My Miserable Romance
The Wedding.
~A/N Wooh, the chapter y’all been waiting for! The Wedding! And it only took me 99 chapters to get to it. I don’t know if gay marriages are legal in America… they are in Sweden so I’ll just mix up the laws a bit. I won’t even try to explain how much it means to me that you’re reading this shitty story, so I’ll just let my silence speak for itself xoxo~
I went over to Mikey’s, quite reluctantly, I may say. But maybe it’s for the best that Frank and I won’t see each other before the wedding… It gave both of us some time to think things through, even though that never worked out well for me. I would just get confused and turn into a nerve-wreck if I thought too much.
They day floated by me, not really leaving any special memories. I spent the whole day at Mikey and Annie’s place where Mikey got all ‘old brother’-ly on me, asking me all these questions if I was really sure about this.
“I’m very sure” I said, smiling at his caring face. “I am. Really”
“Just making sure” he said, hugging me. “Promise me that we’ll spend more time together though. I have barely seen you since you moved in with him”
“I think you’re the only grown-up who wanna spend time with his older brother” I said into his neck and unwrapping my arms around him. “Most siblings only meet at special holidays and stuff…”
“Most siblings don’t work together” he said with a small smile. “And we’re not like most siblings anyway”
He studied my face for a few seconds without saying anything.
“What?” I finally asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“I’m just really happy you’re back to your normal self. The drugs and alcohol never suited you”
“Do they suit anyone?” I grinned.
“They kinda suit Ozzy Osbourne. He’s funny…” Mikey laughed, heaving himself up from the couch. “I’m going to bed and you should too. Big day tomorrow…” His already big smile widened.
“Yeah, you’re right” I yawned, trying hard to suppress a grin. “G’night…”
Mikey disappeared into his bedroom where Annie already was asleep in. I sighed tiredly, laying down on the couch and closed my eyes. I found it quite hard to not let my thoughts wander off; I really wanted, and needed, to sleep, but I just couldn’t. Tomorrow would be my wedding day! I mean, how the hell are you supposed to calm down and get some sleep when the most important day of your life was only hours away. My body also missed the warmth of Frank next to me, so that was another problem. We spend so much time together that I had forgot words such as ‘privacy’ and ‘loneliness’. It just became natural to be around him 24/7.
Suddenly, my phone started ringing and I hauled it up from my jeans on the floor as quick as possible not to disturb Mikey and Annie.
“Hello?” I asked, almost whispering.
“Hey” an all too familiar voice answered.
“Couldn’t sleep either, eh?”
“Nope” Frank sighed. “What are you doing?”
“Talking to you and before that I was trying to sleep, you?”
“Same”
“You know what?”
“We’re getting married tomorrow”
“Exactly” I laughed, silently reminded myself of keeping my voice down. “Still no second thoughts?”
“You’d think I’d call at 11pm the night before out wedding and say I’m backing out?”
“I would be surprised... But I’m just making sure. You’re young and stuff-“
“My age is not a problem!”
“Shh, be quiet. Mikey and Annie might hear you”
“Oh, sorry.” he giggled, “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow…”
“Yeah. I love you Frankie”
“I love you more”
“No you don’t”
“Of course I do”
“So how much do you love me?”
“Can’t say”
“Why not?”
“It’s impossible”
I laughed, wanting to kiss him so badly right now that I could almost see his face before me.
“I still love you more. Bye baby”
“Bye, Gee” he said and hung up. I lowered my head down onto the pillow, pulling up the covers to my chest and tried to relax again, but it was impossible. I had his voice ringing in my ears. This would be a long night…
“Hurry the fuck up, Gerard!” Bob yelled, forcefully pushing me inside my parents’ house.
“But I wanna stay outside!” I whined. We were all gonna be at my parents place before the ceremony to get dressed and stuff like that and I knew Frank would be there too. And that was why I wanted to stay outside. As soon as I would go in, they would force me up in mom and dad’s room so I couldn’t see him… They’re so evil. All of them.
“I know, but I don’t care… Ray, a little help here!?” Bob called out while trying to make me stay inside. I pressed with my hands against the threshold, almost making me and Bob step outside again but of course, Mikey had to come right in that moment and help Bob. I sighed, finally giving up and allowed them to lead me up the stairs.
“What room is Frank gonna be in?” I asked innocently, trying to sound absentmindedly, like I didn’t care.
“You wish…” Mikey said, rolling his eyes.
“Yes, I wish… What if I need to talk to him?!”
“You have your phone?”
“Yeah, but… Miiikeeeey…” I whined, but it just made him laugh.
“You’ll see him at the church” he smiled, leaving me alone in my parents’ room. I groaned, lying down on the bed and stared up in the roof. They were probably going through the details downstairs, making sure they had everything planned. I wasn’t nervous… And that bothered me a little. I wanted to be nervous, to feel that this was a big thing but all I felt was excitement. Hopefully Frank’s not too nervous either. I wanna see him so badly. He’s probably in my room in the basement, that’s so Mikey’s way of teasing me; placing him as far away from me as possible. I let out a small ‘yay!’ when my phone started ringing and I saw it was Frank.
“Hey!” I practically screamed, “Where are you?”
“Mikey’s room. Please, come over?”
“Something wrong?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know. Come over!”
“I can’t… They’ll kill me”
“Gerard, I’m begging you. Screw their stupid game, this is serious” he said, sounding quite desperate but it didn’t sound like he was actually freaking out, he was probably just nervous.
“I’ll try. Mikey’s room, right?”
“Yeah” he said, hanging up. I bounced up from the bed, hurryingly walking over to the door. It was locked… Oh, I’m so gonna kill Mikey! I looked around in the room, noticing the balcony and suddenly remembered that if Mikey’s window was open, I could walk on the rain gutter. I ran over to the glass-doors, opened them, walked out on the balcony and climbed over the rail, placing my feet on the old rain gutter while holding on to the balcony rail. This will end with a few broken bones if I slip… I looked down at the ground, taking a deep breath and started ‘gliding’ along the gutter. Mikey’s window was just one metre away from the balcony and as soon as I reached it, I banged on the window. Frank appeared behind it, quickly opening the window and I climbed in. That wasn’t so bad…
“I’m here” I said, smiling as I saw him laugh, but with his mouth closed. It looked pretty fun.
“Thank you” he smiled, “I might have overreacted a bit, but I need to talk to you”
“Well, your little overreaction almost cost me my life, but yeah, go on”
“Sorry… But you know what I said about my parents?”
“That you thought they were disappointed at you?”
“Yeah… We didn’t quite solve that and well, Lisa’s not here and… I don’t know what to do”
“Come here” I said, taking his hand and lead him over to Mikey’s bed. He sat down next to me, leaning his head on my shoulder. “Listen to me; if you marry me, you have to simply live with the fact that you don’t know what your parents would think about it. If you don’t, you’ll be miserable, or I hope you will be, at least I will… Anyway, so either you marry me and we’ll go through this together or you’ll choose to end this right now and we’ll go different ways”
“It was never about marrying you or not” he said, “I’d marry you even if my parents were alive and hated the idea…”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I just wish I had someone who knew my parents and could tell me that everything’s okay!”
“But why do you need to know if it won’t matter?”
“Because… Because… I don’t know. It’s just something I wanna know” he said, sighing and leaned his head up to kiss my neck. “This won’t affect the wedding, we both know that”
“Yeah but… Mom!” I exclaimed, suddenly getting an idea.
“Mom?”
“Hold on… Stay here” I said and got up from the bed. I opened the door, that wasn’t locked, that would take me out in the hall – seems like Mikey trust Frank more than his own brother.
“Mom!” I yelled down the stairs, “Can you come up for a second?”
“Sure honey” she answered as I ran back to Mikey’s room and a few seconds later, she walked in. “What is it?”
