I didn't notice it at first, but suddenly Gerard went all weird on me.

A couple of days passed since Ryan went to hospital, and Gerard just...stopped talking. He would hold me like he usually did, and kiss me the way he usually did, but he gradually got quieter and quieter, like something was on his mind.

He'd gone to get some groceries - we'd run out of coffee, which was a great tragedy - while I'd started on my best man's speech, leaving me in the house with Bert. About an hour after Gerard had left, I ventured into the kitchen, my pen in my hand, to grab a glass of water and some painkillers for an oncoming headache. I was on my way towards the stairs when someone - Bert, because he was the only other person in the house - cleared their throat behind me.

I turned around, my eyebrows immediately drawing together. "Yeah?"

He walked over to me, pushing me against the wall, and I was glad my hands were empty, because I would've surely dropped the glass of water, had I been holding one.

"Gerard doesn't deserve you." He hissed, and I blinked.

"Um..." I gulped. "That was random."

"I mean it."

"Okay, and why?" I was genuinely confused - I hated the man, but I thought we'd been getting on okay for the past couple of days. We were civil, complacent. Was that what had been bothering Gerard?

"Because you're always going to bring him down. People are going to look down on your age-gap forever. There are six years between you two. He's never going to have a normal relationship now, not when people find out he once face-fucked a seventeen-year-old." He pushed me harder against the wall. "He was a pedophile when he fucked you, you know that, right? I could've told. I could've let your secret out. But I didn't. You know why?" He paused, and I shook my head. "Because I care about Gerard. You, I couldn't give two shits about. But Gerard's a good man. He deserves better than you."

"What, like you?" I spat, and he slapped me.

"Anyone's better than you, really. You're just a stupid kid who's bringing him down. You'll probably leave him as soon as he turns thirty, 'cause you won't even be twenty-four, and you'll want a 'life of your own'." He air-quoted, sneering. "Or maybe an even older man will come along, someone ten years older than you, and you'll be on your knees like that." He clicked his fingers.

I shoved at his chest, my face twisting. "No I won't. I'm not like that. I love Gerard."

The bastard scoffed. "You're eighteen, asshole. You barely know what love is. You haven't lived long enough to feel it." He looked down at my arms, and even though they were covered, it was like he knew what was there. "Something tells me you won't."

"You know nothing about me. You know nothing about my life and what I've been through." Anger flared inside me, and I clenched my fists, wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face.

He scoffed. "I'm just telling the truth. Maybe he'll even find someone his age. I know him better than you do - he cheated on me, what's to say he won't cheat on you?" One of his eyebrows rose. "How much do you trust Gerard, Frank?"

"A lot. I trust him with my life." My voice shook, betraying me.

"Really?"

"Yes." What was he getting at? "Why?"

He just shook his head. "It's not love. It's lust. You just want each other any way you can and that's all your relationship is based on. It's all based on sex."

"You don't know anything about us. You just want in his pants." Everything he was saying was getting to me, and he knew it. I knew that he knew it, because he had this really smug expression on his face.

"I know it won't last, Frank. Gerard's a clever man. One day he'll realise that you're just a stupid kid and he'll leave you." He smirked. "Think about it: when you were two, he was eight. When you were ten, he was sixteen. Fourteen, twenty. Eighteen, twenty-four. Imagine if you'd met younger. You'd have no chance then." He came closer, his forehead against mine. "I've been with him through everything. I know almost everything about him. I know things about him that would mean you wouldn't see him the same way ever again if you knew. I know Gerard. He wanted to be with me." He paused. "He's only with you because you offered to suck his dick."

And with that, he let go, walking down the hallway and out the front door, slamming it behind him. I made my way back to the bedroom, my legs shaking, and I almost collapsed onto the bed. Everything that Bert had said made my head spin, and I couldn't make sense of it all. In fact, it was as if I hadn't taken painkillers at all - my head was beginning to pound, and I hated it.

I hadn't doubted Gerard once since he left New Jersey, and I didn't think I had done before that. There was nothing to doubt. Gerard loved me (at least, that's what I hoped) and I was pretty sure I loved him.

