15: Playing Hooky

Gerard woke up with a major hangover. He painfully woke up to the sound of American Idiot, and despite the fact that he loved this song, he felt like it was banging his skull and crushing it from inside and all he wanted was it to stop.

He groped for the alarm clock and angrily turned the device off before getting up.

He then trudged to the kitchen and watched the aspirin he had just dropped in a glass melt in the water, and drank it all to soothe his killer migraine.

He left the house with a silent Mikey by his side.
"...What?" Gerard stopped after a few minutes of walking in the awkward silence.

"Nothing." Mikey shrugged.

Gerard gave him a look ; he knew it wasn't 'nothing'. His brother being so silent, even in the morning, was odd.

Mikey sighed. "You must've had fun last night... I've never seen you like that, and I surely hope I won't have to see it again."

"What do you mean?"

"You scared the hell out of me, Gee !" Mikey whined.

Gerard frowned and resumed walking. The both of them arrived at their school and Anthony joined them before Gerard got the chance to push it further and ask his brother what he had meant exactly.

Mikey understood from what he had seen last night that here wasn't the place for him to be at the moment, so he left Anthony and Gerard alone.

"Hey, Gerard. I wanted to talk to you about what happened last night..." Anthony fiddled with his sleeves.

"Yeah, about that, I'm sorry if I said mean things or anything, I didn't mean it. I definitely drank too much..."

Anthony frowned. Mean things?
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about what happened... Afterwards."

Gerard frowned confusedly. He hadn't really thought of what had happened the previous night, and even trying was enough to give him a headache.

"After?..." Gerard turned red. "Oh my god, tell me we didn't-"

"-No, nothing like that !" Anthony quickly assured. "Gerard... How much do you remember?"

"I- I remember being with... Carla... and then I talked with Frank, who was being sweet." Gerard rubbed his temples with his fingertips. "Then... Then you arrived, I think I hugged you... I-I think I left... or maybe I stayed, I'm not sure if I-"

"-Hey, slow down, it's okay." Anthony told his stuttering friend.

"Anthony, I-I don't remember... I don't remember..." Gerard began panicking. Anthony put his hands on Gerard's shoulder to calm him down.

"Shh, it's okay, just breathe. Nothing happened, I swear. I just took you home. Just that." Anthony lied, forgetting to mention what had occurred in the car. Gerard looked relieved and started breathing normally again.

"That's why I woke up in my bed... Thank you Anthony, you're the best of the best friends, really." Gerard pulled him in a hug before leaving.

Anthony heard a snicker behind him and turned back to see Frank. He couldn't hold his laughter back anymore, and guffawed loudly, unable to stop.

"What are you laughing at?" he scowled at his brother who hardly tamed his laughter.

"Anthy, you're the best bestie!" Frank mocked. "He doesn't remember anything. Back to square one. I think you even got friendzoned. He was drunk, that's it. C'mon, give up already."

"He doesn't recall you kissing him either, brother dear." Anthony did the best he could to remain calm.

"Yeah, but at least I can do it again." Frank shrugged. "I can do a lot more whenever I want, without having him drunk. You wanna know why? Because I'm not friendzoned, unlike you," he giggled uncontrollably.

Anthony threw a glare at the hilarious brat and left with a lump stuck in his throat.

Frank was right.
Gerard didn't remember anything of kissing him.

Somehow, Anthony was even gladder not to have had sex with Gerard, considering how relieved the redhead looked when he learnt they hadn't.

Anthony had made the right choice. So why did it hurt so much?

______

Frank caught Gerard up in the hallways. "Hey, how is my favorite redhead doing?"

"Great, I have a killer migraine but besides that I'm good. That was a rad party by the way."

"Thanks and don't worry, I've got the same. Maybe not as much as you though..." Frank grinned.

"Hey, I was wondering, is Anthony alright? He looks kinda... Down. Do you know if something happened?"

Frank shrugged. "Can't say I do."

"I feel like he's avoiding me... Is it my fault? Is it because something I said? Something I did?"

"I'm sure you have nothing to do with it. He just has these... moodswings sometimes. Just let him mope, it'll pass."

"Okay... I just hope I wasn't the one to ruin his mood... I should go apologize."

Frank put his hands on Gerard's shoulders. "It's okay Gee, you didn't do anything. He's moody as fuck."

The bell rang.
"I'm really bored." Frank informed.

"Glad to hear that. Luckily we have biology to distract us..." Gerard let out sarcastically.

"Hey, let's skip school !" Frank smirked.

Gerard looked at him like he had just spoken in a foreign language. "...Come again?"

"Skip class with me." Frank smiled endearingly.

"I-I don't think we should..."

"Come on, they're not gonna do anything about it ! Please, I could really get some alone time with you..."

Gerard peered at the pouting punk before him and sighed.
"Alright, but just this time..."

Frank gloated and took Gerard's hand, running with him in the hallways as they sneaked out of the school as discreetly as possible.

Gerard experienced a certain satisfaction, a pride, and odd joy to be out when everybody but him and Frank had classes. He felt free, he felt like a rebel, like he could do anything with an irrational impunity.

Both of them ran away from the school, and once they were out of any grownup's sight, they stopped to catch their breath. Gerard laughed for no particular reason, and Frank grinned at him, both of them panting.

"What do you wanna do now?" Frank asked.

"I don't know, eat maybe? I haven't eaten anything since... Well, since last dinner. And I kinda thew it all up last night so I'm a little bit starving..."

"Why didn't you eat this morning?"

"I don't eat much in the morning, in fact I don't eat at all. I don't know, it kinda makes me sick. And I'm rarely hungry when I wake up anyway."

"Let's get us something to eat then." Frank said theatrically.

