"Mikey, where the hell is my tie? The red one. Anthony will be here any minute !" Gerard asked his little brother who was casually sitting on Gerard's desk chair in quite an awkward position.

Gerard was running around the house, looking for the precious fabric.

"You left it outside. Why would you put your tie in the yard?"

"To dry it, because you stained it with your dumbfuck pb&j sandwich the other day, Michael James Way." Gerard said before leaving in the yard to grab his tie.

"Hey, don't call my sandwich a dumbfuck !" Mikey shouted at him.

Gerard jogged back inside with a pout on his face. "There's still a stain..."

"Pick another one." Mikey shrugged.

"But it matches my hair and my black shirt !" Gerard whined, making Mikey roll his eyes.

"Quit being a drama queen and pick another damn tie."

Gerard huffed and rummaged in his drawer.

"Well, I'm gonna get changed." Mikey said, making Gerard look up from his drawer.

"You have a party too?"

"No, I'm just gonna get in my pyjamas."

"Oh, okay."

That would have surprised Gerard if Mikey ever went at a party.

Mikey left and Gerard eventually found the perfect tie : black with thin white stripes. Mikey came back in Gerard's room.

"You were quick. By the way, how-" Gerard stoped in the middle of his sentence and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Mikey. What. Is that."

"What?... Oh, this? It's my new pyjama." Mikey looked down at the baby blue pyjama with a huge chibi unicorn printed on the chest.

"Mikey, we really need to talk about that growing unicorn obsession of yours."

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You wanted to ask me something, didn't you?"

"What? Ah, uh, yeah. I wanted to ask you about you and Pete."

Gerard placed himself in front of his mirror and started tying his tie, a sport in which he had become an expert.

"Things are good, really. He's teaching me how to play the bass !"

"That's nice, I didn't know Pete knew how to play that. Bet he's teaching you a lot of other things..." Gerard grinned suggestively and Mikey turned beet red at the hint.

"N-No ! Stop it, he... We..." Mikey replaced his glasses with his index.

"Come on Mikes, I'm sure you don't only play with Pete's bass, if you know what I mean... Bet his instrument is huge..."

Mikey's face was redder than ever. "And how about you, huh?" he retorted. "In the end,  you prefer Anthony?"

Gerard's smile vanished from his face. He didn't reply; he couldn't. He couldn't tell Mikey how he truly felt because he knew giving Anthony false hopes was a terrible thing to do.

Gerard didn't know how to put it. He didn't want to hurt Anthony who had always been so kind to him. Gerard loved him, but not in the way Anthony wanted.

"What are your plans with him? Are you finally going to do it with him tonight? After the party, huh?" Mikey teased, enjoying his little retaliation.

Gerard was the one to be ill at ease now. Mikey grabbed a bag of cookies and started gnawing one.

"Bet you're gonna do it at school. In the bathroom? In the locker room? Behind a tree?" Mikey stood up and began moaning mockingly. "Gnh, yeah... Anthony... Harder Anthony, harder... Huuuuh... Yes... Just like that..."

"Stop it Mikey, damnit !"

Gerard's face flushed and he covered his ears with his hands as Mikey kept moaning with a huge grin on his face. "I don't care I can't hear you! LALALALAAAA"

Mikey fell on Gerard's bed, holding his ribcage from his uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"You're such a kid, Mikey." Gerard folded his arms.

"Revenge brother, revenge... You started it." Mikey laughed and sat up.

"Oh yeah, I'll give you revenge. One day I swear I'll write a song, and I'll be moaning so good and so much in your ears that you'll want to burry yourself six feet underground from shame."

"Yeah, bet you'll be moaning a lot in Anthony's ears too..." Mikey resumed laughing. Gerard grabbed his pillow and threw it on Mikey's face.

The doorbell rang then.

"Shit, he's here ! My jacket, where's my jacket?!" Gerard left the room and resumed running about.

Mikey hopped off Gerard's bed.

"Jacket slut..." he mumbled to himself before giggling and going in the living room.

______

Anthony reajusted his bowtie and rang the Way's doorbell. Mr Way opened.

"Anthony, is it? You're here for Gerard, aren't you? Please come in." Mr Way held his hand at Anthony.

"Thank you, sir." Anthony said and shook Mr Way's hand, polite as ever.

"Please, call me Donald. Gerard will be here in a minute ; he always takes a lot of time to get dressed."

Anthony chuckled.

"Hi, Anthony!" Mikey walked in in his pyjamas and a cookie in his mouth, and waved at his friend.

"Michael, how many times will I have to tell you not to speak with your mouth full." Mr Way scolded at his son, making Mikey roll his eyes and mumble an apology before he walked away.

