The Pale Walls

1.

Frank is young.

Frank is young but he wants.

Frank is young but he wants to be loved.

2.

"You've been acting really strange lately."

Frank looks up at Bob with half-lidded eyes as he straightens his spine. He swallows once and presses two fingertips to his lower lip, thinking. He asks: "Have I?"

Bob snorts loudly and rolls his clear blue eyes, "Yes, Frank," A pause, "Very fucking strange."

Frank shrugs and offers a small smile.

"I've been feeling really strange lately to tell you the truth," he rests his temple against the cool metal of his locker and forces himself to breathe evenly. He parts his lips and mutters: "I... I met someone."

Bob tilts his head to one side. "You met someone?" His tone is incredulous but he looks at Frank with curiosity.

The shorter boy hums. "Yes. I did."

A minute passes before Bob realizes that Frank isn't going to continue, so he asks: "Do you want to talk about it?"

Frank breathes and looks away, "No."

3.

Gerard isn’t young.

Gerard isn’t young but he wants.

Gerard is isn’t young but he wants to love someone.

4.

“Are you fucking insane?” Mikey is shouting now, all ideals of gentle persuasion forgotten.

“No.” Gerard responds, voice remarkably cool. “At least, not entirely.”

Mikey frowns and resists the urge to strike his older brother. He takes a deep breath and says, “Have you stopped to think about the consequences of all of this? What if someone finds out?”

Gerard sniffs, pressing his pale hands together between bent legs. “No one is going to find out. Besides, we’re not doing anything that we’re not supposed to be doing. Nothing illegal,” he replies, neglecting to add a ‘yet’ at the end of his sentence.

But regardless, Mikey is hardly convinced. His hands ball up into fists at his sides, a habitual act of anxiety. He bites the flesh of his bottom lips and lets his eyes slip closed. But only for a moment.

He says, “If I wake up one morning and hear that you’re in jail, I’ll be fucking pissed.”

Gerard laughs at this. “Trust me, Mikes. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

5.

The first time they kiss, Frank is the initiator.

He leans up and places his warm, pliant lips against Gerard’s. His press is light, barely there, and it makes Gerard’s skin tingle. But Frank pulls away just as quickly as he pushed up and the blush that tinges his cheeks afterward is a warm, bright pink. Gerard stares at him for several minutes and wonders how he even got himself into this predicament. But he decides the save his quandaries for another time and claims Frank’s lips with his own again.

Gerard tries to be as gentle as possible and moves his lips slowly against the boy’s. But it’s the tiny sounds Frank makes when Gerard presses harder, and the smooth warmth that invades his skin whenever their knees touch, and the way his hand pulls tentatively at Gerard’s hair and just the pure smell of him this close -- like vanilla, sandalwood and soap -- that makes Gerard melt.

He places cool palms on Frank’s chest and pushes him down onto the couch, moving so that Frank’s hips are between his knees. Gerard leans down and kisses the boy once more, running a pleading tongue across his bottom lip. Frank complies almost instantly and opens up for the older man. Gerard enters his mouth and just revels in the taste of him. Because this is really all he needs. Frank’s soft, warm body beneath his, slow eager mind-numbing kisses and their closeness… their trust.

It’s all he needs. For now.