Hell-Bent On Slipping Away

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"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumblebee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Life your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." -Ashley Smith

August faded into September, and it was two in the morning when Frank was startled by what he thought was a banging on his window. He was on the second floor, so no one could have actually reached it. Frank knew it was only in his imagination until he heard a loud shattering sound. He tossed his blanket aside and flew to the window, which now had a large circular crack in the center.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath, rubbing his eyes. He managed to get a look through the glass to see a smiling red haired boy standing a story below.

Frank checked on his mother, who was somehow still sleeping. He didn't question it but was instead thankful he didn't have to come up with some excuse as to why his window was broken when he was still half asleep. He threw on a shirt and jeans and ventured downstairs, only bumping into a table by the stairs due to his extreme tiredness. He opened the door softly, careful not to make a sound, to see Gerard sitting on the porch railing.

Frank was displeased, as much as he loved his friend. "Get off," he directed, motioning at Gerard. "You'll break it, just like my window."

"Sorry about that," said Gerard sheepishly, hopping off and taking Frank by the wrist. "I have something to show you." His tone of voice was urgent, yet strangely pleasant.

Frank didn't have time to argue, so he just followed the other boy into his car. As Gerard came into focus by the dim glow of the overhead light, Frank noticed a purple ring around his left eye. "Do you have a black eye?" Frank asked, suddenly growing worried.

"This?" Gerard asked, a chuckle escaping his throat. "This was an accident. Just a little bump."

"It looks like someone hit you," Frank said. Little bump was the last thing he would have used to describe it. It was swollen and Gerard was likely incapable of opening his eye all the way. He waved the comment off and Frank got the hint to shut up. "So what did you need to show meat two in the morning?" he asked as Gerard put his key in the ignition.

"It's a tell-you-thing and a show-you-thing," Gerard explained. The older boy smiled to himself.

Hopefully you're going to confess your undying love for me now, Frank thought. He immediately regretted thinking such things about his best friend, but somewhere deep down, he really enjoyed musing the idea of Gerard being secretly in love with him.

Gerard took his eyes off the dark road for a fleeting moment to steal a glance at Frank. "I know it's kind of late. I hope it's okay."

"It's fine. It wasn't like I was sleeping anyways." Frank should have been more pissed than he was. Gerard had come tapping on his windowsill in the midnight hours far too often and Frank should have just ignored them. But spending time with Gerard was worth it.

They eventually reached a pier on the White River not too far from Frank's house. It was beautiful during the day, and that was saying something, considering Frank never found anything of much beauty. But as he and Gerard stepped out, it became clear what he wanted to show him.

The way the moonlight glistened off of the soft, rolling waves was nothing short of poetic. A soft breeze tickled Frank's skin, but the goosebumps he got were more pleasant than anything. Wrapping his thin jacket tightly around him, he moved closer to the edge of the edge and looked down. The supports that held the pier up plunged deep below into the shimmering water. The sound of zooming cars was nowhere near, only the slosh of waves below hitting the supports. Gerard came up behind Frank, and softly said, "Isn't it the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?"

"One of them," Frank said, now grinning. "Why'd you bring me here?" It wasn't that he was ungrateful to see the river in the night, but it was nearing three on a Wednesday morning, and the disruptions in Frank's circadian rhythm were already plentiful. He couldn't exactly afford to lose much more sleep before he became a visual representation of insomnia on legs.

Gerard's smile faded slightly. "Do you not like it?"

"Of course I do," Frank protested, "I'm just wondering why you brought me out here."

Gerard's face lit up again, but this time it was mixed with a hazy-eyed expression that he always got when he was thinking. "I wanna sail away someday," he said, looking out into the water. He seemed to have missed the question completely, wrapped up in his own thoughts. If anyone else had done that, Frank would have been pretty miffed, but he knew Gerard well enough that he accepted the jumps in conversation according to what he was feeling. "I wanna get a boat and just leave for somewhere. Anywhere. Everywhere. Maybe around the world, maybe just down to the Gulf. I don't know. But I want you to come with me."

Frank was touched to be a part of his crazy dream. He knew that he could easily spend every day for the rest of his life with his best friend. The two complimented each other perfectly; he was reserved and restricted, Gerard was open-minded and free.

Hell, if anyone was free, it was Gerard. He was never stressed, no matter how much he had on his plate. He was one of those people who read books about positivity and actually believed them. If anyone could give advice on how to relax, it was Gerard. And Frank was envious of that. There hadn't been a time when things didn't work out for him. Frank needed him in his life; and to sound very much cliché, Gerard was a rock, someone who could always be counted on. And while his happy-go-lucky dreaming nature hadn't exactly rubbed off on Frank, it sure made him better able to handle the anxieties that came with being a teenage boy.

While Gerard was captivated in the White River, Frank was down on earth. His eyes had been shifting between the illuminated water and light in Gerard's sparkling hazel eyes, one of which was hugged by a puffy purple bruise.

"Why are you down here so late?" Frank blurted out, disrupting the silence and disturbing Gerard's peace. But his friend didn't seem to mind.

"I needed somewhere to think," said the older boy calmly, who then gestured in front of him. "The river called me, and there I was, thinking. Then I thought, hey - Frank needs to see this too. So then I went to your house and broke your window." He shrugged and pulled out his wallet. "I'll pay for that. How much do you think -"

"You don't have to do that," Frank interjected. "It's not that much of a hassle." He knew that his mother would be fuming and the expenses would likely come out of his piggy bank, but the last thing Frank wanted was to make his friend pay for it. It was more of an act courtesy than a spare-your-feelings kind of thing.

Gerard looked discontent at first, but soon shrugged it off when the waves caught his eye again. Frank began to feel sleepy (a month of running on less than five hours of sleep a night had taken its toll) and propped his head on his hands, his elbows on the railing of the pier. The breeze blew on his skin and his eyelids grew heavy. He had begun to doze off when an arm was placed around his shoulders and he was guided to stand up, walking to the car with Gerard.

Gerard looked fairly tired himself, and when they got to the Iero's, instead of driving home, he just came inside behind Frank. He shrugged of his shirt and jeans, just as Frank did, and took a spot next to him on the soft mattress. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, him deciding to spend the night on the whim, but Frank enjoyed having another warm body next to him in the bed all the same, especially since it was Gerard.

Hello!

So this chapter is dedicated to @no-brainer - thank you so much for voting!

I don't have much to say right now because I'm terribly exhausted and I decided to update before I forgot to.

That is all.

-cady