London's Calling

Today was Ray's little get together, but first I had some time to kill. It was now two in the afternoon, and I had woken up about one and a half hours ago. I was standing in my back garden in the relatively good weather, (for Autumn in London of course), having a cigarette. The cherry lit red every time I took a drag, breathing in the smoke, sighing in relief as I let it all back out again. A couple of times I tried making smoke rings, failing. I tapped off the ash that was forming on the end of my stick of nicotine. As I was looking over the fences into the gardens adjoining mine I saw my neighbours head pop up from over the wooden wall.
"Mornin' Frankie-boy!" A familiar face grinned. It was Pete, who lived next door with his long time partner Patrick, they were darn adorable.

"Sup Pete," I beamed at him. Pete was absolutely lovely, and so was Patrick. They had both helped me move in the first day and we had become pretty good friends since then, especially after I had heard the pair playing music together. Pete played the bass guitar, Patrick playing guitar. They allowed me to join in with them sometimes, so I wouldn't get rusty with my guitar, and sometimes they had the rest of their band over. I really needed to convince them to go to where I worked and give in a demo...

"Not much, not much... Going out with the guys for a drink, nothing huge, yourself?" I smiled, inhaling another lungful of tobacco.

"That sounds cool, I'm pretty much the same, except we're gonna be round Ray's." I looked up at the sky, blowing out smoke. "Lily has a new boyfriend, so we're meeting him, and his brothers coming apparently. The guy seems nice. Also I have what I hope is a date tomorrow!" I grinned as Pete chuckled.

"You hope?" He questioned, still holding in chuckles.

"Yeah, see, I don't know if he's gay... He is absolutely gorgeous though..." I sighed. "And from what I've seen so far, a really nice guy."

"Who asked?"

"Him."

"He's probably gay then."

"What?!" I exclaimed, as Pete chuckled to himself, trying to use his hand covering his mouth to stop himself.

"Guys don't normally just ask guys to come hang out is all," He managed to get out through laughs.

"Why not? Guy only moved here recently, and from New Jersey, just like me! Might want someone from where he's from to help him settle in!"

"Okay, I guess,"

"Pete you know you can't get my hopes up! So stop. I'm just going to keep thinking he isn't gay unless he tells me." I smiled, inhaling a final time before stubbing my cigarette in the ashtray, that was on a half wall, that separated the patio and grass in my garden.

"Sorry, sorry!" He held his hands in the air, stepping away from the fence slightly, grinning. "But seriously, you deserve someone Frank... And isn't your house kind of empty with only you in it?"

"You're not making it any better Pete, but thank you for caring," I smiled, "Anyway, I'm gonna finish sorting stuff out, we're meeting at four, I'll talk to you later yeah?"

"Yessir! And I want full details about tomorrow and him if all goes well!" He beamed, as I turned around to go back in.

"Yeah yeah, see ya," I smiled, waving him off.

As I got back inside, I checked the time, and I had only passed ten minutes since I had last checked. I walked upstairs and decided that now was probably a good time to shower. As I stripped myself of clothes, I found myself looking in the mirror at my hair. God, it was getting shaggy.

After I had gotten out of the shower and dried my hair off I tried to do something with it. I sat on my bed facing the mirror, still just in a towel. I started flicking my hair around, trying to find some way to make it looked acceptable, and hair-sprayed it in place as soon as I'd found someway I relatively liked, so it couldn't move out of place.

I grabbed a fresh pair of skinny jeans, in a dark blue, as I only had two black pairs, both of which were in the wash. I grabbed the first t-shirt that looked decent.

By this time I still had half an hour to kill at least, because even though the shopping centre was twenty minutes away, the buses liked to be unpredictable on Saturdays. I wandered into my living room and flicked on a music channel, then decided I was actually quite hungry. I walked into the kitchen, turning the volume up on the tv so I could hear it in the next room. About three songs in, I heard something really familiar. I soon realised it was Brendon's band, Panic!, our little record label was getting songs on the tv! Hell yeah!

I kept rummaging through the fridge, but came up with nothing that I didn't have to cook, so I settled for a pack of crisps. Soon enough I was back on my sofa and had finished the crisps. It was these little bits of time where I got bored, because you could never really do anything!

I ended up leaving early, and whilst waiting at the bus stop, had only just lit a cigarette when the bus turned a corner onto the road I was waiting on. Typical... I chipped it out on the top of the bin I was next to, before shoving it back in the pack and boarding the bus.

I arrived at the shopping centre around twenty minutes early, and as I got off the bus I pulled out the previously lit cigarette and proceeded to light it up. I was outside the shopping centre as Ray and Charlie stepped off their bus to walk to where we were meeting. I called them over, and as soon as I had finished my cigarette we made our way to our meeting point.

After about five minutes, Charlie called out that Lily was approaching, with Mikey and his brother. I looked up and my heart started beating faster as I noticed who Mikey's brother was.

Gerard.