"Maybe I don't have feelings for girls at all."

It soon became evident that Mikey had taken Frank's words entirely the wrong way, and was now staring at the sixteen year old liked he'd just confessed to killing a man, but really, it would be absolutely fine if Frank could just laugh it off and tell him that he intended to convey the fact that he was an apathetic asshole, and not a guy that liked it up his asshole, but his words soon stuck in his throat as what Bert had said to him, and then what Bert had said to him and then what he said to Gerard flashed through his mind, and oh fucking hell.

It seemed that the more Frank considered the idea of homosexuality, the more 'appealing', well logical it seemed, and maybe he was a faggot, and maybe he was a little in love with Gerard, but there was no way in hell that he was going to admit that ever, not to himself, and especially not to Mikey Way.

"I.. I meant- I didn't ever mean that I-" Of course just 'laughing it off' was far harder than Frank had expected, and he couldn't help but just blush like hell as Mikey continued to just fucking look at him: that same 'confessed to killing a man' look.

"Are you gay or not Frank?" And when Mikey just put it as directly as that, the fact that Frank just didn't fucking know couldn't be helped at all, and the sixteen year old found his words catching in his throat as it went dry and he considered puking his guts up, but reckoned Mikey wouldn't exactly appreciate the vomit stain on his carpet.

"I-I-I... don't know... I mean, I'm probably like ninety nine percent chance not, but I just, my head's being screwed with, my head's being just- and I- I-... I just don't know anymore." He sighed out, not knowing whether a confession of the calibre was something he should have regretted instantly or not, but really, they were far past the laughing off stage now. "I don't want to be gay, I just, I'm not, I-I-I... just-"

"Who is it?" Mikey was nonchalant and just knew exactly what Frank was trying to convey, and however on earth he'd managed that, it was just something the sixteen year old was thankful for, but then, then there was that matter of who it was, and telling Mikey that his mind was headfucking itself over none other than Mikey's brother - the emo lump who was pretty much the sworn enemy of Mikey himself.

"Err... no one in particular, I just, I fucking just-"

"Frank, I've been through this whole conversation with my brother a few years ago at least six times, so I know how it goes: it's a guy, and you're killing yourself over him, because you're in love and you want to continue believing that you're 'normal' and that you can just fuck girls and ignore this, but I know from Gerard that ignoring it or, trying to, just does nothing but screw you over, Frank, so come on. Don't lie to me."

"I can't tell you who, but you're right, you’re so goddamn right about everything, but I can't be gay, I just, my best friend's a homophobic asshole, and I'm- I'm supposed to be a homophobic asshole, but I... I... my head goddamn hurts thinking about this, and I guess it would be easier just to tell you, I mean, you're my friend and I trust you, but I just can't, and I'm sorry, I'm a fuck up, and I-I-I... I-"

"It's Gerard, isn't it?" Frank's eyes widened in an expression signifying none other than the one thought running rampant through his head right then: 'oh fuck me, you've got in perfectly right but there's still nothing I can do but deny it'.

"No!" Frank exclaimed with entirely too much vigour, and really, Mikey had to try not to just laugh in his  face because the guy was an absolutely terrible liar.

Maybe it was better if Frank didn't admit it though, because then Mikey knew that due to Gerard's stubborn demeanour, that the two of them would never get anywhere and his asshole of a brother would never have the satisfaction of being right about something, even if it did involve the worst fucking plan ever.

Maybe Mikey was just selfish to think that, but surely Frank was Mikey's friend, and not Gerard's goddamn boyfriend; Gerard had already screwed that over for himself with the whole 'I'll dress up in a skirt and sexually confuse a straight boy' idea. So really, Mikey could just about support the fact that Gerard didn't deserve this, and that Mikey deserved one goddamn friend who he knew was far too scared to ever screw him over by fucking someone he cared about.

"Good." Mikey finally sighed out, and Frank bit back any kind of response towards the fifteen year's old exasperated answer, because really, the both of them just knew how screwed they both were, except, this time, neither were eager to admit it.

