November 1st (Frerard)

10: Wednesday, October 10th

She didn't return until early Wednesday morning, either, but what was perhaps the worst part was how Gerard grew so easily into acceptance of his mother's absence and how he adjusted to it, because it was wrong, and he wanted things back to how they were, but there was also the part of him that relished in his ability to just go out for a walk on the beach at one in the morning with no regard for consequence.

Kat didn't even question him when he made his way past their room and towards the door; Kat knew where he was going, Kat knew he'd come back in a few hours - Gerard was predictable, his whole life seemed to be little more than a series of intricate patterns, and Kat knew them well, Kat knew him well.

Kat was sat in their room, with the door open for once in their life, because they could, and they were appreciating the breeze coming from the big window in the kitchen, also with all the light coming in from the hallway it was just giving them generally better selfie lighting which was always a priority. Gerard wasn't really sure what they were doing; he didn't want to ask, but their room smelled of beer and they kept laughing at regular intervals - they were happy, at least.

Gerard was just a little more focused on himself in that moment, however, grabbing his camera as he made it out the front door, locking it behind him, and just standing in the porch light for a moment, inhaling the air, and stretching his arm out into the night air and smiling as he felt rain upon his skin; the air was oddly humid, and it wasn't too cold, which baffled Gerard entirely, but he embraced the weather, and even went as far as to roll up the sleeves of his plaid shirt and let the water make contact with his skin.

it was comforting, but not significantly so; rain water wasn't the same as salt water and the ocean, and the feeling of tide, and the great vastness and expanse of it all, but still, Gerard could appreciate the rain upon his skin, even if it did annoy him as to just how quickly his hair grew wet and stringy, however, this was probably doing some good for it, as he reckoned he hadn't washed his hair in entirely too long now.

He ended up pulling his fringe away from his face with his fingers, tucking it behind his ears, and not giving much of a fuck as to quite how ridiculous he would inevitably look, because it was one in the morning, it was dark and there was no one around, and that was indeed just how Gerard liked it.

He soon reached the beach, making his way down to the tide and stopping himself at the thought of taking his shoes off and walking into the ocean, perhaps a little deeper this time; his head echoing with Frank's words about following him and how much truth it could possibly hold.

He stepped back for a moment, perplexed, because although Frank wasn't around, he cared about him, and he felt that in some weird way, they'd made some sort of promise to one another there, and Gerard felt obliged to keep such a promise.

He sat down on the sand just a few steps away from the tide instead, deciding to push all thoughts of Frank and the bottom of the ocean out of his mind, as he forced himself to focus on his camera and how clear the sky and the moon was that night, creating light and reflections upon the water and causing the waves to glisten as they rolled over the horizon - it was beautiful, but Gerard knew that the day when he wouldn't find beauty in the ocean would come some time in November, some time in November when he found himself at the bottom of a lake or perhaps in a coffin, with eyes closed tightly forever, never to see the beauty of the waves again.

The thought unnerved him for a moment, having never of thought of it that way, but he knew what was going to do come November 1st - there wasn't much questioning anymore. He snapped another photo of the ocean when the space beside him was suddenly filled, causing Gerard to jump a little.

"Hey," a familiar voice began, reaching out, but not quite touching Gerard, "it's me, Frank." Gerard made out a familiar smile in the darkness and eased up a little, shuffling back closer to Frank and taking another shot of the ocean before putting his camera down. "Didn't know you were a photographer." Frank added.