Illumination of the End (Frerard)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Frank and Gerard were walking down a few of the back roads together. They were silent, but after a couple minutes of the painfully quiet excursion, Gerard looped his hand around to take hold of Frank's. Frank didn't look up from his focus on the pavement, but he let half of his mouth curl up into a little smile. Gerard could tell that there was a lot on his mind. 

All of a sudden his eyes were drawn to the dired blood that still covered Frank's hands. He loosened his grip on his hand, and Frank noticed. 

"Oh... Guess I should probably wash that off now..." he said while shoving his hands into the pocket of his jeans. Frank was torn between whether killing the cop had been the right thing to do. 

Well, I mean, killing anyone is wrong, but Frank didn't want to dwell on that anymore. He just couldn't decide if t had been worth it. Would a life in jail really have been that bad? 'Yes.' he concluded in his head. Being without Gerard would be worth killing anyone. That was a drastic statement, but to Frank it was true. He'd do anything to stay with Gerard. Anything. 

If 'anything' entails killing a cop to stay out of jail, then so be it. He had done it. It was in the past, and he wanted to forget about it which was pretty difficult considering the blood was still on his hands. 

"There's a gas station two streets over. We'll go there and get washed off. Then maybe get a map so we can make a plan." suggested Frank.

"Alright... Do you think people will recognize you? What if someone-"

"I'll just pull my hood up. No big deal." he said nonchalantly like he'd done this a million times. He was trying to convince himself that he could handle the situation, but in truth, he was scared; not just scared of going into the gas station where there was sure to be people, but scared of the future. So what if they made it to New York? Then what? 

As of now, both of them are high school drop outs. It's going to be tough to get a job in a city that already has so many homeless people...

They walked into the little gas station together. The place was empty except for a man that stood behind the counter reading the news paper. Frank found the restrooms in the back while Gerard wandered up and down the few aisles to find a map. 

Frank twisted the faucet on and a stream of cold water shot out. He spent five minutes getting every trace of the blood off. He wanted to wash the memory of that night away with the blood down the drain, but unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. 

Gerard smiled at Frank as he met him next to a little section of maps a few minutes later. His hands were clean, and he seemed to be a tad bit more cheerful which was a relief to Gerard. Frank picked up a map and looked through it until he spoke.

"This one seems fine. What are we going to do for food?"

"Well we should have enough money to at least get something from here. Maybe just a bag of chips... " suggested Gerard. Frank shook his head. 

"I think we should just focus on getting to Manhattan right now, we'll worry about food later." Frank replied; he had become used to not always getting a meal everyday, while Gerard was used to the many home cooked meals from his mom. The two were from very opposite ends of their experience with living on their own. 

Frank was street smart, and he knew what he was doing. Gerard on the other hand... His stomach was growling and they had only missed breakfast. 

"Alright," agreed Gerard reluctantly. They walked up to the man at the counter who didn't pay attention to them standing in front of him. He was holding the news paper up and seemed to be lost in tiny print it held. 

That's when Frank saw it. Right there on the front page of the newspaper. 

His picture. The words 'Teenager Murders Officer' were spread across the entire front page. That was his picture. His name. His face. Frank knew that the news would cover the story, but he hadn't expected to be confronted with his own picture staring back at him. It was all to much for him. 

Gerard seemed to notice the picture at the same moment, and his eyes grew wide. He turned to Frank who was standing there unable to move. Gerard gave him a 'we need to get the fuck out of here' look, and Frank snapped out of his trance. He dropped the map and they ran. They ran faster than they ever thought possible. 

Why did they choose to run so fast? The man behind the counter hadn't even seen them, but now they were faced with the harsh reality that someone was bound to recognize Frank now. 

They tore across the street and stopped when they were far from the gas station, standing in the alley between two buildings. 

Gerard caught his breath; he was getting more accustomed to all the running. Frank shook his head and leaned his forehead against the brick of the building. 

"You know where a bus station is from here?" asked Gerard. Frank kept shaking his head over and over. 

"Gee, we can't take a bus. There's gonna be other people on it. They might recognize me... We have to think of something else."

"We can't just walk all the way!" yelled Gerard. He was getting frusterated. Missing breakfast was one thing, but having to walk to Manhattan was out of the question for him. Frank showed Gerard a sad, sympathetic look which made him feel bad for yelling. 

"We're not going to walk. We'll take a taxi."

"There's no way that we'll have enough money to take a taxi that far..." stated Gerard. 

"Who said we were paying?" said Frank. Gerard bit the bottom of his lip nervously. "It's the only option we have left, Gee." Frank wrapped his arms around him, and Gerard laid his head down to rest on Frank's shoulder. He wasn't like Frank. He didn't break the law...

"We'll be fine."

"You promise?" asked Gerard sounding like toddler.

"I promise," chuckled Frank. He smiled at his laugh and leaned in to give him a long kiss. They stood there like that for a few minutes until Frank pulled away. 

"We need to call a cab." he stated. Gerard nodded and pointed to a phone booth at the corner of the street. He dropped in two quarters and looked through the phone book that was attached to the booth. Frank flipped through the pages and found the taxi company number. 

"Hello" answered a cheeful voice.

"Hi, I need a, uh, taxi to Manhattan..." Gerard went on to tell the lady the street to pick them up at and then hung up.

They sat together on a bench with their hands tangled in each other's until the bright yellow car pulled up in front of them. They climbed into the back and kept their bags with them. If they put their bags in the trunk, they wouldn't be able to make a run for it to avoid paying. 

To say that Gerard was nervous, was an understatment. He was drenched with sweat. Kind of like when he had to give a speech in front of class. He had always hated that feeling he got in his stomach when he was walking to the front of the class. But this was different. This was all new to Gearard. 

Frank seemed to notice Gerard's uncomfortableness. He placed his hand on Gerard's leg and reassuringly squeezed it. 

"Calm down." whispered Frank. Gerard nodded his head and looked out the window to try and distract himself from thinking about what he was about to have to do. 

As long as he had Frank there with him; he would be fine. Frank knew what he was doing. They'd get to New York and then try and distract the driver enough to slip out of the car. It would work. 

Hopefully.