"Yeah, I just, some guy... it's not... it's not real, I just, I'll be over it, I guess." Frank sighed out, pulling his knees up to his chest and Mikey just suppressed how much he hated lying to pretty much his only friend, just for the sake of selfish jealousy and that his only friend, did in fact remain his friend.

"You won't, not really, but you can try, I guess." Mikey sighed out, taking a drag of his joint and trying to wipe away just how screwed everybody was, and how it kind of essentially was his fault.

"I keep drawing guys and... their dic- I... fuck... in art class." Frank finally broke the silence with a somewhat questionable statement, his words catching in his throat a little as he couldn't quite get the truth to make itself known; Mikey's eyes widened a little, but he nodded for Frank to continue regardless. "And Gerard just kind of laughs it at and says I'm not taking it seriously, but I just... my head's messed up and it's screwed over by guys because I can't stop thinking about this it's just up until now, I've managed a far better job of suppressing it."

"I didn't know you had art together." Mikey tried his best to just comment casually and not make it obvious that it was in fact obvious that Frank was hanging himself head over heels for none other than fucking Gerard.

"Yeah, I got kicked out of my last art class and I'm in his now, and he kind of hates me, and I kind of hate him, but whatever, everyone in art class is a pretentious asshole-"

"What about you?" Mikey smirked a little, raising his eyebrows and really just glad that the subtext of the conversation didn't revolve around his brother.

"I can draw if I try - it's an easy A, I guess. Better than like science or something." Frank shrugged it off. "I mean, it's alright, I don't hate Gerard, I just... I guess... it's, just I-"

And by now, Mikey could finish Frank's sentence for him, and there was nothing that the fifteen year old hated quite like that.

-

Gerard couldn't quite help but look forward to the days where he had art class and therefore was 'forced' to sit next to Frank Iero for an hour, and really, he couldn't help but hate himself for that, because at this point, pathetic might as well be his middle name.

Gerard Pathetic Way.

It did have a certain ring to it, and he had to say that he preferred it to Arthur - fucking Arthur. He had to say that Arthur was a bad decision on his parents' part.

And it was Arthur that Gerard was so caught up in thinking about that made sure he didn't at all look where he was going on the way to art class, and just like that, it was made evident that God hated him in the fact that moments later, Gerard had fallen to the floor, and of course, on top of none other than Frank Iero - fuck.

Gerard's eyes widened as his cheeks turned a horrible shade of red as he stumbled trying to get up again. "Oh fuck, I'm so sorry, I- I... fu-"

"Don't worry about it." Frank only smirked, lying back on the floor with his hands behind his head like he was just sunbathing or something, and oh dear god Gerard was about to goddamn kill himself here. "Quite comfy down here - better than art class."

"Frank, we're going to be late, come on!" Gerard insisted, unsure as to when Frank Iero had been involved in the matter of him getting to art class on time, and really, he knew instantly that there was no way in hell that this was going to go at all well. "Frank!"

"Have you stopped trying to figure out who I am for yourself? Because I don't want to fit some messed up asshole stereotype of yours, you know? Gerard, if we're going to be friends then I'm not going to goddamn act like you want me to." And really, where on earth 'friends' had come from, neither of them had any idea at all.

"This isn't the same you that was staring at me burning poptarts yesterday - this is Frank 'Asshole' Iero, you're far too good at lying, aren't you?" Gerard sighed out, watching out as Frank resigned himself to silence as he got up from the ground, wiping dust off his knees in a manner that porn had entirely corrupted for the seventeen year old.

"I'm excellent at lying, Gerard." Frank corrected him in a tone simply far too nonchalant. "Now, are we friends or what?"

"I... I... guess?" Gerard blushed a little and Frank tried to stop lying to himself about what that blush meant and why on earth he would ever care about it, because he didn't, and Mikey was just wrong, wasn’t he?

