My Miserable Romance

~Gerard’s POV~
The weeks passed almost too quickly and before we knew it, it was May and we hadn’t bought any suits for the wedding. Everything else was done - church, food, guests and stuff like that, and the only thing that the girls had trusted me and Frank with was to get our suits, but sadly, we forgot. It wasn’t until Mikey asked us, an order from Annie, if we had bought them and he nearly freaked out when we told him no. Sometimes I feel bad for him; living with a pregnant woman and all… Although I was just three years old when Mikey was born, I remember that my mom got these fits of hysteria for the smallest things, so I quickly told him not to tell Annie about our mistake, which he assured me that he wouldn’t dare to anyway.
We soon realized that we needed the girls with us when we picked out our suits, and when we told them, they didn’t freak out too much, but they insisted on going right this moment to buy them, so here we are - sitting in a cramped car. I’m not complaining though; I have Frank in my lap. We were eight people who was gonna come, and we had two cars, which means four persons in one car; me, Frank, Mikey and Annie in one and the other four in the other car. Seeing that Mikey refused to let Annie sit in the front seat while she was pregnant, she had to sit in the back with me, and Frank refused to sit in the front seat without me, so I ended up with him in my lap in the backseat next to Annie. Mikey, who drove, had to sit alone in the front.

After about an hour we reached the store where we were gonna buy our suits, we all got out of the car; me with kinda numb legs and we got into the store where Ray, Bob, Lucy and Bella were already waiting for us. Why they all wanted to come is a mystery to me, we only needed Lucy, Bella and Annie when it came to this, but Mikey had insisted on coming with the excuse that he started to feel like Frank had ‘stolen’ me from him, because we didn’t spend time together anymore. I had nothing against it; I missed hanging out with Mikey, and when Ray and Bob found out everyone except them were coming, they came too.

“I’m gonna ask you one more time, are you both having black suits?” Annie asked and got a dull ‘yes’ from Frank. “Good. And by the way, you’re not allowed to see each other in your wedding clothes, so if you, Gerard, and Mikey can walk over to the other side of the store, that’ll be great, alright?”
“Arh dammit…” I laughed and winked at Frank. “No fun for us in the changing room”
“Ergh…You’re turning me into a homophobe” Mikey laughed and then started tugging my shirt. “Come on!”
“Easy, easy” I said and followed him, leaving Frank with the rest of the guys and all the girls. “Go fetch a tailor for me and I’ll start looking for a suit, alright?”
“Yep. I’ll be right back” Mikey said before speeding of to find a tailor. It didn’t take long until he came back, now with a scrawny looking man with mouse-brown hair and watery, blue eyes behind him.
“So, Mr. Way, I’m Albert Schell” said the man, who I suppose is a tailor. “How can I help you?”
“Well, I’m getting married and I would like to find a plain black suit” I said, politely smiling at him. “With red lining, if possible”
“Of course, of course” said Mr. Schell with a waving gesture for me to follow him. “We have a lot of black suits. They are, after all, the most common ones, so it’s the red that’ll limit your choices. Here’s one of my finest jackets…”

It took me no less than one hour to find the perfect suit; the new problem was to make me stand still when he needled it up so it would be the right length for me. I – who was convinced that he would sting me – had to be held back by Mikey. It took yet another half an hour until that was done, and I could finally get out of the suit and into my normal clothes.
“Thank you so much for your help, sir. I’m really pleased with how it looks” I said and couldn’t help but to grin happily. I always did that as soon as something about the wedding had been checked of the countless things we had to do; One thing closer to the wedding.
“My pleasure, Mr. Way” he answered. “I’ll go and sew it up right this moment”
“Great. Thank you” I said and then turned to Mikey. “Can you go and see how Frank’s doing and if he’s in his suit? I wanna come over but the girls would gonna freak out…”
“Sure, I have to see how Annie’s doing anyway” he said and walked to the other side of the store where I knew Frank and the rest were.
“Who’s Frank?” Mr. Schell asked absentmindedly as he hauled up my suit on his desk.
“No one” I said, but heard how rude I sounded, so I quickly added; “He’s my friend”
“Ah. I thought he was the lucky boy” he said and winked at me.
“Yeah well… Maybe he is.” I said.
“But you don’t wanna walk around and announce to everyone that you’re gay?”
“Exactly” I smiled and he nodded understandably.
“Don’t worry; you’re secret’s safe with me” he laughed lightly.
“Uh, Gee?” I heard Mikey ask behind me and I turned around.
“Yeah?”
“He’s not in his suit, so you can come” he announced. I thanked Mr. Schell once again and then walked after Mikey to the other side of the store. When we were halfway over, a cry of pain broke the buzzing sound of people talking in the store and I turned my head in every direction to see who it had come from.
“It couldn’t be…?” Mikey said, almost asking and I knew what he meant, but I didn’t know.
