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The Pros and Cons of Loving
Part 16
Aiden’s POV
I never sat with Eric at lunch anymore, because I had decided to listen to Garret. When I was around Eric, hearing his voice and seeing his smiles—though I wasn’t sure how he could smile— made me want to kill myself. Because it meant he was moving on without me and I wasn’t. I was stuck in this abyss of wanting him back, wanting him to love me.
I sat alone in the hallway outside of my next class, munching on a small bag of chips I’d brought with my sandwich.
“Hey, Aiden.” Someone called.
“Yo.” I said without looking up.
“Party tonight. Wanna come?”
I looked up to see Tyler. If it hadn’t been for his note to Eric, we would still be together today. I couldn’t help but feel hatred towards him. “No… I don’t.”
“Why not? You don’t have mother hen following you around.”
“Because I don’t want to.” I said stubbornly.
Tyler shrugged, said “Your loss”, and walked off.
I ate two more chips, turning the page in Dad’s old Angels and Demons book. I swear, I probably have all of Dad’s old stuff. It isn’t even funny.
“Mr. Iero, why are you not in the cafeteria?”
I looked up to see my guidance counselor with… Jesse, the guy from Garret’s office?
“I… just…” I shrugged.
“I won’t tell… if you do me a favor. This is Jesse and he’s new to the country. I am swamped in paper work so if I gave you a pass and talked to your teacher, could you show him around? He has this class with you after lunch.”
“Sure.” I said, nodding.
“Well, Jesse, this is Aiden. He’s been here a while so he can show you around, if you don’t mind?”
“No, its okay.” Jesse said, shrugging.
I smiled at him, pushing myself up. “Are you a junior?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Well good. There’s something in common already. Jesse if you need anything, I will be in my office. Aiden, thank you very much.”
“Anytime.” I said, nodding. “Ready?”
“Sure.” He shrugged.
My… well, our… guidance counselor walked into the classroom. When she was out of hearing distance I shook my head. “I can’t stand her.” I whispered.
He laughed.
“So where are you from?”
“London, England.” He said.
My eyes widened. “Dude, you have an accent! How did I not notice that?!”
He laughed again. “You have one too.”
“Yeah but mine isn’t that bad. You should hear some of the people here.” I said.
“Like your principal?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. We all hate him. He’s a fucking prick.” I said.
“Why?” he asked in a thick british accent.
“You know… well, are you homophobic?”
“Nope. I’m bi.” He shrugged.
“Well I’m gay… and so are my dads. But yeah, he’s a homophobic prick and all of the school’s jocks are his pets, you know?”
“Kinda like my dad.” He sighed.
“Yeah?”
“My dad’s a boarding school principal in London. For catholic boys.” He explained. “I got kicked out because I’m clearly psychotic. Which is why I saw you in that therapists office.”
“You remember?”
He nodded, smiling. “Yeah… your dads…. Woah.”
“Gerard Way and Frank Iero.” I nodded.
“That is like so cool! You’re so lucky!” he suddenly exclaimed, then looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I’ve just… yeah, I really like them.”
“No, its okay. But many people here don’t know.” I explained. “People are… crazy.” I said.
Our counselor came out. “Okay, boys. Your teacher says its fine. You should make it back by the end of class.”
I nodded, put my backpack on my desk, and turned to Eric.
“You can sit right by Mr. Iero, Jesse. It looks like you two are into the same type of things anyway. I am Mr. Barker.”
“Hi.” Jesse said.
“English? Where are you from?”
“London, sir.”
“Fascinating, really.” He nodded. “I have been there before.”
“Yes, sir. It’s very pretty.”
“Indeed it is. You boys have a nice lunch.”
Jesse put his bag down and followed me out of the room.
“He’s our World Culture teacher. I also have him for English though.” I told Jesse. “Uhm, are you hungry?”
“No. I just got here and I ate at home.” He said.
“Okay. Well, are you riding a bus or driving?”
“313.”
“My bus.” I found myself laughing.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I looked at Jesse. “Oh sweet. You have a the Smiths shirt on. An original tour shirt. Dad would kill for that.”
