Telegraph Avenue Kiss

I woke up because something was poking me in the back. Me, being the lazy motherfucker that I am in the mornings, assumed that it was something that I'd left on my bed last night, like a belt or a Gameboy, or something like that. I am always doing that, falling asleep in the middle of something, waking up sprawled out with shit all over the bed. A groan escaped my lips and I tried to dig into the covers and find a more comfortable spot, somewhere that the evidence of my negligence couldn't bother me, until I heard my name.

It was low, a common morning-groan type of noise that comes out as mush, but I knew it had my name mixed in with it. Nearly a whisper pressed against the muffling fabric of a pillow near the back of my head, behind my turned back because I always had to sleep on my side, otherwise gravity choked me on its invisible pressure.

The voice was closer now, pressed up to my ear and much clearer, the sleep gone from the words, and I recognized Gerard's cooing voice echoing in the curve of my ear.

I let out a little 'hmm' sound from the bottom of my throat and reached behind me to grasp at Gerard's hand or his shirt, or something to get him closer. I felt his hand slip delicately into mine like he knew that I just needed a little reassurance that he was really there. It wouldn't surprise me if he did know. He always knows.

I turned around to face him, blinking sleepily and needing to see that he was here with me, next to me in bed.

"I always forget where we are in the mornings..." I told him as I snuggled into his chest. This had happened many mornings since we moved to New York. I would always think that I was still in Jersey, and my mom would be downstairs, Mikey would be on his way over...

But I need to remember that that can't happen anymore. Now every morning I wait until Jeremy was done with the shower to go take one, and then I walk to my inner-city ghetto school alone, where I'm Mikey and Gerard-less for eight hours until I go home, where I wait for Gerard to get home and cuddle with me.

I miss Mikey way too much, I love him too much for this to keep going on. But I love Gee too much to let him go home and get in trouble because of me. It isn't fair to any of us.

"Hey, baby-doll?" Gerard asked thoughtfully as he traced his fingers in circles on my back. I arched up at the touch and let out a shaky sigh.

"Yeah, Ger-ard?" I asked, my breath hitching when I felt his teeth on my neck. He moved down to my bare collarbone and nibbled lightly for a minute before popping his head back up and pecking me on the lips. He had morning breath, but I'm sure my breath wasn't a rose garden either.

"You're not going to school today," he told me with a little grin on his face, like he could just boss me around and I would do whatever he wants.

"Oh, am I not? But then I can't stare at the cute boy that sits beside me in history..."

I got bit on the jaw for saying that, earning a look that told me Gerard was not amused. The funny thing is, he didn't know that I was kidding. I'd started up with the 'cute boy that sits near me' act a few days ago to make Gerard jealous, because Gee always wants to cuddle with me alot more when he's jealous.

"Not funny, Frankie. I'm serious, you're not going to school. I'm kidnapping you and taking you to work with me so I can monitor you at all times.Y'know, make sure that no guy comes within a ten foot radius of you, cause I will slap a bitch if I have to, Francis, just watch me."

I smiled at him and lifted my arm to run my fingers through his hair. He snuggled closer to me and arched his stomach into mine, bringing us as close as we could get.

"Mmm, okay, baby, I'll keep you company at the bookstore--"

I was cut off by my Warning ringtone on the dresser. I jumped up out of bed and opened the phone without seeing who it was, assuming it was Mikey for his usual morning pre-school phone sex since he couldn't see me anymore. I flopped onto the bed next to Gerard and bounced back up for a minute.

"Hello?" I asked into the reciever, expecting my response to be 'Heeey, Frankenstein' or something like that.

"Frank Anthony Iero!"

"Oh shit, Mom?"

Gerard popped to attention, sitting up and pressing his ear to the outside of the phone.

"Where the hell are you, Frank! And I know that Gerard is there too!"

My natural instincts kicked in from when Mom would always call me and ask where I was, and I would always reply. It was natural to answer her, she's my fucking mother.

"We're...I ran away, so why would I tell you?"

"You'd better tell me, or I'll have that boy thrown in jail! If you come back right now, I won't press charges, but Frank, I swear to god..."

