"So, I don't want to seem crude or anything but, like, how far exactly did you get with Jamia?" Brendon said. "Because it seemed kinda awkward at the dance."

"Um, well, we danced and held hands," Pete said. "We didn't kiss when I dropped her off. I was nervous, I wasn't sure if I should've or not. Fuck, did I make a mistake? Should I have kissed her?"

"Don't stress about it too much," frank said. "It's better to not kiss her than to kiss her when she didn't really wanna be kissed."

Pete nodded, picking up his pop can. The three of them were all hanging out in Brendon's bedroom, the tv playing in the background.

"What about you and Gerard, have you gotten over your fear of being touched yet?" Pete asked.

"We have been intimate but we haven't had sex," Frank said. "He's been going slow for me and I'm too nervous to make a first move."

"Dude, just grab his dick," Brendon said.

"No, I am not going to do that," he denied. "Where's Josh? I thought he was gonna be hanging out with us?"

"Oh, him and Debby are at a Doctor's appointment," Pete said. "Are you sure Jamia likes me? I know you said that she said she was into me but something just felt a little bit off. She was really quiet the whole time and stuff."

"She was probably just nervous, don't worry about it, man," Frank said.

"Where is Gerard? How's he doing?" Brendon asked.

"He's helping his brother," he said. "He got another one of those weird letters again. This one had a razor and was written in blood."

"Now that is just fucked up," Brendon said. "Let me tell you, if someone sent one of those letters to my Ryan then I would beat their asses."

"Yeah, I definitely wanna beat the person sending him the notes," Frank agreed. "I have to go in tomorrow to answer questions for the police. Gerard told me they're going to bring in Alicia Simmons for questioning too."

"You think she's behind this?" Brendon asked and Frank shrugged. "What if it's--"

"If you're gonna say her, no, it's not her," Frank interrupted. "And I might have done something bad. Or maybe not bad but just wrong."

"What's that?" He asked.

"I told Gerard that she was dead," Frank said. "That she died in a car accident."

"Wha--why would you do that?" Pete asked.

"I don't know, I thought it would be easier so that way I would never have to tell Gerard about her," he said. "Besides, it's all in the past, she might as well have died."

Pete frowned.

"Not like that, obviously I don't want her dead or anything but there's just no connection between us anymore, she's not the one sending the notes and nobody should point fingers at her," he said.

"You're right, maybe it is better that we all just pretended she was dead," Brendon said. "She's not really relevant anymore, you burned those bridges."

Frank shrugged, letting out a sigh.

"It was pretty bad, wasn't it?" Frank asked and they nodded. "I'm just glad that things aren't bad between us anymore."

"I still think it's fucked up that you said she was dead," Pete muttered.

"Where's Jamia?" Frank asked.

"Hanging out with her sister," Pete said. "I wanna take her out on another date, what do you think we should do?"

"If it was warmer I would say take her mini golfing, she loves mini golf," Frank said.

"There's this one indoor mini golf place about two towns over," Brendon said. "I took Ryan on a date there one time and it's pretty nice. You should go in the evening, otherwise earlier in the day there are a lot of younger kids there. Oh, and on Fridays they turn on the blacklights."

"What do I do?" Pete asked. "I've never really had a girlfriend before. When do I hold her hand? When do I kiss her? Should I bring her flowers or is that too much? Maybe I should bring chocolates instead, flowers are kind of useless."

"She would probably really like chocolates," Frank said. "Jamia says she likes you so it doesn't really matter when you do stuff just as long as you do them. Just hold her hand and open her door for her. It's the little things that make her happy."

"Thanks for the advice," Pete said. "I'm really nervous, I just want things to work out between us. I have been dreaming about going on a date with her since forever. Remember last year?"

Pete was referring to the year before when a senior boy on the football team asked Jamia out on a date. She had been really excited, dressed up all cute with her makeup done. They were meant to meet at the restaurant and he ended up standing Jamia up, leaving her to wait at the restaurant for an hour and a half. The waitresses ended up giving her a free ice cream sundae because they felt bad.

"She was so heart broken and I just wanted nothing more than to just hold her tight," Pete said. "I should have asked her out then, I don't know why I didn't. I was just nervous."

Frank smiled, patting his shoulder.

"Just be glad that you've down it now, I hope that you guys are really happy together," he said. "And maybe one day I can be best man at your wedding."

"Hey, I'm gonna be the best man," Brendon said.

Frank laughed, throwing a pillow at him.

"So, when do you think Debby and Josh are going to tie the knot?" Pete asked.

"Oh, it will not take long, they're already gonna be living together and they're having a child together," Frank said. "I bet that they're going to married about a month after the baby is born, maybe two months. They're probably just going to get married in a courthouse. I know they would probably want something nicer but they would keep it simple for the money."