He smiled. “This is my favorite shirt. I stole it from my older brother Kyle.”
“I steal all of my clothes from my Dads.” I laughed. Dad never minded though. He usually just stole it back. He actually took me to the store the other night to buy me shoes because I had stolen every pair of his that he liked. Shirts though he could say nothing about. Honestly, we share clothes so much we don’t know whose is whose anymore.
“So this is where the kids come in from busses and this is also where you go to get onto the bus.” I explained.
He nodded.
“There is the cafeteria. It’s pretty crummy in there.”
He gave another small nod. “You’re first class you have with Asher, one of my friends.” I said, and led him towards the hallway.
It took us the entire period to tour the school, though, because it turned out we had a lot in common and we kept getting side tracked.
When I walked into the classroom with Jesse at the end of the period the first thing I saw was Eric, staring at me with wide gray eyes. I knew what he must think, yet I did nothing to stop it.
Eric’s POV
I was so angry I couldn’t stand it, though I knew I shouldn’t be with the way I acted around guys lately. Aiden walks into a classroom smiling with a guy, though, and I’m ready to castrate him. He sat with him on the bus ride home too. I’m walking home alone while he ‘shows Jesse where his house is.’ Fuck yeah, that’s what they’re doing.
Ugh.
An emo kid.
An emo kid.
Sure, we may be considered emo kids but fuck. An emo kid!
Let alone with an extremely sexy British accent. I bet it’s fake.
I walked into Aiden’s room, threw my bag onto the floor and went to pick up my pen when I noticed a small velvet box on Aiden’s dresser. I looked at it, feeling a twitch it my stomach. I picked up the box and opened it. I saw a small silver ring.
My eyes widened half in wonder and half in excitement.
The box fell from my hands and the cloth section holding the ring fell out, as did a folder sheet of paper.
I picked the paper up, my heart pounding. At first it looked like random words and scratches. Then I realized it was a proposal.
My proposal.
To me… for me…
Aiden was going to propose to me. I looked down at the paper, beginning to read.
‘Eric, with everythingwe’ve you’ve been through….’
‘I never’
‘I want to be with you forever. I tried imagining myself without you in my life and even the thought made me miserable You helped me through so much… you helped me be who I am today and that person is much better than the person I was before I met you… I love you so much, Eric, and I want to know you’re mine. I want to know that you’re going to be with me forever… until the day I die… Eric… will you marry me?’
And then, in shaky letters I read something that broke my heart into a million tiny pieces…
‘I was going to ask you to marry me on Christmas Eve. I thought we were going to be together forever. I miss you Eric and I’m having trouble coping… I feel pretty stupid and I…’
The writing just stopped.
I sat on the edge of his bed, shaking. The ring was cold in my hand, or maybe I was just cold. I was obviously cold hearted for doing this to Aiden… just because of my mom. I felt so overwhelmed… so overwhelmed with hatred at myself, love for Aiden… Had I already messed it up beyond repair? Was he really going to get with Jesse? I watched my hands shaking, looking at the silver ring. That ring could have meant so much… could it still?
I took a deep breath, wondering if Aiden would ever take me back…
I heard someone coming up the stairs and looked up just as Aiden came into the room. I looked at him, still shaking. Could he tell?
“I… I love you, Aiden…”
His mouth opened, but then his eyes fell on the paper and ring in my hand. “What… where did you find that?!” he shouted, storming in.
“On your dresser!” I exclaimed, scooting back on the bed.
He yanked both the paper and the ring roughly from me. “On it or in it?”
“ON IT!” I screamed. He was acting crazy almost. I half expected him to lash out and hit me.
“Liar!” He didn’t hit me but instead he collapsed into sobs. “I hate you. I hate you, Eric! I HATE YOU!”
“Aiden—.” I whispered.
“Just fucking go!” he screamed.
I didn’t want to go, to leave him like this. But I didn’t know what else to do so I ran outside, unable to think straight. I headed towards the park where we used to sneak to almost every night and laid down, remembering the first time I’d ever seen Aiden.
