Undeserving of Your Sympathy (Frerard)

2. D&D and Fangoria

After spending a couple hours of interacting with people (yuck), Gerard was ready for his lunch break. Bert took over and Gerard got his daily burger. As he was eating and gazing around, he saw a barber shop. Too bad he was broke and couldn't afford to dye his hair red. He didn't want to dye it himself either in fear the dye he would use is cheap and destroy his hair. He finished his food and had twenty minutes to spare so he looked at the prices. He sold save up. It was $120. He made a mental note to save. He had just started his job anyway.

Gerard decided to explore the mall and nothing really excited him. He didn't like how so many people were everywhere so as he headed back, he saw the bookstore and wanted to get some books and magazines. Well maybe comics. He wasn't a strong reader.

He walked in and in the front saw a fangoria magazine for $3. It was reasonable so he picked it up to buy. Then he saw a whole shelf long aisle of comic books and went over to look. It wasn't sorted in alphabetical order so Gerard spent ten minutes trying to find a certain one. He had to head back in a couple minutes until a voice came up behind him and asked, "Can I help you?" He looked around and saw a boy probably his same age but he was about four inches shorter. He had flat black hair and a fake temporary tattoo of a scorpion on his neck since he was still underage. He had a very adorable smile and looked like a bookworm. Nothing wrong with that. Gerard nodded to his question.

"What are you trying to find?"

Gerard really hated this. He never really had to interact with people. He mentally slapped himself for getting into this situation. He didn't even have a card or anything prepared to say he was mute.

He made the "zip lip" motion and the boy understood. 

"You're mute?" 

Gerard nodded. Then he motioned to check out and thought just to forget the comics.

The short boy led him to the checkout and Gerard paid in cash. Before Gerard left, he asked, "do you like D&D?" 

Gerard slowly nodded. He wasn't a huge fan or anything. 

"Here." The boy handed him a dragon figure. "It's free". He smiled.

Gerard took the dragon and smiled too. He read the boy's name tag as frank.

"I'm frank," he said. What's your name?" Frank then felt stupid for asking that he couldn't reply. "Well i'll See you around I guess." He smiled again and then Gerard walked back to Hot Topic but he felt some feeling he's never felt before. Like an attraction. Like a chemical bond between him and Frank. It made him all happy and tingling feeling inside too. He made it back to the store and sat down fiddling with the dragon while reading fangoria until another customer popped up. The day was pretty simple. About an hour before closing, Gerard still was slowly reading Fangoria. It took him a while and he was frustrated so he stopped and just inspected the dragon.

"Oh it's you."

He looked up and well, Frank was there. "You work here?" He asked.

Gerard nodded. "Can I help you?" Gerard wanted to say but he didn't. He hoped it isn't come off as rude. Frank already knew but other customers always seemed to not understand. Gerard was stacking up too many unnecessary problems.

Frank went to the back with Gerard following. He hoped it wasn't too awkward. Frank smelled nice too when he walked past. Gerard sniffed near and he froze because frank kinda moved awkwardly like a twitch or something or maybe it was him nothing what Gerard did.

Frank pulled out a shirt in XS of the Misfits and then brought it to the counter. Gerard fumbled around with the computer. It had to freeze. He was getting upset and to Frank it  seemed a bit visible and Gerard got up and put his hand out as if saying one moment.

He walked to the back of the store and tapped Bert. He motioned for him to walk outside.

"You want me to go out? I'm doing the inventory. It's separate."

"Please," Gerard signed although clearly Bert didn't understand.

"Ugh. Lemme see what your complaining about.

Bert walked out and was instantly bigger than frank and intimidating. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was buying this and your colleague just left looking upset."

"I'm sorry about that. Would you like to report it?"

"God no." Said Frank. He could tell the boy was a bit odd and shy and him being mute he didn't want to get him fired. Life was probably already rough enough. "What's his name though?"

"Gerard. He's mute."

"I figured," frank said. "I work at Barnes and Nobles a couple stores down and he came in earlier but he couldn't communicate so he left without finding what he needed."

"He's a bit of an outcast," Bert replied. He put the shirt in a bag and handed it to Frank.

"How long has he worked here?"

"Why are you so interested?"

Frank didn't know if Gerard was gay so he just said, "I thought he looked nice."

"Well I barely interact with him," replied Bert. "And he barely interacts with me. If you really want to, learn sign language."

"Have a nice day," frank said as he walked out. He never saw Gerard pop out again even as he was leaving his shift which happened to be the same hours until he got to the parking lot where is car was and saw Gerard. He had a bag with his stuff and put it in his bike basket and then strapped his helmet on.

"He's a good boy. Very safe," thought frank. He thought Gerard was hot and could swear he was smelling him but didn't want to make assumptions. If Gerard was gay, that'd be great but frank also wanted friends. Being a bookworm was very nerdy and his parents were the Catholic home school type.

Frank slowly followed Gerard on his bike but he had to speed up in his car so he took one more look before going home. Gerard was too adorable for his eyes.

As Gerard biked home, all that was on his mind was frank. He was sure to tell Mikey all about him and his therapist Ray which he had to meet with tomorrow morning. Gerard liked talking to his therapist because everything was confidential. He even told him things he didn't even tell Mikey. 

Gerard just couldn't find himself not smiling for once.