“You knew Frank’s parents right?” I asked and Frank’s head snapped up to look at her.
“If I knew them? Ha, Linda and I were best friends!” she said, smiling widely.
“Did you two talk about homosexuals at some point?”
“Oh…” mom said and slowly made her way up to us, sitting down on Mikey’s desk chair. “So that is what this is about?”
“Yeah” Frank answered, “I never talked to mom about it, nor dad, and I would really want to know”
“Well, let me tell you one thing. Your parents were over at our house for dinner once. I think it was when you and Micheal had just met and your mom asked me if I had any other children. I said yes and started talking about Gerard and I accidentally let it slip out that he was gay. And you know what your parents did?”
“No?” asked Frank and I could tell he was nervous.
“They congratulated me” she said, smiling warmly, “for having such a brave son. They wanted to meet him too, but we all know Gerard wasn’t in the right state to mingle with strangers back then…”
“So… So they thought it was a good thing?”
“Yes, they would be proud of you, Frank” she said assuringly, getting up from the bed. “And if you excuse me, have to go downstairs and deal with the young ones. Wait a minute…” she said, looking at me. “Didn’t Micheal lock the door to our room?”
“Uh… Yes, he did. And that wasn’t so nice of him. I had to climb over here from the balcony”
“You know, at first I thought it was cute that you couldn’t stay away from each other, but this can’t be healthy” she laughed, patting my cheek. “All we asked for was 24 hours, but that was impossible, huh?”
“Actually, it was 26 hours we were apart” Frank grinned, earning a pat on the cheek too.
“This will be an interesting relationship to follow” mom sighed, then leaving us alone in the bedroom. “Now Gerard, before Micheal find out where you are, go back to me and your father’s room and I’ll promise not to tell the others about this”
“Fine” I sighed and stood up. I placed myself in front of Frank, who was still sitting on the bed, put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him back so he was lying down before kissing him.
“Ge-ra-aard” mom called with the same voice she always used when she was impatient.
“Coming” I mumbled, but instead slid my tongue into Frank’s mouth. He giggled, immediately founding the right rhythm and started caressing my tongue.
“I’ll count to three…” I heard mom’s voice again and I sighed. I pulled away from Frank, smirking at his uneven breathing.
“Bye Frankie. See you at church”
“Yeah, bye Gee” he smiled, bringing his legs up underneath him.
“Can you punch Mikey for locking me in, mom? You know; my claustrophobia and stuff… He could’ve killed me!”
“Of course, Gerard, I’ll beat him up for you” mom laughed, before gently pushing me inside their bedroom again. “And honey, I know you’re nervous but stay in here and don’t do anything stupid”
“Like what? Throw myself off the balcony?”
Mom frowned.
“That wasn’t funny, Gerard.”
“Mom, I’m not suicidal anymore…”
“I don’t want you to joke about it anyway” she said, closing the door behind her. I sighed, once again lying down on the bed.
One hour later, I was finally let out from the room and was taken to dad’s car outside. I still wasn’t nervous though… The drive to the church didn’t take too long, about five minutes. Dad, who was my chauffeur at the moment, stopped the car on the parking lot and we jumped out. Dad had never been much of a sentimental man, so he simply gave me a hug, said ‘good luck’ and went into the church, leaving me outside. I had no idea of where I was supposed to be. I didn’t think I would go into the church, because well, the guests were there and they weren’t supposed to see me yet. After about two minutes, my band mates finally came. All of their girlfriends were already inside.
“So, the three of us” Mikey said, pointing at him, Bob and Ray, “will go in and up to the altar. When the church bells start ringing, you’ll come in, alright?”
“Sure” Frank said absentmindedly, both of his arms around my waist but yet standing next to me so he would see the guys. They left and Frank and I were alone.
“Here we go” I whispered, kissing his forehead. “No turning back now”
“Well, we can turn back” he said, burying his face deeper into my chest. “But that’s up to you in that case ‘cause I’m sure as hell won’t go anywhere”
The church bells started ringing several metres above us and out eyes met.
“You ready?”
He nodded; taking my hand in his and his serious face disappeared and was replaced by a huge grin.
“I’m so nervous” he laughed, “Let’s go, I wanna get this over with!”
“I love your attitude” I smirked, allowing him to drag me up the stone stairs and through the huge wooden doors into the small room, like a hall you had to go through to get to the actual church. We stopped for a second, getting ready for entrance. Frank looked pretty amazing with black, tight jeans with several holes (the girls nagged him for about an hour about how those clothes weren’t suitable for a wedding before they gave up). He had a plane white t-shirt and a red tie, his hair was messy just like mine and he wasn’t late to ruff it up even more before we entered the church. I on the other hand, didn’t look as amazing. I was wearing black, tight jeans as well, though not ripped and with a studded belt hanging loosely around my hips, a black shirt and my black leather jacket over that. Neither of us were wearing make up; because we both knew we were gonna cry so we decided to apply some eyeliner after the ceremony. Wow, after the ceremony… It felt weird to think about that. After the ceremony – when we’re finally married.
After what felt like an eternity, we started walking down the aisle and even though we only had like twenty guests, it made me feel self-conscious. It was kinda ridiculous; I mean, I’m used to stand on stage in front of thousands of people, but now it wasn’t Gerard on stage, it was just Gerard, and they were all gonna witness the most important day of my life. Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks; I’m getting married. The nervousness came over me and if Frank wouldn’t have been by my side, I would’ve passed out or something. Oh crap… God just couldn’t let me stay calm during this, oh no, he had to mess with me! We reached the altar, where the guys stood and of course the priest, all smiling warmly at us. I wanted to smile too, but I was too nervous. The church filled with the sound of shoes scraping against the floor as the guest sat down.
“Dearly beloved, we’ve gathered here today…” the priest began but I totally spaced out, just looking at Frank’s face who was standing opposite me. I smiled nervously at him, then my gaze fell to look at his chest to the spot where I knew his tattoo were. He noticed where I was looking and he squeezed my hand, giving me a small smile. I realized that the priest was talking to Frank now and I forced myself to listen.
“Repeat after me; I, Frank Anthony Iero”
“I, Frank Anthony Iero”
“Promise to love and to hold you, Gerard Arthur Way”
“Promise to love and to hold you, Gerard Arthur Way”
“Through sickness and health”
“Through sickness and health”
“Until death do us apart”
Frank stopped for a second, looking me right into the eyes before repeating;
“Until death do us apart”
“Now, Gerard. Repeat after me; I Gerard Arthur Way”
And I repeated everything he said, and I did surprisingly well. I thought I would forget what he said or something like that, but it went fine. After that the priest started rambling about how God was looking after us all and then he finally turned back to us.
“Do you, Gerard Arthur Way, take this man, Frank Anthony Iero to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do” I answered, saying it a bit too quickly, making Frank’s shoulder rise and fall softly from suppressed laughter.
“And do you, Frank Anthony Iero, take this man, Gerard Arthur Way to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“Yes. I mean, I do”
Now it was my turn to laugh and he gave me a toothy smile, wrinkling his nose.
“You may now kiss the… uh, groom” the priest smiled and I took a step forward and so did Frank.
“I love you” I whispered, before pressing my lips against his. The feeling I had inside was indescribable; I was still nervous, and oh so excited, but most importantly, I was happy. Happier than I had ever been in my entire life. He mumbled something into my mouth, probably ‘I love you too’. My whole body was practically screaming, every cell in my body was on fire and I wrapped my arms tighter around Frank, then swinging him around. That made us break the kiss though, so I quickly putting down, plus, it was killing my back to lift him up. God, I’m getting old… But I’m allowed to be old, because I’m married!
“Come on!” Frank said, tugging on the hem of my shirt, wanting me to follow him. We almost ran down the aisle and out of the church, both smiling manically.