"Then come on, I don't want to be here, and my parents aren't home so we can go hang out over there." Frank gestured down the corridor and Gerard soon came to realise that Frank was genuinely going to screw his life over with this, but still he was far too eager to say yes.

"Why me? Surely you have friends you actually want in your house, I-"

"You're my friend, Gerard Way, and maybe I can't be bothered to find someone I'd rather spend time with so we're stuck with each other, I guess. Now come on - what do you say?"

Gerard's mind, and Gerard's sanity said that this was truly the worst idea he'd ever had and literally the worst thing to ever agree to, but Gerard's heart and Gerard's hormones said, "yes."

And Frank fucking grinned along like the asshole he was, and Gerard tried not to think too hard about being manipulated because it was giving him a headache being near the guy, let alone trying to decipher as to what the hell was going on in that head of his.

-

And as Frank led Gerard into his house, the sixteen year old locking the door behind them, Gerard found himself thrown to the floor for the second time in the past twenty minutes, but this time, not by Frank, but by something entirely more slobbery and furry, yeah, if that wasn't a dog, Gerard was pretty much screwed.

"Daisy, come on, get off him." Frank could only burst out into laughter as the seventeen year old continue to lie there with his eyes screwed shut, even as the overexcited and certainly overgrown dog climbed off of him. "She gets a little excited around new people."

"Well, you don't fucking say." Gerard sighed out, pulling his eyes open and looking at the goddamn asshole of a dog sat across the hall, almost fucking smirking at him. 

"You ever going to get up, huh?" Frank smirked, watching as the seventeen year old, almost reluctantly pulled himself up from the floor, following his absolute least favourite straight boy up the stairs and into the room with a massive Misfits poster across the door.

"Nice music taste." Gerard commented, grinning a little and Frank only smiled as Gerard shut the door behind them and the sixteen year old sat down on the bed, leaving Gerard to awkwardly make his way to Frank Iero's bed and sit crossed legged beside him, and really despite just how absurd it sounded, this would all be so much easier for him if he was wearing a miniskirt.

"Yeah, you too." Frank sighed out, pulling a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lighting it, turning to Gerard only momentarily to exchange a silent nod and then hold out the packet to him, leaving Gerard to take one and light it with his own lighter.

"How's being best friends with my brother, huh?" Gerard asked, falling back against the bed and blowing smoke rings out up at the ceiling, and definitely not changing the subject of conversation to the Frank that he preferred - the Frank that had caused him to burn poptarts, and not the Frank that was ruining his life, despite the fact that they were very clearly the same person, but Gerard's head was already screwed at this point.

"He asks too many questions and makes too many assumptions." Frank's words were indirect but the sixteen year old froze a little as he came to realise exactly what subject of conversation he was alluding to, and oh god, why had he ever decided that inviting Gerard over was a good idea? He didn't like him, he most certainly fucking didn't, but he seriously wasn't helping himself here.

"Yeah." Gerard sighed out, leaving Frank to fall back against the bed beside him, and the two to exchange a somewhat reluctant smile, and really at this point, Frank was certain that his head was trying to kill him. "What was he asking questions about?"

Well, unless Frank lied here, he was pretty much dead.

"Just stuff." He sighed out, deliberately avoiding Gerard's gaze, and leaving the seventeen year old to chuckle to himself at just how obvious Frank was being. "What?"

"Okay, so that means it's something you don't want me to know - something you're embarrassed about, huh?" And Gerard knew that he was kind of being an asshole here, but Frank spent the entirety of his life being an asshole, so really, the guy kind of deserved this here, somehow; Gerard wasn't just a nosy little asshole, he promised.

Frank only shrugged in response after seeing just how well lying to Gerard had gotten him previously; Gerard was just different to everybody else and he really did fucking hate that, and most due to the fact that he was well aware of the reason why, just nowhere near comfortable accepting it.

