When Gerard came home, his mom was waiting for him in the kitchen. Mikey was out, and Gerard was just a tiny bit relieved, because it saved him from his relentless teasing and questions for a few hours.
"I just got off the phone with Mrs. O'Reily. Her and her husband are heading out in just a few minutes, so you should probably head over now." Gerard's mom was just putting the phone away.
Gerard sighed inwardly. "Ok, I just want to go change into a dry jumper and then I'll go." Babysitting was boring, but at least it was easy. All you had to do was entertain the kids for a few hours, send them to bed, and then you had the rest of the evening to just hang around and watch whatever crap was on TV.
"Did you have a nice time at Frank's?" she asked.
"Yeah, it was great." Gerard said indifferently.
"Good, I'm glad. He seems to make you happy."
"Well, yeah..." Gerard shot her a confused look. Where was this conversation going?
"I'm just saying, you've been in a pretty good mood all day. Ever since you've been friends with Frank, actually." She was looking at Gerard knowingly now.
"H-he's a good friend, and a great guy. He's, y'know... I-I like spending time with him, a lot," Gerard said. Did his mom know? How could she possibly know? Unless Mikey had said something... Which Gerard highly doubted.
She looked at him like she knew he wasn't telling the whole truth. "Gerard, something's up. What is it that you're not telling me?"
"Mom, I... O-ok, fine." He took a deep breath. "Frank is... He's my boyfriend."
Her reaction was a little bit surprising, to say the least. She was meant to be the surprised one, not Gerard. "I knew it!" she exclaimed, smiling.
"Wh-How?!"
"Mothers know everything." She winked, and then left the room.
Gerard wasn't even going to bother asking her to elaborate. His mom always knew everything, and honestly, he'd rather not know how. It must be a mother thing.
Gerard went upstairs and switched jumpers, since the one he''d worn to Frank's was soaked from the rain. He kept his phone tucked inside his pocket, grabbed a few comics and his sketchbook, and then headed back downstairs.
"Mrs. O'Reily said that they should be back at around ten, so come home after that. If you don't eat over there you can just have something when you get back."
"Ok, thanks mom. See you later!" He went over to hug her briefly, and then turned to open the door and head out into the cold once more.
It was pouring outside, and the wind was so strong that it kept blowing Gerard's hood down. So much for changing into a dry hoodie. Gerard ran across the street as fast as he could, and got there just as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, closely followed by a loud clap of thunder. Mrs. O'Reily ushered him in, and called for her husband to hurry up.
"Nice to see you again Gerard! Thank you so much for coming over to mind Jessie and Gabe, I really appreciate it," she said, just as her husband appeared by her side.
"It's no problem, really," said Gerard, smiling as he shook his hand. He was a rather quiet man.
"Well, thank you again anyway." She wrapped a scarf around her neck as her husband went outside to wait in the car. "The two of them are just finishing off their dinner, and then you should probably just give them an hour or two before putting them to bed. There's food in the fridge, just help yourself or order pizza if you want. We shouldn't be out too late, what with this storm." She was smiling pleasantly.