"Speaking of, how are things going with your situation?" brendon asked.

"A little bit better," Frank said. "My mom's gotten a raise and usually I get money for Christmas from my dad so that should help out. We weren't behind on our rent this week. Being on the free lunch program at school really helps too because we don't have to pay for as much food and stuff like that."

"You know, if you ever need help on anything we're always here for you," Brendon said. "You know, if you maybe need a place to crash or something. My mom loves to cook, she probably wouldn't mind making you and your mom a lasagna or something."

"Thanks, Brendon, I'm sure my mom would love that," Frank said. "She works a lot, I'm sure she wouldn't mind coming home to something homemade rather than heating up some instant noodles."

"Josh just texted, he gave me a little update on the baby," Pete said. "Ryan is getting bigger and he's perfectly healthy. So far he is growing right on track."

"I feel like if I had a baby I wouldn't name him Ryan or something really common like that," Frank said. "I would want something cuter and more unique. Not something too unique that it's obscure and weird but just something that isn't uncommon."

"I'll be sure to tell Debby you hate the name of her unborn child," Brendon said.

"No, I don't hate it, obviously," Frank said with a small chuckle. "It's a nice name and stuff but it's just really common."

"Would you name your daughter after your mom?" Brendon asked. "The two of you are really close."

"We are and I love her and all but naming a baby Linda is just weird," he said. "Have you ever actually met a baby named Linda? Babies don't have the name Linda. Maybe I would let her name my child, or at least take part in the naming process. Maybe choose their middle name."

Frank played with his sleeves, a small smile on his face. For a moment he thought of his future with Gerard, the two of them living together and raising children together.

"Frank, I'm still gonna need more advice on Jamia, you know her best," Pete said.

"Oh my god, Pete, you're gonna be just fine you just can't get so worried, it's the same when I got really nervous around Gerard," Frank said. "Seriously, Jamia doesn't quite have the personality to make up for your awkwardness like Gerard did with mine. She's worried that things are going to be awkward and she doesn't want things to be awkward between you but she still wants to be with you."

Pete nodded, grabbing his phone.

"You know what, I am going to ask her out on another date right now," Pete said.

He dialed her number before pressing the device to his ear.

"Hey, Mia," Pete said with a nervous chuckle. "I was just, uh, just calling to see if you wanted to go out on a date with me one day this week. I was thinking that maybe we can go down to this one indoor mini golf place that I heard about...Okay, okay, great, I will text you later with the details  then...okay, I will, talk to you later."

Pete hung up, sighing in relief as he pumped a fist.

"She said yes!" He cheered. "She also told me to say hello to the two of you."

"How does she know we're with you?" Frank asked.

"Uh, snapchat maps I think," he said. "That's probably where. That's my guess, at least."

"We should go on a double date," Brendon suggested. "That would probably make things a little bit easier between you two if you had me and Ryan there to help make conversation so things wouldn't be so awkward."

"That sounds good," Pete agreed. "We'll have to set that up one day. I still can't believe that Josh got Debby pregnant, that almost makes me nervous to date. I mean, what would you guys do if you got your girlfriend pregnant in high school. Imagine if I got Jamia pregnant."

"God, that would be awful, my mom and I are barely able to support ourselves, imagine having to pay child support on top of all that," Frank said. "When I first had sex with my girlfriend I think I was scared that she was pregnant for, like, three months afterwards. We used a condom and everything but I was still just super worried that something went wrong, I wasn't even a hundred percent sure if I put the condom on correctly."

"I don't even know how to imagine that," Brendon said. "I'm, like, super gay. But I don't know, my parents have some money so I guess that it wouldn't be too hard to pay child support but they wouldn't be happy, I would have to get a job to help pay for it. I would obviously try to be in that child's life and stuff because having an absent father would suck but I don't think I would stay with that family unless it was super serious, like how it is with me and Ryan."

"Did you really put the condom on wrong, Frank?" Pete asked.

"I-I don't know, I don't know how to put on condoms," Frank said. "I mean, now I do but I didn't back then. I don't remember exactly but I am pretty sure that I put it on wrong. I was nervous and impatient."

The two laughed at Frank, making him scowl.

"It's not funny, okay? I was fifteen and young and stupid," Frank said.

"Well, you better get it right when you do it with Gerard," Pete said. "No offense to him or anything but, like, he's been with a lot of people and we don't know when he's last been tested."

"Or you can both get tested and then you can do it raw," Brendon said. "Trust me, raw is so much better."

"Okay, we don't need to keep talking about my sex life," Frank said. "I thought we were gonna play video games, what happened to that?"

Brendon smiled and passed out controllers so they could all spend twenty minutes arguing about what game to play.