“We’re married!” I shrieked as soon as we were outside and he threw himself around my neck.
“Yeah! You’re mine!” he laughed, jumping up a bit so he could wrap his legs around my waist. I smiled, wrinkling my eyes and put my forehead against his. Suddenly, someone lunged themselves at me, making both me and Frank fall to the ground with a crash.
“Ow, fuck!” Frank yelled as I landed on top of him. I looked to my left where my brother was lying on the ground, laughing his ass off.
“Con-congratulations, guys!” he laughed, “You should’ve seen… seen your faces”
Ray and Bob came running out the church seconds later, giving the three of us some confused looks before helping us up.
“You broke my back, Mikes” Frank laughed before hugging him.
“Sorry, I was just really excited. I’m so happy for you guys!”
We hugged each other for at least two whole minutes, and then the guests started pouring out of the church, wanting to congratulate us.
It took about a half an hour until we were finally done with all the guests. Frank wouldn’t stop moaning about his back and as we walked up to our black Mercedes that would take us to the premises where the party was going to be held, he jumped up on my back, demanding a piggy-back-ride.
“I am your husband and I am hurt” he said matter-of-factly as I complained about his weight. “Now, move faster!”
I rolled my eyes, and decided to be nice to him so I placed my hands in the hollow of his knees and walked with the gravel crunching under my shoes. Cars were passing by on the street to my left, wedding guests waving at us and laughing at out ‘cuteness’. I reached the car and thankfully, for Frank, the driver opened the door for me so Frank didn’t need to stand on his own (note the sarcasm). I backed into the car, placing Frank in the backseat before I climbed in after him.
The car hadn’t even started until we were all over each other, hands roaming and lips searching for contact.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the premises were only five minutes away so we couldn’t start anything much deeper then kissing. We climbed out of the car, still kissing though and me with my leather jacket down to my elbows.
“I love you” I gasped between the fast kisses as we stumbled over to the door. The guests were waiting in there for us so the party could begin.
“Love… too” he gasped back, dropping a few words. He opened the door with one hand, not letting go of me and we stumbled inside the premises. There was a few applauds, which forced us to break away and I smiled at everyone. It was a really cosy place, like a big cabin with walls, floor and ceiling made out of wood and with small spotlights placed randomly in the ceiling. There was only one room, where three tables were spread out with white cloths reaching down to the floor. To the left of the room there was a small stage with one guitar, a drumset and a bass were placed and I smiled as I saw that the name Green Day was written over the drums.
When the guest were done applauding and shit, they retreated back into the main room and sat down on their chairs.
“You might wanna fix your appearance a bit, Gee” Bob smirked and I gave him a weird look before dragging Frank into the bathroom. Bob was right; I looked like a mess – thanks to Frank. My hair was messier than ever and it didn’t look good, it just looked weird and my shirt was wrinkly and almost showing my whole left shoulder. But the worst part was that I had some furiously red hickeys on my neck.
Frank laughed at me, even though he looked like he had been attacked too and we cleaned ourselves up a bit before walking out, sitting down at out table. We were sharing table with our bandmates plus the guys in Green Day, which I was kinda happy about. It would’ve made me slightly disappointed if I had to sit next to my uncle Fred or something.
“Just so you know it, I’m gonna hold a speech later” Mikey said, laughing at my face. “Don’t worry, I won’t bring up anything embarrassing…”
“I don’t believe you” I groaned. He gave me a cheeky smile, but our conversation was interrupted as the food came in.
“I thought you were vegetarian” I said as I saw Frank eating the salmon on his place.
“I can eat fish” he said, shrugging.
“Really? Isn’t fish an animal?”
“Oh god, you married Americas very own Einstein, Frank” Tré laughed.
“Oh fuck off” I responded, smiling as Frank leaned over and kissed my cheek. “What was that for?”
“Nothing” he shrugged, “Now, eat”
I obeyed and the dinner passed without any nasty happenings. Suddenly, Mikey rose up from his chair, making a clinging noise as he drummed on his glass with his fork to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright…” he started, “First of all, I want to thank you all for being here today to celebrate my brother and best friend’s wedding. They didn’t know I was gonna hold a speech about them, mostly because they would’ve stopped me, but I’ll just say a few words.
Since Gerard is my older brother, he was also the one to teach me all the stuff I needed to know, like, when I was six years old, he taught me the importance of always looking under the bed before falling asleep to see if there were any monsters. Our mother didn’t like that too much though, because I forced her too look for me, so that came back and bite Gerard in the ass when I had to sleep in his room for almost two years since I was too afraid of sleeping on my own.”
That was actually true… I had told him about monsters and shit but I didn’t expect him to be that scared. Mikey waited until the laughter had silenced until he continued.
“But Gerard has also taught me important stuff, like always talk to people when you’re down and to never let people get to you. He has taught me to move on and even though he has been through stuff that most people wouldn’t handle, he got over it and is now sitting here today, happier than ever as a married man.
And Frank… He has been my best friend since I was sixteen. And now he’s my brother in law. I can’t explain how much that means to me to have him in the family, and that he makes Gerard happy is even better. So, raise your glasses for Gerard Way and Frank-“
“Way!” Frank interrupted and I looked at him.
“Really?” I asked, astounded.
“Yeah sure… People can’t pronounce my last name anyway” he laughed. Mikey smiled at him before finishing his interrupted sentence.
“Raise your glasses for Frank and Gerard Way!”
“Frank Way…” Frank giggled as he raised his glass to his lips. “Damn… Iero was such a cool name and now I’m Frank Way”
“Yeah well, it’s better than Gerard Iero, so stop moaning” I laughed, leaning over and placed a kiss on his lips, earning the whole room to go ‘aww!’ on us. I lifted my glass up to my lips as well, but stopped when I recognized the smell of it as champagne. I glanced nervously at Frank, who noticed it and made a waving gesture.
“Drink for god’s sake. I don’t mind anymore as long as you won’t get drunk”
“Wh-what?” I asked, not really believing what he said.
“I said; drink. I trust you not to get drunk”
“Are you like… testing me? Anyway, I won’t drink. I’ll just fall back into it and by the way, I don’t need it anymore”’
He shrugged, raising his champagne glass at me.
“Do what you want, but I won’t nag you on your- our wedding”
“You’re… You’re amazing”
“Thank you” he said, smiling cheekily at me. I really meant it; to trust me with such an important issue made me fall even deeper in love with him. Not that I would start drinking again, not even at parties, I was too scared to fall back into it. Sure, we both had agreed that we would drink champagne and shit today, because after all it’s our wedding day but I wouldn’t make a habit out of it.
Two hours later, the wedding cake came in. Frank, who was kinda hyper, was sitting in my lap with one arm around my neck and the other one holding on to the champagne glass.
“Cake!” he exclaimed, jumping up from my lap “Come on, Gee!”
He ran over to it where it stood in front of all the other tables so everyone could see it and I followed him, walking. Mikey had declared himself as the Toast Master and Annie as the Toast Madame, which I thought was great; that meant that if anything goes wrong I can blame them. Plus I didn’t really have to do anything; they were the ones to hold the party together. Mikey drummed with his fork on his glass again to get everyone’s attention and we cut up two pieces of cake on our plates.
“I’ll start” he said, scooping up a spoonful of cake on his spoon and raised it up to my mouth. Smiling and with one hand under my chin not to spill, I ate it, but didn’t get the chance to actually taste it, seeing as Frank immediately kissed me.
“Alright, my turn” I said, bringing the spoon down to the plate.
“Chocolate” he said pleadingly, hinting me to take the chocolate cream from the piece. I heard the guests laugh behind us and slightly chuckling, I fed him with the spoon. “Thank you”
“I love you”
“I love you more”
“Not possible”
“Oh yes it is” he laughed, wrapping his arms around my neck. “Are we gonna let the guests taste some of the cake too?”
