Subway Train ➫ Frerard

chpt. forty-two ➫ change

//heyo my dudes,, sadly this story will soon be coming to an end!! :(( I may write a sequel?? but idk,, enjoy this though!! :))//

the first day of june, gerard woke up with a twinge of sadness and fear. he knew, as it is the first day of june, he would be graduating college very soon. he was going to move out to california to start whatever career he was set on, which surprisingly wasn't art.

with moving comes a lot of paperwork and packing and all that fun stuff, but in his case, also comes with a roommate. he didn't know what frank was going to do, nor he was going to stay, but gerard definitely wanted to take him with him to california.

gerard remembered the day he and his mother had went to california when he was still very young. he was excited to finally be moving out there, but he knew that he would leave a whole lot of his friends and family.

gerard got ready for the day, one of the last few days of college. he ran his fingers through his white hair and sighed, thinking about frank and his view on his decision.

he suddenly heard frank yawn from the other room. he knew he had to tell him that he was going to move—or they were going to move.

"gerard?" frank stepped out of the room. gerard eyed frank from the kitchen and slowly sipped his coffee. "hey, good morning."

gerard just nodded. "hey frank," he said hoarsely.

"yeah?" frank responded, more focused on looking for food than talking to gerard.

"i'm graduating soon, and...and that means i'll also be moving out..." gerard's voice trailed off.

frank stopped what he was doing and turned sharply to face gerard. "oh, yeah?"

"yeah." gerard went towards the room to pull out some moving paperwork and stuff to show frank.

"...oh." frank skimmed through the papers and his expression changed each time. "so... what will i be doing?"

gerard chuckled. "we'll be going together, won't we?"

frank opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"won't we?" gerard repeated, nervously smiling.

"gerard, i... i don't know..." frank seemed flustered by the current situation, as if it was coming towards him like an asteroid.

"but—" gerard stopped in his thoughts. "do you want to stay here?"

frank slowly shook his head. "i just feel like i'll be leaving so much..."

"i understand. i'll be leaving a lot, too. this decision wasn't easy for me to make." gerard took back the papers and read through them.

"before we leave," frank coughed. "can i go see my parents?"

gerard's eyes widened a bit. he didn't know what to say except for "okay."

"when are we leaving?" frank asked.

"a day after graduation, um, june 24. we'll have to pack pretty soon."

frank kind of chuckled a bit. "you are man full of surprises." he said as he pulled out a bagel from the cupboard and took a bite out of it.

gerard smiled. "thank you."

frank kind of gave gerard a confused look before he began to speak again.

"thank you for being my surprise." gerard said in a small voice.

--

gerard finished a week of class. frank stayed at home, packing everything into boxes and crying hysterically. he had a lot of time to think about what he should say to his parents. an apology? a letter of resignation? what was he supposed to say?

he knew he was overthinking it. he knew he had to calm down and just be formal with it, maybe? ugh.

they were moving in two weeks, and emotionally frank was as ever prepared to leave this awful place. he hoped in california that he could start over. he was given a second chance at life, and he was thankful for that.

frank walked into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. he scrunched his nose, and he knew what he was about to do was probably going to be an painful decision, but it was his after all. he proceeded to pull out his nose and lip rings and discarded them in the trash. there were still holes in his skin, and of course that is normal. they will go away with time, he thought.

he rummaged through gerard's cabinets and drawers and was disappointed that he didn't see this sooner. a bottle of black hair dye. finally, frank could finally look normal again.

frank couldn't stop laughing as he was pouring the dye all over his hair. he also had no idea if he was doing this correctly or not, but he didn't care. he just wanted to get rid of his old image.

after an hour of two of frank's antics, plus packing, he hardly remembered his old self. he felt like a new person, and looked new as well.

"frankie?" gerard walked into the apartment with a pair of keys in his hand, and frank knew well that those weren't the apartment keys.

frank stepped out behind a couple of boxes and let gerard see the new him.

gerard was caught in utter shock and disbelief. had he not recognized frank? had he not liked this new image of him?

"hi gerard." frank said after a while of gerard standing there in silence.

"oh my god, frank." gerard held his pitch high, which frank found funny. "what did you do?"

frank spun around. "i reinvented myself," he said, chuckling. "do you not like it?"

gerard walked towards frank and touched his black hair. he also noticed his piercings were gone. "you look so..."

"different." they said at the same time. frank smiled while gerard still kept the same expression.

"i love it." gerard said as he pulled frank into a long hug. frank hugged gerard back and smiled as he rested his chin on his shoulder.

"i'm glad you do, i do too." frank grinned widely.