Headfirst for You

Ch 6 Joyriding

"Enjoyed the ride?" Donald asked Gerard as the three caught up with Gerard's family.

Gerard looked at Frank and Linda, but mostly Frank and smiled. "Yeah, I did."

"Gerard, your hair's messy." Donna groaned and reached out to fix it.

"It's okay Ma." He dodged.

Amy and Mikey joined Frank and Gerard and started walking behind the adults, headed to a place that Linda recommended. But when they got in the car, Linda told Gerard it would help them "widen their horizons and hopefully help them understand the art community funk".

"I saw you two." Amy said hushed.

Gerard freaked out a bit and looked at Amy with a look that meant he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Specify princess." Frank sassed.

"I saw you kissing my brother. On the face! And what were you guys doing?! You looked like you were screaming your heads off!" She hissed, trying to stay quiet.

Gerard felt his face go red and his bones go light, except for his chest, to the point where he thought he could faint from embarrassment any second.

"It's called singing to Zeppelin. I would think you would know about them, miss hipster. And so what if I kissed him?"

Amy glared, "Well then I guess you could just kiss him right now."

Frank sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well, no. I'll kiss him when I want to. I don't want to give him a half-assed kiss like how his mom half-asses her support towards him." Frank brushed his hand against Gerard's, showing that he cared.

Gerard's face just grew warmer and redder as Frank continued to defend his actions. He never had anyone do that for him.

"But mom and dad won't like it." Mikey urged.

"And they won't hear about it." Gerard finally snapped. "This is the one thing I could possibly keep to myself. I want it to stay that way as long as I can for now. You guys owe me. I haven't snitched about your hookahs and your money stash."

The two siblings looked at each other and sighed. "Okay..."

Gerard softened and relaxed. "Thanks."

*

"Dad used to come here." Linda told Frank as they entered the restaurant.

Guitars and basses lined the walls along with pieces of drums and sticks and records. And the posters littered the ceiling and in between the glass in the tables, like a really thick covered sketchbook. Pearl Jam played as Frank looked around and felt his chest go tight and his eyes heat up. He couldn't help but sniff and hug his mom.

"He would play here with his friends and always order me the Oreo milkshakes with chocolate syrup."

Frank couldn't take his eyes off the walls even though they couldn't focus on one thing. It was an overload of rock and blues history.

"Flashy." Gerard's mom raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but damn good food and live music on Fridays." Linda said as she led the group to a guy behind the counter. "Jay!"

The burly guy with a beard and tattoos turned around and smiled. "Linda! What the hell brought you back here?!"

"Showing some friends around." She smiled.

The guy shook everybody's hands with his that had two big black x's on the underside of his palms until he came to Frank. "Aww, dude! Is this Frank?!"