“Yeah, why not” I grinned, pecking his nose as we walked, well, staggered, back to our chairs, he still with his arms around my neck. He sat down in my lap once again, and for once, everyone’s eyes weren’t on us; they were all up to get cake. It didn’t take long until we were kissing wildly and with my hands inside his shirt.
“Wow. No exchanging spit in public, boys” I heard my dad chuckle from somewhere.
“Mmh… Pfh- Wed-ng” Frank mumbled, most of it being silenced by our kiss. I think he was trying to say something about the wedding, but exactly what I don’t know.
“You two are making me miss my girlfriend” Ray sighed from out left.
“Why don’t you go and get her then?” Bob asked.
“Everyone heard that, right? I’m not being rude for leaving you, because Bob told me to go and see Lucy”
“Just go, Ray” Mikey laughed. When my lungs didn’t have any air left in them what so ever, Frank and I broke apart, both panting heavily.
“Welcome back” Billie Joe grinned, “I think it’s time for your first dance soon”
“First dance?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. “Are we gonna dance?!”
“Of course you are!”
“Did you know about this?” I asked, turning to Frank, who was sipping on his champagne.
“Nope.” he smiled, looking me triumphantly in the eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I found your last scar”
“You did?”
“Yeah, the one on the inside of your cheek”
“Congratulations” I grinned.
“How did you manage to get a scar in there?”
“Long story… Let’s just say it involves a fork”
“And now, will the bridal couple please be so kind and come up to the dance floor?” Mikey said who was now standing up, once again slamming his fork into the glass.
“Okay, I have no idea of what’s going on…” I mumbled as Frank led me up to the dance floor and all the guests followed us, creating a circle around us. “What are we gonna dance?”
“Like… waltz? I don’t know” Frank answered, shrugging.
“How come you don’t seem too worried about this?”
“Because I’ve been drinking three glasses of champagne”
“Oh… Don’t go all alcoholic on me now, baby” I smirked and he pinched my earlobe.
“Just shut up and prepare to dance, will you?”
“Sure… But I can’t dance waltz”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know how?”
“It’s easy. Just put one hand on my waist and the other one on my shoulder and follow me”
“O…kay” I said and I got even more confused when ‘To the end’ started blaring out of the speakers. “I might not know how to dance waltz, but I sure as hell know this music doesn’t go with it”
“Ooh. Mikey’s trying to psych us out” he said, mocking a suspicious look.
“You think?”
“No” he laughed as we started moving, “move your hips, god damn it! It’s like dancing with a mannequin”
“You’re not exactly helping” I mumbled. “Hands off my ass”
“No” he grinned, digging his hands down in my back pockets. I could clearly hear the wolf whistles and I blushed. “Aw, someone’s embarrassed”
“Shut up” I said, finally feeling myself dance in his rhythm. “Hey, this isn’t so hard!”
He grinned, taking away his hands from my ass and instead placed them around my neck, putting our foreheads together. I smiled, placing my hands around the small of his back.
Couples were dancing around us now, long dresses swirling around and shoes rasping against the wooden floor. It could’ve been quite comical; several people dancing waltz to such an energetic song, but it wasn’t. I don’t know for how long we danced, or well, probably for three minutes, since we had to stop when the song stopped, but it felt like an eternity.
“Come” he said, closing his fingers around my hand. “We’re gonna sit down”
“Why? I thought we were gonna dance”
“I have something to say” he said simply.
“What?” I asked as we reached our seats.
“You’ll see” he said, grinning as he raised his champagne glass. To my surprise, he also raised his fork, slamming it against his glass like Mikey did.
“Frankie…” I said warningly as people started to turn to look at him. “What are you doing?”
“Shh. Sit down and be quiet” he whispered, putting one hand on my shoulder and pressing me down into my chair. “Hi everyone!”
I rolled my eyes teasingly, but stopped when I realized that he most possibly was about to hold a speech and probably was a bit nervous.
“I know that Mikey already has thanked you all for being here, but really, thank you. It means a lot to us that you’re here and sharing this day with me and Gerard. Even though Gerard and I both agreed that we would not prepare any speeches or special vows, I felt that I wanted to and I hope that my husband for two hours won’t get mad at me for doing this.”
“I won’t”
“Good… And I apologize in advance for starting to cry, but I’m allowed to cry, ‘cause I’m gay so anyway; here it goes…” he smiled. “Gerard…” he started, now turning away from the guests and looking down at me, still with his hand on my shoulder. “If someone would’ve told me when I first met you that we would be here today, I actually wouldn’t be surprised. There was and still is something special about you that make me love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone before. Back then, you weren’t too social though, which is one of the many reasons we didn’t get together until several years later. I’m not gonna talk about your ‘dark years’, I’m just glad that you’ve overcome them…”
“Thanks to you” I said quietly for only him to hear. He smiled before continuing.
“… So I was able to see your real side. Finally, we started to talk and soon became friends. You’ve been so much to me; stranger, friend, boyfriend, fiancé and now my husband… We’ve shared so many wonderful moments together, like our first date, the day when you proposed and today. And even though I love those big, special moments, they’re not my favourite. It’s the everyday-life that I love the most. I’ll probably never be able to show you how much I love just watching tv with you, to just sit down and eat with you, to go to bed with you… to wake up with you”
I could clearly see the tears in his eyes now, and he broke eye contact with me for a second to take a deep breath before he continued.
“And to know that I will experience all those moments every day from now on until I die is almost more than what my heart can handle. All the ‘I love you’s’ in the world just isn’t enough to show you how I feel, I just wanted you to know that”
The premises was filled with applauds as he sat down, but I don’t think neither of us could hear them. He had tears running down his cheeks and I soon realized I too was crying.
“You didn’t have to do that” I choked out, reaching out to wipe away some of the tears of his cheek.
“I wanted to” he sobbed, moving over from his chair to my lap. “You needed to know”
“I already knew” I smiled, “Now, stop crying and move your bony ass slightly to the left”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sitting on an area that I don’t want you to sit on right now” I laughed and he obeyed, instead sitting with his hip bone against my stomach and both of his legs thrown over the arm support. He nuzzled his head into my neck and I felt his hot breath against my skin as I placed soft kisses on his hair. I put my arms around him, closing my eyes for just a second to savour this moment. People were laughing, dancing, drinking and talking around us, having a good time with each other and thankfully, no one disturbed us.
“There’s no turning back now” I whispered. “You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life”
“Oh, what a horrible future” he giggled, still with his face buried in my neck.
“Frankie?” I asked after about five minutes of silence.
“Mmh?”
“Remember when you told me you wanted to move?”
“Yeah”
“Well, I … I kinda, uh fixed us a house”
“What?” he lifted his head up from my shoulder, looking at my face. He still some tears left in his eyelashes.
“It’s a two floor house” I explained. “And I… I fell in love with it and I know you will too! It’s so beautiful, it’s right next to a lake and there are trees around it and everything”
“But when you say ‘fixed us a house’, you don’t mean that you actually bought it, right?”
“Uhm…”
“Gerard! I haven’t even seen it and you have already bought it?!” he laughed, punching me on the shoulder. “It better be a great house…”
“It is” I said, relief flowing through my body. “There were so many couples that wanted it and I knew it was the perfect house for us”
“You’re way too spontaneous for your own good sometimes, Gee baby”
“I know, sorry… But you know I wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t perfect”
“I know” he grinned, leaning over and pressed his lips onto mine. “I love you”
“I love you too. Your speech was really cute”
“Shut up” he said, blushing. “It was a stupid idea-“
“So you didn’t mean it?” I asked, pouting.
