Blinded

"What'd you two chat about?"

"Nothing important, Gerard."

"What did you write on her hand?"

"My address."

"Is this a date?"

"No."

"Are you going to put the moves on her?"

"No."

"Do you want to put the moves on her?"

After spending an entire car ride with these kind of questions being shot at him, Frank had had enough with his best friend's curiousity. "Gerard! I don't like her like that. Stop." he yelled, making the entire car become quiet.

Frank looked around at all his friends who were staring at him. He sighed and moved his eyes back to the road. After a couple of minutes Gerard spoke. "Sorry, if I bothered you. I just... thought I saw something between you two."

He sighed deeply, feeling remorseful for snapping at his friend. "Yeah, sorry about yelling. You got annoying."

Gerard merely smiled and said "That happens a lot." Frank and all of the other guys laughed. "So," Gerard continued. "What time are the girls coming over then?"

"Seven." Frank replied, glancing back at Mikey, who, he noticed, gulped heavily. Ahh, what love does to young ones. At this thought, Frank smiled widely.

They drove for about a minute with only the radio softly playing in the background, until Ray decided to point out "What the hell is with that smile, Frank. You look like you just threw your neighbors evil cat out the car window."

Frank dropped his smile and tried to look impassive. "I don't know what you're talking about, Ray." He got an eye roll as a reply.

Soon enough, Frank was pulling his old car into the Toro's driveway. Both Bob and Ray hopped out of the car, seeing as how Bob only lived a couple of houses down the road. "Bye!" Ray and Bob chorused, as the car pulled away.

The three remaining boys drove for a little while longer huming to the sounds of a Bouncing Souls cd. Apparently, Gerard remembered something of importance because he suddenly yelled out "Hey!" almost causing Frank to slam on the brakes and get into a rather nasty accident.

"Jesus, Gee. What's that about?" Mikey yelled at his older brother, while fixing his glasses. Gerard paid him no mind and stared at Frank. He could see his curious look through his periphial vision.

"You never did tell me why we're hanging out with Marie and Rae Simmons now."

Frank sighed, and looked back at Mikey, who had already seemed to piece some things together. "Mikey, you want to tell your brother?" He couldn't help but laugh as Mikey's eyes grew wide and his head shook furiously back and forth. "Okay, fine I will." He paused for a second before starting. "Gerard, do you know who your brother has the biggest crush on in the world?"

Gerard tapped his finger to his chin, exactly the same as he did earlier in the day with Rae, before realization swept over his face. "Mikey!" He shouted, louder than before. "No! How could you? Why would you? I mean I understand, kind of. But, seriously, her?" He was rambling. "Just, please explain to me how you could ever fall for someone like Rae. She doesn't seem like your type."

"What?!" Frank and Mikey both yelled. "I don't like Rae, Gerard. I like Marie." Mikey clarified. Frank still held a horrified expression on his face. Images of Mikey and Rae together were flashing through his head. It seemed wrong, so wrong.

"Oh." Gerard said. Then, it kind of all hit him. "Ohhhhhh." Frank snorted back a laugh. He had clueless friends.

"So, Mikey likes Marie and Marie likes Mikey. And Rae wants her sister to be happy, and the only way that Marie can hang out with Mikey is if Rae is there. So, she is sacrificing whatever else she does to hang with us." Frank explained the rest, feeling as if he hadn't put everything right.

Gerard made a grunting noise. "So nice of her to give up everything to be with us."

"I'm sure it's not like that." Frank tried to console his friend. "I mean, something happened to her a while ago, and she gave up talking to people. Now, she's making an effort to talk with us for her sister's sake." Hopefully, Frank had gottent that whole story correctly. He still wanted to know now, more than ever, what happened to Rae. She probably wouldn't tell him, unless she felt she could trust him. That would take a while, he though.

"Okay, then." Gerard nodded. Throught the rear-view mirror he saw Mikey nodding too, as if they both have accepted his answer.

"Good." Frank smiled as they pulled into his driveway. "Let's relax now, it's Friday!"