Frerard-Complicated

Chapter 12: Make Up

Frank:

Frank stood, rooted to the spot. What had he just done? He went to run out of the door after Gerard, but just then the phone chose to ring. Swearing under his breath, Frank stomped over to the counter and grabbed the phone, deciding to slam it down the minute they spoke. Unfortunately the caller was the manager of the shop, who seemed to have remembered that he had a new employee, and spent the next hour asking him very difficult and pointless questions about the running of the shop and how to "interact with customers". Frank guessed he must have heard about their disgraceful conduct towards their unfortunate clients. But all he could think about was how unhappy Gerard had looked, and about how he had to get out, and fix things with him. However, this guy just would not shut up. Frank found himself very grateful that he was never in the shop, and was seriously contemplating just hanging up or walking away. Finally, the shop manager fired off one last pointless question about arranging the stock room, and hung up. Frank dropped the reciever, not even bothering to put it back in its cradle, and ran out, deliberately not locking the door in revenge for the stupid questions about "keeping the shop secure". For fucks sake there was nothing worth stealing, and there was a huge crack in one of the windows!

Frank knew he was meant to be going home-his mother was having some kind of special dinner- but he couldn't face the awkward silence that wrapped around the house nowdays. So he ran straight to Gerard's house, grateful that at least it wasn't raining anymore. He didn't exactly have a plan for what would happen when he got there, but he guessed that Gerard would have calmed down, and he would be able to explain. But when he arrived, running up the path and banging on the door, it was Mikey who answered. Crap. He hadn't planned for this. Mikey stood staring at him, a furious expression on his face. "Um, hi", Frank said, smiling winningly at him. Mikey glared back.  "Is Gerard in?" Mikey stepped forward, forcing Frank to take a step back. Then he slammed the front door behind himself, making Frank jump. "How dare you?" he hissed, his lip curling. Frank had no idea how he was meant to answer this, so he just stood there, waiting. "My brother hasn't stopped crying since he got home! And then I found out that apparently its because you're ashamed of him, So how fucking dare you show your face here?" Frank bit his lip. He hadn't realised how much he'd hurt Gerard. "Mikey, please just let me in. I need to see him, to explain. Things all got a bit  confused today and I just want to-" but Mikey cut him off: "NO! You are never coming in this house again, and you will leave my brother alone! Don't you think you've hurt him enough? You know what he's been through, and you still messed him around like this? He's the one who should be ashamed of you!" he screamed. Frank was reeling. He felt like Mikey had punched him. It would have been less painful if he had. Mikey turned back, and before Frank could say anything, he had slammed the door in Frank's face.

Frank looked round frantically. He spotted that there was a light on in the living room and ran across the lawn to get to it. The curtains were open, and Frank stood on his tiptoes to see over the sill. Gerard was huddled on the sofa, facing away from the window. Frank banged on the window with his fist, but as he did so, Mikey came into the living room. He took one look at Frank -who admittedly did look pretty pathetic on his tiptoes outside in a flowerbed- and ran over to the window, pausing only to flip Frank off before he drew the curtains. "I'M NOT LEAVING TILL YOU LET ME IN, MIKEY!" he screamed, before looking around, swearing under his breath. He didn't know what to do. Then he remembered. Although Gerard's room was in the basement, there was a little window, right at the top of the wall. He would go there, and then, when Mikey wasn't around, he would try to catch Gerard's attention. Trying not to trample the flowerbeds any more, he walked carefully round the side of the house to the window, which was at floor level for him. The black curtains were drawn, and Frank sat down opposite the window, listening for any noise from inside.

What seemed like 2 hours later, Frank was still sitting in the garden. It had started to rain, but Frank didn't care. He knew he had to at least talk to him, to try and make things right. An hour later, the rain showed no signs of letting up, and it was dark outside. Frank was shivering, and trying to work out how likely it was that you could get frostbite in Jersey when he heard Gerard coming into the room. "I said I'm fine, Mikey!" he shouted, and he heard his bedroom door close. Frank lifted his hand and knocked quietly on the window. Gerard shrieked at the sudden noise, then pulled the curtain back. He saw Frank, who was sitting in the rain, and glared at him. Frank had no idea what to do, so found himself lifting his hand and waving feebly at him. Gerard raised an eyebrow. "What was that?" shouted Mikey. "Um...a spider?" shouted Gerard back. He looked at Frank for a long moment: "What do you want?" he demanded. "To apologise...and to explain. Please let me in". Frank did his very best puppy eyes and it worked; Gerard sighed "You have exactly two minutes. Go." Frank gestured awkwardly at the window, and Gerard sighed, opening the latch and pushing the window open. Frank slithered awkwardly in, landing on top of Gerard's desk. He rolled down onto the floor. Crap, now he had to explain. He hadn't really considered what he was going to say now.

"Gerard" he begun awkwardly. Well, at least it was good so far. "I'm so sorry, and you have to believe me, I don't want to be with Jamia, but I don't have a choice. She'll tell my parents and they won't be able to deal with it. Things are already strained enough between them, and I don't want to make them any worse, I'll tell them eventually, as soon as I can, I swear." Gerard grimaced: "So you want me to wait for you? While you pretend you hardly know me? I can't do that" Frank shook his head. He couldn't ask that of him, make him miserable like that. He deserved to be happy, even if Frank couldn't be. So he just said "Okay. I'm sorry, Gerard". He turned and went to walk out the door, holding back tears. He looked back round at Gerard, who looked like he was fighting some kind of internal battle, biting his lip and looking down at his feet. Just before he reached the door, he heard Gerard's voice: "Frank. Wait." He turned his head. "Please stay. Stay with me" Gerard said, hesitantly taking a step forward. Without hesitation, Frank answered: "Always."