Chapter Twenty Three

I turned up to church on Monday with a scowl on my face. My day, to be summed up in a word, had been shitty, and now instead of being able to spend time with Gerard, I was going to have to deal with Brian. Although I hadn't even met him yet I was still irritated by his existence. He was a fucking cock block, wether he realised it or not.

I tugged on the ends of my hoodie and pulled myself inside, looking like your average, sullen teenager who would rather be anywhere else. In music all Kellin had talked about was Vic and the concert on Saturday, and although it had been fun to plan it all out I couldn't help but feel jealous when he so openly talked about his boyfriend. I wanted to be able to tell him about me and Gerard too, about how I'd never felt this way before and just all the details I couldn't share. But instead I just had to sit there and pretend that I was a single teenage boy who wasn't looking for any sort of relationship whilst he told me countless funny stories about his and Vic's crazy antics.

Oli had mentioned something about seeing Hannah that night, so I gave him an encouraging smile on my way out of the college campus. Hopefully he'd take my advice and just tell the girl he was head over heels for her before it was too late.

"Hello?"I yelled as I walked into the main part of the church. There in front of me was Gerard, standing near a tapestry with his shirt rolled up to his elbows and a smile on his face from the moment he saw me. Next to him was a man i presumed to be Father Brian Schetcher. He was wearing more traditional priest robes, with short dark hair and a serious, but not unwelcoming expression.

"Frank!" Gerard greeted me warmly, going for the nothing-to-hide approach and probably making a better job of it than I was "This is Father Schetcher. Brian, this is James and Isabel's nephew, Frank Iero. He comes after college to help out around here."

"Ahh so you're the troublemaker" Brian chuckled, reaching out to shake my hand "Nice to meet you Frank, I trust Gerard here has been keeping an eye on you then?"

"Yes, I guess you could say that" I nodded, trying not to let any sarcasm seep through, no matter how tempting. I wasn't use to trying to follow the rules or be generally well behaved, but I was willing to give it a shot for Gerard's sake. "I mean, I sort through the books and all that, and I clean now and again..."

"Well it's nice to see that your aunt and uncle care about you enough to send you here everyday" The moment he said it, Gerard shot me a warning glance, telling me not to rise to the conversation topic. I bit my tongue for his sake, and just made a humming noise in response.

"Why don't I get us all some coffee?" Gerard tried to change the subject "Frank do you want a cup?"

"Yeah, sure" I nodded, hoping Brian would get the hint and drop it. Naturally, he didn't.

"I mean it must have been very good of them to take you in at such short notice too" he continued regardless "to just welcome you into their home like that... you must be very grateful huh kid?" He even added the kid bit on the end like he was trying to irritate me. I was pretty sure he didn't mean to wind me up though, so I tried to keep my expression a happy one.

"Oh, well you know, family is family I guess" I shrugged, scuffing my shoes against the stone flooring.

"It sure is" He turned to Gerard, who was lingering in the doorway and watching the two of us interact with a small, nervous expression "Sorry, did you need Frank to give you a hand?"

"Um, yeah actually" Gerard nodded "Frank, could you come upstairs with me? I've got a job for you to do..."

"Sure" I hastily agreed before Brian could start to talk to me about family values and all that crap, quickly following Gerard out of the room and up the stairs to his office. It was only when he'd shut the door behind him and turned on the coffee machine, effectively drowning out any conversation noise, that he spoke.

"Sorry about that, he dosen't know that you and James don't er, get on so well" He leaned back against the table and folded his arms.

"That's one way to put it" I chuckled, unable to help myself.

"Why? What's happened now?"

"I might have punched him in the face last night...." I trailed off and watched as he tried and failed to hide the smirk appearing on his face "Dude just fucking laugh if you want to." He let out a small snort before composing himself.

"Sorry, not to condone violence or anything but the mental image is pretty damn funny" He sighed happily "But seriously, why did you punch him? Are you in shit for it? Well, obviously you are, but is it really deep?"

"Eh, average amount of shit i'd say" I shrugged it off "nothing that I can't handle on my own."

"You're avoiding the question" he frowned, stepping closer to me "What did he say Frankie?" He placed his fingers underneath my chin and titled my head up so I had no choice but to look him in the eye "Tell me."

"At first he was just warning me to stay away from Ray" I sighed, feeling myself loosen up a little at our proximity "and then he brought my parents kicking me out into it, making me out to be yesterday's trash. He said he'd kick me out even faster than my own parents did..." As I retold his insult it just made me even happier to have punched him.

"You're not trash, you're fucking treasure, okay?" He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug "and he's a dickhead for saying that to you. If you hadn't punched him I'd go and do it myself."

"Somehow I don't really think that would be considered lying low" I mumbled into his shoulder "But thank you Gee."

"You don't need to thank me for telling the truth" he insisted "the sooner you turn Eighteen and are away from that couple the better. I couldn't stand them before, but after seeing how they treat you? Now I can hardly bare look at them both."

"Try living with them" I pulled back so I could see him properly "Five more months though, huh? Then it's all over, i'll be able to move out and we can be a public couple." I tried not to think about all the things that could happen in five months, of how early on our relationship was. We simply had to make five months in my mind. For my own sanity if nothing else.

