Cherry

The sun was setting. I knew if I was going to speak to him it would be now or never. Sighing, I got up off the hotel bed and went in search of my band mate, my best friend. I knew he wasn’t in his room because he shared my room so my first attempt was the other rooms in the hotel. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door opposite ours. It opened a few seconds later and Mikey greeted me wearing only a t-shirt and boxers. Enough to get the fan girls, or his wife, aroused. Me, however, I’m a married man and I don’t find my band members sexually attractive. I thought the other guys in the band all thought along the same lines until tonight.

“Hey Mikey, you haven’t seen Gerard around anywhere have you?” I asked, sighing.

“No…” Mikey said, cocking his head to the side to show he was thinking about the where abouts of his brother. This was a habit both the Way brothers had, cocking their heads to the side when thinking.

I sighed again; “Thanks anyway. I had better keep looking then.”

“Do you want my help?” Mikey offered. I knew he was worried about his brother but I couldn’t possibly have him there when I found Gerard and talked to him.

“No, its okay. I need to talk to him alone when I find him,” I shrugged with a small smile. Mikey nodded but continued to look at me strangely.

“Okay, good luck then,” he said slowly.

“Yeah. Night, Mikey.”

“G’night, Frank.”

Mikey closed the door and left me alone in the hall again. I tried each of the other doors after Mikey and Brian’s but none of the band or crew had seen Gerard. I trotted down the stairs to continue my search in the lobby.

I reached the lobby which was surprisingly busy for this time in the evening. The sun was setting quickly and its red glow lit up the lobby nicely. The windows only let in a small amount of light, though, and if I knew Gerard he would home in on the beautiful sight rather than try and catch glimpses of it inside.

I slipped through a group of people who were obnoxiously in the way of the entrance and continued outside. The grand hotel was situated near a small park in New York. We were just finishing off a small tour of a couple of local shows before we sat and waited for baby Gerard to pop out of Lindsey and get on with putting our new album out and touring the world again. I should be over the moon with excitement right now.

I glanced around the graveled area but saw no sight of Gerard. Just as I was about to give up, a movement from the small park caught my eye. Peering into the dark, looming trees, I saw a figure walking towards me. I recognized the man a couple of inches taller than me with chin length black hair and his body in a hunch as he walked on the path through the trees. I smiled at the fact that I had found the man I was looking for but frowned again when I realized I would have to talk to him.

“Hey, Gee,” I said when he was near enough to hear my voice which was a lot quieter than usual thanks to the nervousness I was feeling.

“Oh, hi Frank,” he replied. He looked up when he heard my voice and walked over to me. Stopping when he reached me, he looked into my eyes and spoke. “I want you to forget what I said earlier. It doesn’t matter. You were right; we both have wives at home and I have a freaking baby on the way. Just forget it, okay?”

“Can’t we at least talk about it whilst we are here and I’m not so shocked anymore? It’s out in the open and neither of us are going to forget it in a hurry.”

It made me cringe how we referred to Gerard’s feelings as ‘it’. It made his emotions seem like a monster or something similar.

“Well, what is there to say?” Gerard asked uncomfortably.

“What isn’t there to say? My best friend just told me he loved me. I think there is a lot to talk about there.”

Gerard cringed at the harshness of my words. “Sorry,” he murmured. “Want to go for a walk? We can talk about it whilst moving; it will be less awkward that way.”
“Sure,” I shrugged. We were back to talking about ‘it’. “So, your one hundred percent sure you love me?”

“I am one hundred and ten percent sure about it,” he replied as we walked into the park.

“And what about Lyn? And the little one that should be making an appearance anytime soon?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Gerard admitted. “To start with, I know I love Linds. She is amazing and the most beautiful woman I have ever met. As for the baby, well of course I’m excited and everything but I can’t help thinking about it without thinking about what would have happened if I followed my heart in the first place and told the man I my feelings for him when I first realized I had feelings for him about eight years ago.”

“Eight years? That would have been around the time you met me,” I mused. Gerard just nodded. “Well, I guess the main difference between if you had gone with me rather than waiting for Lindsey is you wouldn’t have a baby on the way unless you know some way to impregnate a man.”

Gerard chuckled. “No, that is one thing the great Gerard does not know how to do. How can you be so cool with it, Frank?” he asked seriously.

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “You mean a lot to me as a friend and I don’t want to loose you to start with. I guess it hasn’t really sunk in properly yet.”

Gerard stopped walking and pushed me up against a near by tree and kissed my lips firmly before snaking his tongue into my mouth. I groaned involuntary at the contact and almost started kissing back before I realized who it was kissing me. Gerard pulled away quickly when I didn’t return the kiss. “Has it sunk in yet?” Gerard asked.

“Yes,” I whispered. Not because I was afraid that someone would hear, but because I was not capable of anything else. Gerard stared into my eyes for a moment before walking off towards the entrance of the park. I ran after him and caught up with him just as he was leaving the park at the entrance opposite the one we had come in through so that we had walked the entire length of the park.