"And yet you trusted goddamn Mikey." Gerard snorted at that, and Frank's eyes only widened; the sixteen year old sitting up on the bed and watching Gerard with a certain degree of curiosity. "Mikey's just an asshole, you know - like you, so I guess that's why you get along so well, but-"

"Gerard, what's your goddamn problem with me?" Frank exclaimed - snapping all at once, and startling the seventeen year old in the process, who soon sat up, facing Frank on the bed, and right then, Frank was far too pissed off and confused to even think about just how close they were and about how this was his bed, and about how these thoughts just wouldn't leave him alone, and that telling Mikey had only made it worse.

Had only made it real.

"What do you mean?" Gerard asked for the millionth time and Frank had to bite down upon his bottom lip to avoid slapping either himself or Gerard in the face.

"You're more than happy to come over to my house and talk to me like we're friends, but I'm still this asshole to you, and I just don't get it! Where the hell do we stand? You're just so goddamn confusing, it fucking hurts my head."

"Yes, I think you're an asshole, Frank, but I put up with you and come over your house, because maybe I don't want you to be, because you try too hard, and this isn't the real you: you're a mess, to say the least, and I just want to speak to the Frank that made me burn poptarts and not the one who thinks that he's better than me."

"But why do you still fucking try? Why the hell do you care and why on earth don't you just give up, because, really, by now I would have punched myself in the face, and really, I kind of want to." Frank admitted, sighing out, and watching as Gerard's gaze drifted downwards and his cheeks tinged a certain shade of pink.

"Do you really want to know? Do you want the absolute truth?" Gerard snapped, just like that, glaring up at Frank like he hated nothing more than he hated the sixteen year old, and really, that was nothing but the polar opposite of the truth.

"Yeah. Of course I want to know, Gerard." Frank was instant in his answer, and for the one time when he actually needed to think about something, because for once when it might be important, he didn't.

"Only if you be truthful with me and you just throw away this asshole act because I can't deal with that anymore, Frank, okay?" And Gerard was trying his best not cry, but really, he was just about to fucking ruin his life here, and perhaps, just like that, maybe it couldn't quite be helped.

"Ger- are you crying?" Frank's eyes widened, leaning forward, causing the distance between them to practically be non-existent as Frank tried not to think about Gerard's lips, and just about Gerard really, and god, it really wasn't working. "I'm sorry- I... fuc-"

"Frank, just..." Gerard pulled away a little, leaving Frank's eyes to widen as he tried not to look into this too much and he just prayed that his head would stop driving him to insanity over this, even if just for five seconds. "It's my fault - I'm the one that's messed up everything over here-"

"What? No, Gerard, n-no... you haven't." And Gerard could only laugh at how naive Frank still was, and really, he did hate to break that naivety, but it was inevitable.

"I like you, Frank. That's why I keep trying, and that's why I still put up with you being an asshole. I like you. You know what I mean." And as the seventeen year old stunned Frank into a wide eyed silence, he found it best to perhaps just leave, and never ever fucking speak to Frank Iero again.

-

"I didn't fuck her, you know, Mikey." Pete Wentz was sat beside Mikey at the lunch table: Ray and Bob having left only momentarily because Bob had spotted the maths teacher that wanted to skin him and use him as a rug, and Ray had been dragged into hiding out with him in the boys' toilets.

And Mikey reckoned the minute that they'd been already left alone for was just about the worst minute of his life, because god, nothing worse than the acceptance of the fact that his and Pete's friendship was truly and utterly screwed.

"Mikey, seriously, we didn't fuck - that's something that you've just, I don't know, fabricated or something." Pete sighed out, soon ready to accept that he was going to get no form of response from his once best friend, until, of course, Mikey met his gaze, and slapped him across the face.

"Come on, of course you did!" He spat at him, just a little too loud, and the people sat around them soon grew silent, eyes turning towards the scene they were making.

