They Don't Believe In Us (frerard)

37- How Life is Going Without You

Gerard's POV

A near month had passed before I was even aware of it. And now it's April 9th. My eighteenth birthday. Luckily it's on a Saturday. No worries about getting stressed with school or any of that shit. Speaking of school... Frank- or, Mr. Iero, and I have managed to remain friendly with each other, no awkwardness, at least not anymore. We'll actually still text each other almost daily. A couple days after I went to talk to him after school he pulled me aside after class to talk about things some more.

"Look, I want you to know that even if we don't work out in the end, I at the very least want to keep staying in touch. I still want you to come see the band at gigs, and just have a laugh. Don't you agree that after all we've been through, we can't just fall out completely?"

"You're right." I speak after contemplation. "Plus, it'd be hard to just not see you opening for Against Me! You'll always have my support." The two of us smile and share a laugh. That was the day when awkwardness was out of the way and we were comfortable around each other again after those agonizing few days of glances and obvious attempts to ignore one another during class.

I was, unfortunately for sleep-deprived me, woken from my slumber by my mother.

"Birthday boy! Already so grown up!" She cheered after I oh so grouchily mumbled complaints at her. I told her about Frank and I. The weekend after it happened. She was disappointed. Who wouldn't be? Even I grew disappointed in myself. She, as it turns out, was my shoulder to cry on as I let it out, mumbling how I was a failure and ruined everything. But she didn't press to know why I thought that way and why exactly we broke up. And I was greatly appreciative of that. "It's just past noon, boy, you have no reason to complain about sleep. Bert's here."

Oh, and Bert and I, as of last week, decided to try out dating. After that Saturday that we hung out with his friends last month, we grew to hanging out a lot, almost every day. And even though we wanted to deny our feelings and move on because of what our mistakes had caused, the opposite happened. It was actually me who admitted that I couldn't stop thinking about him, as much, and inoffensively as possible, that I tried to stop. And then the obvious thing happened; Bert expressed that he felt the same, so we kissed. And it was awkward in every sense of the word. Here's the thing, though. I felt a spark that I had only experienced from Frank in the past. That's honestly what did it for me. My conscience said "you can't let what Frank and you no longer have make you miserable." So after some further discussion with Bert, we both decided it'd be worth a shot.

"Fine, fine. I'm getting up." I groaned into the pillow as I rolled clumsily out of bed and tossed on some clothes from the floor that I presumed to be at least semi-clean. After going to the bathroom and washing my face, because yes, I looked pretty miserable, I ran my hands through my hair a couple times before deeming myself acceptable and went down the stairs two at a time.

"Hey there, sleepyhead." Bert smiled at me when I walked into the living room, where my family and him were sat, having casual discussion with the tv on until I arrived.

"Hey." I can't help the smile that grew on my face almost instinctively. Before Bert was able to stand up, which I noticed he was going to do, I bounded over and jumped onto the recliner he was at and sat on his lap (sideways, for those wondering). I turned my attention back to my brother and my mom as I felt Bert's arms wrap around my waist and plant a kiss on my cheek, making my face grow hot.

"So, Mr. Legal Adult, you can either have your cake with lunch or with dinner." My mom brought up. "It's up to you." Immediately I knew my answer. There was no thought process that had to go into this.

"After dinner. It's always been that way and I'd feel weird throwing that off." Mikey smirked before calling out a "good choice."

"At least open presents, then!" Donna stands up and goes upstairs, presumably to get these said presents.