“There are three more boxes in the backseat. Bring them in for me while I sort the ones in the living room.” My mom said. I looked at her with her dyed blonde hair and her perfectly tanned skin; I hated everything she stood for.
I had to admit, though, she was handling Dad leaving her well. She didn’t even know why he did it, yet she’s been strong. She found us a house, got a car, and we’re going to be and I quote “Our own little happy family.” Then she said a nickname from when I was a baby I’d rather not repeat.
I nodded and headed back outside, looking around my new neighborhood. The houses were all different. Some huge houses, some small. Ours happened to be one of the smaller ones. Yeah, it was a nice neighborhood. But I hated it. I hated it just like I hated my dad. No, I didn’t hate my dad. I hated me. I made him leave; if it weren’t for me they’d still be together. I was only ever a problem for them anyway.
I got one of the boxes from the car, sighing. It was summer—almost July— and almost too hot to function. Of course mom picked this day to move and unpack. Why not tomorrow when the weather would be better? Mom just doesn’t think things through.
And there’s the fact that we ran out of hotel money. I don’t know how mom intends to pay for this house anyway.
The box was heavy and I almost dropped it, catching it moments before it actually fell to the ground. I hauled it to the house and then did the same with the two remaining boxes. I looked at all the boxes scattered on the floor and then darted up to my room to ‘unpack’ because I didn’t want to give mom the chance to make me help her with those too. Because when I ‘help’ she stays for five minutes then goes off to smoke.
The room was plain and boring but where we were renting I wasn’t allowed to paint the walls. My bed was already put together (my grandparents had helped us move and were on their way with the living room furniture in their truck now) and almost all of my boxes were already in there. I crossed the room and looked out my window and saw a boy about my age with dark hair, black pants, and a white t-shirt. He lived across the street and one house to the left.
I don’t know why but I felt a little twitch in my heart. I watch him look over at our house for a few seconds and then disappear into his house.
Three Hours Later…
“This is my son Eric. He’s very shy.”
I felt myself go red as I reached my mom, a young man, and the boy I’d seen outside.
“Eric, this is Frank and his son Aiden. They live across the street.”
I looked at the boy and felt my heart flutter. He held out his hand, smiling kindly, and I shook it feeling a shock go through me. Our eyes met. He had deep and bright blue eyes. He was pale, like he didn’t go out of the house much.
“Hi.” He said, letting to of my hand. His voice made my stomach do cartwheels and I felt myself blushing. Again.
“Hey.”
I was now officially crushing over the guy. He was handsome, nice, his voice was just… amazing, his hands were soft, and his eyes werebeyond beautiful.
“Well we just wanted to say hi. We’ll let you get unpacked now.” Frank said. He looked very familiar, like I used to know him or something. I wracked my brain but the only thing that popped into my head was a My Chemical Romance song called I’m Not Okay.
“Oh well thank you very much.” My mom gave Frank a flirtatious smile.
“Uhm… no problem. If you need anything just ask, I guess.” He said and then turned to me. “I’m sure Aiden wouldn’t mind showing you around, Eric, if you wanted.”
I managed a small nod.
I sighed and sat up, then fumbled in my pocket for my iPod. I turned it on and listened to ‘Asleep’ by the Smiths.
Why did my life have to suck?
And was I really just… trying to not be happy?
Aiden’s POV
“So do you like it here yet?”
Eric, who was just sitting outside his house and reading, jumped and looked at me. He was startled, his eyes wide.
I hadn’t noticed how cute he was but, being this close I noticed things. I noticed his eyes were a starry gray and absolutely beautiful. I noticed he had several freckles across the bridge of his nose. I noticed he was a natural arms because I could see his arms seeing as he had on a t-shirt. He was extremely skinny and he had a small scar on his right cheek.
There was something about him. I know I say that a lot. I hook up with a different guy at every party I go to and I go to plenty.
But Eric had this innocence to him, he looks kind of scared of me but he also looks curious. I can tell he feels something for me because he keeps looking at me, blushing, and looking away. Even more so than the average shy person. I felt something for him too. When I saw him coming into the living room yesterday at his house my heart had completely stopped and I hadn’t even seen him up close then!
