Common People

Gerard’s week ended quite badly. He was grounded for pretty much the rest of his life, he had a busted split lip and swelling black eye from his lovely class mates and he had a terrifying amount of homework.

He wanted nothing more than to just lock himself up in his bedroom with a bottle of Jack and smoke his way through his cigarettes.

But obviously Frank had other plans for him.

“Hello?” Gerard mumbled around his cigarette into his mobile.

“Hey Gerard,” Frank answered, his voice sounding soft and calm for once. “How are you?”

“Um, I’m OK thanks, what about you?” Gerard asked as he moved the brush across the canvas, blending the red into the orange.

“I’m bored.”

Gerard could picture Frank grinning right then. He couldn’t help but smile himself too. “Oh. Well... do you want-”

“Can you come see me?”

“I don’t think so. My parents are still angry at me because of Wednesday night,” Gerard sighed, wiping his paint smeared hand across his oversized t-shirt.

“Seriously? Gerard, you’re like seventeen, they can’t just put you under house arrest because you came in late one night,” Frank snorted in disbelief.

“You clearly underestimate my parents,” Gerard muttered. “I’m sorry Frank, but they’ll actually lock me in the basement if I try and go out.”

“Well then I’ll just come round and see you then,” Frank told him.

Gerard spluttered on his cigarette and his paintbrush slipped from his fingers and left a streak of paint across the canvas that Gerard decided didn’t actually look too bad, considering he hadn’t meant for it to happen.

“Wait, you want to come here? Dude, you’ll have to meet my parents,” Gerard warned him. “If you value your life, please don’t.”

“Why?” Frank giggled. “I’m sure they’re not that bad.”

Gerard grimaced. “You don’t know them.”

“Whatever. It’s Friday night, I’m bored, you’re probably chained to a wall in your bedroom so I’ll just come round and un-bore both of us,” Frank told him. “And I miss you.”

Gerard felt his stomach leap a little at that and he smiled softly to himself. “I...OK. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Fine, you can say ‘I told you so’ when your parents ring the police and try and have me arrested for bringing dirt into your house,” Frank told Gerard seriously.

Gerard laughed and shook his head. “I’ll see you later then. Text me when you’re nearly here.”

“I will. See you in a while Gee,” Frank chirped happily before hanging up.

Gerard sighed and shut his phone, tossing it behind him and hoping that it landed somewhere on his bed. He rubbed his hands across his face, forgetting they were covered in paint. He groaned when he felt the paint on his face but couldn’t be bothered to care about it and clean it off.

He set his brushes down into the murky pot of paint water beside him and got up, stretching and surveying his painting. It was kind of sad that as soon as it had dried, it was just going to get shoved on top of the pile of canvases in the corner of his room, all his paintings hidden and gathering dust.

Gerard had never received any praise for his art. He didn’t think he had any talent at all, but it was clear the teenager had a gift and a possibly over creative mind. Nobody was ever interested in what he was capable of, so his artwork was simply stacked up and piled in a corner.

Gerard made his way downstairs and to the main living room where his parents were. They didn’t look up when he shuffled through the doorway. They’d been ignoring him for a few days. If he was going to ignore their rules, they were going to ignore him. At least, that’s what Gerard had worked it out as anyway.

“Um, dad?” Gerard tried hopefully, looking at his father.

“What Gerard?” the man sighed, looking at his son with that same disappointed look he’d been wearing for far too long.

“I... my friend is coming over soon,” Gerard told him nervously.

Both of his parents frowned then and looked at him properly.

“You never said anything about not having my friends here,” Gerard pointed out. “You just said I couldn’t go out.”

“What’s his name?” his mum asked.

“You’ve never met him before. He’s called Frank,” Gerard mumbled, looking at his feet.

He felt stupid having to ask his mum and dad if it was OK to have a friend over at his age, but his parents treated him like he was ten years old sometimes.

“Where does he live?”

“Uh, I don’t...I don’t really know. Newark I think,” Gerard told them. “I’ve only known him for a week or so.”

“Gerard, why-”

“But yeah, I said he could come over so he’ll be here soon. Just thought I should let you know,”
Gerard cut his dad off, turning and leaving the room as fast as possible, shutting the door behind him.

He walked through the quiet, echoing house quickly towards the front living room that was barely ever used, but was still filled with designer couches and expensive paintings and a 73” flat screen TV.