"Sorry, I'm late! Just a minute!" Anthony heard someone yell through a door and run about.

"Okay, I'll leave you alone. You boys have a good evening." Mr Way said before leaving.

Anthony was relieved he didn't let out an awkward comment like 'don't forget to use protection', or something like that.

The door opened and Gerard came in.

He was wearing black jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt with a black and white striped tie. He also had a black suit jacket.

"Wow..." was all Anthony let out. Gerard was gorgeous.

"Hey, you look really nice." Gerard eyed his friend. Anthony was wearing a classic black suit with a white shirt and a black bowtie.

"Right back at you. You ready to go?"

Gerard nodded and the two of them left the house. They went to the school afoot. It was still day but the sun was beginning to set, coloring the clouds with beautiful shades of peach and amber, while the sky was azure.

"Hey... Is Frank coming?" Gerard shyly asked. That was quite an awkward thing to ask Anthony in that context. Fortunately, Anthony really didn't seem to mind.

"I don't know, don't think so."

"Why not?" Gerard frowned.

"He hasn't been feeling well lately. Nothing serious though."

"Oh..." Gerard let out, trying to hide his disappointment.

"Don't worry, you have nothing to do with it." Anthony assured, even though that was kind of a lie. He didn't want Gerard to feel guilty about that.

They arrived at the school, decorated with all kinds of balloons and colorful confetti. Music was already playing.

"Hey," Gerard nudged Anthony to make him look behind them. Ray was arriving holding Chista's hand.

"They're so cute..."

Probably half of the juniors already shipped them.

Anthony and Gerard went in the ballroom. It was a large room with a buffet and a dancefloor. There was a huge wooden stage with instruments, a mike and red curtains behind all of that. Brendon also insisted on hanging a big disco ball on the ceiling.

Gerard looked around. Almost everyone had arrived and still no sign of Frank.

The headmaster gave a little speach that people vaguely paid attention to before resuming chatting and eating.

"Patrick, you should go and sing something" Anthony advised his friend. "You have a killer voice."

"Thanks but I'd rather not. It makes me feel really nervous."

"Same. I think Brendon has planned something."

Indeed, Brendon went on stage and took the mike.
"Okay everyone, here's a song we're gonna sing, hope you like it. It's called 'I write sins, not tragedies' because as you know, I love writing weird stuff and shipping people. I wanted to name the song 'I write smut, not tragedies' but I was told that no one besides me and, like, ten people here know what smut is."

Brendon rolled his eyes as to say something like 'so uncivilized...'

"So, enjoy yourselves!" He concluded.

Pete went on stage and took the bass, Ray and Ryan joined him and picked their guitars; and Josh, the remotely asian-looking guy with black earings and a red cap sat behind the drums.

They started playing and Anthony and Gerard lisened from the buffet.

"They're really good." Anthony commented before sipping his cup of punch.

"Yeah, maybe they should start a band. I'm wondering who wrote the lyrics."

"Probably Brendon. I think he and Dallon have been working on that for a while. They don't just fuck, you know..."

Gerard giggled. "Yeah, apparently not. I didn't know Brendon sang so well. But why isn't Dallon on stage if he wrote the lyrics? He can't play anything?"

"He plays bass but he let Pete play."

"That's nice of him."

"Yeah." Gerard let out and took off his jacket and put it on a chair.

______

Frank was late, really fucking late. To make things even worse, the merging clouds in the dark blue sky above Frank's head were threatening to pour all their contents, like he needed that.

Frank ran down the street and eventually arrived at the school, out of breath. He ran in the building to the ballroom. He could hear a nice rock music blasting through the walls. Apparently he wasn't interrupting any boring useless speech so he just went in as discretely as he could.

He didn't really want to be there, he was just putting in an appearance because he wanted to see that everybody was indeed having fun except him, because Frank Iero may or may not be a little masochistic.

Frank went in the ballroom and nobody really minded him, which was exactly what he wanted - for once.

He looked at the stage and saw Brendon singing and all the others playing.

Frank was supposed to play the guitar right there, and he did love being on stage so much, but right now he just didn't fucking care anymore.

He was being replaced by Ray? Fair enough. Ray was way more talented than him anyway - at least he thought so.

Frank just sat there on the wooden steps near the exit, listening to his friends play while he was moping. He untied his bowtie and let in hang, and unbuttoned the two first buttons of his shirt because damn, the confined space with a hundred dancing teenagers was warming up really fast.

Nobody went and talked to Frank and Frank realized how lonely he was.