“Uhm, its okay.” He said quietly, looking down.
“I didn’t like it when I first moved here but I met Asher. He’s this kid down the street. He and his girlfriend Brooke are nice.” I told him, sitting next to him. “Where are you from?”
“Not too far away.” He sighed.
“Why’d you move hear?” I asked, knowing my asking him so questions was torturing him. But I knew many shy people and I know that once you get to know them, they aren’t shy any more.
When I asked that, he got this sad look on his face. “M-My dad… found out I was gay and… left my mom.” He looked away.
“I’m sorry.” I said quietly, wishing I hadn’t asked.
He nodded. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“It isn’t… my dad cheated on my other dad with a woman.”
“Huh?”
“I have two dads.” I explained.
“Your dad... Frank… he looks very familiar.” He said, looking at me.
I laughed. “Come here. I’ll show you why.” I stood up and reached down to help him up. When our hands connected I felt a jolt go through me.
I helped him up and led him into my house. Dad was fast asleep on the couch.
“Up here.” I whispered, taking him upstairs.
He followed me, looking around curiously. I pushed open the guest room door. All of Dad’s old My Chemical Romance stuff.
Eric’s eyes widened as he saw their gold The Black Parade disc on a plaque with a picture of the whole band by it. “Your dad… is Frank Iero… and the other one… is Gerard Way.”
I smirked and nodded. “Yep.”
“Woah…” he laughed. “Woah. That means you know, like… like The Used and… have you met Billy Corgan?!”
“No but my dad—my Gerard dad—got me an autograph.”
“Wow…” he said, a look of awe on his face. “Just… how… like, I knew of you… and I expected you to be like… a jerk.”
I smiled. “It’s no different than any other parents; we just had a bigger house and got to go to cool places.” I shrugged.
He nodded.
“Hey, Eric… would you like me to show you around the neighborhood?”
He blushed and looked me in the eyes, nodding. “I’d like that… yeah…”
I grinned. “Okay.”
I never sat with Eric at lunch anymore, because I had decided to listen to Garret. When I was around Eric, hearing his voice and seeing his smiles—though I wasn’t sure how he could smile— made me want to kill myself. Because it meant he was moving on without me and I wasn’t. I was stuck in this abyss of wanting him back, wanting him to love me.
I sat alone in the hallway outside of my next class, munching on a small bag of chips I’d brought with my sandwich.
“Hey, Aiden.” Someone called.
“Yo.” I said without looking up.
“Party tonight. Wanna come?”
I looked up to see Tyler. If it hadn’t been for his note to Eric, we would still be together today. I couldn’t help but feel hatred towards him. “No… I don’t.”
“Why not? You don’t have mother hen following you around.”
“Because I don’t want to.” I said stubbornly.
Tyler shrugged, said “Your loss”, and walked off.
I ate two more chips, turning the page in Dad’s old Angels and Demons book. I swear, I probably have all of Dad’s old stuff. It isn’t even funny.
“Mr. Iero, why are you not in the cafeteria?”
I looked up to see my guidance counselor with… Jesse, the guy from Garret’s office?
“I… just…” I shrugged.
“I won’t tell… if you do me a favor. This is Jesse and he’s new to the country. I am swamped in paper work so if I gave you a pass and talked to your teacher, could you show him around? He has this class with you after lunch.”
“Sure.” I said, nodding.
“Well, Jesse, this is Aiden. He’s been here a while so he can show you around, if you don’t mind?”
“No, its okay.” Jesse said, shrugging.
I smiled at him, pushing myself up. “Are you a junior?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Well good. There’s something in common already. Jesse if you need anything, I will be in my office. Aiden, thank you very much.”
“Anytime.” I said, nodding. “Ready?”
“Sure.” He shrugged.
My… well, our… guidance counselor walked into the classroom. When she was out of hearing distance I shook my head. “I can’t stand her.” I whispered.
He laughed.
“So where are you from?”
“London, England.” He said.
