Teach Me

Frank took a step back. Then another, and another.
He shut his eyes tight, and opened them again.

Yes, his guitar teacher was in front of him. He blinked rapidly.

Yes, he did need to get the fuck out of here.

Frank turned around and stumbled back to his table.

"Guys guys I am leaving right now Ok? Ok."

"Wait Frank you didn't even have a beer!"

"Yeah well I don't think I need one at the moment Ray have a great night and Mikey-" Frank turns Mikey toward him seriously- "Don't let Ray take advantage of you." Mikey giggles and Ray punches Frank on the arm playfully

"Actually Ray I see my brother over there-"

"Bye guys!" Frank hightails it out of the bar and decides to walk home.

~~

Frank shuts the door loudly upon entering his house and starts up the stairs when he hears his mother call out to him from the dining room.

"Frank? What's the matter baby weren't you out with your friends?"

"Yeah but I've got a lot of homework tonight ma so i didn't stay long." He hopes she doesn't ask him to elaborate.

"Alright that's fine son."

Frank breathes a sigh of relief and goes up to his room. He had a lot to think about.

Picking up his guitar, he closes his eyes and just starts playing. He often loses himself doing simple picking exercises and quickly transitions into chord progressions and pivoting. After an hour or so he changes into just a t-shirt and boxers and goes to bed.

~The Next Week~

"Shit shit shit shit..." Frank pulls on a pair of jeans and a hoodie quickly and stumbles through the room, trying to find his pick and his book.
His lesson started eight minutes ago, and he was about to lose his ride.

Stumbling out of the room with his guitar case in hand, Frank runs down the stairs and out the door.

"Didn't want to wake you up sleeping beauty!" His mom says cheerily.
"Get in the car, you're already late."

~

Ok, so maybe Frank is trying to be late and have less time with his teacher. He's thinking of ways to kill time when he hears the door open.

"Oh hey Frank. Thought you weren't going to show up today, but here come on in." Gerard steps aside and holds the door open for him.

Frank holds his breath as he brushes past him.

He takes a seat in the chair facing forward of Gerard's and takes out his guitar.

"Alright well I guess we'll get right into it then. Now this is an F power chord, and it's hell to play. Sorry. The finger positioning is even worse...just do it like this alright?" Gerard holds up the head of his blue electric guitar and demonstrates the correct finger positioning to Frank. He tries to repeat the action himself, but Frank keeps slipping up.

"Damn it..."he mutters quietly

Gerard laughs and Frank immediately blushes.

"Sorry I uh- can't get it right." Frank wills his blush to go down and stares at his lap

"Don't worry about it. Try playing it, it'll sound like this." Gerard thrums the chord and Frank is awestruck. He was convinced Gerard could do or play anything, and it would be amazing. 'Stop being such a girl!' he thinks to himself

Frank strikes the chord,

and fails.

His embarrassment soon grows to horror when Gerard addresses the problem.

"Hm. You need to work on your fingering."

Frank is pretty sure his face is the equivalent color to that of a tomato.

"Try squeezing a tennis ball or something, it helps a lot. Especially with the weaker fingers, like your pinkie."

Frank nods dumbly.

"Ok now for the G chord, not so hard as the F but pretty challenging." Gerard again demonstrates the finger positions to Frank. Frank tries, and fails, thrice before sighing in exasperation.

"My fingers keep slipping..." Frank says in frustration.

"It's ok, your guitar has a higher action than mine so the strings are going to be harder to press down. Here-" Gerard stands and sets his guitar down against the wall.

He walks over to Frank and crouches down behind him. Frank tenses up when Gerard moves his arms to hold Frank's guitar at the same time as him, and almost dies when Gerard is practically holding his hand.

"Do it like this..." Gerard pushes down Frank's fingers harder on the strings and uses Frank's other hand to strum the chord. It sounds exactly the same as when Gerard did it, and Frank feels proud. He smiles up at Gerard, then gasps when he realizes how close they've gotten.

Their faces are mere inches apart, only the smallest gap left between them. Frank gulps and tries to
say something. Anything.

Gerard gazes at Frank intensely before standing up and moving away.

Frank lets out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"So yeah. You've got the chords down and now it's just a matter of practice. Let me mark some assignments for you in the book and then you can let me hear what you've been working on."

Frank nods silently and hands his book to Gerard. He watches as he scrawls the assignment pages on the inside cover and flips through the book.

Gerard hands the book back a few minutes later and looks at the clock.

"Oh, it looks like we don't have enough time left. Keep practicing Frank and I'll see you next week." Gerard gives him a small smile as Frank waves and heads out the door with his things.

Frank waits on the curb for his mom to come get him and silently curses his dad for not getting him a car.

He sits down on the ledge and recalls what happened at today's lesson.

He really has no idea.