You Had Me At 'Down With Cis' | frerard

pete and mikey have skype sex regularly

Some content may be triggering: mild body dysphoria

{no pov}

Gee Way was not doing okay.

She struggled to keep composed in the girls' bathroom where the stall walls felt like they were closing in on her.

She knew people would be in and out of the bathroom, so she hung her bag on the hook and pulled her feet up under her perch on the toilet seat.

She knew she had to keep the sobs quiet and the sniffles infrequent.

She knew the optimal times to disappear into the bathrooms and what bathrooms were the least trafficked.

Well, at her old school Gee did. She memorized bathroom logistics to the point where they were the only things that kept her through the school day. It was the only certainty in her long, dark period of uncertainty.

The times when she still struggled to tuck correctly and the times when her makeup looked more like a hooker's rather than a teenage girl.

The times when her hair was too short to tuck behind her ears, and how now she practically could. (Gee pretended like it was whatever, but on the inside she was raving about it.)

She tried to focus on the happy things that had happened to her in the recent past, than the upsetting things.

Like getting discharged from the hospital and Mikey saying that he was "so proud of his big sister" and Frank, darling little Frank for thinking her custom 'Down With Cis' shirt was a band. Gee laughed a little and started to wipe at her eyes.

Her mantra whistled through her head: everything will be okay, everything will be okay, everything will be okay. Over and over again.

The bathroom stall unlocked with a 'click' and Gee headed to a sink to wash her puffy face.

"Are you okay?" Gee's stomach sunk and she dared not to face the voice. Instead she chose to wash off the makeup running down her cheeks.

The person with the voice tapped her on the shoulder. Gee jumped, splashing water all over the counter.

"I'm Hayley and we're gonna be friends."

By the end of the day, Frank wasn't doing too good either. He probably should have spotted Gee's kitten knee socks and white converse in the halls by now. He was worried, more worried than a person who just met someone yesterday should be.

But when Gee turned up during his last class, his worries were put to rest.

Frank decided to tell her what was running through his mind since lunch.

The Big Question.

Frank was going to ask Gee to be friends. He figured that something Really Bad had happened at her old school and he wanted to make sure nothing Really Bad happened to her again. And the fact that Gee was the cutest and most beautiful girl Frank had ever met had nothing to do with it. Probably.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Frank waited like a nice young man on Gee to finish her conversation with Hayley. The only reason Frank knew Hayley was because she was the only person who managed to be shorter than him.

{gee}

When Frank slid in front of me and flipped his shaggy fringe out of his eyes, I was expecting the worst. But what I wasn't expecting was,

"Will you be my friend?"

The corners of my mouth turned up a little.

"Of course Frankie."

He beamed.

"Is it okay if I walk you home from school?"

After a minute of hesitation, I agreed. I texted Mikey and told him not to worry about picking me up.

"Who are you texting?" he asked once we were outside the building.

"My brother, he's usually picks me up from school."

Frank frowned, " I hope this isn't a problem."

I tried to not laugh, "It certainly isn't, he's probably racing home to have skype sex with his boyfriend."

I checked Frank's reaction.

"So your brother's gay?"

"Mikey's bi actually," I corrected, " are you okay with that or ...."

"No I'm fine with it. Actually I don't think I know any gay people."

"Really?"

"Nope." He popped the p and looped his fingers through the straps on his back pack.

"Your friend Dewees is gay."

Frank stopped in his tracks. "What?"

I paled and regretted my outing him.

"I thought you knew."

My brain raced: yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes. just shake off the bad vibes geeway. you got this. everything will be okay...

"We're not that close," Frank muttered.

"Oh."

"How did you know?"

"Gay people can sense other gay people. It's a common fact," I said nonchalant and kicked a rock.

"You're gay too!?" he groaned. I heard a muttered, "All the good ones are gay."

I wasn't sure if his statement was concerning or not.

"I'm pansexual, look it up Frankie."

After a millennia of heavy silence I stopped walking and pointed, "This is my house, thanks for walking me."

Frank blushed, "No problem Gee."

We quickly traded numbers and exchanged goodbyes, but not before a large head of hair bounded out of my house.

"Ger- Gee!" it screamed and hugged me. "I'm so glad you're doing better."

Frank had an expression on his face that I couldn't place. The closest thing I could compare it to was constipation.

"Thank you Ray, it means a lot." I whispered into the massive fro.

Frank eyed Ray's arm that was casually slung around my waist. I didn't care about where his arm was, Ray was one of the only people I still vaguely trusted.

"Frank this is Ray, Ray this is Frank."

"I need to go," Frank huffed.

He turned on his heel and sped off.

Ray shrugged at Frank's erratic behavior and started to pull me inside the house, excitedly telling me all the things I was missing at our old school.

I figured out the expression on Frank's face, it was jealously.