My eyes widened. “Dude, you have an accent! How did I not notice that?!”
He laughed again. “You have one too.”
“Yeah but mine isn’t that bad. You should hear some of the people here.” I said.
“Like your principal?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. We all hate him. He’s a fucking prick.” I said.
“Why?” he asked in a thick british accent.
“You know… well, are you homophobic?”
“Nope. I’m bi.” He shrugged.
“Well I’m gay… and so are my dads. But yeah, he’s a homophobic prick and all of the school’s jocks are his pets, you know?”
“Kinda like my dad.” He sighed.
“Yeah?”
“My dad’s a boarding school principal in London. For catholic boys.” He explained. “I got kicked out because I’m clearly psychotic. Which is why I saw you in that therapists office.”
“You remember?”
He nodded, smiling. “Yeah… your dads…. Woah.”
“Gerard Way and Frank Iero.” I nodded.
“That is like so cool! You’re so lucky!” he suddenly exclaimed, then looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I’ve just… yeah, I really like them.”
“No, its okay. But many people here don’t know.” I explained. “People are… crazy.” I said.
Our counselor came out. “Okay, boys. Your teacher says its fine. You should make it back by the end of class.”
I nodded, put my backpack on my desk, and turned to Eric.
“You can sit right by Mr. Iero, Jesse. It looks like you two are into the same type of things anyway. I am Mr. Barker.”
“Hi.” Jesse said.
“English? Where are you from?”
“London, sir.”
“Fascinating, really.” He nodded. “I have been there before.”
“Yes, sir. It’s very pretty.”
“Indeed it is. You boys have a nice lunch.”
Jesse put his bag down and followed me out of the room.
“He’s our World Culture teacher. I also have him for English though.” I told Jesse. “Uhm, are you hungry?”
“No. I just got here and I ate at home.” He said.
“Okay. Well, are you riding a bus or driving?”
“313.”
“My bus.” I found myself laughing.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I looked at Jesse. “Oh sweet. You have a the Smiths shirt on. An original tour shirt. Dad would kill for that.”
He smiled. “This is my favorite shirt. I stole it from my older brother Kyle.”
“I steal all of my clothes from my Dads.” I laughed. Dad never minded though. He usually just stole it back. He actually took me to the store the other night to buy me shoes because I had stolen every pair of his that he liked. Shirts though he could say nothing about. Honestly, we share clothes so much we don’t know whose is whose anymore.
“So this is where the kids come in from busses and this is also where you go to get onto the bus.” I explained.
He nodded.
“There is the cafeteria. It’s pretty crummy in there.”
He gave another small nod. “You’re first class you have with Asher, one of my friends.” I said, and led him towards the hallway.
It took us the entire period to tour the school, though, because it turned out we had a lot in common and we kept getting side tracked.
When I walked into the classroom with Jesse at the end of the period the first thing I saw was Eric, staring at me with wide gray eyes. I knew what he must think, yet I did nothing to stop it.
Eric’s POV
I was so angry I couldn’t stand it, though I knew I shouldn’t be with the way I acted around guys lately. Aiden walks into a classroom smiling with a guy, though, and I’m ready to castrate him. He sat with him on the bus ride home too. I’m walking home alone while he ‘shows Jesse where his house is.’ Fuck yeah, that’s what they’re doing.
Ugh.
An emo kid.
An emo kid.
Sure, we may be considered emo kids but fuck. An emo kid!
Let alone with an extremely sexy British accent. I bet it’s fake.
I walked into Aiden’s room, threw my bag onto the floor and went to pick up my pen when I noticed a small velvet box on Aiden’s dresser. I looked at it, feeling a twitch it my stomach. I picked up the box and opened it. I saw a small silver ring.
My eyes widened half in wonder and half in excitement.
The box fell from my hands and the cloth section holding the ring fell out, as did a folder sheet of paper.
I picked the paper up, my heart pounding. At first it looked like random words and scratches. Then I realized it was a proposal.
My proposal.
To me… for me…
Aiden was going to propose to me. I looked down at the paper, beginning to read.