Gerard waited for me to catch my breath whilst looking out at the scene in front of us. The sun had gone down and the lights were all turned on to light up the city of New York. I gaped down at the lights although Gerard didn’t seem phased. He seemed to be looking at me more than the sight in front of us.

“Want to go down there?” I asked, gesturing down the hill we were stood on top of down to the city. Gerard shrugged but began walking towards the city anyway. I followed him.

“So what do you want to do?” I asked.

“Anything,” he replied. “It was your idea to come down here.”

We continued walking through the city. Most of the shops were closed and the people began walking back to their houses to cuddle up by the fire. One flashing sign caught my eye and I beamed as I dragged Gerard over to the only open shop on the street.

“Ice cream?” Gerard asked, reading the sign on the front of the shop.

“Nothing like some ice cream to cheer you up,” I said, referring to his moody state. Gerard smiled and we went inside to find a table in the parlor.

The place was pretty empty so the two of us found a table quickly and began to read the menu of various icy deserts and milkshakes.

“Maybe we should just get a small milkshake or something. This place is expensive and I don’t have much money on me,” Gerard pulled some change out of his pocket and lay it out on the table to see how much he had with him. I did the same.

“What can we buy then?” I asked, glancing down the menu. Most of the ice creams were more than what we could afford even when we put our money together.

“We can get one of these if we put our money together,” Gerard pointed at the picture on the colorful menu to show me what he was talking about. He was pointing at a large milkshake with a small ice cream scoop and a cherry on top. “We could get two straws and share it,” he explained.

“Let’s do it,” I smiled.

We ordered our milkshake collected two straws and two spoons so we could eat the ice cream on top. Our order came quickly and Gerard and I tucked in after Gerard removed the cherry and decided we could fight over it later. We began to race at alarming speeds to see who could eat the most ice cream and then who could drink the most milkshake. By the time we had finished, our heads were pounding and we walked out of the shop clutching them.

When the pain had died down and we had walked around the city a little longer I began to perk up a little. The awkwardness from before had disappeared and me and my best friend were enjoying a night out in the city together. “Hey, did you pick up the cherry?” I asked Gerard.

“Yep,” he replied cheerfully and pulled the little red fruit out of his pocket. “Do you want it?” he asked. He outstretched his hand and offered me the cherry. I shook my head.

“You have it.”

“You sure?” Gerard asked, waving the cherry in front of my face.

“Positive,” I replied and watched him pop the cherry into his mouth. Before he could chew, I pushed him against a near by wall and attached my lips to his like he did earlier on that night to me. I forced my tongue into his mouth easily because he willingly parted his lips to give me entrance. I found what I was looking for and used my tongue to scoop the cherry out of his mouth before pulling away.

Gerard stared at me but I just smirked and skipped off. I heard Gerard’s footsteps a moment later running to catch up with me so I sped my skips up to a sprint to stay ahead of him. His longer legs caught up with me eventually and he threw his arms around my small frame and picked me right off the floor before placing me against the wall with his body pressed up against mine.

“Can I have my cherry back?” he smirked. I shook my head and tried to hide the goofy beam on my face.

“Did you swallow it?” he asked with his eye brows raised. I nodded my head. I had no idea how he kept a straight face; I was just moving my head and I was ready to burst out laughing.

“How do I know your not lying and you actually still have the cherry in your mouth?” he asked casually. I opened my mouth wide to show him I had no cherry inside although he had other things on his mind than looking inside. He smacked his lips against mine and his tongue traveled into my mouth again. This time I kissed back. It was the first time we had kissed properly like this away from the stage and cameras.

-

Gerard and I walked hand in hand back to our hotel room after our little make out session in the middle of New York City. I should really have gone and told the other guys that I found Gerard and that they didn’t need to worry anymore but I was to happy being alone with him to care too much about the others.

“Frank?” Gerard asked as he sat down on his bed.

“Yes, Gee?” I asked, sitting down on my twin bed parallel to his with only two bedside tables in between them.

“I’ve decided what I’m going to do about this thing I feel for you at the same time as being in love with my wife,” he said.

“And? What are you going to do?” I pressed.

“I love you, Frank. But I can’t leave Lindsey and our baby. You know that right?” I nodded. “They need me, but I need you. I’m going to stay with them but you need to promise you will stay with me too. As a friend, I mean. Tonight can never happen again.”

I sighed; no matter how much I enjoyed tonight I knew it wouldn’t last. It just simply couldn’t be, no matter how much the fans wanted it to happen. No matter how much I wanted it to happen. I smiled at Gerard. “I will always be here for you. You know I will.”

Gerard returned the smile. “One last kiss?” he asked. I nodded and walked over to his bed and sat on his lap before kissing him again. This time it was more loving that forceful or lusty. I knew this wasn’t going to be our last kiss ever but it would probably be our last in private without cameras or screaming girls around. We both knew to savor the moment and neither of us would ever forget the night in the city with that goddamn cherry.