Pint-Sized Romeo

FRANK IERO'S POV

I was sitting in math class, officially bored out of my mind. Gerard was sitting next to me, but he was actually paying attention, so I wasn't going to bother him. Plus, I kind of depended on him for my notes when I zoned out. Anyways, I just decided to doodle until class ended.

The bell finally rang, and I capped my pen and sighed, happy to be out of that hell hole. I'd stopped paying attention to what I was drawing a while ago and when I looked down, I blushed, noticing all the hearts that covered my notebook paper.

I hurriedly closed my notebook and stuffed it in my backpack, but I wasn't quick enough to stop Gerard from seeing.

"Ooh, Frankie's got a crush!" he said, mockingly.

"Shut up." I mumbled, trying to hide my red cheeks by looking down.

"You do, don't even try to hide it. You're blushing like mad."

"You're one to talk, Mr. I've-got-a-secret-crush-that-no-one's-allowed-to-know." I said, still slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, but you don't see me drawing hearts on every empty space I can find in my notebook."

"Can we just drop it?" I said. "It's only a one way thing. And besides, I think he's straight."

"All right, all right." he said. "So, what do you want to do today?"

Math had been our last lesson of the day, so we got to go home now. Finally.

"You want to work on that English project due Thursday?" I asked. "We can work at my house if you'd like. So Mikey doesn't come in to complain that he's bored every two seconds."

"That sounds good. If we can get it done early, we wont' have to do it later."

"Yeah, I'd rather get it over with." I said. "I hate projects. Especially this one."

"What, problem with your partner?" Gerard asked, jokingly. He, himself was my partner and he knew it. But that doesn't mean I can't tease him for being stupid and cracking a terrible joke.

"Yeah, he's this major douche bag who doesn't know when to shut up."

"Hey!" he said. "You're so mean! I am not a douche bag!"

"Hey, you asked."

"Jeez, why am I friends with you again?"

"'Cause I'm cute."

"Sure, we'll go with that." he said, rolling his eyes.

"What, you don't think I'm cute?" I said, pouting.

"You're adorable. Now let's go get Mikey so we can drop him home and get to work on that project."

"Okay." I said.

I was weirdly happy. Even though I knew he was joking, hearing Gerard call me cute and adorable was enough to make me happy for the rest of the day. He sounded at least sort of sincere. Right?

"Hey, guys!" Mikey said when we got to his locker. "How goes it in senior year?"

"Same old, same old." I said. "Math bored me out of my mind."

"You looked like you were enjoying the doodling, though."

"Shut up, Gee!" I whined.

"What doodles?"

"Nothing." I said. "Drop it."

"Aw, Frankie, you shouldn't be ashamed of a few hearts... or a few hundred." Gerard said, smirking.

"Wait, you were drawing hearts on your paper?" Mikey said, starting to laugh his head off. "What are you, a 13 year old girl? What happened, man? Last time I checked, you were still a guy."

"And how exactly did you check, Mikey?" Gerard said, raising an eyebrow.

"Eww!" Mikey said "Not even!"

"Good, don't want my little brother feeling up my Frankie!"

I liked the sound of that... "my Frankie"...

"You're seriously disturbed, Gerard, you know that?" I said. "Me and Mikey? Come on."

"Yeah, I know. Didn't you?" he said, smiling.

"Well, yeah." I said. "But I didn't know it was this bad. Do we need to call the nice men in the white coats? They'll take you to a nice, soft room and give you a fancy jacket that matches the walls!"

"Oh, shut it." he said. "Anyways, ready to go, Mikes?"

"Yeah." Mikey replied. "What are you two doing this fine afternoon?"

"I'm going to Frankie's to work on an English presentation we're partnered up for."

"Damn. Oh, well. I've got a hot date with an xbox."

"You are SUCH a nerd." I said, shaking my head.

"Did you already know that?"

"True, true." I said. "Let's go already! I have spent enough time at school for today." I walked towards the parking lot and gestured for them to follow.

We all piled into Gerard's car and he drove off.