Since When Did You Become a Romantic?

Chapter 9: I Saw You on Myspace, Wanna go Back to My Place?

Gerard had gathered people together for another thrilling round of Dungeons and Dragons. Pete insisted that they play at his house. Considering Pete is the only one with a house (it's more like a dumpster in the inner city) the boys agreed. Mikey has spent the last twenty minutes throwing popcorn into Frank's mouth from across the room. Finally, Gerard comes downstairs carrying more blankets than a homeless nun. "Here ya go!" He then just drops them on top of Frank.

"These smell like dog and cigarettes," Frank says handing them out.

"Get your own blankets?" Pete looks a little annoyed.

"It's freezing. Do we have to play in your basement?" Mikey asks from the blanket fort he has started to build around himself.

"It's just that my Patrick- I mean, Patrick is having a dinner party upstairs and we can't bother him," Pete explains. It's true. Patrick needed space to host the French exchange students for a nice dinner their first night here. And let's just say.... things will happen. Eventually, the board is set up and everyone is playing.

Frank has commandeered Gerard for his "team" mainly so that he can nearly sit on top of him. "Okay, so you're going to want to collect the gold coins," he explains.

Frank leans in with his chin in his hand. "What if you roll a six?" he asks with a dumb smile.

Gerard turns to him and smiles when he sees how close he is. "Um, you add six to your, um, your sex."

"What?" Mikey asks while tossing popcorn into his own mouth now.

"SCORE. I SAID SCORE," Gerard turns a shade of pink.

"Sex is fine too," Frank whispers.

Gerard looks at him, but pretends he doesn't hear it. "How about some booze?" he asks, quickly getting up.

"I got it," Mikey offers. Before the boys and Gerard can say anything, he has disappeared upstairs. There are two reasons he wants to go upstairs. One: he knows his brother would get some weird ass pumpkin beer. Two: the hot french teacher that wasn't Stumps. "Hola, mi amors!" he greets when he sees some people gathered in the living room. He only receives weird looks. "Whatever." He wanders into the kitchen and looks down at his shirt when he sees someone point at it. It says 'I saw you on myspace, wanna go back to my place? ;)'. Mikey doesn't come back downstairs for a while, so Pete offers to go find him, leaving Gerard and Frank in the basement by themselves.

Frank leans in with all the cards. "So how many coins do I-," he stops as soon as his deck of cards cascades onto Gerard's lap.

"Oh, oops!" Gerard says like someone's mother. Frank starts apologizing and grabbing the cards off his lap. "You nugget," he chuckles.

Frank's head snaps up. He suddenly realizes that he is about two inches from Gerard's face. "I try."

"Wait, don't move."

Frank's heart skips a beat.

Gerard pushes Frank's hair back. He does it methodically and his tongue sticks out of his mouth just a little. Frank has a confused smile on his face. "You look better with your short hair fluffy," Gerard tells him.

"Thanks. You look good all the time," Frank says without thinking. WAIT.

Gerard stops fluffing his hair and looks him in the eye. "Thanks. You look good too."

Screaming from upstairs makes their heads spin towards the door. "OH MY GOD! PUT IT OUT! GET THE DAMN THING UP, YOU FUCKNUGGET!"

The boys rush upstairs to find Patrick screaming in French and Pete covered in mayonnaise and charred clothing. Mikey looks up to them from the table while calmly sipping champagne. "Candle caught Pete, so he used condiments to put it out."

Frank and Gerard look at each other. Frank looks away immediately and chuckles. Gerard smiles and laughs before dealing with the mess.

---