Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part II: Chapter 5

          

CHAPTER 5 – HEADFIRST FOR HOMOS

A/N: Sorry not sorry for that title, it's just such a convenient pun I couldn't pass it up

My mom was sitting at the kitchen table when I woke up, leafing through a newspaper. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and sat across from her. The house was oddly quiet without the sound of bass guitar strings strumming from Mikey's room.

"Good morning," she said absently. I grunted in response.

After a few minutes of silence, she spoke up again. "Pride is this weekend. Do you want to ask Frank to go with you? I hear it's a lot of fun."

"Pride? Isn't that one of the deadly sins or something?"

She laughed warmly. "Pride. As in gay pride. It's a festival they hold downtown every summer, celebrating everyone in the LGBT community." She shrugged. "Just thought you might be interested."

"Yeah... yeah, that sounds cool." I said it like it wasn't a huge deal to me, but in reality, the idea that a festival existed that celebrated being gay started my heart pounding with excitement and curiosity. When I finished my breakfast, I went ahead and looked it up.

My laptop was buried under a ton of papers I never turned in from the end of the school year but had yet to dispose of. I yanked it out from under everything and pulled up the internet. A quick Google search of "gay pride festival" told me all I needed to know.

It was actually pretty self-explanatory. Ever since the Stonewall Riots for gay rights in the 1960s, states had been hosting one weekend of queer celebration a year for everyone in the community to declare that they were proud of – hence the name "pride" – their sexuality.

I clicked around until I found some pictures of what previous pride festivals in my area had looked like, and all that greeted me were bright, flashy colors everywhere. And I mean everywhere. There didn't seem to be a soul there not wearing every color of the rainbow, nor one person not waving a multicolored flag. Though everyone was smiling broadly and seemed to be having the time of their lives, my self-proclaimed-emo self was a bit intimidated. Immersing myself in all of that would be very far out of my comfort zone.

On the plus side, it wasn't solely for gay people. It was for everyone under the big happy queer umbrella, no matter how many other genders they were attracted to. I wasn't sure how to label my sexuality, exactly, but I did know I was somewhere on the spectrum. Maybe no one would ask. It certainly didn't seem relevant.

I looked at the dates again: July 1-3. Mom was right - this weekend.

I certainly didn't have anything else to do. Despite how intimidating it seemed, it actually sounded kind of fun. Surely no one would berate me for still not being sure where exactly I fit in the community, right? The whole concept was acceptance. Hopefully they'd accept me, too.

If I was going to make plans to go with Frank, though, I'd have to invite him soon. I didn't know how long it would take Frank to come out to his parents, which he'd pretty much be doing by telling them he was spending the weekend at a festival that embraced the community with open arms. He wanted to tell them eventually and this would be a great opportunity.

From Gerard Way: Hey

He replied in a few minutes.

From Frank Iero: Hey

From Gerard Way: Got any good excuses for being out over an entire weekend?

From Frank Iero: What do you have in mind?

From Gerard Way: Call me?

I waited a minute until my phone lit up with his number. I clicked Accept.

"Hey, what's up?" he answered.

"I figured I'd call just in case your parents still read your texts. You know," I felt it necessary to explain first. "Anyway, do you happen to know about anything that's going on downtown this weekend?"

"I think I know where you're going with this." I could hear a smile in his voice, which made my heart jump a little bit. He was clearly feeling so much better than a few days ago.

"You probably do," I smiled, too. "You're much more involved in the gay community through the internet than I am-"

He laughed.  "I guess that's kind of true."

"So, this weekend is pride weekend."

"Indeed it is."

"Want to go with me? For at least part of it? I mean, I don't know a lot about it. I looked it up and it seems kind of fun. So if you wanted... if you don't want to come out yet and you can't come up with an excuse without doing that, I get it, no worries, but telling them might not go as badly as you think."

"I'm putting that off as long as I possibly can."

"Look at what happened with Hunter's picture, though. What if they'd seen that? If they had asked questions, what would you have said?" There was a pause and I realized how I sounded. "I'm not going to pressure you into saying anything you don't want to, obviously – it's your choice when you feel comfortable and when you feel safe-"

"But I can't keep this a secret forever; I know that," he finished for me.

I stopped talking about it before I ruined the conversation. "Anyway, I guess that's not the point to why I'm calling. You can throw off your parents for a couple days this weekend for a little fun."

"Yeah..." He seemed to be considering it. "I'd absolutely love to go, but you know. I'll... I'll see if I can find something to tell my parents, but we'll see how it goes."

"Yeah."

"We couldn't dress up too much, though; no more than usual. I'm sure it'll still be fun without going all-out like some people do."

"And I can pick you up if you want me to, so you don't have to borrow a car or anything that might raise more questions. Let me know."

"That would be great if you could. As long as they don't notice – or if they do, as long as they don't mind."

"Hopefully."

"And, uh, I know I should tell them about... us, but thanks for thinking to call instead of typing this out, so they don't find out that way. Just to be safe. That means a lot, I guess... I don't know. Thanks is all."

"Of course; I wouldn't intentionally give them an opportunity to find out if you're not comfortable telling them yourself yet."

"That really means a lot."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

The hint of a smile was growing on my face, but I fought it before I looked like a dork. Thank God I was alone and had no one here to tease me.

"Well, you're welcome. Gotta find the right time for these things, I think. If you want to take this as an opportunity, by all means, do, but for now, just let me know if I should pick you up on Friday or not."

"I will. See you."

"See you."

I pressed End Call and sighed. I hoped his parents were more accepting than he perceived them to be. Maybe they'd actually be okay with us, just like how my mom was, when they realized how happy he was with me.

But was he truly happy? Just two days ago I was visiting him in the dead of night. Sure, I didn't expect to try to cure his mental illness just by existing and making him happy. Chemical imbalances didn't just fix themselves even when good days happened. Everyone knew that, didn't they? What Frank had told me about his parents' reactions to his wanting therapy and wanting medication made it seem like they weren't the most open-minded people in the world, nor the least ignorant. Who knew what they would think of me? I trusted Frank to know how to keep himself safe, but I also wished he could be brave and take the risk of bringing it up.