I Drew You Once in Art Class

Twenty-Seven

Gerard took his phone back from Frank's hand and tested out the newly entered number.

Gerard- Hi.

Frank- hi

They looked up and smiled at each other.

Eventually, they'd decided that after school they would go to Toro's, the pizza place.

They sat in Gerard's red car, some song that Frank didn't know drifting through the dusty speakers. He wasn't really listening. He was leaning with his chin on his hands, folded flat against the open window, his hair blowing in his face a little bit from the wind, happy to be anywhere but his own house.

"You know, you shouldn't stick your head out the window like that. Haven't you ever seen Hereditary?"

Frank quickly pulled himself back in.

They pulled into the parking lot. Shutting the doors, they walked under the striped red and white awning, still damp with last night's rain. A man with auburn curly hair stepped out from the kitchen, drying his hands with a white washcloth, and leaned on the counter, smiling. "Hiya. I'm Ray. What can I get you two?"

They split a cheese pizza.

They were the only two in the little restaurant. Gerard got one of their bottled rootbeers from the fridge, and Frank got Grape Crush from the soda machine. Gerard sipped his rootbeer.

"How can you drink that shit?" he asked Frank disapprovingly. Frank looked up from his straw, and the purple liquid trapped inside the little tube dropped back into the cup.

"It's delicious," he said defensively, making exaggerated eye contact while taking another sip and enjoying it, damnit!

"It tastes like cough syrup," Gerard said, laughing. "Anything grape-flavored is automatically disgusting."

Frank took another dramatic sip, the purple soda zooming up through the straw. Gerard mocked him with wide eyes and pursed lips above his root beer as he exaggeratedly pretended to drink the soda as Frank was, which made Frank burst out laughing, his lips spitting the out soda onto the table. Gerard made a pffft noise before he started laughing too, a wild, cackling giggle that made Frank crack up even more. There were wrinkles under his eyes when he finally caught a breath, looking at Gerard and letting out that final little chuckle that you do after a laughing fit. Gerard, wiping tears from his own eyes, reached over and grabbed some napkins from the plastic holder, letting them soak up all the soda as he dragged them across the table. He held the soggy napkins up in the air, pinched between his thumb and forefinger. He paused, looking at Frank.

"Not so appetizing now, is it?" he asked, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter. They both burst out laughing again, their faces sore from smiling.