They entered a Starbucks and Frank ordered them coffee and cookies.
Gerard took the two cups of coffee and gulped it down while Frank was eating his cookie.

"Don't tell me you were going to wait for lunch to eat..." Frank shook his head disaprovingly.

Gerard looked at him above his cup in a desolate way.

"Well, you'll do me the pleasure of swallowing something else than just coffee."
Frank held him an oversized cookie and Gerard put the cup down.

"No thanks, it's okay."

Frank placed the cookie in his hands.
"Eat. You haven't eaten enough, you're gonna be sick."

"B-but I'm not hungry," Gerard protested.

Frank sighed. "Gerard, just eat the damn cookie, don't make me force feed you."

Gerard gnawed his cookie, looking at Frank who rested back on his seat, his arms folded as to tell him that they wouldn't leave until that cookie was all gone.

Gerard sighed and finished the cookie, and Frank nodded in content.
They left the Starbucks to stroll in the streets, talking about random stuff like old friends would.

They walked in a wide sunny street, quite deserted because it was just after lunch, and everybody was either working or taking a nap.
They spent more time hanging out in the streets, and wandered until they found a spot to sit on the grass, in a park.

Frank took a cigarette out and lit it, then brought it to his mouth.
Gerard bit his lips. Damn, he was so attractive, surrounded in death smoke like that. It was crazy how attractive and mysterious smoking could make people. But at what cost?

"I didn't know you smoked..."

Frank shrugged.
"Yeah, I do weed too and other funny shit, but I don't have any right now. I can stop if you want - I mean, I'll smoke later. One doesn't quit an addiction like that, it's not so simple..."

Gerard shook his head, saying that he was fine with it. "...May I?"

"You ever smoked before?"

Gerard nodded and Frank held him his cigarette. Gerard took a drag of it and coughed his lungs out.

Frank emitted a short puff, half-amused, half-disappointed.
"It's your first time, isn't it?"

He took the cigarette out of Gerard's hands and brought it back to his lips, inhaling the nicotine it had to offer him.

"Gerard, you don't have to lie to me about this - or anything else. Smoking won't make you cool, it'll get you dead. Don't start or you probably won't ever be able to stop, really."

Frank smoked like a chimney, he loved getting wasted and high, and he had sex as often as he could. He was completely shameless about that and wasn't going to change for anything or anyone, but somehow he didn't want Gerard to follow him on this path.

Gerard looked down. Now he really felt stupid for lying. "I'm- I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, I'm only saying that for you. We all have our demons, don't add one to the list." Frank said before taking another drag.

Gerard nodded. A part of him wondered : what are Frank's demons?
He thought of something, and decided to tackle a touchy subject.

"Frank? Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Frank smirked. "What else?"

"I shouldn't ask, I know it's probably not something you like to talk about and that it's not my place to judge-"

"-Just ask Gee, I won't get mad or anything."

"I was wondering... Why don't you get along with Anthony?"

Frank frowned, blowing smoke. "I guess siblings just can't get along." he said, maybe a bit too abruptly. He didn't want to talk about his brother, that would ruin his mood.

"...Mikey and I do." Gerard objected innocently.

"Well, you're lucky, but you're just an exception."

"B-but, you're twins... Aren't twins supposed to, I don't know, get along and be fusional?"

Frank scoffed. "Well, we don't. Gerard, you can't imagine what it's like to have someone just like you, someone you're always compared to, being so successful. I wouldn't have any problem with that if he wasn't so fucking scornful all the time. He treats me like I was 8 ! I hate the way he looks down on me."

Wow, he really despised his brother. Gerard gulped. He couldn't picture Anthony being so despiseful, despite having seen the two brothers argue before.

"You two started on the wrong foot, you should make peace ! I'm sure it'll all begin with forgiveness. If you don't make the first step, who say he ever will?" Gerard insisted.

"That's never gonna happen. He hates me, and I hate him. That's just how it is." Frank folded his arms.

"I know, but it's your brother we're talking about! I'm sure that deep down, he still cares about you. I know Anthony too, you know? Enough to know that he cares about people, and I can't see one valuable reason why he would hate you."

"You wanna know why? Because he's fucking jealous of me, that's why. He can't stand being less popular than me, and he can't stand seeing me having fun so he ruins my fun."

"Are you sure you're not a little bit jealous of him too?" Gerard shyly tried to say.

"The chicken or the egg... At the end, who gives a fuck? We might be jealous of each other. Cool. Doesn't change the fact that we'll never get along."

"Never say never!" Gerard smiled.

Frank chuckled, already forgetting about Anthony. "I find you very optimistic... Does that have anything to do with your blood sugar leveling up?"

"Maybe..." Gerard giggled shyly.

"I should give you cookies more often then."

"Yeah, you do that." Gerard laughed, relieved that he hadn't upset Frank.

Frank looked deeply into Gerard's eyes. Why did Gerard care about him?

Gerard was... Different. Sex didn't matter to him and Frank really felt that he could talk to him from human being to human being.

Gerard wasn't with him for sex, and that felt weird and new for Frank. That kind of felt great, actually. He enjoyed simply spending time with Gerard.

"...Frank, you're staring." Gerard snapped him out of his thoughts.

"What, so now I can't look at you?" Frank said defensively.

Gerard shook his head. "That- that's not what I meant..."

Frank chuckled. "I know, it's okay."
He peered at Gerard again, thoughtfully. "...Gerard?"

"Yeah?"

Frank stood up, remaining silent, and took Gerard's hand to help him up. He smashed his cigarette on the pavement and dragged Gerard out of the park.

"Frank, what are you doing? Where are you taking me?"

"There's a place I want to show you." Frank took his hand and determinedly led him through the streets, like he was afraid he might change his mind.

_______

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