When Gerard made it home, he was shocked to see Mikey and Frank still talking, but it was in a low and hushed manner. He hung up his coat beside his brother's.
"What's going on?" He asked. The two looked toward him.
"We were just talking," answered Mikey. Frank nodded and chuckled.
"Your brother is an interesting person," he added. Gerard saw something in Frank's eyes that were something other than the truth. He shrugged and turned on the water kettle.
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"Where's Frank now?" Asked Gerard for the eighth time today. It was mid-afternoon and Frank had not spoken to him since yesterday.
"Geez, why are you so obsessed with Frank?" Asked Mikey, annoyed. "Anyway, he's in the bathroom, taking a shower, if you can't hear."
The older brother made his way to the notebook Frank had. He was determined to find out more about that secret. He sat in the chair behind the door and closed the blinds. He read many things, only about evil never changing, and saw many pictures of Frank himself, crudely drawn, but coloured oddly evenly. When he squinted at the filled in parts of the picture, he could see what made up the colour. They were tiny Xs, all made the same way, which probably took a lot of time to do. They were all made with pencil. Wrapped up in the pictures, Gerard forgot about the outside world until the door beside him slammed, scaring him badly. He looked up, but made no sound. There was Frank, in a towel, rummaging through some clothes in the suitcase. Gerard slowly closed the notebook, but gasped loudly when he saw Frank's chest and rib cage. There were patterns of Xs, all in lines, but instead of them being in tattoo or something, they were made of thread.
That's where her needles and thread went. He saw the swelling around each part of the skin that was pierced with the needle; he was horrified. Then Frank snapped to look at him.
"What the hell!" He screamed. He grabbed a shirt and covered the scars and thread. Gerard had his mouth open.
"What the fuck?" He said softly.
"I could say the same thing!" Answered Frank angrily. He grabbed the notebook from beside Gerard and slapped him so hard that he screamed in pain. Then Frank grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and stormed into the bathroom. Mikey rushed in, searching wildly for an intruder. He saw his brother's red face and gasped.
"What just happened between you and Frank?" He yelled. Gerard let tears roll down his eyes. "I'm not going to say," answered the poor guy. Behind them, the bathroom door opened, then a stomping was heard and went right to the front door. Gerard scrambled up and ran after Frank, but by the time he got out the door, the angry teen had run out of sight. Gerard fell to his knees and cried.
He didn't know why he cried. Frank was rude, uninterested in everything, and a just plain asshole.
After the thing that happened yesterday, Gerard decided to make this a new day and forget about Frank.
"Gerard, you can't go back to your CD shop. You've been held up." Mikey insisted. Gerard shook his head. "Once. It's not going to happen again now, so let me go and I'll be back by 10."
As he stepped into the musty store, his senses triggered familiarity. He loved looking at the CD covers, or sitting and writing in his notebook. He then remembered Frank, but he pushed the prick of sorrow away and focused on the customers.
As he doodled on a page, a customer walked up, holding a Nirvana CD. When the person set it down, he walked off. Gerard noticed the person's orange hair was jiggling in a 'fro, but had no resemblance to anyone Gerard knew. He stared at the CD. So many weird things were happening in this shop.
Inside the CD case was nothing but the album cover and a piece of paper, folded impossibly neatly. However, the writing was almost illegible, and he squinted. Soon enough he figured out the message:
This is frank
I care about you
They can't know
Nobody can
But Mikey does
I can't look while writing
Don't come close
Talk but don't be friendly to me
Gerard's heart pounded. What did he mean by 'care'? Did he want to be a friend? Or more?
The thought of being gay sent shivers down Gerard's spine. He used to see gay couples and give them confused looks. Now he was looking expectantly at the door, waiting for the short guy to open up and talk. Instead, to his utter disappointment, the silence grew stiller and not even a soul walked outside, even though it was Main Street.
"You look down," observed Mikey as Gerard walked in the door. The older bro ignored his comment and hung up his hat. When he sat on the couch to watch TV, he did a double-take. On the armchair beside was Frank, eating from a bag of popcorn and reading a book. He made eye contact with Gerard, then continued reading.
"You're back, shitface."
"What?" He gave Frank a helpless look which Frank returned with a tear in his eye. He choked a little but kept talking.
"I was hoping you wouldn't come home. You're really too smart for this household, like why don't you go get a fucking scientist job?"
By now Gerard was confused as fuck. Although he was offended, he went to his room, faking a careless look.
Mikey stood at the doorway, awkwardly looking at Gerard. Soon enough the younger one spoke up.
"Gee, we have some things to talk about," he explained. Not that he was listening. His brother talked on and on about what they were chatting about, but soon a sentence broke him out of his ignorance:
"He's gay." Blurted Mikey. Gerard raised his head up and gave his bro an indifferent look. "Your point being?"
"I don't know, Gerard, but don't you feel like you know him more?"
"Well yeah, but still."
"Well have fun with your closed mind."
Mikey strutted out like the sassy supermodel he was.
"Gerard?" Asked Frank from the doorway. It was almost midnight and Gee was almost asleep. He groaned. "Bad timing, Frank." Frank just looked at the ground. Then he moved his head upward again, revealing tear stained cheeks.
"G-gerard, this is goodbye."
