It felt like only minutes later to Frank that Mikey was shaking him and Gerard awake.
"Gee, your clothes are on the side. You need to get up now or we'll be late for school. And it's Friday so ice cream day," Mikey said leaving the room.
Gerard got up looking excited. Ice cream day had always been his favourite day of the week. His mother had invented to when he was about four and, once his dad had sobered up, Gerard insisted they brought it back.
Frank helped Gerard change into the pair of blue panties, the blue and purple spotty t-shirt, the same grey jeans as the day before, the large navy jumper with 'baby' written across the front in a swirly font and the pair of white cotton socks that Mikey had put out for him. Once he was dressed, Gerard gave Frank a little twirl with a giggle before grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the front door where Mikey was with Gerard's shoes. Gerard grabbed his paci off the coffee table on the way past and shoved it in his mouth. Mikey tied up Gerard's shoe laces and took the pacifier from his mouth, putting it on the side by the front door like he did every morning. Then the three of them began the long walk to school, none of them saying a word.
When they finally got to school, Mikey went off in one direction because he needed to talk to one of his teachers about the homework he had been set or something along those lines, and Frank took Gerard in the other direction, towards the pastoral support office. Mrs Iero was sat behind the desk doing some work on the computer when the boys arrived at the office. Frank knocked twice and then opened the door.
"Frank!" Mrs Iero exclaimed, shocked to see her son turn up at her office with another boy practically hanging off of his arm.
"Hi Mom," He began. "Gerard had another nightmare last night. I promised Mikey that I would get him to talk to you about it."
Mrs Iero nodded.
"That's all good intentions darling," She said. "But Mikey said that he hasn't said a word since the first night of this string of nightmares."
Frank was confused. He could clearly remember Gerard speaking to him the night before. Gerard's voice was replaying through his head. He had said 'I think you're really pretty' to which Frank had replied 'I think you're really pretty too'. There was no way he had imagined that.
"He spoke to me last night. I just thought he was shy," Frank said, still thoroughly confused.
Mrs Iero got up from behind her desk and walked over to the silent boy who was still latched onto her son's arm as though his life depended on it. Frank slightly wiggled to try and shake Gerard loose but he just let out a small whine and gripped tightly onto Frank's waist, burying his face in the other boy's chest.
"Gerard," Mrs Iero began. "Would you talk to Frankie about your nightmares so he can help get rid of them for you?"
It was a long shot and neither of them thought it would actually work, especially when Gerard tensed up at the question. However, after a moment of hesitation, he nodded, well the best he could considering his face was still pressed against Frank's chest.
"Okay," Mrs Iero said. "I'll leave you and Frank in here for your first lesson and I'll write you each a late note to explain to your teacher why you were absent from their class so that you don't get in any trouble."
Frank nodded and mumbled a thank you to his mom as she left the room, closing the door behind her. The two boys moved towards the definitely more triangular circle of chairs. Frank sat down on the one Gerard had chosen to occupy the day before when he first met Frank and pulled the other boy onto his lap, rubbing gentle shapes on his back.
"Frankie I'm scared," Gerard mumbled, his voice barley louder than a whisper. "I'm scared my dad will leave when he comes back. He - he didn't like me - he didn't like me being like this."
Frank continued to rub shapes on Gerard's back.
"Being like what princess?" He asked.
Gerard took a deep breath.
"Bein' a little," He stated simply and in more of a whisper than the rest of what he has said. Frank stopped rubbing shapes on Gerard's back and pulled him into a tight hug as he cried.
"I'm scared that Mikey's gonna get sick of me. He has his own life, I'm pretty sure he has his own little. He can't look after me forever even if I wish he could. And then I'll be alone!" Gerard cried out, his voice still barely above a whisper, as though Frank would leave if he raised his volume even the slightest amount.
"Even if your dad does leaves you and Mikey move on without you, you won't be alone. I'm here, and I'm staying right by your side as long as you'll let me," Frank said and he meant it. He really did. Even though they'd known each other for less than twenty-four hours at this point in time, both boys were attached to each other. Frank trusted Gerard and, despite his past with trust issues, Gerard trusted Frank.