His friends had just finished their song and a slow song rose in the room, making some cheer and others flee as fast as they could.

As to Frank, he just stood there and refused all the dances he was proposed. He just wasn't in the mood. He wanted to dance with Gerard and no one else. Could he try to ask him? No, he would say no for sure. But would Frank ever know if he didn't ask? Deep down, Frank was still a fighter and decided he would ask Gerard if he wanted this fucking dance or not.

But at the second he was about to get up, he saw Anthony talk to Gerard and the both of them started dancing. It completely paralyzed Frank, who looked down and fell back on the steps he was sat on two seconds ago.

That's what I thought. He has already forgotten about me, I missed my chance. That's for the best, he and Anthony will be beautiful together, whereas if he was with me, he and I would just be a beautiful disaster. Gerard deserves better.

Frank decided he would just leave then, and not just from the room but also from Gerard's life.

______

Gerard immediately noticed Frank entering the ballroom. He wanted to go talk to him but he couldn't ditch Anthony. He was so conflicted. Frank was all alone and Gerard couldn't see him like that.

A slow song began to play and Gerard waited for something to happen. He wanted to ask Frank for a dance, but Frank seemed to repudiate everyone who was asking him. But it was worth the try, wasn't it?

But... What about Anthony then? Gerard deeply cared about him and didn't want to let him down.

"Hey Gerard." Anthony smiled at the red-haired boy, his face a little too red to be only due to the heat in the room. "Would you... Would you agree to dance with me?"

Gerard smiled. "Of course"

He wrapped his arms around Anthony's neck and Anthony's did the same around his waist, and both started slowly swaying in rhythm.

They were soon imitated by people around them and Gerard noticed Ray and Christa kiss. Aww...

Gerard put his chin on Anthony's shoulder and a hand behind his neck. He couldn't help but glance at Frank. Frank seemed to be utterly bored right now.

"Gerard." Anthony called and Gerard pulled back enough to be able to look at him.

"Listen..." Anthony took a deep breath. He was about to make one of the toughest decisions of his life.

"Yes?"

"I... I've seen you look at Frank. I mean, ever since he entered the ballroom."

Gerard bit his lips. "I- no, I didn't-"

Anthony let go of Gerard to take a better look at him.

"-Gee, I can see you're in love with him. The way you look at him? Please, I don't want to ruin what you have with him just because you feel like you owe me. I'll live without you. It'll be hard but I will. I couldn't say the same about Frank. Gerard, if there is something that he and I learnt since you've been here in Belleville, it's that you can die from love."

"B-but what about you? Anthony, I- I love you...?" The way Gerard had said it sounded more like a hesitant question than a statement.

Anthony sighed and smiled. "No you don't. Not really. You just don't want to hurt me, but I know who truly owns your heart."

"But... But you've always been so kind to me..." Gerard's voice trailed off.

"Gerard, a prince charming is not someone who's nice to you all the time, but someone who is willing to sacrifice themself for you. Frank is. You can't imagine how much he's changed since he met you."

"So... What should I do...?"

"Ask him for a dance ! Go ahead, he won't say no, not to you. Come on, this is your chance at being happy together, both of you. Don't miss it."

Gerard nodded and gave Anthony a quick hug. "Thank you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Go now, Frank's waiting." Anthony smiled to hide his pain.

Frank stood up and left by one of the open exit doors - the one he arrived by, in fact. Time for him to vanish.

"FRANK !" he heard someone yell in the crowd behind him.

Go away, leave me alone...

Frank reluctantly turned around to see Gerard make his way to him through the crowd. He reached Frank and both of them were now in the empty narrow hallway just next to the ballroom.

"Frank..." Gerard peered at his golden eyes. "Would you give me this dance?" he simply asked.

Frank thought for what seemed an eternity before giving his answer.

"No."

The word echoed in the hallway.

I can't let Gerard ruin the best years of his life with the human wreckage I am. If I love him, I just can't let that happen.

Gerard's eyes widened. "Frank... Why...?"

Needless to say how much that simple word had hurt Gerard. All his hopes and self-esteem had vanished - no, shattered then.

"Go away from me..." Frank said so lowly that Gerard wondered if he had indeed said that. Frank began to turn away, not to walk away from Gerard but to hide his teary eyes.

"Frank..." Gerard put a hand on Frank, making him suddenly turn back.

"Go away from me!!" he snapped, startling Gerard.

"Please, just go away..." Frank repeated in a softer, broken voice, almost begging. He was on the verge of bursting into tears, but he had to keep composure before Gerard, he just had to.

Gerard, on the other hand, didn't manage to keep it together and walked past Frank, leaving the prom.

______