A Case of Unknown Identity

It takes a few minutes but at last Mikey finally looks up and says, “Ugh, finally! There he is.”

Frank looks up to see the enigmatic brother but then his heart stops, and his face falls.

“No. Fucking. Way,” He says, with complete dread and disbelief.

“Frank?” The older brother asks looking at him, with just as much surprise as Frank has.

“Gerard,” Frank states.

Mikey looks completely confused, “You said, literally like three hours ago, that you didn’t know my brother.”

“You’re Mikey’s best friend?” Gerard asks ignoring Mikey’s question, and he looks completely perplexed just like Frank.

“You’re Mikey’s brother?”

Suddenly he realizes why Mikey and Gerard both looked familiar, it’s because they look like each other. Not overly, but enough that it’s obvious they’re siblings.

Brendon whispers discreetly into Ray’s ear, “are you as confused as I am?” Ray nods which makes him feel a little better about not being in the loop.

“What? How do you two know each other?” Mikey asks, on the same level as both Brendon and Ray.

“We don’t really,” Gerard says nervously.

Frank sees his opportunity though, and he can tell Gerard is hoping Frank will say anything but what he’s about to say, but Frank’s a bit of an asshole.

“Actually we do know each other,” Frank says slowly making Gerard shake his head franticly in a plea, “you’re brother likes to beat me up everyone once and a while.”

“What?” Mikey asks completely shocked.

“Now that’s not fair, I never beat you up, Frank!” Gerard says.

“You didn’t stop it though.”

Gerard opens his mouth to retort and then closes it.

“Gee, why would you do that?” Mikey asks angrily.

“I- I mean I said sorry like a day ago!” Gerard says but it’s a pretty weak backing, “so obviously I regret it.”

“I haven’t forgiven you yet though,” Frank answers, “besides that doesn’t make up for it!”

“Since when did Frank talk to anyone besides us?” Brendon asks, quietly making Ray snort.

“I’m going to push you into a snowbank now,” Mikey says stridently. Gerard doesn’t say anything but he lands in a large pile of snow a second later.

“Really Mikey? You could have at least given me a forewarning!” Gerard says pushing himself off his back.

“I did give you a warning,” Mikey huffs.

“A countdown at least,” he answers, and when he looks up at his brother he sees Frank smiling really widely. He doesn’t look evil, or sadistic or anything like that, he just looks amused and happy, and Gerard can’t really help but understand why. It’s kind of funny seeing a teenage guy thrown into snow by a toothpick.

“Does this happen often with you two?” Ray asks.

“He beat up my friend, I threw him in the snow. It’s the least he deserves,” Mikey says, walking away from Gerard casually, who’s trying to get up, but the snow has sucked him in like quicksand.

“I’m... okay, it was never me! It was Lucas, and I told him to stop! I told him he can’t do that to Frank anymore.”

“Why do you care so much?” Frank asks, his smile replaced with angry curiosity.

“I just- do. I just care,” Gerard says, finally pulling himself up and onto his feet.

“It’s great to hear that, but can we go! My feet are cold,” Brendon says, and Mikey’s already walking to the house so he’s far ahead of them. Ray and Brendon walk off after him, but Frank and Gerard pause to eye each other for a few moments before Frank follows.

“I’m all wet,” Gerard groans after they’re halfway across the field.

“Tough shit,” Mikey says.

“Why are you mad at me, Mikey? I mean understand why Frank is, but-“

“Frank’s my friend.”

Frank blushes a little, at the severity in Mikey’s voice, and looks at Gerard almost sympathetically, but not quite.

“Do you want push me into the snow too?” Gerard asks.

Frank lights up a little bit, “Can I?”

Gerard just sighs and pauses. Frank giggles and then nudges him into a particularly tall mound of snow.

“Did that make you feel better?” Gerard says trying to look miffed but he’s actually trying to suppress a smile.

“Yeah actually,” Frank says. He’s surprised when Frank offers him a hand to get up but he accepts it anyway. Any excuse to hold Frank’s hand.

“Thanks,” he says, but Frank shrugs, letting go of his hand immediately, and then speeds up behind the others to catch up with Brendon. Maybe Frank didn’t feel a spark but Gerard sure did. He’s surprised isn’t standing on end.

“Mikey’s brothers kind of strange,” Frank whispers.

“So are you,” Brendon replies.

“No I mean, like, he lets his friends bully me for over three months and then all of a sudden stops and want forgiveness. What’s that all about?”

“Maybe he saw the light. Or had a Eureka moment, and realized he was being a jerk,” Brendon answers.

