I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love (But I Did)

Frank Still Loves Gerard

Mikey's fingers drum against the counter meticulously for several minutes. He doesn't seem to know what to do other than sit in the silence. The whole room is quiet, and he's the only person there. Gerard finally clocked out an hour ago after a record amount of crying. He was not very good at communicating his emotions after he had that little revelation.

It feels like it takes days rather than an hour, but Mikey finally hears someone at the lock. Mikey lifts his head up, and crosses his fingers that Frank will be alone. He's got half a mind to yell at Frank for ditching on the Friday tradition, which Gerard is religiously in tuned to. He decides against that though, he'll just get right down to business.

"Hey Frank," Mikey says, when he steps into the apartment.

"Uh, hi Mikey?" Frank says, and looks around, "Strange to find my roommates brother in my apartment, but no roommate."

"What? Oh, I threw his body in the ocean, but that's not important right now."

"What is important then?"

"Well, that's weird, actually. It's Gerard. We need to talk about Gerard."

"Is this like the 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' thing, because I've really never seen Gerard as a murderer. He just doesn't have that kind of personality," Frank says, throwing his jacket off and onto a hanger, before he turns and walks into the kitchen. Mikey's standing on the other side of the counter watching Frank a little too intently.

"I heard you have a boyfriend," Mikey says, getting right into things.

"Uh, yeah?" Frank replies, "But I don't see what this has to do with-"

"But last I checked you were in love with my brother. Now you have a boyfriend, who is not my brother, and that kind of contradicts the whole being in love with Gerard thing," Mikey's voice is quiet. Quiet enough that, if by some happenstance, Gerard is awake in the other room, he won't be able to hear.

Frank frowns, "I guess, but I don't see how that's any of your business."

"Well I just want to know where you stand now. Do you still love him, or what? What's going on with you?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of at a crossroads. I think I'm starting to get over Gerard," Frank says, smiling. It's been a long time coming. He has spent way too long being in love with Gerard, and he's finally getting past that. He just might be falling in love with someone else.

"Okay, so you don't like Gerard?" Mikey asks, nervously. Usually he'd be really happy to hear that come out of Frank's mouth, but the circumstances have changed. This is all really bad timing. If Gerard had only figured out his emotions out a month ago, things wouldn't be so messy and uncomfortable.

"I just gave you my answer, what more do you want?"

"Percentages. I work best with numbers on the table," Mikey says.

"God, I don't even understand you," Frank shakes his head and grabs himself a glass of water. "Okay so, if I had to tell you how in love with Gerard I am, I'd say it's like, an even 50/50."

"And how in love with your boyfriend are you?"

"You have no respect for people's privacy do you, Mikey?" Frank asks.

"Not particularly."

"Okay, fine, I mean, I guess I'm not in love with Aaron at all right now. I'm in like with him, if you want to use an annoying term to describe it, but it's nothing more than that yet. I think the potential for me to be in love with him is really high though," Frank says.

Mikey doesn't know if his face shows the disappointment, but Frank probably wouldn't detect it even if he did. The difference it would make in Mikey's face is so negligible, it need not be factored at all.