Chapter 10

Frank was late.

He was unusually late.

Gerard huffed, his breath going upwards and blowing his small white fringe slightly. He was sitting behind the counter in The Way To Go as usual, bored out of his mind since Frank was supposed to come over a while ago, supporting his head on top of his hands, his elbows planted on the table in front of him.

He had already hooked up the store's Spotify to the speakers of the store, and a quite rad, old-school rock music playlist was echoing in a soft hum all throughout the room. Gerard softly sang the ones he knew, like Smashing Pumpkins and some Misfits, and noted down the ones he didn't recognize but liked the sound of, to search them up on his own Spotify when he got home later.

Twitter was practically dead, with the occasional selfie or retweet from people he followed showing up on his feed. His Instagram was not to talk about, since no one had posted anything for at least thirteen hours, and the only active account was this boys in lingerie one Gerard followed, and he really didn't fancy getting a boner in the middle of work, so that was out of the question. He had been sending Snapchats and looking for a new lock screen on Tumblr for the past hour, and that got very boring very quickly.

Jesus wasn't working today, and Mikey was hanging out with his friends, again. Gerard's few friends were either taking afternoon classes of university or working at their own jobs.

So Gerard was alone to take care of the store. He was not to close until eight in the afternoon by orders of his father, plus Frank was supposed to come over, so he was stuck there until the short boy decided to show up -if he was even going to come at all. Gerard scolded himself for not having exchanged phone numbers in their previous encounters, and decided to ask Frank when (and if) he came by.

It was quite funny, his 'relationship' with Frank.

What had started as a hate relationship where all Gerard wanted from the cute boy was for him to cover up his own street art had turned into an annoying one-sided friendship where Frank kept talking to him and bugging him every chance he got. At first, Gerard had scolded himself for thinking Frank was quite adorable, and since he was so shy and panicky, he decided it would be best not to do anything about it. He decided not to confront neither Frank nor himself about the tiny little crush he was developing on the boy every single time he smiled or laughed at Gerard or made a joke.

Astonished was an understatement to what Gerard had felt when Frank had confessed his attraction towards the white-haired boy. And Gerard had been a metaphorical puddle on the floor when they had shared their first kiss. The memory made Gerard's ears tint pink.

Frank's happiness and love for life was almost contagious. Whenever Gerard saw him grin or throw his head back and giggle, Gerard was reminded that one should feel the adrenaline each and every day, one should love their own lives like it was their last day on Earth, and that was what Frank did; he spray painted what he couldn't put into words on a wall, for everyone to see. He made a statement. He had an everlasting passion for what he did, his own reason for living pumped through his veins next to the adrenaline of getting caught, almost merging into one.

Gerard was reminded that he should love what he did for a living, that it was his own life and no one else's, that he was the one who had to choose his future and what he wanted to do.

Running an art shop slash library wasn't his passion, it didn't make him feel alive. He wanted the always-present adrenaline in his blood, he wanted to love what he did, he wanted to create, and he wanted others to love what he did as well. He wanted to do something, be someone, and not have to count the change of someone who was buying superglue or checking out a Cooking for Dummies book.

Gerard found himself craving the feeling of his heart threatening to jump out of his chest like Frank's when the short boy was tagging. He found himself craving the feeling of pride at something he made, at something other people could see and talk about, agree or disagree with the statement. He wanted to feel alive, not sit on his own ass behind a counter for the rest of his days.

And then it dawned on him: no one was stopping him.

The bell above the door suddenly chimed, and a familiar short boy entered the shop, with his hood up and his lip caught between his teeth. Gerard immediately smiled as Frank spotted him and approached the counter, standing on the tip of his toes to be able to rest his elbows and forearms on top of it.

"Hi, Gee-boy,"

"Hi, Frank," By now, they were smiling at each other with adoration, almost close enough to kiss, but still separated by a few inches.

"No morning kiss?"

"It's the afternoon," Gerard argued, though he still leaned forward and placed a peck on Frank's puckered lips. And then just went for it, almost lying on top of the counter that separated them and grabbing the back of Frank's neck, pressing their lips together once more, in a longer kiss.

He felt Frank grin into the kiss, his own smaller hand coming up to rest on the side of Gerard's face. Then he was pulling back, his hand swiping at the ugly baseball cap sitting on top of Gerard's white hair and placing it on his own head, not before removing the hood he previously had on. The cap was a dirty brown and had a ying-yang stitched on the front part in black, the thread almost falling apart.

Before Gerard could speak any further, the door was being thrown open once more, and two teenagers entered the shop, making the annoying little bell on top of the door ring. The taller girl with dark skin had amazing orange and yellow ombre hair, Gerard noticed right away, and both her arms and thighs were adorned with colorful tattoos, which Gerard was amazed at, and couldn't look away from. She looked like she could break a bone or two in your body if she wanted, so Gerard decided to be nice to her.

The other guy looked very different, he was shorter than her but taller than Frank (who wasn't, to be honest), and he reminded Gerard a lot of Mikey. The dude was wearing very baggy clothes for his thin form, and a grey beanie adorned his long-ish brown hair. He was like a combination of his brother Mikey and Sidney from the TV show Skins. Gerard decided not to point this out.

"Hope you don't mind, but these fuckers decided to tag along. I think you met them at the cinema? This is Octavia and Wayne, though we call him Pencil, so whichever you prefer, honestly," Frank spoke, already walking away towards the shelves on the art section, leaving Gerard stood awkwardly in front of his friends.

