The Man I Know I'm Not [Frerard] (Sequel To Tell Me I'm A Bad Man)

Five - We Shake, Shake, Shake The Hips In Relationships

I didn't notice it at first, but suddenly Gerard went all weird on me.

A couple of days passed since Ryan went to hospital, and Gerard just...stopped talking. He would hold me like he usually did, and kiss me the way he usually did, but he gradually got quieter and quieter, like something was on his mind.

He'd gone to get some groceries - we'd run out of coffee, which was a great tragedy - while I'd started on my best man's speech, leaving me in the house with Bert. About an hour after Gerard had left, I ventured into the kitchen, my pen in my hand, to grab a glass of water and some painkillers for an oncoming headache. I was on my way towards the stairs when someone - Bert, because he was the only other person in the house - cleared their throat behind me.

I turned around, my eyebrows immediately drawing together. "Yeah?"

He walked over to me, pushing me against the wall, and I was glad my hands were empty, because I would've surely dropped the glass of water, had I been holding one.

"Gerard doesn't deserve you." He hissed, and I blinked.

"Um..." I gulped. "That was random."

"I mean it."

"Okay, and why?" I was genuinely confused - I hated the man, but I thought we'd been getting on okay for the past couple of days. We were civil, complacent. Was that what had been bothering Gerard?

"Because you're always going to bring him down. People are going to look down on your age-gap forever. There are six years between you two. He's never going to have a normal relationship now, not when people find out he once face-fucked a seventeen-year-old." He pushed me harder against the wall. "He was a pedophile when he fucked you, you know that, right? I could've told. I could've let your secret out. But I didn't. You know why?" He paused, and I shook my head. "Because I care about Gerard. You, I couldn't give two shits about. But Gerard's a good man. He deserves better than you."

"What, like you?" I spat, and he slapped me.

"Anyone's better than you, really. You're just a stupid kid who's bringing him down. You'll probably leave him as soon as he turns thirty, 'cause you won't even be twenty-four, and you'll want a 'life of your own'." He air-quoted, sneering. "Or maybe an even older man will come along, someone ten years older than you, and you'll be on your knees like that." He clicked his fingers.

I shoved at his chest, my face twisting. "No I won't. I'm not like that. I love Gerard."

The bastard scoffed. "You're eighteen, asshole. You barely know what love is. You haven't lived long enough to feel it." He looked down at my arms, and even though they were covered, it was like he knew what was there. "Something tells me you won't."

"You know nothing about me. You know nothing about my life and what I've been through." Anger flared inside me, and I clenched my fists, wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face.

He scoffed. "I'm just telling the truth. Maybe he'll even find someone his age. I know him better than you do - he cheated on me, what's to say he won't cheat on you?" One of his eyebrows rose. "How much do you trust Gerard, Frank?"

"A lot. I trust him with my life." My voice shook, betraying me.

"Really?"

"Yes." What was he getting at? "Why?"

He just shook his head. "It's not love. It's lust. You just want each other any way you can and that's all your relationship is based on. It's all based on sex."