You're The Only Hope For Me

"Fuck, dude, thats not fair!"

Gerard shouted loudly from the floor of my bedroom. We were playing video games, our usual ritual after school.

"What, that I beat you?" I smirked.

He pouted. I threw the controller on the floor. "You're so slow, its kind of embarrassing. Almost as slow as Ray was on track today. Almost" I laughed.

"Poor Ray. At least he bet Dane Hunter. He's literally the slowest guy in the world" Gerard laughed.

"Yeah. Like brain like body" I smiled, and watched as my moderatly funny joke made Gerard's shoulders heave up and down in happiness.

"You're such a bitch Iero!" Gerard smiled.

"Just the way you like me" I winked at him, and he giggled naughtily at the fictious statement.

Something funny twirled in my stomach at the sound of Gerard's throaty giggle. It was uncomprehendable to me at the present moment. Something blurred across Gerard's eyes that made me think that maybe he'd felt that same wave of something.

"Did you see the shorts coach Guilinger was was wearing? They were literally Speedos, I swear. They were just material wraped around his dick and balls! It was gross! I nearly barfed, dude!" Gerard squirmed.

"Oh my god, they were just...wrong, right? But, dude, the weird thing was...I couldn't stop staring! It was like there was a big red flashing light pointing at it!" I squirmed back.

"There was definetely something red, but not big" Gerard commented, completely deadpan, and I fell backwards laughing.

"Wow, my comedy skills are improving" Gee nodded.

I stood up, still laughing, and asked him if he wanted anything to drink. He answered that he'd have a diet coke, so I jumped downstairs and got two cokes.

"Having fun?" My mom asked, as I fished for the coke cans at the back of the fridge.

"Yeah" I shrugged. She never usually asked.

"I can hear your laughing from down here. Keep it down, Scarlett's here" My mom shused.

Scarlett was my moms sisters baby. She was an ugly, squirmy little thing that bit your hand every time you tried to get near her, so I avoided contact at all times.

I don't like babies in general. I don't really get why people say that, because eveyone was a baby once, so you can't really hate what you where, thats just hypocritical, but I still hated them. All they did was fucking cry and eat and shit. That was their life cycle.

I think maybe I was a little jealous.

But mainly, I don't like what they represent. Society has demanded that everyone had kids and fucking 'settles down' and it annoys the hell out of me. Babies represent everything I don't want- Conventionality.

And you know, they're fucking mutants that spit and you and all look the same, and don't give me some bullshit about 'No they don't, they all look different, like us!'.
Fucking. Bull. Shit.
They all exactly the same type of alien.

"OK. Its Gerard mainly, I'm just so damn funny" I pretended to be hugely proud of myself.

My mom just nodded and laughed lightly, like all moms do when they know they're sons want to be praised.

"Thank you, honey. I'm ordering a pizza soon, what do you and Gerard want?" Mom asked absentmindely.

For some reason, mom's question seemed to ricoshac in my head like a bullet penetrating metal. Its swirled and whizzed through my head.

"Oh...Oh, um, Me and Gerard, um...yeah, his favourite's ham and pineapple, so we'll have that" I shrugged, the question still fizzing around in my head like a dissolving tablet.

"How very considerade of you, Frank!" My mom smiled, somehow proud of my little gesture.

I headed back upstairs, pushing the door open with my leg, to find Gerard sprawled out on the bed, his school tie discarded on the floor.

"Make yourself at home, Gee" I said sarcastically.

"You were gone forvever, dude!" He moaned, lifting his head up off my pillow.

"What a fucking drama queen you are! I was gone for ten fucking minutes!" I stressed, laughing.

"10 minutes in 'getting a coke time' is like 10 years. How the fuck does it take 10 minutes to get a coke?" He asked, taking the can from my hands.

"Why do you care, man? My mom was telling me to keep my hilarity under wraps 'cos she can hear you laughing downstairs and you're waking Scarlett up" I widened my eyes to make my point.

"Your mum doesn't ask much of you does she?" He smiled.

"Oh ha ha! You're so fucking funny!" I pretended to laugh. Gee just nodded, accepting that he was, of course, right.

"Oh, mom just ordered some pizza, I got you ham and pineapple" I took a big gulp from my coke, savouring the flavour.

"Thanks. What'd you get?" Gee asked, taking a gulp of his coke.

"I just got you that" I said.

"But you're a vegetarian" Gee said, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I'll pick the ham off" I shrugged.

"Thanks, man. That was really nice of you" He beamed at me. His chocolate eyes melted, and I watched as they slowly hypnotised me.

"Its OK, man" I shrugged, grinning. Gee took me in a brief hug. He was warm and comfy, and he smelled like the aftershave I bought him last Christmas. It meant alot to me that we wore it, and it made me feel kinda fuzzy inside that he liked it and he wore it even when for school.

"Oh, you're staying at mine Friday" He stated simply. We hadn't even discussed it.

Thats what I liked about Gerard. Nothing was ever complicated with him. There were no aires and graces in our relationship. Everything was out in the open, and nothing came between us.

God, I might as well start writing the scripts for rom-coms now.

FUCK FUCK SHIT SHIT ASS FUCK TIT

Thats better!

"OK" I nodded. I didn't need to be told twice. It was fun staying at Gee's. His parents were out mainly, so we could do whatever the hell we wanted. We usually put CD's on and turned them up so loud it hurt our ears. The neighbours were too scared to complain.

"So, what you gonna do about Shauna?" Gee asked.

"I don't know. She's...she's fucking starting to freak me out man. I swear, today, she pretended to bump into me in the corridor and said 'sorry, Frank! my bad! Maybe I can make it up to you'?" I repeated, puttimg on a girls voice, and failing miserably.

Shauna had been oogling me in math class for the past two weeks. I heard her tell her friends she found me 'interesting' and unusual. I didn't like her. Shauna just didn't...do it for me. I'd never met a girl that had.

"Just tell her to back off" Gee suggested.

"I can't. I don't want to hurt her, she hasn't done anything to me. She's just a lovesick girl. She'll get over me, like they all do" I smirked.

"You're such an asshole!" Gerard hit back.

"Aren't I just?" I smiled.

"Pizza's here!" Mom shouted up from downstairs.

We both turned to one another, knowing what the other was going to say.

I shot up from the bed. Gerard grabbed the waistband of my pants and dragged me back down onto the bed. I leant on my elbows to try and push myself up, watching him as he sprang to the door. He looked back at me for a second and ran downstairs. I caught my breath and headed to kitchen.

"What, we're feeding this animal now?" I grinned playfully, walking into the packed kitchen, where Gee was getting himself a piece of pizza.

"Oh, don't be so cruel, Frankie! Gerard, you can have as much as you like, honey" Mom smiled at Gee.

Gerard and I had always been part of each others family. We'd been best friends since kindergarten, so envientably we had been at each others houses and in each others pockets every day, and when you're that close to someone, you meet their family as a coincidence, and you get to know them. I slept at Gee's so much that on the door of his bedroom, he had two signs, one that said 'GERARD' and one that said 'FRANK' below it. It gad been a gift from his mom when he was eleven. I found it hilarious, as did Gee and his mom. His dad wasn't so keen, but he was fine with me staying.