“I meant every word”
-
That night was perfect. I’ve always hated that word. Perfect. Like it can’t get any better. I mean, what’s the point in having something that you can’t improve? Good thing for us that our relationship wasn’t perfect. It had its flaws… But we’d survive, we always did. The end.
I went over to Mikey’s, quite reluctantly, I may say. But maybe it’s for the best that Frank and I won’t see each other before the wedding… It gave both of us some time to think things through, even though that never worked out well for me. I would just get confused and turn into a nerve-wreck if I thought too much.
They day floated by me, not really leaving any special memories. I spent the whole day at Mikey and Annie’s place where Mikey got all ‘old brother’-ly on me, asking me all these questions if I was really sure about this.
“I’m very sure” I said, smiling at his caring face. “I am. Really”
“Just making sure” he said, hugging me. “Promise me that we’ll spend more time together though. I have barely seen you since you moved in with him”
“I think you’re the only grown-up who wanna spend time with his older brother” I said into his neck and unwrapping my arms around him. “Most siblings only meet at special holidays and stuff…”
“Most siblings don’t work together” he said with a small smile. “And we’re not like most siblings anyway”
He studied my face for a few seconds without saying anything.
“What?” I finally asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“I’m just really happy you’re back to your normal self. The drugs and alcohol never suited you”
“Do they suit anyone?” I grinned.
“They kinda suit Ozzy Osbourne. He’s funny…” Mikey laughed, heaving himself up from the couch. “I’m going to bed and you should too. Big day tomorrow…” His already big smile widened.
“Yeah, you’re right” I yawned, trying hard to suppress a grin. “G’night…”
Mikey disappeared into his bedroom where Annie already was asleep in. I sighed tiredly, laying down on the couch and closed my eyes. I found it quite hard to not let my thoughts wander off; I really wanted, and needed, to sleep, but I just couldn’t. Tomorrow would be my wedding day! I mean, how the hell are you supposed to calm down and get some sleep when the most important day of your life was only hours away. My body also missed the warmth of Frank next to me, so that was another problem. We spend so much time together that I had forgot words such as ‘privacy’ and ‘loneliness’. It just became natural to be around him 24/7.
Suddenly, my phone started ringing and I hauled it up from my jeans on the floor as quick as possible not to disturb Mikey and Annie.
“Hello?” I asked, almost whispering.
“Hey” an all too familiar voice answered.
“Couldn’t sleep either, eh?”
“Nope” Frank sighed. “What are you doing?”
“Talking to you and before that I was trying to sleep, you?”
“Same”
“You know what?”
“We’re getting married tomorrow”
“Exactly” I laughed, silently reminded myself of keeping my voice down. “Still no second thoughts?”
“You’d think I’d call at 11pm the night before out wedding and say I’m backing out?”
“I would be surprised... But I’m just making sure. You’re young and stuff-“
“My age is not a problem!”
“Shh, be quiet. Mikey and Annie might hear you”
“Oh, sorry.” he giggled, “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow…”
“Yeah. I love you Frankie”
“I love you more”
“No you don’t”
“Of course I do”
“So how much do you love me?”
“Can’t say”
“Why not?”
“It’s impossible”
I laughed, wanting to kiss him so badly right now that I could almost see his face before me.
“I still love you more. Bye baby”
“Bye, Gee” he said and hung up. I lowered my head down onto the pillow, pulling up the covers to my chest and tried to relax again, but it was impossible. I had his voice ringing in my ears. This would be a long night…
“Hurry the fuck up, Gerard!” Bob yelled, forcefully pushing me inside my parents’ house.
“But I wanna stay outside!” I whined. We were all gonna be at my parents place before the ceremony to get dressed and stuff like that and I knew Frank would be there too. And that was why I wanted to stay outside. As soon as I would go in, they would force me up in mom and dad’s room so I couldn’t see him… They’re so evil. All of them.
“I know, but I don’t care… Ray, a little help here!?” Bob called out while trying to make me stay inside. I pressed with my hands against the threshold, almost making me and Bob step outside again but of course, Mikey had to come right in that moment and help Bob. I sighed, finally giving up and allowed them to lead me up the stairs.
“What room is Frank gonna be in?” I asked innocently, trying to sound absentmindedly, like I didn’t care.
“You wish…” Mikey said, rolling his eyes.
“Yes, I wish… What if I need to talk to him?!”
“You have your phone?”
“Yeah, but… Miiikeeeey…” I whined, but it just made him laugh.
“You’ll see him at the church” he smiled, leaving me alone in my parents’ room. I groaned, lying down on the bed and stared up in the roof. They were probably going through the details downstairs, making sure they had everything planned. I wasn’t nervous… And that bothered me a little. I wanted to be nervous, to feel that this was a big thing but all I felt was excitement. Hopefully Frank’s not too nervous either. I wanna see him so badly. He’s probably in my room in the basement, that’s so Mikey’s way of teasing me; placing him as far away from me as possible. I let out a small ‘yay!’ when my phone started ringing and I saw it was Frank.
“Hey!” I practically screamed, “Where are you?”
“Mikey’s room. Please, come over?”
“Something wrong?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know. Come over!”
“I can’t… They’ll kill me”
“Gerard, I’m begging you. Screw their stupid game, this is serious” he said, sounding quite desperate but it didn’t sound like he was actually freaking out, he was probably just nervous.
“I’ll try. Mikey’s room, right?”
“Yeah” he said, hanging up. I bounced up from the bed, hurryingly walking over to the door. It was locked… Oh, I’m so gonna kill Mikey! I looked around in the room, noticing the balcony and suddenly remembered that if Mikey’s window was open, I could walk on the rain gutter. I ran over to the glass-doors, opened them, walked out on the balcony and climbed over the rail, placing my feet on the old rain gutter while holding on to the balcony rail. This will end with a few broken bones if I slip… I looked down at the ground, taking a deep breath and started ‘gliding’ along the gutter. Mikey’s window was just one metre away from the balcony and as soon as I reached it, I banged on the window. Frank appeared behind it, quickly opening the window and I climbed in. That wasn’t so bad…
“I’m here” I said, smiling as I saw him laugh, but with his mouth closed. It looked pretty fun.
“Thank you” he smiled, “I might have overreacted a bit, but I need to talk to you”
“Well, your little overreaction almost cost me my life, but yeah, go on”
“Sorry… But you know what I said about my parents?”
“That you thought they were disappointed at you?”
“Yeah… We didn’t quite solve that and well, Lisa’s not here and… I don’t know what to do”
“Come here” I said, taking his hand and lead him over to Mikey’s bed. He sat down next to me, leaning his head on my shoulder. “Listen to me; if you marry me, you have to simply live with the fact that you don’t know what your parents would think about it. If you don’t, you’ll be miserable, or I hope you will be, at least I will… Anyway, so either you marry me and we’ll go through this together or you’ll choose to end this right now and we’ll go different ways”
“It was never about marrying you or not” he said, “I’d marry you even if my parents were alive and hated the idea…”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I just wish I had someone who knew my parents and could tell me that everything’s okay!”
“But why do you need to know if it won’t matter?”
“Because… Because… I don’t know. It’s just something I wanna know” he said, sighing and leaned his head up to kiss my neck. “This won’t affect the wedding, we both know that”
“Yeah but… Mom!” I exclaimed, suddenly getting an idea.
“Mom?”
“Hold on… Stay here” I said and got up from the bed. I opened the door, that wasn’t locked, that would take me out in the hall – seems like Mikey trust Frank more than his own brother.
“Mom!” I yelled down the stairs, “Can you come up for a second?”
“Sure honey” she answered as I ran back to Mikey’s room and a few seconds later, she walked in. “What is it?”
“You knew Frank’s parents right?” I asked and Frank’s head snapped up to look at her.
“If I knew them? Ha, Linda and I were best friends!” she said, smiling widely.