He sat down on the edge of the pristine cream leather couch and switched the TV on, not watching it. He just stared at the wall, his leg jiggling up and down nervously, his nails getting chewed and torn between his teeth.

He waited for about then minutes like this until the doorbell rang and he flew up from the couch and bolted towards the front door before his parents or his brother could. He flung the door open and greeted a startled looking Frank with an overbearing and far too big smile that was uneasy and completely out of character for Gerard.

Frank didn’t have much time to contemplate Gerard’s off mood before he was seized by the front of the shirt and hauled inside, his mucky, dirt streaked sneakers scuffling against the gleaming marble floor.

“Sorry, “Gerard mumbled as he ushered Frank up the stairs as quickly as possible.

“Gerard!” his mother called from the bottom of the staircase. “Don’t be so rude! You haven’t introduced me to your friend yet!”

Gerard froze and his stomach felt queasy and it churned uncomfortably. Letting Frank into his house whilst his snobby, arrogant parents were here wasn’t the best idea. Gerard just sighed, his shoulders tense and his face hesitant as he turned and looked down at his mother who stood waiting expectantly.

Frank turned with him and he first of all decided Gerard’s mum was pretty hot. She had curves and silky blonde hair and a pretty face. Frank offered her a warm smile, hoping it wasn’t creepy. God, he really, really, hoped his smile wasn’t creepy.

“Um, Frank this is my mum, mum this is Frank,” Gerard mumbled.

Donna looked Frank up and down and tried very hard to make her horrified face stretch up into a smile. “Nice to meet you Frank. Will you be staying for dinner with us tonight?”

“Oh, I don’t know Mrs. Way, but thank you anyway,” Frank smiled weakly, feeling uncomfortable under her scrutinising gaze and judgemental looks.

“It’s no bother Frank really, you’re more than welcome to stay,” Donna replied half heartedly.

“I... well, as long as you’re sure it’s not a problem, I wouldn’t want to-”

“Wonderful. I’ll go and tell Rob to prepare for five of us then,” Donna said, cutting him off abruptly. “Gerard, can I please speak to you for a moment? Alone?”

Gerard gave Frank an apologetic, withering look before sighing heavily and nodding at his mother. “Uh, just go up to my room or whatever Frank, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Frank just nodded uneasily and headed up the stairs as Gerard trudged back down to his mum. She glared at him and strode off back into the living room, Gerard trailing behind her.

She slammed the door shut when Gerard was inside, giving him a filthy look. “Gerard, where the hell did you meet that boy?!”

“Um,” Gerard began, not meeting her eyes, “a party?”

“But you never leave the house! Since when did you start going to house parties and befriending disgusting kids like that? Oh God, he’s probably on all sorts of drugs too isn’t he, honestly Gerard!”

“You don’t know anything about him! You can’t just make assumptions like that about him, you just can’t! It’s not fair, you don’t even know him,” Gerard snapped. “He’s my friend and I like him and I like being around him. And just so you know, I probably take just as many drugs as he does!”

“What?!”

“You’re so busy with your own life you don’t even know what’s going on in mine! If you actually cared, you’d know I get drunk in my room every night and spend most of my time hung over! You’d know about all the pills and self medication and-”

Gerard was cut off by a sharp, burning slap to the face.

“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare. Get up upstairs right now and we’ll talk about this after your friend has gone,” his mother hissed at him furiously. “I’m so disappointed in you Gerard. I thought you had at least a small bit of common sense, but clearly I was wrong.”

Gerard just left, not standing there to get criticized and hurt even more.

Frank gave him an expectant look when Gerard shuffled back into his bedroom, closing the door behind him and sliding down it with a heavy sigh. Frank studied Gerard’s face. His hair hung over his eyes but Frank could make out the deep heaviness and sadness and the watery film over Gerard’s eyes. He was now sporting a throbbing pink hand mark across his milky, alabaster cheek, a small trickle of blood oozing from the gash on Gerard’s face.

“Gee?”

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

So Gerard did.

He let Frank pull him into his small, thin body and let him kiss him softly with his warm, slightly chapped lips, half heartedly kissing him back whilst Frank stroked his hair. Gerard pulled back and Frank sighed, wiping away the blood on Gerard’s pale cheek.

“Those diamonds on her rings are pretty hazardous, huh?” Frank said gently, looking at Gerard with understanding eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here.”

