I Don't Think We Should See Each Other Anymore (Frerard) (slow updates)

Chapter 12 (F/G)

[mention of panic attacks in this one stay safe y'all]

Again, Frank's heart was pounding. He clutched the bouquet in both his hands and waited, too nervous to reach out and open the door.

As it turned out, Sara was Gerard's best friend's roommate and therefore also knew about him--she and Lindsey, the roommate, both did. So Frank finally met Lindsey, who he didn't even know existed, and it went as follows:

Sara sighed and let the ignition die down. "I gotta grab my backpack real quick," she said, pointing to the door of an apartment building. She had already unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door when Frank spoke up.

"Can I, uh, can I maybe use your bathroom?" He nervously bit his lip when she gave him a confused look. "I try to avoid public restrooms as much as possible, especially on trains, so-"

"Yeah, sure, no problem," she shrugged, sending him a reassuring smile. "You don't need to justify all of your actions and feelings. It's okay."

For a moment, Frank was frozen in place.

It's okay. It's okay?

Was it okay?

When Frank was in that accident, he got put into court and he had to justify his actions. Since then, that was everything he ever did; doing something and needing to justify it. And never had anyone said that 'it's okay'. So why was it now?

But using the toilet in someone's house wasn't the same as accidentally injuring a bus driver, was it?

Frank decided that was a problem for Future-Frank and got out of the car, leaving his backpack and the flowers inside before he went after Sara.

She opened the door to the apartment building, then pointed to the elevator. "Fourth floor, yes, no?" She quickly changed between thumbs-up and thumbs-down, giving him a questioning look.

With a slight grin, he gave her a thumbs-up; he thought it was sweet how considerate she was since she knew about the accident. Claustrophobia was very high on his list of things that he didn't need to experience daily but the elevator seemed pretty roomy, so he thought it wouldn't be a problem. Plus, he wasn't alone, so there was no time to freak out about such things.

When they arrived on the fourth floor though, he got nervous again. Did Sara have roommates? If yes, how many? Would they be okay with Frank being there? Would they ask questions? Would they maybe look at him weird?

Again, he didn't have time to think about it, because before he knew it, they were already in the apartment and Sara had vanished around the corner.

"Hey, Linds," she said to her roommate sitting on the kitchen counter, taking her coat off and throwing it over the rest of one of the chairs around the table. "I brought someone with me."

"Cool," Lindsey said, not even looking up from her phone, "who?"

Sara took two cups out of the cupboard above the sink, then clicked her tongue and grinned. "Frank Iero."

Lindsey scoffed. "Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus."

Frank had kicked his shoes off in the hallway and poked his head into the kitchen. "Uh, hi?"

Finally, Lindsey tore her gaze from her phone and looked him up and down. "You're not Frank Iero, are you?"

In an instant, Frank recognized her, ignoring her question for the time being. "You- you're that girl from the live stream."

She set her phone down, then looked him up and down again, hopping off the counter and walking over to him. With both her hands, she cupped his face and tilted his chin up so he looked her in the eye. "Are you," she started, speaking slowly, "Frank Iero?"