up to you by making them fuck next chapter lol
pls read my other story even tho it only has a prologue
take care of urself and give me comments even tho i suck xxx