“I hope not… Come on” I said and sped over to where Frank and the rest were. The costumers around me were looking around themselves with curious faces, wanting to know if someone was hurt and I noticed that most of them were looking at a certain direction. My friends’ direction. I glanced nervously at Mikey, who raised an eyebrow and we practically ran the last bit. We arrived to the scene, and even though I had expected something, I couldn’t help gasping as I saw what was going on. Frank was standing in front of a white haired, old man with a long beard, who could have been an excellent Santa Claus copy; but it wasn’t the man that was drawing my attention, it was the blood. It was trickling down from Frank’s arm from the open wound that he recently must’ve gotten.
“Frankie!” I exclaimed but he didn’t look at me; he looked as if he was in great shock, staring at the old man in front of him. I looked around and saw all the other costumers looking just as shocked as he did and it wasn’t until now that I noticed the scissor in the old man’s hand. Mikey was the first one to react, everyone else were just standing still, silently. He ran up to Frank, taking a hold of his injured arm and quickly pulled of his jacket to press it against the cut. His action made me snap out of my state and before my brain had reacted, I flung myself towards Frank.
“What… Why… How…” I stammered, cupping Frank’s chin to make him look at me. Even though he was bleeding heavily, he didn’t seem to be in pain, only scared and confused. He tried to form a sentence, stuttering out random words until he finally managed to make himself understandable.
“He stabbed me” he said blankly, looking me right into the eyes, but winced as Mikey pressed harder against his cut. “That maniac… I told him and he took the scissor…”
“Told who what?”
“Told my… my tailor that I was marrying a guy and…”
“And he stabbed you?” I asked, almost couldn’t believe how bizarre it sounded. “Was it an accident?”
“Of course it wasn’t” I heard someone say behind me and I turned around to look at the white haired man with the beard. “I have every right to-“
“To stab people?!” I filled in, looking furiously at the man who I understood was the reason why Frank was bleeding. I lost my temper as soon as I saw his face, his calm face as he didn’t have a hurt person who was bleeding in front of him. He took a step closer to me and I quickly raised my arm, gesturing at him to stop. “One more step and I’ll sue your ass off”
“You…” he said, but then was interrupted by his own hysterical laughter. “You, suing me? Oh, no, no, no, a judge would never listen to someone like him” he continued, gesturing at Frank. “Now, before this scissor does anymore harm, get the hell out of my store!”
Before we could fight back, the white-haired man had pushed us backwards, at the door, with the scissor raised.
“But-“ I almost yelled, but he simply closed the glass doors. “-my brother’s still in there” I finished, grinning as I saw Mikey punching the man. “Ah fuck, are you alright?!” I asked, turning to Frank who was holding on to my arm tightly.
“Yeah, I’m fine” he said, but his face told me the opposite; he was paler than before. “Really, I am” he added when he saw my doubtful look.
“Alright then…” I said, but just in case, I slipped my arm around his waist. “Where’s the guys?”
“They went to get something to eat ten minutes ago” Frank explained, trying to force my arm away from him, but only end up with me holding him tighter. “I’m fine!”
“You’re still bleeding though” I stated and took of my jacket.
“But I’m- OW!” he yelled as I wrapped my jacket around his cut, probably a lot harder than what Mikey had done. “Not so hard!”
“I’m sorry, but I have to stop the bleeding” I said, slightly smirking at his childish behaviour.
“Don’t you look at me like that, it’s not funny” he said, sounding a bit hurt so I quickly stopped smirking.
“Sorry, but-“ I started, but got interrupted when there was a loud bang to our left; the store’s direction. I turned to look at it and my eyes fell on Mikey, who had been thrown out of the store, although he was laughing. He walked up to us and I couldn’t help smiling as I saw how he was holding his left knuckle inside his other hand, as if it was hurt.
“Hey Mikes. How did it go in there?” I laughed.
“Awesome! You know, I’ve never liked fighting, especially not with fifty year old men, but god, the way it felt to see him in pure agony was… awesome!” he said happily, like a kid on Christmas Eve. “Are you two okay?” he then asked, now looking worried.
“I am” Frank said quickly, before I could argue with him. “Just a bit shocked”
“And I’m fine…” I said, “What did he say after we’d gone?”
“Mr. Schell came just as I threatened to sue them and he practically begged me not to”
“Why?” I asked.
“He started rambling about how this store was his life and that he would fire Mr. Walker, the nutcase, and even give you your suits for free if we didn’t tell anyone but… yeah, I had to ask you guys first”
Well, Mr. Schell had been really nice… And I mean, no harm done I guess. Frank was fine, a bit shocked though, but still.
“What do you think, Frankie?” I asked, turning to look at him.
“Free suits? No way, I’m not getting my suit from that store… In fact, I don’t want anything to do with that store what so ever, so I think we should just drop it” he said, once again trying to pull away from my grip. “And let me go, I can barely breathe!”
“Then we have to find some other place to get our suits…” I said, ignoring Frank’s last comment. “But before we do anything, we need to go home and stop your bleeding”
“Hey guys!” Bob’s voice yelled from across the street and all five of them came running towards us.