“Did you two talk about homosexuals at some point?”
“Oh…” mom said and slowly made her way up to us, sitting down on Mikey’s desk chair. “So that is what this is about?”
“Yeah” Frank answered, “I never talked to mom about it, nor dad, and I would really want to know”
“Well, let me tell you one thing. Your parents were over at our house for dinner once. I think it was when you and Micheal had just met and your mom asked me if I had any other children. I said yes and started talking about Gerard and I accidentally let it slip out that he was gay. And you know what your parents did?”
“No?” asked Frank and I could tell he was nervous.
“They congratulated me” she said, smiling warmly, “for having such a brave son. They wanted to meet him too, but we all know Gerard wasn’t in the right state to mingle with strangers back then…”
“So… So they thought it was a good thing?”
“Yes, they would be proud of you, Frank” she said assuringly, getting up from the bed. “And if you excuse me, have to go downstairs and deal with the young ones. Wait a minute…” she said, looking at me. “Didn’t Micheal lock the door to our room?”
“Uh… Yes, he did. And that wasn’t so nice of him. I had to climb over here from the balcony”
“You know, at first I thought it was cute that you couldn’t stay away from each other, but this can’t be healthy” she laughed, patting my cheek. “All we asked for was 24 hours, but that was impossible, huh?”
“Actually, it was 26 hours we were apart” Frank grinned, earning a pat on the cheek too.
“This will be an interesting relationship to follow” mom sighed, then leaving us alone in the bedroom. “Now Gerard, before Micheal find out where you are, go back to me and your father’s room and I’ll promise not to tell the others about this”
“Fine” I sighed and stood up. I placed myself in front of Frank, who was still sitting on the bed, put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him back so he was lying down before kissing him.
“Ge-ra-aard” mom called with the same voice she always used when she was impatient.
“Coming” I mumbled, but instead slid my tongue into Frank’s mouth. He giggled, immediately founding the right rhythm and started caressing my tongue.
“I’ll count to three…” I heard mom’s voice again and I sighed. I pulled away from Frank, smirking at his uneven breathing.
“Bye Frankie. See you at church”
“Yeah, bye Gee” he smiled, bringing his legs up underneath him.
“Can you punch Mikey for locking me in, mom? You know; my claustrophobia and stuff… He could’ve killed me!”
“Of course, Gerard, I’ll beat him up for you” mom laughed, before gently pushing me inside their bedroom again. “And honey, I know you’re nervous but stay in here and don’t do anything stupid”
“Like what? Throw myself off the balcony?”
Mom frowned.
“That wasn’t funny, Gerard.”
“Mom, I’m not suicidal anymore…”
“I don’t want you to joke about it anyway” she said, closing the door behind her. I sighed, once again lying down on the bed.
One hour later, I was finally let out from the room and was taken to dad’s car outside. I still wasn’t nervous though… The drive to the church didn’t take too long, about five minutes. Dad, who was my chauffeur at the moment, stopped the car on the parking lot and we jumped out. Dad had never been much of a sentimental man, so he simply gave me a hug, said ‘good luck’ and went into the church, leaving me outside. I had no idea of where I was supposed to be. I didn’t think I would go into the church, because well, the guests were there and they weren’t supposed to see me yet. After about two minutes, my band mates finally came. All of their girlfriends were already inside.
“So, the three of us” Mikey said, pointing at him, Bob and Ray, “will go in and up to the altar. When the church bells start ringing, you’ll come in, alright?”
“Sure” Frank said absentmindedly, both of his arms around my waist but yet standing next to me so he would see the guys. They left and Frank and I were alone.
“Here we go” I whispered, kissing his forehead. “No turning back now”
“Well, we can turn back” he said, burying his face deeper into my chest. “But that’s up to you in that case ‘cause I’m sure as hell won’t go anywhere”
The church bells started ringing several metres above us and out eyes met.
“You ready?”
He nodded; taking my hand in his and his serious face disappeared and was replaced by a huge grin.
“I’m so nervous” he laughed, “Let’s go, I wanna get this over with!”
“I love your attitude” I smirked, allowing him to drag me up the stone stairs and through the huge wooden doors into the small room, like a hall you had to go through to get to the actual church. We stopped for a second, getting ready for entrance. Frank looked pretty amazing with black, tight jeans with several holes (the girls nagged him for about an hour about how those clothes weren’t suitable for a wedding before they gave up). He had a plane white t-shirt and a red tie, his hair was messy just like mine and he wasn’t late to ruff it up even more before we entered the church. I on the other hand, didn’t look as amazing. I was wearing black, tight jeans as well, though not ripped and with a studded belt hanging loosely around my hips, a black shirt and my black leather jacket over that. Neither of us were wearing make up; because we both knew we were gonna cry so we decided to apply some eyeliner after the ceremony. Wow, after the ceremony… It felt weird to think about that. After the ceremony – when we’re finally married.
After what felt like an eternity, we started walking down the aisle and even though we only had like twenty guests, it made me feel self-conscious. It was kinda ridiculous; I mean, I’m used to stand on stage in front of thousands of people, but now it wasn’t Gerard on stage, it was just Gerard, and they were all gonna witness the most important day of my life. Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks; I’m getting married. The nervousness came over me and if Frank wouldn’t have been by my side, I would’ve passed out or something. Oh crap… God just couldn’t let me stay calm during this, oh no, he had to mess with me! We reached the altar, where the guys stood and of course the priest, all smiling warmly at us. I wanted to smile too, but I was too nervous. The church filled with the sound of shoes scraping against the floor as the guest sat down.
“Dearly beloved, we’ve gathered here today…” the priest began but I totally spaced out, just looking at Frank’s face who was standing opposite me. I smiled nervously at him, then my gaze fell to look at his chest to the spot where I knew his tattoo were. He noticed where I was looking and he squeezed my hand, giving me a small smile. I realized that the priest was talking to Frank now and I forced myself to listen.
“Repeat after me; I, Frank Anthony Iero”
“I, Frank Anthony Iero”
“Promise to love and to hold you, Gerard Arthur Way”
“Promise to love and to hold you, Gerard Arthur Way”
“Through sickness and health”
“Through sickness and health”
“Until death do us apart”
Frank stopped for a second, looking me right into the eyes before repeating;
“Until death do us apart”
“Now, Gerard. Repeat after me; I Gerard Arthur Way”
And I repeated everything he said, and I did surprisingly well. I thought I would forget what he said or something like that, but it went fine. After that the priest started rambling about how God was looking after us all and then he finally turned back to us.
“Do you, Gerard Arthur Way, take this man, Frank Anthony Iero to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do” I answered, saying it a bit too quickly, making Frank’s shoulder rise and fall softly from suppressed laughter.
“And do you, Frank Anthony Iero, take this man, Gerard Arthur Way to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“Yes. I mean, I do”
Now it was my turn to laugh and he gave me a toothy smile, wrinkling his nose.
“You may now kiss the… uh, groom” the priest smiled and I took a step forward and so did Frank.
“I love you” I whispered, before pressing my lips against his. The feeling I had inside was indescribable; I was still nervous, and oh so excited, but most importantly, I was happy. Happier than I had ever been in my entire life. He mumbled something into my mouth, probably ‘I love you too’. My whole body was practically screaming, every cell in my body was on fire and I wrapped my arms tighter around Frank, then swinging him around. That made us break the kiss though, so I quickly putting down, plus, it was killing my back to lift him up. God, I’m getting old… But I’m allowed to be old, because I’m married!
“Come on!” Frank said, tugging on the hem of my shirt, wanting me to follow him. We almost ran down the aisle and out of the church, both smiling manically.
“We’re married!” I shrieked as soon as we were outside and he threw himself around my neck.
