Stop Playing Around

Gerard hears a whimpering noise from the living room. It’s incessant. To be honest he’d thought it was in his own head for the better part of an hour. Then he realized that it was Frank.

He groans, because he’s trying to get to sleep, and now there’s an annoying sound coming from the living room. He doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to do.

Gerard just frowns, and then pulls himself out of bed. He peeks out his door faintly before exiting, and he sees a pile of blankets, presumably with a Frank underneath. He’s in a ball on the couch. Gerard can see the faint outline of the boys back and spine through the blankets, and he’s shaking. It sounds an awful lot like he’s crying, and Gerard doesn’t know what to do.

If Gerard was awoken it seems logical to guess that Brendon may have been as well, and that will not fly with him at all. Brendon is already angry enough about having Frank there, and being woken up by him is not going to make him any happier.

“Frank?” Gerard asks, inching out of his room to look at him.

The noise stops, and Gerard hears him take a long inhale, like he’s trying to hold back from sobbing anymore.

“Frank, I’m not here to judge you, it’s just,” Gerard hesitates, “you woke me up. Are you okay?”

Frank makes a noise and then a small muffled sound comes from the pile of blankets that Gerard can’t quite hear.

“I’m...” he pauses, because he has no idea how to console Frank. He has no idea how awful it must feel to be in his position.

Frank’s head pops up, and his hands are rubbing at his eyes, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No, I didn’t think that, I mean, I understand. Well, I don’t understand, but I understand that it’s tough for you.”

“You do?” Frank asks, “I thought you’d disregard it.”

“I’m not perfect, Frank.”

“I know,” he says.

“Thanks,” Gerard answers, but Frank starts giggling, and he keeps forgetting that Frank does that. He laughs, he jokes, he’s a human. He’s a human who apparently had never had Ramen before, but Gerard got him to eat it, and it turns out, Frank likes sixty cent noodles. Who doesn’t though?

“What does my life become now?” Frank asks. Gerard hums, trying to think of a proper answer, and walks over to the couch where Frank is lying precariously. He takes a seat on the edge of the arm rest, near Frank’s feet, and looks over at him for a moment before looking at the wall opposite them.

“I don’t know, actually. You get a job, you make money. You try to assimilate into the middle class,” Gerard shrugs, “You become like me.”

“But what do I do? I don’t have any experience doing anything,” Frank says.

“That’s a great question. Whatever job you can get, I guess. I have to find one too, so we’re being sort of outmatched by Brendon, and he works customer service at a fucking Best Buy, so that’s not exactly ideal.”

Frank huffs and puts his head in his hands, “how do I even get a job?”

“I’ll show you tomorrow, we’ll find you something. It won’t be fun, and it may not pay well, but that’s life,” Gerard replies, “you don’t have a degree do you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well,” Gerard splutters, “Why would you need one when you had daddy’s money?”

“Yeah, but you know who was supposed to take over daddy’s position if he ever died? Do you think it was his ex-wife, his other ex-wife, his nonexistent second son, or me?” Frank asks.

“I guess I never considered that,” Gerard states, feeling a bit muddled by the fact that he never even thought about it. Really, he should have realized that. It’s logical, so he should’ve just assumed it.

“Business management.”

“But I never saw you leave for school.”

“Online,” Frank says, “I’m not good with people, if you couldn’t already tell.”

“Then it might be easier than I thought, but you need to realize that your boss is always right. Like, if you ever want to argue with your boss you shut your mouth and internalize it. Punch a wall or something. Spit in his coffee, just don’t talk to him about it. That’s lesson one,” Gerard says.

“Did you spit in my dad’s coffee?”

“I thought about it, but the man has some powerful taste buds. He’d probably figure it out,” Gerard replies.

“Is it wrong to say I hate him? My dad?” Frank asks.

“I don’t... I don’t know. I think the mentality that you’re always supposed to love your parents no matter what, is pretty fucked up. Looking after you, and being a good influence on you are two different things. People are always trying to tell you that you have to love your parents, and it depends on your situation, because sometimes you really shouldn’t. I can’t say that I know what that’s like necessarily, but you have some merit for saying that you dislike your father. It’s one thing to be a father, or a guardian, but it’s another thing to be a dad.”

“You lost me about halfway there.”

“I guess I’m saying that it’s not wrong to say you hate him if you have a justified reason for it. Given your life the past few hours, I’d say you’re accumulating validation,” Gerard answers.

“Why are you even up? I didn’t mean to wake you, you should go back to sleep,” Frank says, looking at Gerard curiously.

“Probably. I couldn’t really sleep either, but it’s alright, I don’t mind talking to you. It’s the weekend anyway, we have to wait a few days to get started on finding you a job.”

“You hated my guts less than 24 hours ago,” Frank states.

“I was wrong. I was judging one side of you, and that was wrong,” Gerard responds.

“So you don’t hate my guts?”

“Not per se.”

“Well you don’t like me, I know that,” Frank says.

“Give it time. I’m trying to get used to the fact that you’re not a bitch. It’s weird. I don’t think you’re fantastic, and I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to have you living on my couch, but you’re not as bad as I’d thought. I judged you too quickly though, and I’ll own up to that.”

“I judged you to. Not maybe as much, but I did,” Frank replies.

“Not as much? You sure treated me like you were being overly judgmental,” Gerard points out.

