woMan Up (frerard)

Chapter 12

Gerard was at a job interview today, which left me alone in his apartment. I watched tv and sat on his laptop. I ate some chips, looking at the screen. I bit my lip as I scrolled through a blog. It talked all about this girl and her story while transitioning.

The door to the apartment opened and I looked over at some random guy standing there. I pushed the laptop aside and stood up, looking at him nervously. It took me a moment to realize that it was only Gerard's brother.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I-I'm Gerard's girlfriend," I said. "I'm Frankie."

"Oh, hey, I'm his brother, Mikey," he said and the door opened behind him. "And this is my girlfriend, Kristin and my daughter, Rowan."

I smiled, giving them a small wave.

"Where's Gerard?" He asked.

"He's at a job interview," I said.

"He was meant to babysit Rowan today," he said.

"I-I can watch her, Gerard should be home soon," I said.

Kristin looked at Mikey a little nervously.

"It's okay if you don't want to leave her with me," I said. "I'm just a stranger."

"We'll just wait here then," Mikey said. "Interviews don't last too long."

"Do you wanna go down and grab the stuff?" Kristin asked.

He nodded and kissed her cheek before he left. Kristin sighed and sat beside me.

"Hi, I'm Kristin," she said.

"Hey," I said shyly.

She set Rowan on the ground and she walked around.

"How long have you and Gerard been dating?" She asked.

"A couple of weeks now," I said.

"Oh, that's good, he can finally have someone to keep him on the straight and narrow," she said.

"Straight and narrow?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, he got arrested a couple times," she said. "He didn't tell you? I mean, it was nothing major. One time was for peeing behind a building and another time was when he was just too loud and people got annoyed and called the police on him."

"Is he on the sex predator list?" I asked nervously.

"Oh, no, the cop just told him off but he thankfully wasn't put onto the sex offender list," she said.

"So it wasn't anything big," I sighed in relief.

"Yeah, maybe you can stop him from just doing all that silly stuff," she said.

Rowan walked around slowly, wobbling as she went and holding onto every for security.

"You live nearby?" She asked.

"Yeah, I live here," I said. "I moved in with Gerard the other week."

"Oh, that's so nice," she said. "You're pretty serious then, huh?"

"I don't know, maybe a little bit," I said.

Mikey came in with a diaper bag and a little foldable crib. He sat down, holding Kristin's hand. The door opened five minutes later and Gerard gasped.

"Oh my god, I'm babysitting today," he said. "I'm sorry, I totally spaced."

"It's okay, we weren't here for long," Mikey said. "Can I talk to you in the other room?"