Chapter Eighteen

My run of good luck when it came to Jimmy not noticing my hickeys came to a very quick end the following day. 

They'd faded pretty well, so I guess i'd be slacking on the makeup as I thought I was probably past the noticeable stage. That's why when I leaned past him to look at a video on Oli's phone, I didn't think twice about it. Until I heard the unmistakable sharp intake of breath, followed by a cackle of laughter. 

"Hold up" He pulled me back by the t-shirt and stared at my neck "are those hickeys? Have you been getting action and not informing be about it?!" 

"Er..." I blushed sheepishly. 

"he totally has" Oli grinned "and they're kind of faded. He's been hiding these for days." 

"Shut up, it's not a big deal" I swatted at Jimmy. "If you must know i'm seeing someone." 

"Who?" Both he, Oli and Kitty all chimed at once. 

"You don't know him" I shrugged and tried to avoid eye contact, instead focusing on eating my lunch. 

"Do we not at least get a name?" Kitty frowned. 

"Come on guys" Kellin rolled his eyes "I'm sure Frank will introduce him when he's ready to."

"Is he at least coming to your birthday party?"  Jimmy whined "you know I don't do well with witholding gossip." 

"Yes, he is actually" I smiled, earning very surprised looks from Kellin, Lynz and Ray. "So if you can hold off till then I promise you can meet him properly." 

"But that's weeks away" Jimmy whined. 

"I know, but I promise i'll tell you all about him really soon" I chuckled, and with that Jimmy seemed to temporarily give up, as Ray expertly changed the conversation. 

"You know" Kellin said later on when we were walking home "Jimmy is going to have an absolute field day when he finds out who you're really dating. Like, it's the biggest piece of gossip ever. I'm genuinely worried he may implode from the excitement of it all." 

"Something tells me that no matter how loyal he is, there's no way he'd be able to keep a secret that big to himself" I laughed "hence why i'm at least waiting until my birthday to tell him." 

"Is Gerard really coming to the party?" 

"Yeah" I couldn't help but smile "I wasn't sure if he would want to, but he actually really did, and as it's fancy dress we can just disguise him a little so nobody will recognise him straight away." 

"See! I told you throwing a party was a good idea!" he grinned as we walked down the driveway "this is going to be the best halloween ever." 

"Hope so" I grinned as we stepped inside, noticing the suitcases in the hallway and the sound of the kettle boilng in the kitchen. 

"Hello?" Kellin called out, just as a woman I presumed to be his mum emerged from the kitchen. 

"Hey boys" she beamed, giving Kellin a hug that was sincere but probably a bit too brief considering she'd been away for a few weeks "how was college?" 

"Fine thanks" Kellin turned to me "this is Frank, my friend that's living with us for a while." 

"Of course" she gave me a hug "lovely to have you here giving Kellin some company."

"Thanks for letting me stay" I said politely "I really appreciate it."

"Of course" She laughed "you're welcome for as long as you like. It's so nice to know Kellin isn't here on his own, i'm back for a week but then I'm off to Australia for a conference so I won't be in your hair for long. Now, come have a cup of tea - I was just making one." 

* 

Kellin's mum was lovely, but all the same I was quite glad when Jimmy called me up and asked if I wanted to hang out, as I wanted to let Kellin have some time alone with his mum before she jetted off again. 

"Meet me in the town centre" he said quite quickly over the phone "I've had an idea." 

He hung up after that, so it was only when I met him by the fountain that he finally revealed what he was up to. 

"Care to tell me what we're doing here?" I raised my eyebrow. 

"Do you remember Tony? Vic's bandmate?" 

"Yeah, what about him?" 

"Well, he works here" he pointed in front of us at the tattoo parlour i'd walked wistfully past many a time. "And he said there was a last minute cancellation, which means I'm getting inked!" He declared. 

"Even though you're not eighteen for another month?" I asked, to which he nodded "holy shit that's so cool." 

"come on, I don't want to keep him waiting" he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me through the door. 

that's how I ended up sat watching Tony tattoo Jimmy with this pretty cool frankenstein-looking girl on his leg, whilst we all listened to music and talked about how well Tony's band was doing. 

"This place is so cool" I looked around, trying to take in every aspect "I've always wanted loads of tattoos you know. I just don't know where to start." 

"I can start right now if you want" Tony shrugged "It's only a few more weeks till your eighteen so as long as you don't tell anyone where you got it, I can't see why it would hurt to give you one now." 

"Are you serious?" my eyes went wide "shit, that would be so cool." 

"the question is, what do you want tattooed Frank?" Jimmy piped up from the seat "and where?" 

"I just don't know where to start..."

"You could always start by covering up those damn hickeys" Jimmy chuckled, but it made something click in my mind. I stood up and walked over to the mirror, turning my head to the side and pressing my fingers against the side of my neck, where the shadowed bruises could just about be seen.

"You know what, yeah" I grinned, turning around "I want one right here, on my neck. I just don't know what." 

"You said your birthdays at the end of the month right?" Tony asked, to which I nodded "well, why not get something to symbolise that? Star signs, roman numerals, that sort of thing is always super popular." 

I thought about my star sign for a moment, and it was like a lightbulb went off in my head.

"I know exactly what I want" I declared, and in quite possibly the most spontaneous thing i'd ever done besides the first time I'd kissed Gerard, I sat down in the chair. 

