I Drew You Once in Art Class

Seventy-Six

"Hey! Sorry I'm early, I was just sitting around with nothing to do and figured I'd just come get you."

"Yeah, it's no worries," Frank said, clipping his seatbelt. "So, tell me about where we're going."

He then turned to face Gerard and his stomach was suddenly filled with a swarm of butterflies.

"You did eyeliner too," he said, his voice coming out a little higher than he'd meant.

Gerard definitely had more skill with it, his looked a lot neater, but it was the same black smudged-under-the-eye move that Frank had done.

Gerard shrugged. "Eh, it felt necessary. It's a good look on both of us, I think."

'Good' felt like an understatement to Frank, because personally, he wanted to grab Gerard by the shirt, push him up against the car window and kiss him until he couldn't breathe, but he kept that to himself.

"Anyway, it's this little venue like four blocks off Main. Local bands play there a lot. I've been there a million times. It's fun."

Frank's stomach sunk slightly lower. Gerard had been there a million times?

Why had he agreed to this? He was totally the outsider here.

He tapped his foot nervously.

"Technically, it is a bar, but we'll be fine because Bert knows the guys who work there," said Gerard casually, making a turn.

Frank's stomach twisted ever so slightly tighter.

Pull it together.

There wasn't music playing, something rare for being in Gerard's car.

Only the completely. Awkward. Silence.

Horrible. 

"So... tell me about Bert."

Gerard pushed out a stream of air through puffed-up cheeks, one hand on the wheel and one running through his hair (which Frank thought looked totally gorgeous, by the way; he'd actually brushed it, for once).

"He's 19, his hair is, like, freaking disgusting, um..."

He ran his hand through his hair again, making Frank's stomach flip. He didn't know what it was but today, Gerard just looked really goddamn good and it made Frank feel like he was getting electrocuted.

"He might say something rude, but shrug it off. It's just what he does."

With that, he pulled into a dusty parking lot near a small-ish building, with some guys standing out front. Frank's eyes widened a little bit. Were they really going in there?

"Hey, man." Gerard waved to one of the guys, who smiled a gap-toothed smile and held the door open.

The fuck?! Did he know those guys?

How much did Frank not know about Gerard?!

Frank was starting to get really worried now. Gerard had a whole... other life that Frank wasn't a part of. He felt small and out of place and in disbelief, he was in a bar, a bar, when he should have been just eating pizza and playing cards with Gerard like normal.

He was totally not mature enough for this and he knew it, much to his dismay.

Gerard was another thing too.

He was... different, here. His atmosphere had changed and so had he; he walked lighter, and he knew people, occasionally waving to them as they walked by.

Frank felt like he was on another planet.

"Okay, I'ma go find Bert, okay? You stay here."

"No wait, don't-"

But Gerard had disappeared into the crowd.

Frank felt his breathing quicken and the temperature rise. He felt small and alienated from the group of people who so clearly belonged here.

He belonged curled up with Millie on his bed, watching some dumb movie, not at a bar where he'd probably get kidnapped or something. He was just a kid; he didn't wanna be here. He inhaled a shaky breath.

Calm down.

Gerard wouldn't bring him here if it was dangerous, right?

He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath, and when he opened them, Gerard was pushing through the people, holding the arm of a guy that looked like he'd straight-up crawled out of the sewers. He was not what Frank had been expecting in the slightest.

"Oh my God, you do exist!" The guy laughed. His voice was higher-set and a little raspy.

What?

"Shut it, Bert." Gerard turned to Frank. "You good?" he asked. Frank nodded.

Bert stuck out a hand, and Frank shook it, wondering how many gross things Bert had probably touched before this.

"Hey, man. I'm Bert. I've heard... not a lot about you."

Ouch.

"I've heard lots about you. How's your drug abstinence going?"

"Frank!" Gerard hissed.

Bert, unphased, raised his eyebrow a little. "Ooo, big words for a little guy. It's just fine, kiddo."

Oohoo, that burned him up.

"Shut up, dude, he's only 6 months younger than me."

"Don't call me kiddo," Frank said, not firm enough to be threatening, but not gentle enough to be friendly.

"Well, you're about as tall as one, so-"

Gerard widened his eyes. "O-kay, that's enough of that. Frank, let's go get a drink."

Frank waited until they were out of Bert's earshot before he looked at Gerard, his eyes wide.

"I don't drink," he hissed, trying to keep his cool.

Gerard's eyes paused on him for a moment before snapping back into it and responding. "Yeah- yeah, that's okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

What I want to do is go. The fuck. Home.

"Is it okay if I do?"

This was incredibly fucking weird. He thought he knew Gerard, but the kid standing next to him was an entirely different person.

"Yeah, go for it," Frank said, trying to hide the discomfort in his voice.

Frank didn't really wanna watch Gerard do that so he turned to face the little stage in the front of the bar instead. He wasn't too crazy about intoxicated people.
He didn't know why he was so uncomfortable here, exactly. He wished he did, so he could have a valid excuse for leaving.

"Hey, also, be nice to him, okay? That kinda sucked, what you said."

"I'm biased! The very little information you've given me about you two didn't make him out to be the nicest guy."

"Frank, you wouldn't get it, okay? You wouldn't understand half the stuff that happened."

Suddenly, a guy hopped onstage, followed by a few more people. The guy had short blond hair and snakebites.

"Hi, we're, um, The Used."

Great intro.

Frank rolled his eyes.

The guy pulled his guitar in and started playing some song that Frank was sure was gonna suck.

He was kind of pissed when it didn't.