Frank sighs, unconvinced.

“Well he seems sincere though, should I forgive him?” Frank asks.

Brendon doesn’t answer immediately before saying, “I think you need to consider how hard he’s made your life. If he’s made it hell than I’d say no, but I think he’s trying to make an effort, and you’ve got to commend him for setting aside his pride like that.”

“Pride is for children. It’s not meant for real world interactions. I’m glad he’s trying to grow a pair and suck up,” Frank says.

“That sounds kind of kinky, but whatever you say Frankie,” Brendon answers, prompting Frank punch him in the arm.

“And don’t call me Frankie.”

“Brendon stop flirting with Frank!” Mikey hollers from ahead of them. He and Ray are at the front of the group, followed by Frank and Brendon, with Gerard lagging at the back.

“I was not,” Brendon calls back, “he’s not my type anyway. I prefer it when they can actually get on rides at amusement parks.”

“Dude, that was low,” Frank answers.

“So are you, to the ground, I mean.”

“One of these days, Brendon, you are going to be walking down the street minding your own business, and I will come out of nowhere to push you in front of a bus,” Frank says.

“I look forward to that day, but until then, you can have fun with your relatives in Munchkin Land.”

“Fuck you.”

“What was that? I can’t hear you from down there.”

Frank doesn’t say anything in response because Brendon’s laughing to himself so he just rolls his eyes, and tries to trip him. Almost successfully, he makes Brendon lose his footing, but he doesn’t actually fall.

The boys continue walking to the Way house, Frank makes a quick stop at his dads to put away his backpack and grab his small knapsack.

When he walks out, Mikey’s already walking away with Ray, and Brendon is standing, bored, waiting for him as far away from Gerard as he can without it being awkward.

“Come on,” Frank says, and they get to the house a few minutes later.

“Mom, we’re home!” Mikey calls as soon as he walks into the house.

“Upstairs!” A woman’s voice shouts back.

“She’s upstairs,” Mikey says.

“How’d you work that one out?” Gerard taunts, but Mikey sticks his tongue out at him and leads them into the living room which is just off the entrance. The Kitchen was visible from the entrance as well, leading to the left, but Frank didn’t look too hard at it, and was lead forward to the relatively messy family room. It’s not exactly unclean but it’s not exactly tidy either. There’s papers everywhere and various assortment of books but other than that there’s not much.

On the other side of the room, opposite the entryway they’d just walked through, is a set of stairs going up, and one going down. There’s a gap between the two so that you can see the wall for the stairs going down, and together they look like parallel lines.

“We’re going downstairs, but I should introduce you to my mom first,” Mikey says, and Frank is barely aware that Gerard is behind him until he brushes past and throws his bag over the couch then goes around to the kitchen, which has another entrance on the other side of the room.

Mikey stands awkwardly in front of them and says, “Welcome to Casa de Way. Hey that rhymed.”

He walks behind his brother into the kitchen so the three of them follow.

“Thirsty?” Mikey asks.

Ray accepts a coke, and Brendon a water, but Frank doesn’t want anything. For some reason, Gerard fusses about with making himself a cup of coffee in the middle of the day, but Frank just accepts it as another weird thing the older Way does.

Gerard leaves the kitchen and goes up stairs not long after he finishes making his coffee.

Mrs. Way, walks into the room a minute later and greets her son, then turns to look at the other three.

“Let me see, Mikey’s only ever referred to you guys as the afro, the shorty and the other guy,” she says.

Mikey nods to himself with satisfaction at the nicknames before she correctly guesses who each of them is meant to be and they give her their actual names. Ray being the afro, Frank the shorty, and Brendon is the other guy.

“Why am I just the other guy?” Brendon asks, as Mikey leads them downstairs.

“Because you don’t have a distinct identifier.”

“What about ‘inhumanly good looking’?” Brendon suggests.

“Well maybe if you cut out the ‘good’ so that you’re just inhuman looking,” Frank answers.

“Shut up, shorty,” Brendon replies.

“You wish, inhuman looking.”

They walk down the stairs, to which the door at the bottom leads into a fairly large room, with an open layout. It’s definitely used as a second living room, but it has more furniture than the upstairs. There’s a long sectional and a loveseat, a table between the two, a TV in front of them both, and behind the two sofas is a large poker table, which looks like it’s never seen a game of poker in its life. Surrounding the TV are several large cases filled with movies and one of them is dedicated to video games.

They don’t do much of anything for a few hours besides talk and throw things at each other. Brendon, apparently, has a very good throwing arm.