"Uh, hi? I'm Gerard, Frank's... uh, just Gerard,"

The girl with the bright hair -Octavia- grinned, "Oh, we know, we've heard a shit ton about you, haven't we, Pen?" Wayne, or Pencil, as Frank had said earlier, and as Gerard heard Octavia mention, nodded, looking around the store. Octavia seemed more interested in talking to Gerard. "I can see why our little Frankie is so hung up on you. I'm glad you decided to give him a second chance,"

"Second chance?"

"Not calling the cops or telling anyone about the tag. He would've been in big trouble, not only with the cops, his parents and all that shit, y'know," Gerard nodded, understandingly, as Pencil went off after Frank. "He's a good kid, annoying and sometimes dumb as shit, and also an energetic ball of ADHD, but he's nice, I promise. Don't be too hard on him, he can seem reckless and stupid, which he is, but he's an amazing person. I'm sure he hasn't told you, but that first time, when you caught him tagging? It was all of us, he decided to take the blame to save our asses, since if the police had been involved and someone decided to press charges, my ass would be in jail and Pen would be grounded until he graduates. Frank's quite sweet when he wants to,"

Gerard tried not to gush at how sweet Frank had been or too look too shocked, though he was sure a look of surprise overtook his features for a few seconds. Octavia nodded, as if understanding what Gerard was feeling, and then continued, this time in a more serious tone.

"Excuse me while I go all Mother-like on you, but his own real Mom has no idea he's into guys, so someone has to... Don't know if you've heard, but some people call me Jawbreaker, and that's not after the candy, Gerard. I'll break your bones if you do something to Ghoul- Frank, I mean Frank,"

Gerard gulped, "Yeah, understood, I won't,"

Octavia smiled at him, "Good. I like you, Gerard; you come to me if that fucker does anything,"

"Will do," Gerard decided he liked Octavia and her Spanish accent. Despite the fact that she had basically threatened to break his jaw, he knew she was just doing that to protect Frank or take care of her friend or whatever, and that was okay by Gerard, he knew Mikey would do the same. Gerard also knew anything between Frank and Octavia was mere friendship, since, like aforementioned, it seemed like more of a brother-sister relationship.

There was a loud sound coming from the library section, then, "I'm okay! We're okay!"

Gerard looked terrified for a second, praying to any and every God he knew that they hadn't broken anything in there. He had a sense of déjà vu, and Octavia rolled her eyes and went after Frank and Pencil, probably to see what Gerard feared was a broken shelf or something.

--

"Come on, it wasn't that bad, we were just trying to reach Fifty Shades Of Grey and all the porno fell down, not our fault you guys put it so high I literally had to climb up Pencil to reach it,"

"It's not porno, its called erotica, and mind you, it's so children –like you– can't reach," Gerard pointed out. Frank rolled his eyes at him from his position and placed a kiss on Gerard's lips, most likely to shut him up. He was sitting on top of the counter Gerard (or whoever's shift it was) worked behind, gaining quite a few inches on Gerard, who was standing between his legs, though cautious not to touch anywhere inappropriate like his legs or knees, God forbid.

Octavia and Pencil had gone home a few minutes ago, after they made sure nothing was broken or permanently damaged, and then stayed to chat for a bit. Octavia even ended up buying a few sketchbooks and expensive pencils, since she was a tattoo artist, as Gerard discovered.

Almost as soon as they had left, Frank had hopped on the counter and made Gerard stand in his current position, the shorter boy's arms around his neck, refusing to let him go. His brown hat was still on top of Frank's head, and it actually looked decent on him, so Gerard let him keep it. Frank kept running his hands through Gerard's white hair, inspecting it like he couldn't believe just how white it was. Gerard was happy in the position he was currently in, with them talking quietly between them, despite the whole store being empty, with the occasional soft kiss shared between both teenagers.

After a few minutes, Gerard actually worked up the nerve to being the one who started the kisses, and stepped slightly closer to Frank, already relaxing and warming up to the boy on the counter.

"It's the same thing, whatever, you can jack off to either, which makes it porn,"

Gerard raised an eyebrow, "You saying you jack off to erotica?"

"I can pretty much jerk off to anything, to be honest, not really a problem for me. A few fingers here and there, and I'm there," He grinned, making Gerard's ears tint pink once again. Frank always managed to say the right thing and make him blush. Instead of replying, Gerard leaned forward and placed another kiss to Frank's lips. He would never get tired of kissing him.

This time though, it wasn't a peck or a ten-second kiss, it was deeper, longer. Frank's fingers were splayed on his cheek like every single time they kissed, Gerard noticed, and he had unconsciously rested his palms on top of Frank's knees, tilting his head to get a better angle. Though he was the one to start the kiss, Frank wasted no time in being the first one to deepen it, his tongue teasing at Gerard's lower lip, asking for entrance, which Gerard gave willingly.

They sat -stood? - there for a while, just making out as the soft hum of a We Came As Romans song sounded through the speakers of the shop, not really a romantic song, but a nice one, one which Gerard would've noted down to add to his Spotify, if he wasn't currently making out with the prettiest boy he had ever seen.

The only thought in his mind was FrankFrankFrank, and he was maybe thinking about his desire to feel alive doing what he loved.

Maybe.

--
lmao i really gotta write these are pre-written ones from my summer break but oh well

im sorry and thank u for not murdering me :~)

i send love and shitty smut,
-blue