But now the questions came flooding in, and I couldn't stop it. I realised I knew nothing about his past, apart from the fact that he used to be an alcoholic, he was depressed - even suicidal - and he dated a girl before Bert.

And did I trust him? Of course I did. Like I said, I trusted him with my life.

"He cheated on me, what's to say won't cheat on you?"

He wouldn't ever do that. I didn't know why he cheated on Bert - that was probably mostly my fault - but he had no reason to do the same to me...

...right?

Right. I shouldn't listen to Bert. It was Bert, for Pete's sake (sorry Pete) - he was always spouting shit, always stirring things up, always looking for an excuse to get between Gerard and I.

I had nothing to worry about.

~

"Frankie?" Gerard called from downstairs, and my heart jumped. "You upstairs?"

"Yeah!" I called back, setting my pen and quarter of a speech on the nightstand.

I heard him walk up the stairs, my headache in full swing, and he poked his head around the door, smiling when he saw me. It was a dramatic difference from how he'd been this morning, so I dared to believe that whatever had been bothering him had passed.

"Hey, did you get what you wanted?" I asked, genuinely pleased to see him.

"Yep - I got you a present too, but I left it downstairs." He practically jumped on the bed, lying on his front and crossing his arms on my lap. He leaned up and pushed his lips against mine. "Man, that's uncomfortable." He said, lying back down.

"Don't kiss me then." I grinned, and he stuck his tongue out at me.

"Have I told you recently that I love you?"

I shrugged. See, Bert - he does love me. So fuck you. "I don't know, have you?"

"Well I love you."

I brushed his hair from my face. "I love you too."

He rolled into his back, his head in my lap, and I stroked his hair. "What have you been up to?"

"Trying to write this freaking speech." I said to my upside-down boyfriend. "Have you ever written a best man's speech before?"

"Oh, yeah. Loads." He replied sarcastically. "Let me see what you've got so far."

"No chance."

"No, go on. Please?"

I shook my head. "I've barely started -" he snatched it off the nightstand, and I sighed. "You're like a petulant child."

"I know." He read the words scrawled onto the page, his eyes flickering over numerous crossing-outs and changes. "I'm obsessed with your handwriting."

"What's so great about my handwriting? It's illegible." I frowned at him, more than confused.

"It's like you."

"Illegible?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Just hear me out, okay? It's scruffy, but the cute kinda scruffy - y'know when you wake up in the morning, and you're half-asleep, and your hair's a mess? Like that. And your capital letters are flamboyant, which reminds me of your sassy side, and it's just...you." My eyebrows rose, and he looked at me, still upside-down. "What?"

"You're so strange." I told him.

"But you love me."

I was suddenly reminded of what Bert had said, and I sighed. "I do."

He noticed my change of tone and frowned. "What's up?"

"Nothing." I lied. "I'm fine." I faked a smile, poking his nose. "Did you get that coffee?"

He nodded. "Yeah, you want one?"

"If you're gonna make one."

He got up, walking towards the door. When he got there, he turned back, returning to me, and he kissed me once, twice, a third time, smiling as he did so.

"I love you." He said, making me smile too.

"I love you too." I replied, watching him exit the room.

He meant it. He always meant it. He loved me. Nobody could say otherwise.

~

And then Gerard went back to being quiet, like he had been before. It left me wondering how much Bert had wrapped him around his finger without me being there.

I talked to Ryan about it, but he assured me that everything would be fine. I felt bad for spilling everything to him when he was in hospital, but he told me in his own soothing way that it was fine, that he was bored of being in hospital.

I took in what he said because he was nearly always right. I trusted what he said. Even Brendon agreed.

I was just waiting to see how long it took Bert to really get his claws into Gerard, and whether I could stop it happening. Because the minute he touched Gerard, I would kill him.

And I wouldn't bat an eyelid. No guilt, no remorse, no nothing.

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Second update in one day - that just proves I have no life xD it kinda sucks, but it's an update, and it's there, aaaaand it's the start of the drama...ish xD

Thanks Pete,

-xocharr <3