Mikey’s mom comes down after a while and asks them if they’re ready for food, which they definitely are, so they order a few pizzas.

Mikey takes the three of them up to his room while they wait for the food and this is the point when Frank realizes Gerard’s door is open and he watches Frank carefully as they walk up the stairs.

He’s so freaking attractive though and Frank hates himself for looking back but he just wants to see him. He’s got a fairly above average face that demands to be viewed.

He pretends he didn’t look however, and follows Mikey to his room. He puts Gerard off of his mind until a few minutes later when Gerard knocks on the door and hands them the pizza boxes, and then awkwardly walks away. Before he does though, he catches Frank’s eye for a few seconds and he can’t tell if Gerard’s nervous or scared of him.

Gerard walks away timidly and goes back to his room, trying to drown out the sounds of his brothers friends until his ‘appointment’ later on. That’s what they call therapy at the Way house, because it bothers him to hear the real word.

For a long time he just talks with the other three and takes in Mikey’s room. Frank excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and it’s at this point when he realizes Gerard is not in his room.

The door is wide open, so he nervously peaks in and sees the dark abode that Gerard surrounds himself in. There are several band posters on the wall, as well as a Star Wars poster, but most noticeably is the luminescent glow of the laptop that still open on his desk.

Now Frank is not a snooper, nor has he ever been one, but the familiar design of the website, clearly open on the computer, catches his eye.

It’s fucking Closetedteens.org!

So there’s at least one revelation that Frank can make right away. Gerard’s gay. He walks a little closer and creepily enters the vacant room to take a closer look.

He rubs the track pad slightly to lighten the screen which was a darkened tint because it hadn’t been in use for a few minutes, and Frank studies the page for a minute.

In a stunned silence he sees the username Gerard’s logged into which is conveniently on the right-hand corner of the page. This leads to, what he can only assume, is a mini-heart attack.

WATCHMAN.

Franks can’t do much of anything for a second or two, but he straightens himself up a little bit and walks out of the room so that he can’t get caught in Gerard room. His eyes are probably wider than anyone’s eyes have ever been, but he walks into the bathroom and looks at himself for a while.

He blinks a few times and tries to figure out a way to digest the information, but it’s kind of hard.

“Watchman is... Gerard,” he whispers to himself, but saying the words don’t make them compute.

“Gerard is Watchman,” but still it doesn’t make sense. How can Gerard be Watchman? How can... really, though, Gerard?

Gerard is friends with that Lucas kid so Frank supposes Lucas could have been holding Gerard’s phone but it’s all too much information to process.

“Watchman equals Gerard,” He says, and finally it starts to sink in a little bit.

He’s a little calmer on the outside than on the inside. On the outside he looks kind of casual, and contained, but on the inside he’s exploding.

How can Theodore be Gerard, AND Mikey’s brother AND Watchman? This is so weird. How on earth can Gerard be Watchman? Now that he thinks about it though how can Watchman be anyone but Gerard? That familiar presence he’d felt during detention was because Gerard was Watchman.

It takes Frank a few more minutes but finally he’s able to pull himself into a composed looking person, slightly on edge, but for the most part, normal.

“Hey dude where’s your brother?” Frank asks as casually as he can after entering Mikey’s room.

Mikey shrugs, “Some appointment thing. He won’t be back for a while.”

“Oh Okay,” Frank says and he allows them to go back into a conversation about whatever.

All he can think about now is whether or not Gerard knows. Frank decides that Gerard probably doesn’t know. Should Frank tell him? Should he confront him, and just go “HEY, I’M PANSY AND I’M SORT OF IN LOVE WITH YOU! WANNA HAVE MY FUTURE UNBORN ADOPTED BABIES?” but that’s probably not the best approach.

He considers it for a very long time. Long enough for them to walk back downstairs and watch a movie. He considers it while some idiot character gets himself hacked to pieces on the screen.

He doesn’t really come to any conclusions other than the fact that he’s a lot happier with Watchman’s true identity. Gerard’s hot, and he has a soul, and he’s actually trying to be nice to Frank. Probably a coincidence that Frank found out now then.

But should he tell Gerard? He’ll scare him since Gerard doesn’t know. Gerard will be creeped out with the fact that Frank was sneaking around his room, and he’ll be completely confused. He’d probably be disappointed that Pansy is Frank. Frank’s nothing special, he’s just sort of there. Frank’s not interesting or cool, or beautiful the way Gerard is.

“Fuck,” He sighs resolutely, and he doesn’t bother to care about the stares from the other three, because he’s so scared of what comes next.