Cabin of Bad Dreams and Towel Scenes

.three.

Time Skip: 7 days

"Frank! Come on! It's noon! Why are you still asleep!?"

I rolled over, moaning, "Just a little longer..."

"You said that an hour ago! Get up!" He tried to yank the covers off of me and I yanked them back.

"I stole another sweater." He smirked.

I removed the covers from both eyes and looked at him sleepily. Sure enough, he was wearing a purple sweater of mine. I laughed at how big it was on him and then rolled back over.

"Ugh! I thought that would work!" He stomped.

"You've been stealing my clothes since day one. Little do you know I'm wearing your sweatpants right now." I mumbled into the sheets.

"So that's where they are! Now, come on!" He yanked the blankets off for good.

I tried to reach for them, but fell face first into the floor. This wasn't how I was planning on getting out of bed. At all in fact. Gerard rushed to my side, worried, but a smile on his face told me otherwise.

"Frank! Are you okay?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head, I'm fine." I sat up, grunting.

He sighed, helping me slightly, "Okay that's good."

I leaned against the bed and stretched, scratching my head. Gerard was staring at me again, and I knew he was 'recording' me or whatever.

Gerard and I were close for just meeting 7 days ago. It didn't feel like seven days, it felt like seven weeks. I realized that he really wanted to talk about himself to me, but I was kinda being passive aggressive. It was something I had kinda picked up from my father. It got worse after his untimely death. I shook away those thoughts and he continued to stare at me.

"Have you found yourself yet?" He asked, sitting cross legged.

"No." I laughed, "Not at all."

"Well you've got 18 days left to do that." He stated.

I slid down, getting comfortable, "I guess I do, don't I?"

He chuckled, "Doesn't feel like a week at all. I feel like we've been friends for months. It usually takes me a long time to open up to people."

"Well we did kinda start off with an odd start." I put my hands behind my head.

His cheeks turned pink, and he folded his hands in his lap, "I forgot about that."

I laughed, "Don't be so weird about it! We're both guys, right?"

"Yeah, I guess that is true..." the pink stayed on his cheeks.

I closed my eyes and started thinking about stories for some reason. My mom said that when she didn't want to talk or just had nothing to say, she'd ask the friend she was with to tell her a story or to rant. She said 9/10 times it was worth it. That other one was a friend she had that we all hated. We don't talk about Karen.

I sighed and kept my eyes closed, "Hey, Gerard?"

"Hmm?"

"Tell me a story."

"A-a story? Like a bedtime story or like a story from my life?"

"Hmm... one from your life."

He sounded confused, "Well, uh, okay."

He was silent for a moment and then I heard him stand up proceeding to sit next to me. I waited to hear him talk. He took in a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"When I was ten," he started, "I went on this trip with my family to Hawaii. My Mom was still alive back then as was my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Did I not tell you about that? They... they died together. In a car accident."

"Oh..."

"Anyway," he continued, "on that trip, I had this little awakening. But there's a story behind it. My mom and I went to this thing while my dad was asleep and it was just us by the beach. The sand was really soft and she held my hand as we walked to her favorite spot. She told me that she grew up there and that the spot we were in was her secret hiding spot. She had led me to a little cave that if you walked to the other side had like a secret little swimming spot and ledge to just sit on. She and I just sat there for a bit and she asked me how I felt. I told her that I didn't know how to feel. She just smiled and told me it was okay not to know what to think or to feel as long as you had the right person next to you. And that struck me hard. I, a ten year old, had an existential crisis because of what she said to me. I have a necklace that I wear under my clothes with that on it. 'It's okay not to know what to think with the right person next to you'. She had it made for me on my 13th birthday... I've only ever met two people with that effect on me. My mother and... you."

I kept my eyes closed and nodded. Gerard took a breath.

"I miss her, Frank. And I miss my brother." He sniffed, laughing, "Mikey was my younger brother. On that trip, he and I bonded a lot. He was only 7 at the time, but we played in the sand together and he taught me how to build a snowman out of sand. A sandman, if you will. He even made a joke and uh, said that the sandman would give me weird Hawaii dreams. He was such a good kid. He would've loved graduation and going to college. He wanted to go to the same one as me. Oh, I just miss them so much..."

Gerard leaned against me and sighed, his breath shaky. I didn't know how to comfort people at all. This was new and foreign. I put an arm around him, wondering if that was enough comfort for him. We sat like that for awhile and eventually Gerard sat up.

He smiled at me, "Thank you. No ones done that for me in a long time."

"Yeah, no problem. Are you okay, though? You just seem a little... off." I removed my arm from his shoulders.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I'm okay. I just, uh, need to take a shower. I always take when if I need to, uh, get a new start, you know?"

"A shower to wash away the sad thoughts. Yeah, I know. I'll be in the open area if you need anything, okay?" I said standing up.

"Yeah," he ran a hand through his hair, digging through his dresser drawers, "I'll be in the bathroom if you need me."

I chuckled, "Sounds good."

I went into the open area and started strumming my ukulele. I only had to wait five minutes before Gerard came back in a towel, soaking wet. Thankfully this area had hardwood floors. I put down my uke and crossed my arms, smiling, shaking my head.

He pulled up his towel and smiled awkwardly. He practically sparkled, he was so pale. Kinda... sort of... pretty? In a way? He laughed awkwardly and took a step towards me.

"We're all out of body wash..."

"Oh! I brought some with me." I got up and lead him to my room, where my bag of goods was.

I dug it out from under my bed and turned around at a very unfortunate moment. Gerard was fixing his towel. Thankfully I didn't see all of him, just the entirety of his left leg from his waist to his feet. It took me by surprise, and Gerard for sure, as well. He yanked his towel back into place and stared at me with wide eyes and a red face. I did the same, but not blushing as much.

I handed him the body wash, "Uh, here."

He took it from my hand, mumbled a thank you and dashed away. I heard the bathroom door close.

I was going to have to start counting how many times I've seen him like that if this continues the way it was.

So far: 2