"Do you know what they're like?"
"Well...not much, no." She sighed, "His name is Frank, he's...15, I think. He's not had it very easy, so you'll need to be nice to him, love."
I mocked offence, "I am always nice to the kids that stay here."
"Yes, I know. But Gerard, you're going to have to be really...careful, with Frank. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I think so..." I replied.
I thought back to what my mum had said, I need to be careful around Frank. But why? Why careful? He needed to be handled with care, I didn't understand, I really didn't, but I would oblige. I'd be careful.
-----
Gerard's mum fosters kids, and Gerard's cool with that, usually. But when Frank, a scrappy little ass, comes to live with them, Gerard isn't all that keen on the idea. But eventually, he'll warm to Frank, in more ways than one.
Frank is twenty eight: he's mentally stable for the most part, and well nobody has to know about pills he takes twice a day, do they? He's normal now, he's a person now, he's a fucking adult with an office job and he fucking hates it and that's fine, because he got out of the mental hospital three years ago, and these past three years of mundane nothingness have been the best three years of his life.
Ten years ago, or so, Frank was in love with a boy called Gerard with fiery red hair and the personality of a switchblade knife, and ten years ago that boy called Gerard had killed himself.
Frank still saw him though: hallucinations, as he knew them to be now, and it took him years in a hospital he never thought he'd get out of to convince himself of his newfound sanity, but he was okay now.
Twenty eight year old Frank Iero had been officially 'okay' since he was twenty five. He hadn't seen Gerard again, and he didn't even think about the guy - he was just normal, and he was almost painfully content with being the secretary to someone with a five figure salary.
But of course, on one fateful morning in December, that has to go and change, doesn't it?
(Technically a sequel to Summertime, but I wouldn't say you need to have read Summertime to understand and enjoy this)