Glades and Playgrounds

Gerard and I headed for a nearby mall straight after school. Usually when we were together, his friends were there as well so it was pretty nice having him all to myself right now. The walk to the mall took its time, and it was freezing cold; I got a few remarks about my fingerless gloves from Gerard who can’t quite grasp the idea of why you buy those kinds of gloves. But he shut up when I asked why he was wearing such a thin, but oh so stylish, jacket.

I soon noticed I had forgot my money at home, so shopping was out of question for me, but as neither of us wanted to go home, we just walked around aimlessly on the fairly big mall.
To be honest; I was having the time of my life.

“Your birthday’s soon”

I gave Gerard a sarcastic: “Uh-u” as he were stating the obvious, “Why?”

“Like… Two weeks from here.”

“Yeah?”

“Fourteen days…”

“What’s your point?”

You know when your friend gets those phases where they seem to have one mission; to annoy you, and all you wanna do is to kick them in the groin? That was kinda the situation here.

He noticed my tightly pressed together lips and my heavy breathing and started laughing.

“What do you want?” he asked, still chuckling slightly and I raised my eyebrow at him in a confused look. “I mean, for your birthday?”

“Oh…” I said slowly as I finally understood what he had wanted; although I thought it was pretty unnecessary to confuse the shit out of me like that. “I don’t know- No!”

“What?”

“You’re not buying me anything!”

“Of course I am” he said, a sweet smile adorning his face.

“No way… I didn’t buy you anything this year” I said, and as his smile was quite contagious, I started smiling as well. I guess it was nice of him to want to buy me something… but he didn’t need to.

“You didn’t know me” he said, shrugging, “But I think I’m gonna buy you some proper gloves…”

I laughed, “You really don’t have to.”

“I know. But I don’t want your fingers to be amputated.”

“Jersey’s not that cold.”

“Shut up...”

-

“Wanna sit down for minute?” Gerard asked after we’d taken about five laps around the place and we were both utterly bored. “We can grab a cup of coffee or something”

“Yeah, sure” I responded without even remembering that I had no money to actually by coffee. “Starbucks?”

He nodded, took my hand in his and lead me up an escalator, around a corner and then finally into a small Starbuck’s store. The smell of coffee hit me in the face as soon as we stepped inside; filling my nose drills, and the chatter from the many customers did the same with my ears.

“Do you want something?” he asked as we had made it to the queue.

“I’ve got no money.”

He shook his head while laughing gently, “It’s on me, Frank...”

“As a birthday present?” I suggested with a grin.

“Yeah, ‘cuz I’m a cheap bastard…” he mocked, and then continued; “I’m gonna give you a pair of gloves, end of discussion. Now give me a kiss and I’ll give you a coffee.”

With a smile, I leaned towards him and pressed my lips against his cheek.

“You think a kiss on the cheek equals a perfect cup of Starbucks coffee?” he asked slyly and his lips curled up into an evil smirk. I frowned at him, but I was actually smiling inside.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to start making out right now…” I made a small gesture towards the people in the queue behind and in front of us. Though they were all busy with their own problems; searching for change in their pockets, laughing with friends or simply looking at the menu.

“I can’t recall asking you to make out with me.”

“So what do you want?”

“I don’t like your tone.”

“Too bad.” I laughed and once again leaned over to him, but this time I quickly kissed his lips. I could feel the people in the queue’s eyes burning into my skin as I pulled away. Of course I was only imagining, they were still deeply lost in their own matters, but it still felt like the whole world was observing me. It wasn’t about me being ashamed of being gay, or over Gerard; I guess I was just shy. “One tall latte for me.”

“One tall latte coming up” he said and turned to face the woman who were gonna take our orders.

-

Two minutes later, we were sat in a small booth on a hard sofa. I sipped on my coffee, which really was too hot to be drunken at the moment and Gerard was absentmindedly drinking his milkshake, and suddenly, I saw two very familiar persons walk through the door. I accidentally took a large gulf of the coffee which ended up burning my tongue so badly my body reacted immediately; I spit it out all over the table.

Gerard let out a surprised “Woah!” and instantly gave me his milkshake. He must’ve realized I had burned my tongue, and I gratefully accepted the drink to try and cool my tongue down.

“What happened?” he asked as I handed the milkshake back to him. “I thought you had a seizure or something…”

“An’ tha’s wha’ u ga’e me yoh’r milk’hake?” I asked, trying my best to get the words out correctly.

“Huh?”

“Nev’mind” My eyes drew back to the door again, but as they weren’t there anymore, I looked around the coffee shop, but they seemed to have gone again.

“What are you looking for?” Gerard asked me as he wiped up the coffee I had spat out with a tissue.

“Mah’ f-” I explained, and moaned at my tongue which had decided not to work, but I tried to talk properly anyway; “My friends.”

“Your old friends?” he asked and I nodded, feeling grateful towards him for asking me a yes/no question. Gerard once again gave me his now almost empty milkshake. “It’ll cool down your tongue.”

After I had taken a few sips of the milkshake again, I turned to Gerard, “Do you want my coffee?”

“Why? Don’t you want it?”

I gave the coffee a dirty look, “No,” and he laughed.

“Frankie!”

A female voice was calling my name and I immediately recognized it as Sasha. I turned my head to the left so fast it felt like it would fall off of my neck, and saw her standing with two cups of coffee balancing in her hands. She looked just like she had done two months ago, with her chestnut hair falling down past her shoulders and her French features that mainly showed in her face – her mother’s French.

“Hey!” I called back and she hurried over to our table with the coffee’s dangerously swaying as she walked. “Where’s Jake? I saw him with you.”

“Flirting with the cashier,” she said, looking over her shoulder absentmindedly as to make sure she was giving me the right information. She then looked at me intently, her dark eyes almost staring into mine and she gave me a big smile, showing off her teeth. “How’ve you been?”

“Great, you?”

“Meh… comme ci, comme ça. My parent’s got divorced”

“And why’s that comme ci, comme ça?” I asked, doing my best to impersonate her French accent; comme ci, comme ça means ‘so-so’ in French. If anybody else would’ve said to me that their parents got divorced, I’d probably comfort them, but in Sasha’s case, I didn’t find it necessary to pity her. Her parents didn’t belong together, and she knew that.

“Because mom’s moving back to France”

“And taking Sasha with her,” a voice filled in behind Sasha and my face lit up. Not by what the person had said, but who the person was.

“Hello Jacob,” I said to the boy with black, messy hair.

“Hello Frank,” the boy behind Sasha grinned, “Who’s your friend?”

I suddenly remembered Gerard and turned to look at him. He didn’t look uncomfortable as I thought he would be since he had no idea of who these people were, but he was seated comfortably in the couch with my coffee in his hands, looking at us as we talked.

“Gerard,” Gerard answered and made a small wave with his fingers at Jacob.

“I’m Jacob.”

“And I’m Natasha,” Sasha piped in and all of a sudden kicked Jacob’s foot, “Take your fucking coffee before it gives me burn-marks!”

Jacob grimaced, but took the coffee from her.

“Are you guys busy, or do you wanna hang out?”

“I…” I started, looking at Sasha who had asked the question, before turning to look at Gerard, “I don’t know… What do you think?”

Gerard shrugged and took a sip of the coffee, “I don’t mind.”

[A/N; Yet another filler, sorry. The Frerardness will start soon, though... hopefully... XD]