“Yeah! You’re mine!” he laughed, jumping up a bit so he could wrap his legs around my waist. I smiled, wrinkling my eyes and put my forehead against his. Suddenly, someone lunged themselves at me, making both me and Frank fall to the ground with a crash.
“Ow, fuck!” Frank yelled as I landed on top of him. I looked to my left where my brother was lying on the ground, laughing his ass off.
“Con-congratulations, guys!” he laughed, “You should’ve seen… seen your faces”
Ray and Bob came running out the church seconds later, giving the three of us some confused looks before helping us up.
“You broke my back, Mikes” Frank laughed before hugging him.
“Sorry, I was just really excited. I’m so happy for you guys!”
We hugged each other for at least two whole minutes, and then the guests started pouring out of the church, wanting to congratulate us.
It took about a half an hour until we were finally done with all the guests. Frank wouldn’t stop moaning about his back and as we walked up to our black Mercedes that would take us to the premises where the party was going to be held, he jumped up on my back, demanding a piggy-back-ride.
“I am your husband and I am hurt” he said matter-of-factly as I complained about his weight. “Now, move faster!”
I rolled my eyes, and decided to be nice to him so I placed my hands in the hollow of his knees and walked with the gravel crunching under my shoes. Cars were passing by on the street to my left, wedding guests waving at us and laughing at out ‘cuteness’. I reached the car and thankfully, for Frank, the driver opened the door for me so Frank didn’t need to stand on his own (note the sarcasm). I backed into the car, placing Frank in the backseat before I climbed in after him.
The car hadn’t even started until we were all over each other, hands roaming and lips searching for contact.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the premises were only five minutes away so we couldn’t start anything much deeper then kissing. We climbed out of the car, still kissing though and me with my leather jacket down to my elbows.
“I love you” I gasped between the fast kisses as we stumbled over to the door. The guests were waiting in there for us so the party could begin.
“Love… too” he gasped back, dropping a few words. He opened the door with one hand, not letting go of me and we stumbled inside the premises. There was a few applauds, which forced us to break away and I smiled at everyone. It was a really cosy place, like a big cabin with walls, floor and ceiling made out of wood and with small spotlights placed randomly in the ceiling. There was only one room, where three tables were spread out with white cloths reaching down to the floor. To the left of the room there was a small stage with one guitar, a drumset and a bass were placed and I smiled as I saw that the name Green Day was written over the drums.
When the guest were done applauding and shit, they retreated back into the main room and sat down on their chairs.
“You might wanna fix your appearance a bit, Gee” Bob smirked and I gave him a weird look before dragging Frank into the bathroom. Bob was right; I looked like a mess – thanks to Frank. My hair was messier than ever and it didn’t look good, it just looked weird and my shirt was wrinkly and almost showing my whole left shoulder. But the worst part was that I had some furiously red hickeys on my neck.
Frank laughed at me, even though he looked like he had been attacked too and we cleaned ourselves up a bit before walking out, sitting down at out table. We were sharing table with our bandmates plus the guys in Green Day, which I was kinda happy about. It would’ve made me slightly disappointed if I had to sit next to my uncle Fred or something.
“Just so you know it, I’m gonna hold a speech later” Mikey said, laughing at my face. “Don’t worry, I won’t bring up anything embarrassing…”
“I don’t believe you” I groaned. He gave me a cheeky smile, but our conversation was interrupted as the food came in.
“I thought you were vegetarian” I said as I saw Frank eating the salmon on his place.
“I can eat fish” he said, shrugging.
“Really? Isn’t fish an animal?”
“Oh god, you married Americas very own Einstein, Frank” Tré laughed.
“Oh fuck off” I responded, smiling as Frank leaned over and kissed my cheek. “What was that for?”
“Nothing” he shrugged, “Now, eat”
I obeyed and the dinner passed without any nasty happenings. Suddenly, Mikey rose up from his chair, making a clinging noise as he drummed on his glass with his fork to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright…” he started, “First of all, I want to thank you all for being here today to celebrate my brother and best friend’s wedding. They didn’t know I was gonna hold a speech about them, mostly because they would’ve stopped me, but I’ll just say a few words.
Since Gerard is my older brother, he was also the one to teach me all the stuff I needed to know, like, when I was six years old, he taught me the importance of always looking under the bed before falling asleep to see if there were any monsters. Our mother didn’t like that too much though, because I forced her too look for me, so that came back and bite Gerard in the ass when I had to sleep in his room for almost two years since I was too afraid of sleeping on my own.”
That was actually true… I had told him about monsters and shit but I didn’t expect him to be that scared. Mikey waited until the laughter had silenced until he continued.
“But Gerard has also taught me important stuff, like always talk to people when you’re down and to never let people get to you. He has taught me to move on and even though he has been through stuff that most people wouldn’t handle, he got over it and is now sitting here today, happier than ever as a married man.
And Frank… He has been my best friend since I was sixteen. And now he’s my brother in law. I can’t explain how much that means to me to have him in the family, and that he makes Gerard happy is even better. So, raise your glasses for Gerard Way and Frank-“
“Way!” Frank interrupted and I looked at him.
“Really?” I asked, astounded.
“Yeah sure… People can’t pronounce my last name anyway” he laughed. Mikey smiled at him before finishing his interrupted sentence.
“Raise your glasses for Frank and Gerard Way!”
“Frank Way…” Frank giggled as he raised his glass to his lips. “Damn… Iero was such a cool name and now I’m Frank Way”
“Yeah well, it’s better than Gerard Iero, so stop moaning” I laughed, leaning over and placed a kiss on his lips, earning the whole room to go ‘aww!’ on us. I lifted my glass up to my lips as well, but stopped when I recognized the smell of it as champagne. I glanced nervously at Frank, who noticed it and made a waving gesture.
“Drink for god’s sake. I don’t mind anymore as long as you won’t get drunk”
“Wh-what?” I asked, not really believing what he said.
“I said; drink. I trust you not to get drunk”
“Are you like… testing me? Anyway, I won’t drink. I’ll just fall back into it and by the way, I don’t need it anymore”’
He shrugged, raising his champagne glass at me.
“Do what you want, but I won’t nag you on your- our wedding”
“You’re… You’re amazing”
“Thank you” he said, smiling cheekily at me. I really meant it; to trust me with such an important issue made me fall even deeper in love with him. Not that I would start drinking again, not even at parties, I was too scared to fall back into it. Sure, we both had agreed that we would drink champagne and shit today, because after all it’s our wedding day but I wouldn’t make a habit out of it.
Two hours later, the wedding cake came in. Frank, who was kinda hyper, was sitting in my lap with one arm around my neck and the other one holding on to the champagne glass.
“Cake!” he exclaimed, jumping up from my lap “Come on, Gee!”
He ran over to it where it stood in front of all the other tables so everyone could see it and I followed him, walking. Mikey had declared himself as the Toast Master and Annie as the Toast Madame, which I thought was great; that meant that if anything goes wrong I can blame them. Plus I didn’t really have to do anything; they were the ones to hold the party together. Mikey drummed with his fork on his glass again to get everyone’s attention and we cut up two pieces of cake on our plates.
“I’ll start” he said, scooping up a spoonful of cake on his spoon and raised it up to my mouth. Smiling and with one hand under my chin not to spill, I ate it, but didn’t get the chance to actually taste it, seeing as Frank immediately kissed me.
“Alright, my turn” I said, bringing the spoon down to the plate.
“Chocolate” he said pleadingly, hinting me to take the chocolate cream from the piece. I heard the guests laugh behind us and slightly chuckling, I fed him with the spoon. “Thank you”
“I love you”
“I love you more”
“Not possible”
“Oh yes it is” he laughed, wrapping his arms around my neck. “Are we gonna let the guests taste some of the cake too?”
