Somebody To Love

The week passed by so slowly. I saw Frank in the halls and during class, but we mostly acted like friends and sometimes he would hold my hand or kiss my cheek, but that was mostly the extent of it.

Bob also became annoyed with me, “Ugh, seriously, Ray, stop talking about it. You are making me want to barf.”

Then he would confiscate my He-man action figure and threaten to take him apart if I didn’t shut up.

Finally, Saturday arrived and I conned Eddie into driving me to Frank’s. I slowly walked up to the driveway, hoping he didn’t wait for me to get inside like my mother would. He didn’t and quickly pulled out of the driveway and drove down the street.

I rang Frank’s doorbell and waited for him to answer, and he did.

“You’re late,” he said, wagging his finger and pulling me into a long awaited kiss that I managed to strike up enough nerve to kiss back to.

I asked as he led me inside to the couch, “What are we watching tonight?”

“We are starting off with the Halloweens,” he said, looking between the couch cushions for the remote.

He had the TV already set up. He even had a big steaming bowl of popcorn ready for us to devour. He found the remote and pressed play, joining me on the couch. We scooted closer to each other and he leaned up against my chest, resting the popcorn bowl in his lap, taking my hand in his.

It never felt so right.

Once the popcorn was gone, I wrapped Frank up in my arms, trying to do it as smooth as possible. He smiled and stroked my chin, bringing my face down for another mind-blowing kiss. We both then forgot about the movie as he pushed me up against the arm of the couch, lying on top of me.

Then I got nervous.

His tongue ran across my lower lip, asking for permission and his hand wondered below my shirt, resting on my hip. I felt Frank getting stiffer against my leg and I felt trapped beneath his body. Everything was moving too fast. I felt like I had stopped breathing. I had to make it stop. I wasn’t ready.

“Frank,” I said, trying to push him away, “Frank, stop.”

He pulled away and I sat up, trying to catch my breath while running my hands through my hair. A million thoughts ran through my head.

Frank was concerned, “Do you need a glass of water or anything?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” I said with a weak smile. That’s it. You’re done. Say goodbye to Frank Iero.

Frank was not convinced, he stopped the movie, “Are you sure? You want to go home? I can drive you if you want me to.”

I shook my head no, squeezing my eyes shut, trying to come to grips. Don’t be so fucking stupid. Frank isn’t going to dump you because you got scared when he wanted to play tonsil hockey with you.

He sighed and said, “I shouldn’t have come on to you like that. This is probably your first time with a guy.”

I blushed, praying Frank would not tell me to get out, “I’m pretty inexperienced. In fact, you were my very first kiss.”

Frank took his hand in mine, “You should have told me, I would have taken things more slowly.”

“I didn’t want you to think differently of me,” I said, relaxing more with each passing breath, knowing it was going to be okay.

“Well,” Frank said, turning my hand over in his and tracing the lines on my hands, “to be honest, I have only had one serious relationship with a guy and that was a year ago, before I even moved here. I may have come off as strong in the library, but really, I am almost in the same boat as you.”

I smiled and he returned my hand back to me.

Frank went on, “Listen, I know this may sound like a stupid idea, but are you going to homecoming dance next weekend?”

I looked at him strange, yet the idea amused me, “I wasn’t planning to, why?”

Homecoming was never my thing. I just went because it was social interaction and a night out of the house. I mostly hung out with Gerard and Bob against the wall while Mikey hit on random girls, being slapped across the face most of the time. Gerard would bring along his sketch book and Bob would always find some girl to dance with so I would be stuck eyeballing all the hot sweaty guys as they slammed up against their dates in their form of ‘dancing’ which looked like butt sex with clothes on. It happened every year. I would be stuck with Breakfast Monkey, Crazy Boy, and Gerard. But it was better than being home.

Frank motioned to the two of us, “You think maybe we can go together? If you don’t want to that’s okay. I was just tossing it out there to see if you wanted to go or not. I think it would be pretty cool.”

I was flattered, I was sure he was going to ask me to veg out with him watching more horror movies, “I’d love to go with you.”

“Great,” He said, inching towards me.

I could tell he wanted to kiss me, so I turned the tables and kissed him and mid kiss something deep down inside of me told me I wasn't going to be an inexperienced gay boy for too long.