*

My neck was killing me the whole walk to Gerard's that night. Perhaps getting a neck tattoo as a first ever one wasn't the best idea i'd ever had, but I couldn't bring myself to regret it when I'd looked in the mirror afterwards and seen the scorpion staring back at me, red and raw but undeniably perfect. 

I'd wrapped up in a scarf on my way over, and the tattoo itself was still bandaged up with some cling-film paster over the top to keep it protected, so it was well and truly hidden from view for the time being. 

Tony had done such a good job and he'd even given me a discount rate, so although I'd basically spent the remaining money in my bank account on it I couldn't bring myself to complain. The rush it had given me was similar to when I went tagging - I was already thinking about what I wanted next. 

Gerard opened the door dressed in an old hoodie and jeans, looking way too good in the oversized clothing. 

"Hey" he pulled me inside and kissed me as the door shut behind us, snaking an arm around me "I've missed you." 

"I missed you too, is Mikey here?" 

"Yeah he's in the kitchen, we're making veggie lasagne" his eyes grew wide when I pulled the scarf off "what the hells happened to your neck?" 

"I'll show you in a second" I grinned, pulling him into the kitchen where Mikey was stood drinking coffee. 

"Frank" He put the mug down and pulled me into a brief hug "it's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too, how long are you staying for?"

"Oh just a few days" he picked his mug back up "hey - is that a tattoo?" he pointed to my neck. 

"A tattoo?!" Gerard tried to peer closer at it, but I beat him too it by pulling away the plaster and exposing the view of the scorpion.

"Ta-daa" I exclaimed as they both took it in. 

"Woah, that's so cool" Mikey peered at it "when did you decide to get that?" 

"About five minutes before I got it inked" I chuckled, turning to Gerard "well, what do you think?" 

"I love it" he grinned "it's perfect. But I don't know how the hell you let someone put a needle on your neck" his grin slipped and he shuddered at that. 

"Needle phobia still as strong as ever then?" Mikey rolled his eyes when Gerard gave a scowl. 

"Always." 

"Well get used to this because i've already got the next three or four planned out" I was already thinking about what sort of thing i wanted to get on my arms and the back of my neck. maybe some stomach ones too. 

"Maybe wait till you're actually eighteen before you cover you body in ink" Gerard raised an eyebrow. 

"Last time I recalled waiting until Frank was eighteen wasn't an option for you two, so somehow I doubt he's going to wait till then to get more tattoos" Mikey remarked, making me laugh and Gerard blush a little. 

"You guys should sit down, the foods nearly ready" he changed the subject, and myself and Mikey took our seats as he began to dish up. 

"Seriously though" Mikey pressed "what are you going to do when Frank turns eighteen? Are you going tell Brian Gerard? Or are you both going to keep hiding it? Because it's going to come out at some point, and once it's not illegal anymore you're both going to get more sloppy covering your tracks when the stakes aren't so high."

"It's still something i'm thinking through" Gerard sighed as he set down the plates "I mean, Brian will not take it well. In fact I'm pretty sure I'll loose my job. So I think i'll try and have something else lined up before I tell him, you know?" 

"Like a church transfer?"

"Actually I was thinking about something else. I still want to help people, but maybe I could do it in a different way. Therapy maybe" he shrugged, not seeming as fazed by his potential career change as i'd expected. 

"What about your comics?" I frowned "they're so good. If you're going to change career why not give them a go?" 

"It's a possibility" he nodded "it would be hard work getting my foot in the door but i'm not going to write it off completely like i used to do." 

"Good" Mikey chimed in "you're too talented not to at least try." 

The rest of the evening passed quickly. Me and Mikey got on really well, and it was nice to be able to talk to him properly now that the awkwardness of our first meeting was long since forgotten about. Gerard seemed so happy to have us both there and getting along, and it was only when the clock hit eleven that i realised I should probably get going. 

"I should probably head home" I sighed, looking out the window and noticing it had started to rain a little. 

"I'll drive you" Gerard stood up. 

"You don't need to, I'm okay walking" I shrugged as I picked up my jacket. I knew Mikey was only over for a short period of time and I didn't want to detract from that. 

"Just accept the offer" he rolled his eyes "it's wet, cold and late, and it would make me feel better if I dropped you home rather than you walking."

"I guess so" I turned to Mikey "see you soon, Mikey".

"I hope so" he stood up and gave me a hug "it was really nice to see you again Frank. Look after the tattoo." 

When we pulled up outside Kellin's house Gerard leaned over traced his fingers along my collarbone, lingering just beneath my tattoo. 

"I never really gave much thought to tattoos, but I also never realised just how attractive they'd look on you."

"In that case I will definitely be investing in some more" I leaned into his touch, feeling the tips of his fingers brush against the sensitive patch of skin surrounding the scorpion. 

"Thank you for tonight. It's great to see you and Mikey getting along."

"I'm just so glad he's so accepting of me. It can't be easy to see how much trouble I could get you in and still be okay with it." 

"He knows i'm happy, and that's all he cares about" he sighed "and trust me, he's seen what a difference having you in my life has made. If anything, he's grateful for you." 

"Do you two both possess some rare gene that means you don't see me for the troublemaking shit that the result of the population seem to conclude I am?"

"Oh I know you're trouble alright, but i'm hardly the only one who knows you're not shit" and with that he pulled me towards him, kissing me hard and fast in the way he knew made me feel dizzy.