Escalators {Frerard}[COMPLETED]

➳ esprit d'escalier

❝Esprit d'escalier- The witty comeback you think of after the time is past to use it.❞

Going home had been the best part of every day since I was at school, and now I wasn't at school it was even more so. Spending the day in the mall had looked at least marginally attractive when I'd first signed up, seeing as I'd thought I'd be able to find a secluded area and listen to my iPod. Now, after realising that that was not the case- I didn't really want to be here at all.

Rob had moaned at me again, as well as the warning he'd issued about those kids. Really, I wasn't too bothered about them. Besides my bruised pride and aching back, they were really not all that scary, and hopefully I'd make it so they wouldn't be too much of a hassle. How I was going to do that, though, I didn't really know. For now, it seemed that keeping up an unshakable aura was the only way that I was going to be able to deal with this 'trouble'.

Well, that was as long that Rob had been rather exaggerating the look of terror on his face when he saw Gerard.

Against my better judgment, my thoughts began to ramble away as I walked home. Seeing as it was summer, it was quite warm and most front gardens were filled with children and toys. However, I found myself thinking of the kids from earlier, and Gerard in particular.

Gang ringleaders often unnerved me, but he didn't. He didn't look friendly, far from it really, but he didn't unnerve me, as such. Actually, Gerard sort of looked like the kind of guys I'd hang out with voluntarily. The kind that doesn't wash their hair and drinks too much coffee and uses too much eyeliner and yet manages to look good with it.

I didn't. Eyeliner and Frank was not a good mix. I ended up either looking like a panda, blind, or both. Eventually, I'd just given up.

However, it wasn't really the similarities between us that I found myself mulling over the most as I made my way down the evening-sun warmed street. It was the label that Rob had given him, and the way they'd looked at each other. Was he really that bad?

Did I really want to know?

The front door was unlocked when I got home, and I let myself in to the smell of pizza. I'd sort of lost track of the time whilst I was at work, but now presented with the smell of it, I realised that I was starving. Eating, apparently, was too much of a risk because 'what was I supposed to do if trouble broke out and you were busy?' Rob's words, not mine.

My mother was in the kitchen when I came in, but there was no sign of Ryan. Kicking my shoes off and into the corner by the door, I looked up to where she was standing, and smiled when her eyes met mine.

"Hiya, love," she sounded absent-minded, but at least she seemed bothered.

"Hiya. Where's Ryan?"

"He's with his friends. Actually, Frankie, will you go and see if you can find him?"

I sighed. It was no secret that Ryan did not like me coming anywhere near him and his friends. Although I was older, and his best friend Charlie thought I was cool, Ryan had classed me as a 'complete embarrassment'. And besides, I didn't really want to be walking the streets when there was a perfectly good pizza on the table and I was starving.

"Do I have to? Ryan will kill me if I embarrass him."

She looked up at me, and grinned knowingly. "So don't."

"Yeah, Ryan thinks my existence constitutes major embarrassment. Nerdiness is catching, apparently."

She sighed, rolling her eyes in a rather impressive manner. "Frank, just go and find your brother."