"Of for god's sake, Mikey, come on, people are staring at us, just, come on." Pete sighed out, urging for Mikey just to calm the fuck down, or more realistically for Ray and Bob to just hurry the hell up and come back before Pete was nothing more than a bloody mess on the floor at Mikey's hand.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that not even once did you fuck her." Mikey lowered his voice, and soon enough the few people who had been staring lost interest.

"We never - I didn't fuck her. Not even once." Pete told him, calmly looking his best friend in the eyes, because really, for the first time, Pete was telling one hundred percent of the truth, and yet of course, it was only now that Mikey didn't believe him - it was goddamn ridiculous, or maybe just karma or something, but whatever.

"Wow, you're actually- you actually didn't fuck her? Man, you're actually stupid, she's hot!" Needless to say, Mikey's reaction was just a little messed up.

"Yeah, but she was also your girlfriend, and seemingly, unlike you, I value our friendship more than I care about some fuck with some girl who'll probably never even speak to me again." Pete sighed out, rolling his eyes at Mikey. "But whatever, I forgive you okay?"

"Yeah, I forgive you too. We're good?" Pete nodded in response, not getting the time to answer before his eyes practically fell from their sockets in shock at just who had oh so nonchalantly sat down adjacent to the two of them.

"Mikey, I, uh-"

"Holy fu- Frank Iero?" Let's say that Pete had a little bit on man crush - he just kind of thought that Frank was immensely cool and not just some messed up asshole like everybody else. "Wow, wait- how the hell are you friends with Frank Iero, Mikey?"

"Long story, whatever. Look, anyway, this is uhh, Pete." Mikey sighed out, watching as Frank's eyes widened a little at the boy sat beside Mikey.

"Uhh... hi..." Frank trailed off momentarily before turning back to Mikey and letting out an exasperated sigh. "We kind of need to talk at some point - I'm really fucking dead right now.... like I've actually gone and ruined my life in like the past twenty four hours and dear god it's only going to get worse."

"Is this about what you told me?" Mikey asked in the most discreet manner he could muster, and still Pete was rather ignorantly craning his neck into their conversation; Frank felt uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Unfortunately so-"

"Wait, is that a hickey, dude..." Pete's eyes widened, fixated upon the rather obvious spot upon Frank's neck and oh dear god, the look he exchanged with Mikey pretty much signified just how fucking screwed he was.

"It was a one night stand kind of thing and it's messed up and my head's spinning like hell, and it wasn't who were talking about, Mikey, it was someone completely random, and I know I'm a whore but still, this isn't me... actually, I really, don't know who I am at all, I just-"

Mikey hated to interrupt Frank, but he was all too conscious of Pete sat beside them and Ray and Bob making their way back to them across the lunch hall. "Look, Frank, come on we'll go talk about this in private, okay? Pete, Ray and Bob are coming back, okay?"

"Whatever." Pete shrugged it off, catching Bob's gaze across the room and the two sharing some sort of joke that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, leaving Mikey and Frank with the perfect opportunity to make an exit.

"Some random... fuck, Mikey, it was a guy... last night I just let some guy assfuck me, and maybe that should have made it better because I should have realised that I'm not gay and I don't like it like that and I'm just confused here, but god, it only made it worse because... I... Mikey, I've never came like that before in my life and god- Mikey, I- I... don't want this, I don't want to be like this, but I just, I-"

"Frank, come on, calm down - do you want to go home and talk about this, I mean, Gerard's at home today because he's got some theatre shit later, but-"

"We'll go over to mine." And Mikey couldn't help but just stare at Frank, struggling to look at this situation in a manner that didn't make everything fit together in the way he least wanted it to.

"I... I... just don't want to deal with anybody else right now." Frank threw a lacklustre lie through his lips, and really, this time, it was for both Frank and Mikey's benefit.

-

Hey guys:) I'm proud to say that I felt no urge whatsoever to kill off a character whilst writing this chapter;) I probably need to go to character death rehab oh dear:') Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did, it would be hella appreciated if you could leave a vote and/or a comment:) I love you all<3