Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part I: Chapter 4

          

CHAPTER 4 – WHERE WILL THE SUMMER GO

The next day I pushed all thoughts of our date out of my head. It had been so much fun before Hunter scared me, so if I was going to think about it I only allowed myself to think of anything that happened in the first hour or so. That was harder to do than it should have been; he hadn't even done anything.

Despite the fact that Frank and I hadn't texted at all since yesterday, I still felt like, after sleeping on it, the whole of the day might not have been as bad as it seemed. We were hardly a week into the relationship, so of course it would take a little time to get used to. Frank probably understood that. Maybe we'd clear that up later today.

The pool wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be, considering this was the first day it was open. Through texting Ray, Mikey and I found him with Frank in the grass.

I laid down my towel next to Frank, and Mikey sat on my other side. Frank grinned at me in greeting, and I knew it was all okay.

"I don't know how you two bear to be around each other literally every day." Ray pointed to me and Frank. I rolled my eyes. Something about that struck me as weird, though – we hadn't told him about yesterday. So how did he know about that?

Who was I kidding; this was Ray we were talking about. The 'literally' was used figuratively.

"Is there a reason we're not swimming?"

"Water's cold," Ray answered. "I think it's nice enough out in the air anyway."

"Too humid for me," I said. "I was going to say, I'm impressed you've kept your shirt on this long. You're not overheating?"

"I'm always cold. Let's play a game or something!"

"Such as?"

"Truth or Dare?"

"Does this look like a girls' slumber party to you?"

"Come on, when's the last time you played Truth or Dare?"

"First we play Defend the Dot in Study Hall, now this... Whatever. Mikey, truth or dare?"

"Um, truth."

I paused to think of a good question. "If you had to be paid in food or in gratitude for every job you had from now on, which would you choose?"

"Booo-riiing!" Ray complained. We ignored him.

"Food," Mikey answered simply. "Frank?"

"Dare."

"Dare you to jump in the pool."

"You guys really have to work on making this game more interesting," Ray said.

"The pool is cold," Frank pointed out with a smirk, standing, "so this is kind of a mean one." He walked to the edge of the pool, bent his knees, and jumped with a loud splash that submerged him entirely, sputtering when he resurfaced.

"You'd think it was the middle of winter," he called, treading in the water. "Ray! Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"And you're the one trying to make this interesting?" I commented.

"Why did you and Christa break up?" Frank asked.

Ray's face fell. "Told you already," he mumbled.

"It still feels like you're leaving something out, considering you told us how, but not why," Frank commented. "From my experience, a girl will rattle off a long list of everything you did wrong and make it very clear why she thinks she deserves better."