The Florence Theory ☆ FRERARD

Chapter 3

"Have you seen Gerard?" Frank asked the woman he'd seen Gerard speaking to previously; the one wearing the nice black dress.

"Gerard? Hmm," she began, thinking back, "I'm not sure, I think I last saw him sitting on that couch over there." She pointed to the same couch that Frank and he sat on before going out onto the rooftop. "Oh! Hang on, I did see him come through here a few seconds ago. He looked a little stressed."

"Do you know where he went?" Frank asked, feeling an indescribable sense of guilt eat his heart.

"I think he headed to one of the VIP rooms. Those ones over there." She pointed to the end of the room where there were three closed doors, each of them numbered one to three.

"Which one?" Frank queried.

"I don't know. You'll have to test each one." She shrugged. "Good luck. It's next to impossible to deal with Gerard when he's like this."

"Oh, God..." Frank sighed. "Thanks for the tip."

Frank followed the woman's directions and found the three VIP rooms, but now he needed to decide which one to enter. He chose to go from one to three. Approaching the first door, he tapped his knuckles against the wooden surface and heard a man shout, "Room's taken!" The man had a deep voice, which was nothing like Gerard's, so he determined to move on to the next room, although this door was opened a gap, allowing Frank to take a peek inside. He saw Gerard sitting on the couch facing away from the door with his head in his hands.

He took a deep breath and stepped into the room without a sound.

"Frank, I'm sorry," Gerard began, not moving at all, not even turning to check that it was Frank in the room with him.

"You look stressed," Frank observed, taking a seat next to Gerard and resting a hand on his knee. "If this is about the blood, then I forgive you. Everyone makes mistakes."

"It's more than that, Frankie," Gerard sighed, interlocking his gloved fingers together. He took a staggered breath and blinked a few times, not looking at Frank once.

"Do you mind explaining it to me? I'm...very confused." Frank gazed at the right side of Gerard's face, which was all he could see of him because of the way he had his head positioned.

Gerard whispered, "I don't want to scare you away."

"You won't. What's the worst you could say?" Frank smiled reassuringly, trying to conceal the fact that he was frightened about what Gerard could say if his reaction to this situation was so extreme.

"But if I say anything, I'll need to explain everything." Gerard pressed his hand to the side of his face, turning his head further out of Frank's line of sight.

"Why won't you look at me?" Frank asked quietly, feeling his heart twist itself into knots painfully.

Gerard pulled out his glasses case from his pocket and then placed his glasses on his nose. He turned to look at Frank, giving him what he wanted.

"That's better," Frank declared with a gentle smile. "I'm fine. You didn't hurt me. I can't even see a mark." He turned his head and ran his fingers over his neck. "See? Nothing at all."

"It's more than that," Gerard corrected, not opening his mouth enough to make his words sound clear.

"What are you hiding?" Frank asked straight out, getting fed up with Gerard's new cryptic way of communicating. "Come on, stop being so vague. Please tell me something about yourself. I've told you heaps about me."

Gerard looked at Frank with his eyes creased at the corner in guilt, and then he broke eye contact with Frank.

"Can we start with the gloves? Why do you wear gloves all the time?" Frank knew that this was the first question he was going to ask as it had been the one lingering on his mind the longest.