"Hey, does Mikey Way work here?" I asked as I walked into the third bar that night.

"Who's asking?" The bartender questioned.

"I'm his neighbor, my name's Frank," I said.

"Yeah, let me go get him," he said.

He walked behind the bar and Mikey came out a moment later.

"Hey, I've been looking for you but your phone is off," I said.

"Yeah, I always turn it off when I'm working," he said.

"Where's Gerard?" I asked.

"Over in the corner," he said.

I looked over and saw Gerard talking to some guy.

"Feel free to interrupt them," he said. "I know when Gerard wants out of a conversation. Usually I have to save him."

I walked over and Gerard looked over with a smile.

"Oh, Frankie!" He cheered more happily than I thought he would. "Sorry, my friend is here."

The man left and his smile dropped.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"To apologize, I shouldn't have called you naïve," I said.

"Apology accepted," he said, the smile growing on his face again. "Good thing too, just in time. That man just kept going on and on about his ex. I don't mind my hook ups being used as a rebound but please don't mention them so much."

"I really didn't mean to be rude," I said. "I was maybe just in a bad mood. But to be fair, I am almost always in a bad mood."

"Yeah, you are kind of a big crabby pants," he agreed.

"I guess I do deserve that," I said.

"It's true," he said. "Everything is so melancholy with you, all just doom and gloom. Do you see a therapist?"

"No, I don't," I said.

"You should," Gerard suggested. "I think it could help you a lot."

"I don't really need a therapist," I said.

"You almost jumped off a roof two weeks ago," he stated. "Well, even if you won't see a therapist I'll still be here whenever you need me to talk and stuff."

I nodded, biting my lip.

"So, can I buy you a drink?" I asked.

"I suppose you can," he said.

I went to the bar, sighing when I saw Mikey.

"What does Gerard like?" I asked. "I'm buying him a drink."

"Anything fruity," he said with a chuckle. "I'll whip him up something. What do you want?"

"Just a beer," I said.

He handed me a beer and some sort of fruity cocktail for his brother.

"So, how exactly does Mikey work in a bar when he's only nineteen?" I asked.

"Oh, you only have to be eighteen in the state of New York," Gerard said. "New Jersey, too. Started bartending back in Jersey before we moved here. So, what did you bring me?"

"I'm not entirely sure, something fruity," I said. "Mikey made it so you don't have to worry about roofies or anything."

"Well, I sure hope I wouldn't have to worry," he said, taking a sip. "Oh damn, that's strong."

"So, what man are you choosing for tonight?" I asked.

"I'm not sure yet," he said. "But the plus side of being in a gay bar is there's plenty of options for me to choose from. Wanna help me pick?

"Is it that ridiculous of me to not want to?" I asked.

"I guess not," he sighed. "I am just in need of some good dick."

"Wow, okay, that is too much information," I said.

Gerard shrugged, biting his lip.

"You know, you would think I would have a type at this point," he said. "But oddly enough, I don't have a type. All guys are cute. Tall guys, short guys, skinny guys, muscular guys. They're all good to me. Hell, I've even slept with guys that had small dicks and it wasn't bad because they sure as hell knew how to use it."

"You're so weird," I muttered. "I should probably get going, I just wanted to come and apologize to you because I really felt bad about what I said to you earlier."

"Alright, see you tomorrow?" Gerard asked.

"Yeah, definitely," I said just as Mikey walked over.

"Hey, is Blondie bothering you?" Mikey asked.

"He could never," I denied. "I was just about to head out back home, gonna drink myself away and pass out in front of the tv."

"I was just going on break, thought maybe we could hang out a little bit," he said.

"Maybe next time," I said. "I would love to and all but maybe we could do it some other time."

He nodded, giving me a hug that I wasn't expecting.

"Gerard I expected a hug from, not you," I said.

"Well, thought you might need a little bit of a break from Blondie here," he said.

"Nuh uh, you're not getting away without a hug from me first," Gerard denied.

He wrapped his arms around me tight and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright, alright," I said. "Enough with the hugs, it's gonna be okay if I leave without getting a single hug. Man, the Way brothers are really just going to kill me with all of their hugs and positivity."