‘Eric, with everythingwe’ve you’ve been through….’
‘I never’
‘I want to be with you forever. I tried imagining myself without you in my life and even the thought made me miserable You helped me through so much… you helped me be who I am today and that person is much better than the person I was before I met you… I love you so much, Eric, and I want to know you’re mine. I want to know that you’re going to be with me forever… until the day I die… Eric… will you marry me?’
And then, in shaky letters I read something that broke my heart into a million tiny pieces…
‘I was going to ask you to marry me on Christmas Eve. I thought we were going to be together forever. I miss you Eric and I’m having trouble coping… I feel pretty stupid and I…’
The writing just stopped.
I sat on the edge of his bed, shaking. The ring was cold in my hand, or maybe I was just cold. I was obviously cold hearted for doing this to Aiden… just because of my mom. I felt so overwhelmed… so overwhelmed with hatred at myself, love for Aiden… Had I already messed it up beyond repair? Was he really going to get with Jesse? I watched my hands shaking, looking at the silver ring. That ring could have meant so much… could it still?
I took a deep breath, wondering if Aiden would ever take me back…
I heard someone coming up the stairs and looked up just as Aiden came into the room. I looked at him, still shaking. Could he tell?
“I… I love you, Aiden…”
His mouth opened, but then his eyes fell on the paper and ring in my hand. “What… where did you find that?!” he shouted, storming in.
“On your dresser!” I exclaimed, scooting back on the bed.
He yanked both the paper and the ring roughly from me. “On it or in it?”
“ON IT!” I screamed. He was acting crazy almost. I half expected him to lash out and hit me.
“Liar!” He didn’t hit me but instead he collapsed into sobs. “I hate you. I hate you, Eric! I HATE YOU!”
“Aiden—.” I whispered.
“Just fucking go!” he screamed.
I didn’t want to go, to leave him like this. But I didn’t know what else to do so I ran outside, unable to think straight. I headed towards the park where we used to sneak to almost every night and laid down, remembering the first time I’d ever seen Aiden.
“There are three more boxes in the backseat. Bring them in for me while I sort the ones in the living room.” My mom said. I looked at her with her dyed blonde hair and her perfectly tanned skin; I hated everything she stood for.
I had to admit, though, she was handling Dad leaving her well. She didn’t even know why he did it, yet she’s been strong. She found us a house, got a car, and we’re going to be and I quote “Our own little happy family.” Then she said a nickname from when I was a baby I’d rather not repeat.
I nodded and headed back outside, looking around my new neighborhood. The houses were all different. Some huge houses, some small. Ours happened to be one of the smaller ones. Yeah, it was a nice neighborhood. But I hated it. I hated it just like I hated my dad. No, I didn’t hate my dad. I hated me. I made him leave; if it weren’t for me they’d still be together. I was only ever a problem for them anyway.
I got one of the boxes from the car, sighing. It was summer—almost July— and almost too hot to function. Of course mom picked this day to move and unpack. Why not tomorrow when the weather would be better? Mom just doesn’t think things through.
And there’s the fact that we ran out of hotel money. I don’t know how mom intends to pay for this house anyway.
The box was heavy and I almost dropped it, catching it moments before it actually fell to the ground. I hauled it to the house and then did the same with the two remaining boxes. I looked at all the boxes scattered on the floor and then darted up to my room to ‘unpack’ because I didn’t want to give mom the chance to make me help her with those too. Because when I ‘help’ she stays for five minutes then goes off to smoke.
The room was plain and boring but where we were renting I wasn’t allowed to paint the walls. My bed was already put together (my grandparents had helped us move and were on their way with the living room furniture in their truck now) and almost all of my boxes were already in there. I crossed the room and looked out my window and saw a boy about my age with dark hair, black pants, and a white t-shirt. He lived across the street and one house to the left.
I don’t know why but I felt a little twitch in my heart. I watch him look over at our house for a few seconds and then disappear into his house.
Three Hours Later…
“This is my son Eric. He’s very shy.”
I felt myself go red as I reached my mom, a young man, and the boy I’d seen outside.