"Oh my...Mom, he doesn't have anything to do with this! He didn't force me to leave, you did! How could you think that I would just stand back while you sent me away? There was no way I could let you do that," I told her, feeling a sudden surge of...dislike for her. I can't say hate--not yet anyway--because she did do wrong, but she thought she had a reason, I know it wasn't just done for spite.

"Oh, so you run away? Frank, either way you are leaving. You left behind all of your friends, your family, and you didn't finish the school year. It doesn't matter whether I made you or you went on your own."

Yes it does, because here I can live with my boyfriend.

I felt Gerard's hand slip around my waist and I leaned into his shoulder as I listened to my mom go off into a rant about how irresponsible I was, and she demanded to know who I was with, and how we were making money. She was convinced that I was selling crack on the streets of Brooklyn to help pay my baby's moma's rent.

"I'll bet that's why you went, isn't it? You got some poor girl pregnant, and her parents weren't going to let her keep it, so you ran away."

How can she think that? That's not even logical! Even if I was straight, I wouldn't do something like that, and she had no reason to believe that I even had a girlfriend unless she saw the hickeys that Gerard left on my neck. If I'd went and done something retarded like that, I probably would have told her all about it. I would need some serious help in that situation.

I held my hand over the reciever and turned to Gerard. "Do...do you suppose I should tell her that I'm gay? Maybe then she would stop thinking that I've gotten some chick pregnant..." I said with a sigh. Gerard laughed and smiled into my cheek.

"Tell her that you're my sex slave. See how that goes over."

I rolled my eyes and pushed his shoulder. "You're not helping, baby."

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Mom asked. I had obviously let my hand slip from the reciever, and she heard us both with Gerard's stupid remark. But he was just trying to make me feel better by making a dumb-ass joke.

"Ahhh...Gerard. Um. Mom, there's something I need to tell you about why I ran off. Well, you obviously noticed the eyeliner, so it shouldn't come as much of a shock, but...I like boys. A certain boy, who, if you sent me away, I wouldn't get to see anymore until I was eighteen, and I couldn't handle that. I love him, and so we ran away together to Florida, and we're living together...and stuff."

There was no response for a really long time. In that time, Gerard saw it fit to pull me into his lap and lay his head on my shoulder while we waited for my mom to say something. I know she hadn't hung up on me, I could still hear her breathing, and I could hear the TV in the background. She was watching Oprah, the show every mom seems to watch in the middle of the day while sitting on a couch eating bon-bons and waiting for their disability check to go through.

Finally, though, after three agonizing minutes of disappointed silence from her end, she spoke.

"Gerard is with you, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I am," Gerard answered for me. I had put on the speaker phone so we could both hear her.

"...Oh, Frank, I'm so disappointed. At both of you. Frank, I raised you as a Catholic, and you know what the penance for homosexuality is! And Gerard, I know that Donna didn't take you to church all those years for nothing!"

There was nothing for a long while, then, "And Frank is five years younger than you! That's sick! I...I don't even know what to do with the two of you. This is worse than you getting a girl pregnant, Frank! I don't even want you back."

That stung, a little. Gerard's timid kiss to the nape of my neck did help a little bit. At least I know that he cares about me.

"So...does that mean that I can come back to get my clothes and shit, or are you gonna torch them?"

"Sure, come and get the shit. And you might as well tell Don and Donna what the two of you are up to as well, I'm sure they are at least a little worried about their first son."

I heard Gerard growl deeply, and I just barely suppressed the urge to giggle like an idiot. Gerard was funny when he's pissed . It's horrible for me to think that, but I just can't help it. He's adorable.

"Okay. We might come down...well, up there this weekend. Um...bye," I said quickly, shutting the phone before I could hear what else she had to say. I laid back in Gerard's arms and sighed, rubbing my eyes.

"It is too early in the morning for this shit, Gee. Why'd she have to call? I would have done just fine without ever hearing her voice again."

Gerard pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder, since I had been wearing a tanktop, and slid his hands around to my front, pulling me closer into his chest. "I'm sorry, Frankie. Just...don't let it get to you, honey. At least we'll get to visit Mikey now..."

He always knows how to make it all better.