Stereotype

That long conversation was followed by many similar ones where they talked about anything related to their lives they could think of. By the end of the week, they felt as if they had known each other for years. It was a feeling none of them had ever experienced. They'd never had the need to put someone they had practically just met up to date about their lives.

In Gerard's opinion, that only happened when you met someone you suddenly wished you had known your whole life. People do it to fool their minds into believing that. He was sure that was his and Frank's case. They should have been friends since they were little, and it was only by mistake that they hadn't met before.

With their lives not having been that long or eventful, however, they soon ran out of recalls and went back to their random talks. Music, comics, movies -the usual.

That's what they had been mostly doing since they arrived to Gerard's house after school that afternoon; talking. The TV was a mere background to their chatting until Mikey came out of his room and suggested that they played some video games.

Immersed in a match of Super Smash Brothers, they completely lost notion of time. It was only when their concentration was interrupted by Frank's Misfits ringtone that they saw how late it was.

"Mom wants me home," Frank informed the other two boys with sadness. "Says she's coming for me in a few minutes."

"Aww, not now!" Mikey protested. "Can't you stay for the night? It's Friday!"

"I would, but I don't know if she..."

Gerard snatched the phone out of Frank's hand. He was on a mission."Leave it to me."

Merely greeting Linda, he improvised a monologue about why Frank should stay. It went from elaborating on the subject of fun influencing the flow of time, to how his Mario hadn't had the time to properly kick Frank's Link's ass. Mikey contributed to his brother's argument, screaming remarks over Gerard's shoulder such as "My Kirby doesn't react well to unfinished matches!"

No one other than Gerard could hear what Linda was saying -that if she had managed to get any word in at all; but his face moments after he stopped speaking told bad news. "Uh...Frankie, your mom says you have a doc appointment early in the morning tomorrow."

Frank let his head fall in defeat. "Oh, fuck, I completely forgot."

"Can't she pick him up from here tomorrow?" Mikey asked loud enough for the woman to hear.

Gerard signaled them to stay quiet. "But... Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll tell him. Bye, Mrs. Iero!" He then looked at his friend apologetically. "She wants you to actually sleep and said she knows that's the last thing we'd do."

"Meh."

"Well, she's right," Mikey and Gerard's mother said from the kitchen.

"And where would the fun be otherwise, mom?" Mikey questioned. "If someone wants to sleep, they stay in their own house."

******

After Frank went home, Gerard and Mikey decided to go back to the game. They first asked their mother if she wanted to take Frank's place. Since the woman refused, they chose to start a new match.

Donna didn't leave the living room, though. Noticing that, Gerard pressed the pause button and waited for her to speak. He knew she would.

"Gerard," she started, "I heard something about a doctor appointment? I could have asked Frank himself, but then you all tell me I nose around too much. Is he sick?"

Gerard snorted. Their mom did nose around a lot; there was a reason why they often had to chase her away when they were with friends. "Oh, not right now, thankfully. Just a checkup. His immune system is kind of shitty, so he has those often."

"Ah," Donna assented. It looked like she was going to say something else right away -her mouth opening and closing a couple of times, but the silence extended.

Gerard knew that his mom making a pause like that meant she wanted to ask something but couldn't figure out how.

They were still patiently waiting when Donald entered the room and stared at his wife for a while before sitting down on the couch. "Donna, you scare me when you have that face. You're about to ask the boys one of your painfully awkward questions, aren't you?"

She snapped out of her pondering, confused. "What?"

"We know you, mom, what is it?" Mikey prodded.

"Oh...nothing, I was just...thinking."

"About what?" asked Gerard.

Mikey aimed a finger to his mom. "Frankie, right?" he guessed. The woman said nothing, but looked guilty.

Now it was Gerard's turn to feel lost. "What?"

"Oh, mom. How did you refrain for so long?" his brother continued, snickering.

"Well, you always get mad at me for making simple observations!" Donna accused them.

"Your comments and observations often make them uncomfortable, Donna, you know that..." Donald pointed out. "I still remember in school, when you'd come wait for me to finish football practice and then tell the guys the first thing that ca-"

"Dad, we've heard enough about how mom used to embarrass you," Gerard cut him off.

"It's not like th-"

Donna huffed. "Tell him, Donald!"

"I'm trying, sweetheart, but you all keep interrupting me," the man replied in a fake sweet tone.

"I'm sure I lived all this before, can we skip it?" Mikey whined.

Gerard was getting tired of all the pointless rambling, so he got straight to the point. "Mom, what were you going to say about Frankie?"

"Oh, just...he's kind of really...effeminate, isn't he? I mean, he's a pretty sweet kid, it's just...it catches my attention, you know? I'd have thought he was a girl if you hadn't introduced him as Frank the first day. I'd have guessed 'Frankie' was short for Francesca or something..."

Sitting on his hands, Gerard fought the urge to face-palm in front of his mother. He hadn't thought of it, but his brother was right. It was surprising that Donna hadn't brought that up before. "Frankie's just...Frankie. I don't-"

"...we don't even think about that, mom," Mikey completed Gerard's thought perfectly. "Who cares? He's fucking awesome."

"Michael! Language!" his father exclaimed.

"Hey! Mom curses all the time!"

"She's an adult. Are we gonna have this argument again?"

"No, no. I'm sorry."

Donna appeared to ignore the little argument. She addressed her youngest boy's last words to her instead. "I didn't say he wasn't, son. Just...I never met someone like him so young before. And I mean, I'm assuming he is...uh..."

Gerard knew his mom too well. She came from a very conservative family, and even thought she had revealed against them in many ways, she still found it hard to talk about certain subjects. "Gay? You shouldn't assume so easily, but I'll leave the lesson for some other moment."

She frowned, shaking a finger in front of Gerard's face. "Don't play smart-ass with me, boy!"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay. Yes, Frankie is gay, but what do you want to get at?"

"Well, you spend so much time with him..."

Donna stopped when Mikey mumbled something that Gerard deciphered as, "Beware, we could catch gay."

"I know, I know it's not like...contagious," she said. "That's not what I mean! But...I was thinking if maybe you, Gerard, were...one of them too?"

Gerard was trying to not be rude. He liked to fool around with his parents, but was still respectful towards them. Yet as much as he tried to keep his mom's upbringing into consideration, the words she was choosing were getting on his nerves. "Mom..."

Donna kneeled in front of him looking truly concerned. She grabbed his face in between her hands. "Gerard...is Frankie your boyfriend? Oh baby, please tell me he isn't. I really want some grandchildren..."

"Donna please," Donald hissed. "You haven't even let him answer your first question!"

Mikey laughed, clearly amused with the whole situation. "Don't worry mom, I'll give you some!"

"Not for at least ten more years if possible," his dad murmured.

Gerard had enough then. "Frankie's my friend, my new best friend actually. And first, you shouldn't expect us to have children just because you want to be a grandma. Second, what if I was gay too? If my partner and I wanted children, we could just adopt, you know?" he spat before getting up and leaving the room.

Gerard could hear his mom calling after him, surely waiting for a more concrete answer that he wouldn't give her. His dad, on the other side, was talking with Mikey and laughing, so he supposed his attitude wouldn't get him grounded if it was up to Donald.