"Hey, can't have positivity without I," Gerard said.

"God you're dumb," Mikey mumbled.

"Shut up, that's not nice and I'm gonna tell mom," Gerard stated.

"Blondie, you're over twenty years old now, stop threatening to tell on me all the time," he said.

"I should go," I said.

"Alright, we'll see you later, man," Mikey said.

"Buh-bye, Frankie," Gerard said. "Any chance you got some bubble gum?"

"No, I do not carry bubble gum with me," I denied. "I'l see you two later."

I walked back to my apartment and sighed as I sat on the couch. The Chinese takeout was still sitting half eaten on the coffee table so I put that in the fridge before I glanced at my guitars in the corner. It's been a long time since I've played, maybe two years now. Maybe more. When did my last boyfriend leave again? Yeah, that was the last time. It was all starting to blur a bit and I only wished it would completely disappear.

There wasn't anything that I wanted to remember about my last boyfriend. In fact, I began drinking to forget him. Drinking to forget all the ways that he hurt me and manipulated me--Oh god, all this thinking about it is starting to upset me again. I really need to learn to shut my brain off before I begin to fall down the rabbit hole.

I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down, turning on the tv. I watched late night reruns until a knock on the door surprised me. It was nearly midnight, nobody ever comes this late. Nobody ever comes at all, actually. Other than the Ways but they're busy.

"You know, I don't think you should be here drinking alone," Gerard said when I opened the door and saw him standing there in his colorful clothes with his bright red hair.

"Aren't you supposed to be with some guy?" I asked.

"There were no good ones tonight," he said. "So, I got some cheap vodka instead and Mikey kept calling me Blondie so I decided to come here to where someone would appreciate me more."

"Why does he call you that?" I asked as I grabbed two glasses.

"It's a long story and I really don't feel like getting into it," he said. "Actually, It's not that long but I just don't want to tell it to you. It's kind of embarrassing."

"That's okay," I said.

I poured the vodka and he frowned.

"Are we just gonna drink straight vodka?" Gerard asked. "Because I am a lightweight and this will all just make me go crazy, I can promise you that."

"There's juice in the fridge if you wanna mix it," I said.

He grabbed the cranberry juice from the fridge and mixed his drink. It wasn't long before we were both drunk, Gerard a bit more than me.

"You know, I don't think you should be sad," he said. "You're pretty and young and I bet you have girls falling over all for you."

"I'm gay," I stated.

"Okay, well then, you have the boys, all the boys, all dem boyz," Gerard rambled. "Boys are so cute. I love boys. I started having boyfriends when I was...twelve. You know what's weird, why is eleven and twelve called eleven and twelve? Why not oneteen and twoteen. Threeteen too!"

"I don't know, Gerard, that's just how numbers work I guess," I said.

"Who invented the numbers?" He asked. "Someone had to have invented them and I just wanna know who that is because I just wanna have a talk as two why twenty-two isn't twoty-two."

I snorted, shaking my head.

"You are one weird kid," I said.

"I'm not a kid," he denied. "I'm only a year younger than you are. When's your birthday? Mine's not isn't until wednesday. Wednesday? I meant to say April."

"I will never understand how you confused April and Wednesday up," I said. "But my birthday is on Halloween."

"Oh, that is so cool," he said. "I wish I was born on Halloween, that seems like the coolest and most fun thing ever."

"It's alright," I said with a shrug. "Sometimes your birthday is kinda forgotten, though. I don't really mind, I never really cared too much about my birthday anyways."

Gerard nodded before yawning.

"I'm tired, I think I'm gonna go back up to my apartment to sleep," he said.

Gerard got up but stumbled halfway to the door, almost falling over but he caught himself on the table. I helped him to my bedroom and tucked him into my bed, pulling off his socks and shoes. Gerard seemed to take this as a cue to take off the rest of his clothes but I thankfully got him to stop.

"Just sleep," I said.

I tucked him in and left the room. I cleaned up our glasses and put away the vodka bottle before making a bed on the couch to sleep there myself.