"Counting down the days sugar" he kissed me briefly "Just you wait. Once you're a legal adult i'm going to be able to do this to you in public" He kissed me again, this time for a little longer, tugging at my bottom lip as he did so.

"To be honest i'm even more interested in the things you still won't be able to do to me in public" I whispered, making him groan a little.

"Not here frank" He tried his best to scold me "Brian could come up here at any minute and I need you to at least look like you're doing something productive. Otherwise he'll wonder what we've been doing up here for the last ten minutes."

"I'll just sit here and do some coursework" I reluctantly stepped away from him and collapsed down into the sofa, getting out my English folder "You sit over there and do whatever it is you need to finish up, and then maybe you could give me a lift home later?"

"Sure, but no trying anything. I'm serious Frank" He sat down "If Brian see's anything we're fucked. We've gotta keep it innocent around here for both our sakes. Leave me to work on a time for us to be together properly."

"Okay" I sighed "But I don't see where we can even go anymore. Mikey's staying at yours, Brian's always going to be here now and I wouldn't come to mine unless you had a death wish. How are we suppose to be together?"

"We'll just have to get adventurous" He tapped his finger against his chin "I'll plan out something, don't worry."

*

Me and Gerard didn't get much of a chance to properly talk after that. Brian kept coming and going from the office, and every time I tried to being up the subject of us, he would dismiss it and tell me we'd talk properly later.

I hated Brian, even though he hasn't exactly done anything wrong, but I still hated him anyway. I wanted to be able to spend proper time with Gerard. It was the thing that I looked forward to most throughout each day and now I was stuck pretending like I hardly knew the guy at all.

By the time I got into Gerard's car so he could drop me home I'd completed my homework to an actually acceptable level and even designed a few new murals for the local streets to soon host.

"That's the first time I've ever been with you and time has actually gone slow" Gerard sighed and he climbed into the car next to me "Seriously, we're going to have to think of something because I can't just sit there every day with you meters away."

"You and me both" I grumbled, clipping in my seatbelt "Can't you like, send Brian to visit some sick people or something? Or whatever the fuck priests even do six days of the week."

"I'll try" He stated as we pulled out onto the main road "but I just don't want to make him in any way suspicious of us. I'll take you out somewhere soon though. We'll go somewhere where no one will recognise us."

"What? Like a date?"

"You seem surprised" He frowned "Why?"

"I just didn't realise that you were that serious about me" I'd kind of been wondering if I was nothing but a fuck to him, but then he would turn around with things like this that made me wonder if maybe I did mean something more to him. I knew he was certainly starting to mean more to me, from the way he made me feel every time I saw him to the way we'd fallen asleep together watching Star Wars. Friends with benefits definitely didn't do that.

"Of course I am" he reached over and squeezed my knee "And I mean it too. We'll go away for a night. How does this weekend sound?"

"I can't this weekend. I'm seeing my friends band perform. Everyone's going. It's not really something I can get out of" I sighed, not wanting to back out on my commitment to my friends, especially as I really wanted to go and see Vic's band.

"Next weekend then. I'll book us a hotel for Friday night, maybe Saturday too if you can get away with it."

"Where would we go?"

"Leave that to me" he smirked as he turned into the road behind my house. He parked the car facing a brick wall, right in the corner of the street where nobody would be able to see us, especially with the evening light. "I'll take care of all the details."

He leaned over and kissed me then, his hand inching further up my thigh in an attempt to tease me, and man did it work. I groaned a little when his tongue slid over my bottom lip, and he just used the opportunity to deepen the kiss further, his other hand resting on my hip.

After I got over the initial shock of the sudden kiss, I placed my hands in his hair, pulling him as close to me as he could get in the confined space of the car. He let his hand travel further up, and when he started to palm me through my jeans I let out a low moan, pulling his lip between my teeth as I do so.

"Fuck Gee" I breathed, trying to calm myself down before I got a full blown boner right there in the car "don't get me all excited before I go and see my freaking family."

"I'm sorry, it's just so fun" he giggled, keeping his hand there anyway. "I like to make you squirm."

"Tease" I grumbled.

"Oh now i'm the tease?" He raised an eyebrow "after all the looks you kept giving me back there I think if anyone is going to be labelled a tease, it would have to be you."

"I can't help it if you get turned on my lip biting, which I do when i'm concentrating" I had actually noticed the looks he gave me every time I did it, and so had bit my lip a bit more than perhaps necessary, but still.

"Yeah well it just reminds me of all the others places they've been" I playfully smacked his arm for that one.

"If that's your way of asking for a backseat blow job then forget it" I picked up my bag and opened the passenger door "you'll have to save that one for next weekend." He chuckled at that, watching me climb out the car.

"I look forward to it!" He yelled after me as I started to walk down the street, heading towards the relatives from hell and wishing I could just turn around and climb back in his car. I wanted to just go home with him and stay there forever, never having to face my uncle again.

Unfortunately for me with a wave and a smile Gerard was gone, and I was left to walk inside alone, kicking off my shoes and walking straight past James without a single mention or even word about the previous day's events. I had a feeling we were just going to blank the whole thing out, which suited me just fine. Mainly because he probably didn't know how else to punish me, but also because even he could admit that he'd stepped over the line with his insults.

Five months and counting, huh?

__________________________________________________________

Sup guys

This update was fuelled by The Killers

That is all

:)