“That’s because my dad told me I was supposed to treat the help like an asshole. You’re not the help though, you’re a human being. It’s a medieval principle, but I can’t take it back, so I’m apologizing for it now.”

“I appreciate it, but I think you should be getting some sleep,” Gerard says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Brendon made the loudest cup of coffee known to man tomorrow just to piss you off.”

“Alright,” Frank replies, sniffing, and stretching his legs out in front of him. Gerard watches him for a moment before he stands up and walks over to his room. He spares one more glance at Frank before going back to his room, and shuts the door. Why does Frank look so adorable wrapped up under blankets like that?

~*~*~*~

Gerard tries to keep his words quiet because Frank’s still asleep a short distance away.

“I just thought you hated the guy. It’s weird, you know. Like it’s just downright strange. You don’t just take in a homeless guy because you feel like it,” Mikey says.

“But you should’ve seen him. He was crying on the sidewalk, Mikes! How do you not feel bad for a guy who’s crying on the sidewalk?”

“Ugh... you’re way to empathetic,” Mikey rolls his eyes.

“I know, and I’m sorry. It’ll be fine. I’ll help him get a job, and wait until he’s got enough money to get his own place, or find himself his own roommate.”

“Didn’t you say he’s kind of, uh, difficult?”

“Well that doesn’t mean he’ll always be. He just needs to hang out with some nicer people, it’ll soften him up. I don’t think he’s ever had any real friends, like ever. I think that makes it hard to base your personality off of. All he ever really had as a role model was his dad, and his dad wasn’t the most pleasant man in the world. I felt kind of bad saying bad things behind Frank’s back, but given the fact that his father literally left him when times got hard, that sounds rational to me, so yeah, his dad wasn’t a good man.”

Mikey shakes his head, “I just don’t think it’s a great idea. This place is kind of small for two people let alone three.”

“Oh it’s not too bad,” Gerard discounts, “I mean we’ve had guests before. Three is usually the maximum number, but it’s not bad. Now, granted, usually they were naked, female, and in Brendon’s room, but still.”

“I didn’t really need that information,” Mikey makes a face. “Are you sure there was no one else who could take him though?”

“I mean, it’s possible. I think, well I’ve been really confused as to why Pete got out of there so quickly yesterday, but I’m sure I could find someone, but-”

“But what?”

Gerard shrugs, “I don’t know. I mean, I feel like... I don’t know. I feel like he trusts me, or he has great potential to trust me. I feel like I’d be betraying his trust by throwing him to someone else now.”

“He’s been here a day, Gerard. Not even that long.”

“But he’s been through so much change in that day alone, I’d feel bad about it,” Gerard says, “I’ll just give it some time. See how things go, and see if he’ll be okay. When the time comes for him to go out on his own, I’ll let him.”

“That could be a year or more, Gerard!”

“Yeah, but I’ll feel good about it. I would love to know that I helped him through this, and I’d love even more for him to come out of this predicament a better man then when he entered it.”

Mikey snorts, “god, you’re such a loser. And a bit of an idealist.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being optimistic!”

“In small quantities, but you lay it on a little heavy.”

“I just think that he’s, I don’t know, he’s got a lot of, like, prospective. Really he does. He’s kind of sweet as it is, if a little shy about it,” Gerard say.

“Wait, hold on. Do you, oh my god, you say that like you like him!” Mikey raises an eyebrow.

“What? No! What? No. Absolutely not. I mean, he’s kind of good looking, but no, I don’t, like, absolutely not! I don’t like him. No.”

“Are you sure? You’re really defensive. And blushing,” Mikey says, looking happy with himself.

“I’m blushing because you’re embarrassing me! I don’t think he’s, just no. Okay? I do not like him, I have known him for three years, but for those three years he has treated me pretty terribly, so no, I don’t like him,” Gerard says, sounding firm.

“Mhm, right.”

“God, you’re such a dick! His dad was the homophobe of all homophobes. Like, the dude was a bitchy fucking bigot. He was an asshole. There is no way in hell that Frank fell that far from the tree,” Gerard says, though he’s not sure about that one. Frank had apparently been under the impression for a little while that Brendon was his boyfriend, and he didn’t say anything negative about that, so he won’t assume anything as of yet.

“Yeah whatever, Gerard,” Mikey says, “but seriously, you must be horny as fuck because you haven’t had a social life in three years.”

“I’m not going to have that conversation with you, Mikes.”

“Yeah whatever, but you totally need to get some.”

“Not going to have this conversation!” Gerard says putting his fingers in his ears.

“You are so immature,” Mikey says.

“I’m immature, I’m not desperate!” Gerard replies.

“Oh, you’re a little desperate.”

“I’m not!”

“You are,” Mikey says in a singsong voice.

“Maybe a little bit,” Gerard answers holding out two fingers to example it.

“You totally are,” Mikey says, “how about you take Frank out for drinks tonight?”

“Is that a good idea?”

“It can’t be a bad idea, I don’t think,” he shrugs, “bring Patrick. He’s nice, hell he’d apologize for being run over by a car, maybe he’ll be a good influence for Frank.”

“You’re talking about him like Frank is an alien or something. He’s not an idiot, he’s just a little out of place.”

“Just do it. It could be fun!”

Gerard grimaces, “I don’t know, Mikes.”

“Think about it?”

“Fine,” Gerard gives up, “I’ll consider it.”