Gerard shook his head and smile tiredly at Frank. “It’s OK. It doesn’t matter. She gets like this a lot. S’not as bad as when I came home after I’d been with you on Wednesday.”

Frank smiled back. “I’m a bad influence on you.”

Gerard just leaned in and kissed Frank with a little more enthusiasm this time, moving his lips against his quickly. Frank knotted his fingers in Gerard’s hair and just went with it as Gerard pushed him back onto the bed, Frank’s head hitting the pillows with a soft thump. Gerard hovered above him, his body inches away from Frank’s as he held himself up on his surprisingly strong arms. Frank pushed his tongue into Gerard’s mouth, groaning when Gerard playfully bit his lip.

Frank slid his hands from Gerard’s hair, down his neck, over his shoulder blades and down his back, stopping at the small of his back before letting his hands creep under Gerard’s oversized Bowie t-shirt and skimming his palms over his smooth, soft skin. Gerard let a shuddery breath out into Frank’s mouth, tasting of cigarettes and JD.

Within the next few minutes clothes were discarded until the two bodies writhing against each other were naked and were fumbling their ways under the thin summer sheets of the bed.

“Gerard,” Frank gasped, breaking away and holding Gerard’s face between his inked hands. “Are you sure?”

“You seriously didn’t just ask me that, not now,” Gerard replied breathlessly leaning in trying to kiss Frank again, but he turned his head away.

“Gerard, I mean it, we’re not doing this if you only want it because you’re upset,” Frank insisted. “I want...I want this to mean something.”

Gerard pulled back then, staring at the beautiful boy beneath him and his wide, pleading eyes.
Please they said. Please don’t turn me down.

“So do I,” Gerard replied earnestly. “I don’t...I don’t just want this to be a one-time thing Frank, I want you around all the time. I really...I really like you.”

Frank bit his lip, seeking confirmation in Gerard’s words and his expression. When he found it, he craned his head up and pressed his lips to Gerard’s once, sweetly.

“I broke up with my girlfriend for you,” Frank told him quietly.

“What?” Gerard asked, shocked. “Are you serious?”

“Completely,” Frank replied. “I broke up with her the first night I met you. I realised who I really wanted the minute I walked away from you.”

With that, Gerard dived in, kissing Frank desperately and gripping his small, tattooed hips, stroking his thumbs over the ink there firmly. Their bodies moved together in a perfect sync, a crescendo of movement and heat. Frank clung to Gerard, soft, groaning gasps and words emitting from his mouth and into Gerard’s ears.

They were both completely in love with the way their bodies fit together, skin sliding over skin in a frenzy of pale flesh, sweat and ink. Their breathing was heavy and hands roamed everywhere, grabbing and pulling at each other as they both came closer.

Frank came first, his back arching up under Gerard and throwing his head back, a guttural, broken moan coming past his lips. Gerard followed soon after, tensing and coming with a whimper as he buried his face in the crook of Frank’s neck, Frank petting his hair soothingly.

They both lay there for a while, dazed and out of breath. Gerard shifted above Frank, pulling away from him and resting by his side, the two of them staring up at the ceiling.

Gerard turned his head towards Frank, looking at him with a shy smile which Frank returned. Gerard moved over and just as he was about to kiss Frank, his dad interrupted him.

“Gerard! Dinner’s ready!”

Gerard groaned and flopped back down onto his mattress. “This is going to be so awkward. My mum’s so pissed at me.”

Frank nodded and sat up, picking his clothes up from the floor and getting dressed. “Well, I’m not complaining. Free food and sex. What’s not to like?”

“Stop being such a fucking optimist,” Gerard grumbled at him, tugging his jeans back around his hips and grabbing his t-shirt. “You’ll be sorry you ever came. Why do think I never eat? The shit my mum tells Rob to make is disgusting and snobby and just tastes wrong. I don’t even know how to pronounce the names of anything we eat.”

“Dude, you have a chef named Rob?” Frank asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gerard rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Heaven forbid anyone in this house lifts a finger and does such a strenuous task like cooking. He comes here every morning and leaves after we’ve all left for school or work and then comes back in the afternoon. He normally leaves in the evening.”

Frank gave him a look of disbelief. “How do I even know you again? Wait, don’t tell me you have a maid or a house keeper or-”

“We have five ‘house staff’. S’what my parents call them anyway. It’s fucking ridiculous,” Gerard muttered, opening the door and following Frank out.