“Yeah, why not” I grinned, pecking his nose as we walked, well, staggered, back to our chairs, he still with his arms around my neck. He sat down in my lap once again, and for once, everyone’s eyes weren’t on us; they were all up to get cake. It didn’t take long until we were kissing wildly and with my hands inside his shirt.
“Wow. No exchanging spit in public, boys” I heard my dad chuckle from somewhere.
“Mmh… Pfh- Wed-ng” Frank mumbled, most of it being silenced by our kiss. I think he was trying to say something about the wedding, but exactly what I don’t know.
“You two are making me miss my girlfriend” Ray sighed from out left.
“Why don’t you go and get her then?” Bob asked.
“Everyone heard that, right? I’m not being rude for leaving you, because Bob told me to go and see Lucy”
“Just go, Ray” Mikey laughed. When my lungs didn’t have any air left in them what so ever, Frank and I broke apart, both panting heavily.
“Welcome back” Billie Joe grinned, “I think it’s time for your first dance soon”
“First dance?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. “Are we gonna dance?!”
“Of course you are!”
“Did you know about this?” I asked, turning to Frank, who was sipping on his champagne.
“Nope.” he smiled, looking me triumphantly in the eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I found your last scar”
“You did?”
“Yeah, the one on the inside of your cheek”
“Congratulations” I grinned.
“How did you manage to get a scar in there?”
“Long story… Let’s just say it involves a fork”
“And now, will the bridal couple please be so kind and come up to the dance floor?” Mikey said who was now standing up, once again slamming his fork into the glass.
“Okay, I have no idea of what’s going on…” I mumbled as Frank led me up to the dance floor and all the guests followed us, creating a circle around us. “What are we gonna dance?”
“Like… waltz? I don’t know” Frank answered, shrugging.
“How come you don’t seem too worried about this?”
“Because I’ve been drinking three glasses of champagne”
“Oh… Don’t go all alcoholic on me now, baby” I smirked and he pinched my earlobe.
“Just shut up and prepare to dance, will you?”
“Sure… But I can’t dance waltz”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know how?”
“It’s easy. Just put one hand on my waist and the other one on my shoulder and follow me”
“O…kay” I said and I got even more confused when ‘To the end’ started blaring out of the speakers. “I might not know how to dance waltz, but I sure as hell know this music doesn’t go with it”
“Ooh. Mikey’s trying to psych us out” he said, mocking a suspicious look.
“You think?”
“No” he laughed as we started moving, “move your hips, god damn it! It’s like dancing with a mannequin”
“You’re not exactly helping” I mumbled. “Hands off my ass”
“No” he grinned, digging his hands down in my back pockets. I could clearly hear the wolf whistles and I blushed. “Aw, someone’s embarrassed”
“Shut up” I said, finally feeling myself dance in his rhythm. “Hey, this isn’t so hard!”
He grinned, taking away his hands from my ass and instead placed them around my neck, putting our foreheads together. I smiled, placing my hands around the small of his back.
Couples were dancing around us now, long dresses swirling around and shoes rasping against the wooden floor. It could’ve been quite comical; several people dancing waltz to such an energetic song, but it wasn’t. I don’t know for how long we danced, or well, probably for three minutes, since we had to stop when the song stopped, but it felt like an eternity.
“Come” he said, closing his fingers around my hand. “We’re gonna sit down”
“Why? I thought we were gonna dance”
“I have something to say” he said simply.
“What?” I asked as we reached our seats.
“You’ll see” he said, grinning as he raised his champagne glass. To my surprise, he also raised his fork, slamming it against his glass like Mikey did.
“Frankie…” I said warningly as people started to turn to look at him. “What are you doing?”
“Shh. Sit down and be quiet” he whispered, putting one hand on my shoulder and pressing me down into my chair. “Hi everyone!”
I rolled my eyes teasingly, but stopped when I realized that he most possibly was about to hold a speech and probably was a bit nervous.
“I know that Mikey already has thanked you all for being here, but really, thank you. It means a lot to us that you’re here and sharing this day with me and Gerard. Even though Gerard and I both agreed that we would not prepare any speeches or special vows, I felt that I wanted to and I hope that my husband for two hours won’t get mad at me for doing this.”
“I won’t”
“Good… And I apologize in advance for starting to cry, but I’m allowed to cry, ‘cause I’m gay so anyway; here it goes…” he smiled. “Gerard…” he started, now turning away from the guests and looking down at me, still with his hand on my shoulder. “If someone would’ve told me when I first met you that we would be here today, I actually wouldn’t be surprised. There was and still is something special about you that make me love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone before. Back then, you weren’t too social though, which is one of the many reasons we didn’t get together until several years later. I’m not gonna talk about your ‘dark years’, I’m just glad that you’ve overcome them…”
“Thanks to you” I said quietly for only him to hear. He smiled before continuing.
“… So I was able to see your real side. Finally, we started to talk and soon became friends. You’ve been so much to me; stranger, friend, boyfriend, fiancé and now my husband… We’ve shared so many wonderful moments together, like our first date, the day when you proposed and today. And even though I love those big, special moments, they’re not my favourite. It’s the everyday-life that I love the most. I’ll probably never be able to show you how much I love just watching tv with you, to just sit down and eat with you, to go to bed with you… to wake up with you”
I could clearly see the tears in his eyes now, and he broke eye contact with me for a second to take a deep breath before he continued.
“And to know that I will experience all those moments every day from now on until I die is almost more than what my heart can handle. All the ‘I love you’s’ in the world just isn’t enough to show you how I feel, I just wanted you to know that”
The premises was filled with applauds as he sat down, but I don’t think neither of us could hear them. He had tears running down his cheeks and I soon realized I too was crying.
“You didn’t have to do that” I choked out, reaching out to wipe away some of the tears of his cheek.
“I wanted to” he sobbed, moving over from his chair to my lap. “You needed to know”
“I already knew” I smiled, “Now, stop crying and move your bony ass slightly to the left”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sitting on an area that I don’t want you to sit on right now” I laughed and he obeyed, instead sitting with his hip bone against my stomach and both of his legs thrown over the arm support. He nuzzled his head into my neck and I felt his hot breath against my skin as I placed soft kisses on his hair. I put my arms around him, closing my eyes for just a second to savour this moment. People were laughing, dancing, drinking and talking around us, having a good time with each other and thankfully, no one disturbed us.
“There’s no turning back now” I whispered. “You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life”
“Oh, what a horrible future” he giggled, still with his face buried in my neck.
“Frankie?” I asked after about five minutes of silence.
“Mmh?”
“Remember when you told me you wanted to move?”
“Yeah”
“Well, I … I kinda, uh fixed us a house”
“What?” he lifted his head up from my shoulder, looking at my face. He still some tears left in his eyelashes.
“It’s a two floor house” I explained. “And I… I fell in love with it and I know you will too! It’s so beautiful, it’s right next to a lake and there are trees around it and everything”
“But when you say ‘fixed us a house’, you don’t mean that you actually bought it, right?”
“Uhm…”
“Gerard! I haven’t even seen it and you have already bought it?!” he laughed, punching me on the shoulder. “It better be a great house…”
“It is” I said, relief flowing through my body. “There were so many couples that wanted it and I knew it was the perfect house for us”
“You’re way too spontaneous for your own good sometimes, Gee baby”
“I know, sorry… But you know I wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t perfect”
“I know” he grinned, leaning over and pressed his lips onto mine. “I love you”
“I love you too. Your speech was really cute”
“Shut up” he said, blushing. “It was a stupid idea-“
“So you didn’t mean it?” I asked, pouting.
“I meant every word”
-
That night was perfect. I’ve always hated that word. Perfect. Like it can’t get any better. I mean, what’s the point in having something that you can’t improve? Good thing for us that our relationship wasn’t perfect. It had its flaws… But we’d survive, we always did. The end.