“Hi… You missed quite a scene in there” Mikey laughed as he gave Annie a kiss on the cheek. “Frank’s been stabbed and-“
“What?!” they all yelled, causing a few people to look at them. “Are you serious?” Ray asked and then looked at Frank, noticing his arm. “Shit…”
“Yeah, so we kinda need to head back home” I said.
“But wait, how did he get stabbed?” Bella asked, and we told them the story.
“That… That’s pretty… sick” Bob said, “Alright, let’s go home”
I started walking, dragging Frank along with me, but he stopped.
“Wait,” he mumbled, gripping onto my arm. “Wait”
“I’m waiting… Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine… Just a bit dizzy” he said, but quickly snapped out of it. “Let’s go”
“You sure you’re fine?” I asked worriedly, watching his pale face, but he just nodded.
“Yep, I just…” he said, but trailed off and his eyes went empty, just staring in front of himself.
“Frankie?” I asked, shaking him gently.
“I just need to go home” he finished, as if there never was an interruption.
“You sure you don’t wanna sit down or something?” I asked and noticed that the guys already had reached the cars and were now waiting for us.
“No.” he said firmly and started walking, but then stopped again. “Or maybe I do…”
“I can carry you to the car” I offered, but he shook his head.
“No,” he said just as firmly as before. “I’ve changed my mind, let’s go”
The cars were just a few metres away so I figured that he could just lie down in the back seat if he would get dizzier.
“Alright,” I said and we started walking again. Two metres later, he stopped again.
“It’s spinning…” he mumbled, “Everything…”
“Frank, you’re scaring me” I said, taking a firm grip around his back. “Come on, I’ll carry you”
He nodded and just as I was going to lift him up, his eyes rolled back in his head and his body went lifeless. The shock of seeing him pass out almost made me drop him, but I managed to sneak my arm under his knees and back to carry him bridal style.
“Fuck! Frank?! Come on, answer me baby… please, Frankie! GUYS, for fuck’s sake, I need help!” I yelled to the car. The jacket that I’d wrapped around his arm fell to the ground with a disgusting, sloppy sound; it was drenched in blood. God… How much blood can he have lost? We’d been standing outside for at least fifteen minutes… But he can’t have serious blood loss, at least not yet. “Bob! Ray! MIKEY!” I yelled again, because seeing as the car doors were closed, they didn’t hear me. Soon, they came running, looking shocked at first, but then helped me carry Frank to the car. I quickly climbed in as well, helping the unconscious Frank to sit up, but failed miserably. Instead I placed him in my lap, letting his head rest on my shoulder.
“Hospital!” I ordered Mikey, who once again, was the driver. Annie was seated in the passenger seat, leaving me and Frank to get the whole back seat, which we really needed. “Frankie, can you hear me?” I whispered in his ear and my heart skipped a beat as his eyes fluttered open. “Oh thank God!”
“What happened?” he asked, but before I could answer, he slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Frank? Frankie?” I repeated his name several times, wanting to desperately to get him to react again and I even got to the point where I slapped him to get him to wake up, but he didn’t. The car, that had been rolling just a few seconds before, was now standing still and I raised my head to look at Mikey. “Why aren’t we driving?”
“Traffic jam” he explained, trying to sound casual, but I could hear that he wasn’t far away from tears. “Is he… Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. Can’t you drive to the side and then explain to the police why we have to get through?”
“I can’t! I can’t even get to the sides, I’m stuck!” he exclaimed, frustrated.
“But-“
“Gerard! I can’t get through, dammit!” he yelled, making me jump a little.
“Honey, calm down…” Annie mumbled, but she as well, looked a bit stressed. Mikey threw his head back, hitting the back support with a loud thud while he banged on the horn repeatedly.
“Cold…” I heard a weak voice whisper and I look down at Frank, just to see his eyes close again. Cold… He’s cold. Ah yes, I’m a bit slow right now… I hauled him up a bit so he would sit more up properly before wrapping my arm around him, holding him as close as possible without suffocating him. I would’ve taken my jacket and put around him, but realized that I’d forgotten it outside the store. Mikey’s cellphone rang and he, with trembling fingers, answered.
“Hello? No, he’s still out of it… I know, we’re stuck too. No, he’s fine, worried, but fine… What, now? So they can get through this? Are you sure? It’s a great risk, Bob… yeah, I guess, bye” he said, hanging up. “Gee?”
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Take the bus to the hospital; they can get through these queues”
“Bus? But…” I said, trailing off, but I knew Mikey understood.
“I know, I don’t really like it either, but Frank needs to get to the hospital as soon as possible” Mikey said, even though sounding terrified at the mere thought of taking such a risk. “Or do you wanna stay?”
“No, I don’t know if it’s the loss of blood that made him pass out, but if it is, he’ll be in deep trouble if I stay here” I said, trying to sound certain even though I didn’t know what was best right now.
“That’s a lot of ‘if’s…” Mikey said, “But yeah, you’re right. We’ll meet you at the hospital when we get there. Be careful”
“I will” I said and got back to my old position with one arm under Frank’s knees and the other one around his back. “I’ll see you soon”