If I Knew Who You Were

No POV

Gerard needed answers, and he needed them as soon as possible. He was utterly sick of being left completely in the dark, completely unknowing of what was going with the people around him. There was a little voice screaming in the back of his head that he wanted – no he needed to go to Matt’s and talk to him.

Whether it was because he just wanted to let everything out to him, or because he wanted to confront him about...whatever, he wasn’t sure.

It had been a little over a week since his talk with Linda, and he’d only seen Matt once since then. Some of Mikey's money had gone missing in that time, as well as some of his Mothers, but she didn’t know about that yet. Frank had pretty much disappeared off of the face of the earth. Gerard has merely assumed that he’d gone back to his new home, but he was not one to miss the rustling footsteps in the back garden behind his room, the small shadow sitting under the tree.

It had got Gerard wondering how often Frank had sat under that tree while he was unknown to Gerard, and how many times Gerard must have seen the small shape, but turned a complete blind eye because he had much better things to do in his life than worry about every little aspect of his life, every out of place shadow.

He stopped outside a small, dusty little house, the white paint around the porch and on the window panes chipping, cracking and fading away leaving the molded dark brown wood to show its self in the light on the sunny and warm August afternoon. The blue sky framed the roof of house bringing out the dark chipped roof tiles, some of which were missing and had been replaced with random items such as slabs of wood, or even the one green bucket that had a word written across that couldn’t be worked out from this far below.

Gerard walked through the squeaking gate and up the overgrown front garden before knocking on the broken wood of the front door, heavy enough that it could be heard, but light enough that it wouldn’t cause the entire rectangle of wood to fall off the obviously loose hinges.

The state of the house got Gerard wondering how someone could live in a place like this when they obviously weren’t doing badly in the finance area. Enough so that Matt could afford two expensive meals over the space of two days at two different expensive restaurants.

The door swung open and a familiar looking man, stared at Gerard raising an eyebrow before smirking a smirk that Gerard had only ever seen on Franks face. This man – he had the hazel and green eyes and the square jaw. It was an uncanny resemblance. “You’re Gerard,” he stated, his voice low and smooth as he opened the door a little wider so Gerard could step through into the house. “Matt told me you were coming over,” his smooth voice sounded once more.

“Matt didn’t know,” Gerard chocked out, feeling slightly overwhelmed by a stranger knowing who he was.

“Oh...well don’t stand on the doorstep, Matt’s upstairs, he’ll be surprised to see you,”
Gerard eyed that perfectly square jaw once more, cocking an eyebrow. The story was changing. One minute he’s saying that Matt was expecting him, and the next he’s claiming how surprised he’d be. There was something off-ish about the man, and Gerard couldn’t place his finger on it.

He swerved past the man and into the house, looking around, and wrinkling his nose at the damp smell that filled the room. “Just up the stairs,” the man encouraged, walking past him and into another room. Gerard eyed the stairs, the stained carpet that covered the center of each wooden step. It concerned him that in some places the carpet dipped as though there was a hole hidden there or something, ready to trap an unsuspecting victim in this already too horror movie like home.

The railing, broken in a couple of places, gave no support for Gerard as he made his way up the stairs, as every time he put all his weight on it to avoid one of the suspicious dips, it would sway away from the steps causing him to lose his balance in the more un-nerving way. Once safely at the top of the stairs, Gerard saw a closed door and assumed that that was Matt’s room. It was ‘right at the top of the stairs' after all.

Knocking lightly on the door, he jumped as it opened incredibly abruptly and he almost fell backwards down the stairs in shock. “Gerard!” Matt’s voice rang through the seemingly empty house. “What’re you doing here?”

“Your Dad said you were expecting me,” Gerard said, his voice flat.

Matt’s face fell and he sighed. “Dad likes to creep people out. Don’t let it get to you,”

Gerard nodded, not entirely convinced, but what else could he do or say? Now that Matt’s given a story, he can’t really go against it, and Gerard knew for a fact that he wouldn’t.

“So, what’d you come over here for?”

“I just needed to talk to you,”

“A-About what?” Matt stammered out. Gerard ignored the sudden nerves that were practically flowing from Matt’s pores and dripping to the floor in great tidal waves.

“Just...talk,” He said as he sat on Matt’s bed, which was in reality just a mattress on the floor. There wasn’t much in the room. Hell, there wasn’t even a carpet or painted walls. It was like a prison cell. “Wow, you haven’t been here long,” Gerard chuckled pretending to assume that he really did think that Matt had only just moved here. In reality, he knew that Matt was hiding something. Remember, he just knew those vibes now.

“Yeah, the night I met you was my first night in town,”

“Where’re you from?”

“New York. I miss it there,”

“But I’m not there,” Gerard mock pouted, fluttering his eyelashes at his...boyfriend? In reality he didn’t really know what they were, but he was cool with that right now.

“That’s true,” Matt chuckled leaning in and placing a small kiss on Gerard’s lips.

“I have a question,”

“O-Okay,”

“How could you afford to buy me two expensive meals in a row when you live-” He didn’t quite know how to finish that question politely, so just pointed vaguely at the room around him.

Matt just looked at me blankly. “Why have a really big over the top house?” He suddenly blurted out. “I mean, I’m happy to live here as long as it means that any money I have doesn’t go towards a house, but instead more practical things,”

“And a house isn’t practical,”

“This may not look that nice, but it’s still a house. A house that I can have while spending all my money on more worthwhile things,”

“Like stuff for your room?” Gerard asked, nose wrinkling slightly.

He just sighed. “You wouldn’t get it,”

“Why?”

“You know why,”

“I’m sure I don’t,”

“Well it’s just because everything’s always been easy for you. You were born into a rich family, and you’ve been able to live off of that without any worry about when your next meals coming. And then take a look at Frank. He’s had nothing his whole life,”

“Don’t pretend you know anything about my life. Or Franks for that matter,”

Gerard wasn’t sure, but he was almost certain that he heard Matt utter “Who’s pretending?” but he didn’t want to bring it up in case it brought out an unnecessary argument.

“I still don’t know who took the money,” He sighed, opting to slightly change the subject without completely changing it.

Matt’s head snapped up and he looked at Gerard closely, as if looking for any signs of joking on his face, before smiling slightly, assuming that Gerard was in fact just pulling his leg. “Don’t be silly. Of course you know. I told you who it was...”

“Yeah, but I talked to him about it and-”

“You believe him? C’mon Gerard, it all adds up. He needs money to live, so where else would he get it from?!”

“He’d ask,”

Matt just looked at Gerard with an almost shocked expression before pulling it from his face, just for now. “Well, you know best, eh? I know that if it were me I’d have called the police by now,”

“Even if it was him I wouldn’t call the police,” Gerard snapped, realizing he sounded a little to protective and defensive over an ex who wasn’t actually an ex. “I-I need to go,” He stuttered quickly, standing up to leave the house.

Running quickly down the steps, ignoring that his foot left a new dip from broken floor boards under the carpet, before throwing open the door, and slamming it closed behind him so hard he was certain he’d brought the house down with him.

Something about that conversation un-nerved him, whether it had been the creepy settings or the fact that Matt seemed adamant that it was Frank and he should be arrested, he wouldn't know, all he knew was that something just wasn't right.