“Eric, this is Frank and his son Aiden. They live across the street.”
I looked at the boy and felt my heart flutter. He held out his hand, smiling kindly, and I shook it feeling a shock go through me. Our eyes met. He had deep and bright blue eyes. He was pale, like he didn’t go out of the house much.
“Hi.” He said, letting to of my hand. His voice made my stomach do cartwheels and I felt myself blushing. Again.
“Hey.”
I was now officially crushing over the guy. He was handsome, nice, his voice was just… amazing, his hands were soft, and his eyes werebeyond beautiful.
“Well we just wanted to say hi. We’ll let you get unpacked now.” Frank said. He looked very familiar, like I used to know him or something. I wracked my brain but the only thing that popped into my head was a My Chemical Romance song called I’m Not Okay.
“Oh well thank you very much.” My mom gave Frank a flirtatious smile.
“Uhm… no problem. If you need anything just ask, I guess.” He said and then turned to me. “I’m sure Aiden wouldn’t mind showing you around, Eric, if you wanted.”
I managed a small nod.
I sighed and sat up, then fumbled in my pocket for my iPod. I turned it on and listened to ‘Asleep’ by the Smiths.
Why did my life have to suck?
And was I really just… trying to not be happy?
Aiden’s POV
“So do you like it here yet?”
Eric, who was just sitting outside his house and reading, jumped and looked at me. He was startled, his eyes wide.
I hadn’t noticed how cute he was but, being this close I noticed things. I noticed his eyes were a starry gray and absolutely beautiful. I noticed he had several freckles across the bridge of his nose. I noticed he was a natural arms because I could see his arms seeing as he had on a t-shirt. He was extremely skinny and he had a small scar on his right cheek.
There was something about him. I know I say that a lot. I hook up with a different guy at every party I go to and I go to plenty.
But Eric had this innocence to him, he looks kind of scared of me but he also looks curious. I can tell he feels something for me because he keeps looking at me, blushing, and looking away. Even more so than the average shy person. I felt something for him too. When I saw him coming into the living room yesterday at his house my heart had completely stopped and I hadn’t even seen him up close then!
“Uhm, its okay.” He said quietly, looking down.
“I didn’t like it when I first moved here but I met Asher. He’s this kid down the street. He and his girlfriend Brooke are nice.” I told him, sitting next to him. “Where are you from?”
“Not too far away.” He sighed.
“Why’d you move hear?” I asked, knowing my asking him so questions was torturing him. But I knew many shy people and I know that once you get to know them, they aren’t shy any more.
When I asked that, he got this sad look on his face. “M-My dad… found out I was gay and… left my mom.” He looked away.
“I’m sorry.” I said quietly, wishing I hadn’t asked.
He nodded. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“It isn’t… my dad cheated on my other dad with a woman.”
“Huh?”
“I have two dads.” I explained.
“Your dad... Frank… he looks very familiar.” He said, looking at me.
I laughed. “Come here. I’ll show you why.” I stood up and reached down to help him up. When our hands connected I felt a jolt go through me.
I helped him up and led him into my house. Dad was fast asleep on the couch.
“Up here.” I whispered, taking him upstairs.
He followed me, looking around curiously. I pushed open the guest room door. All of Dad’s old My Chemical Romance stuff.
Eric’s eyes widened as he saw their gold The Black Parade disc on a plaque with a picture of the whole band by it. “Your dad… is Frank Iero… and the other one… is Gerard Way.”
I smirked and nodded. “Yep.”
“Woah…” he laughed. “Woah. That means you know, like… like The Used and… have you met Billy Corgan?!”
“No but my dad—my Gerard dad—got me an autograph.”
“Wow…” he said, a look of awe on his face. “Just… how… like, I knew of you… and I expected you to be like… a jerk.”
I smiled. “It’s no different than any other parents; we just had a bigger house and got to go to cool places.” I shrugged.
He nodded.
“Hey, Eric… would you like me to show you around the neighborhood?”
He blushed and looked me in the eyes, nodding. “I’d like that… yeah…”
I grinned. “Okay.”