******************

“So,” Mrs. Way began, placing down the gleaming silver fork she’d delicately used to dissect the strange looking fish in front of her. “Frank. Are you at Gerard’s school?”

“Uh, no Mrs. Way,” Frank replied meekly, glancing up from the fish he’d been having a staring contest with. “I don’t go there.”

Frank was seated next to Mikey, who’d been sneaking glances at the small, rough looking stranger, trying to decide whether he found him intimidating or cool. Frank liked Mikey. The kid was quiet and seemed as interested in his food as Frank was, pushing it around his plate and earning glares from his parents. He had long messy hair the colour of sand, streaked with lighter shades of blonde. Frank guessed the kid probably didn’t dye his hair in front of the bathroom mirror by himself like Frank did when he had the chance. He probably sat in one of those expensive, scary looking salons for hours, getting pampered.

He was quiet, but when Frank tried to be polite and break the awkward silence by asking if Mikey liked horror movies, the kid had perked up immediately and smiled at Frank, telling him all about the marathons he and Gerard did, staying up all night and eating crap and watching blood and gore on their incredibly large TVs.

Frank found it funny how the Ways’ sons weren’t stuck up or snotty in the slightest. Frank couldn’t say the same for their parents however.

“How exactly did you meet Gerard then Frank?” Gerard’s dad asked, gripping the crystal stem of his wine glass a little too tightly.

“At a party,” Frank replied smoothly, trying to swallow down some of the food without gagging.

Gerard was right. This stuff was appalling.

“Really? Gerard’s not really a big fan of parties,” Mrs. Way commented.

“I know,” Frank replied, smiling. “He was outside avoiding everyone when I met him.”

Gerard returned Frank’s smile and the topic of conversation changed again. Frank was very aware of how Gerard’s mum was watching him like a hawk. Frank felt so awkward, knowing he wasn’t eating her shitty fish correctly, according to her standards, and he wondered when he actually began to give a shit about what other people thought of him.

“You have a lot of tattoos Frank,” Gerard’s dad said, his eyes studying Frank’s ink. “Isn’t there an age limit on them?”

“Officially, yeah,” Frank answered. “Just depends on the artist I guess. Most of mine are from a good friend.”

“But don’t your parents disapprove of them?”

Frank had to try really hard not to burst out laughing then. “It would seem not.”

Mrs. Way looked down at her plate, pursing her lips in disgust. “It’s a shame when parents don’t take responsibility for their children.”

Frank frowned then, just a little bit insulted, but Gerard stepped in.

“Yeah. It’s definitely a shame when parents have no idea what’s going on in their own child’s life. They could be drinking and taking pills every night for all they know, going out to parties where people are taking drugs, skipping school, spending all their parents’ money-”

“Yes,” Mrs. Way said tight lipped, cutting her son off. “It’s also a shame when children lie to their parents and show no respect for them. Like when they disappear and don’t turn up until the early hours of the morning and bring home rough, common strangers who they barely know.”

Gerard’s cutlery clattered against his plate then. “Oh, really? I think it’s worse when adults have no time for their kids, don’t show them any love or seem interested in a single thing they do. Parents like that get on my nerves more than a little bit because their kids try so hard to be noticed by them and they don’t get any attention. Maybe that’s why they do those things you talked about.
Maybe they’re just sick to death of their snobby parents and wish they never had to see them again.”

“Gerard,” Mr. Way said warningly.

Mrs. Way was fuming. “This conversation is over Gerard.”

Gerard just shook his head and stood up, shoving away from the table angrily. “Sure.”

Frank looked up at Gerard in confusion. “Gerard?”

“Come on,” Gerard muttered. “I’m not staying here tonight.”

Frank just nodded slowly and stood up, turning to Gerard’s parents and giving them an apologetic look. “I’m really sorry you’re both a failure at parenting.”

Their mouths dropped open and Frank followed Gerard out. “Thanks for dinner Mr. And Mrs. Way. It was pretty vile though.”

Gerard grabbed his hand and slammed the door closed behind them, grinning. “I’m totally marrying you one day. Nobody’s ever stood up to them like that before.”

Frank waved him off, but smiled. “I’m expecting a big ass diamond ring Way, or else your ass is dumped.”

Gerard just grabbed him and kissed the hell out of him before they both turned and left Gerard’s house.