Status: Complete

I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love (But I Did)

Frank Breaks A Tradition

Gerard honestly thought that letting a day go by to cool off would do the trick. He thought that would be the key. He decided that he’d just take a day off from worrying about Frank and everything would be okay, because Frank is a big boy. He doesn’t need Gerard’s help. He just decided to take the day off from worrying.

That was a month ago.

It didn’t work.

He’s stuck on this whole Aaron thing, and it’s bothering the crap out of him, but he doesn’t know why. When Frank got back from his second date with Aaron on a Saturday night, Gerard had to go to his room because he felt like puking. He couldn’t even handle seeing them in the same room.

Then on their third date, Aaron was early and Frank was still taking a shower so Gerard had to talk to the guy. Gerard had to hold himself back from making up lies about Frank to deter Aaron’s interest, but he couldn’t think of anything wrong about Frank. He suddenly couldn’t think of a single flaw Frank had, which is weird, because he does have a lot of flaws. His head just stopped working under pressure though. It’s hard not to talk up Frank. Even despite his flaws, he’s pretty fantastic.

Gerard thinks that they are moving way too quickly, and he really doesn’t want to hear about the time Aaron chased after a thief who stole a lady’s purse. He doesn’t want to hear about that, or the time when Aaron saved some furry little creature from some disastrous location, and got an award from the mayor for being perfect. The only stories Gerard wants to hear about Aaron involve a steamroller, a freak lightning strike or an accident involving a crossbow. Though knowing Aaron, he probably would’ve stopped a steamroller from running over a small child, gotten superpowers from a lightning strike, and caught an arrow flying at him with his bare hands.

He has no words for how he hates Aaron, he just does.

A month passes and they go on date after date, and Gerard’s starting to feel weird about it. The only good thing though is that Aaron hasn’t stayed the night, and Frank hasn’t been out all night. Gerard questions the fact that a month really is a long time, but he is definitely not about to bring it up. It’s not that Gerard thinks Frank is a virgin, but he likes to pretend he is sometimes. It eases his conscience.

Gerard finally has a valid reason for hating Aaron though. After one whole month, and it’s not a very good reason. It took him a month to find one though, so he’s not about to complain, because he finally did find it.

“Aaron’s taking me out tonight,” Frank says, and Gerard stops in his tracks.

“Tonight?” Gerard asks.

“Yes, tonight,” Frank confirms.

“Tonight is Friday,” Gerard tells him, as if hoping that Frank will have some sort of epiphany and cancel the date.

“Yes,” Frank says, nonchalantly.

“It’s Friday, Frank,” Gerard repeats.

“I know what day it is, I have a calendar,” Frank replies.

“Friday.”

“You can stop repeating what day it is Gerard, I know what day it is,” Frank replies.

“Every Friday for the past three years we have watched cheesy horror movies and eaten pizza,” Gerard says, “literally every Friday. No exceptions. We watched horror films and ate pizza even after I had a root canal!”

“Well, it’s just one night,” Frank shrugs.

“No it’s not just one night. We always watch movies on Friday, Frank! You can’t break that tradition, that’s like, not okay.”

“Gerard, it’s just a silly tradition, you’ll live,” Frank tries to justify, and Gerard is tempted to slap Frank across the face to wake him up.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Frank. You can’t bail out of this because you have a date with a guy you’ve known for a little over a week. Three years we have watched horror movies, and you cannot throw that away now. It’s not ‘we watch movies and eat pizza every night except this one time’ it’s ‘we watch movies and eat pizza on Friday night.’ No exceptions. That’s how it goes.”

“Gerard, you’re making too big a deal out of this,” Frank says. Frank’s not acting like himself, because he’s the one who instituted the tradition in the first place. Gerard is stunned in utter disbelief that Frank could possibly be talking like this. He knows that, on the outside, it’s really not that big of a deal, but it is. It’s a sentimental thing, so yeah, it is a big deal.

“But Pete and Patrick are coming over, and we were going to...” Gerard drifts off, “Aaron will understand, I mean, he’s got to understand that this is our tradition. He can’t impend on that.”

Frank shakes his head, “listen, I know you’re overreacting, but you don’t see that, so I’m not going to argue with you on this one. I’m going to go out with him, and you’ll live.”

“But-”

“It was going to happen eventually,” Frank says, stepping into his room, “we were going to miss a Friday eventually, so we’re just getting this out of the way, I guess. It won’t be so much of a stressful thing to fulfill this tradition anymore. Just calm yourself, Gerard.”

“It’s not stressful! This is just how we spend Friday nights!” Gerard yells at Frank, who’s walked into his room in an attempt to ignore Gerard, “Pete and Patrick-”

“Are always here anyway, it’s not a special occasion.”

“Mikey’s coming over!”

“Mikey is always over.”

“He is not,” Gerard replies.

“He’s here a lot,” Frank counters.

“Well, yeah, but, Frank!” Gerard says, groaning out Frank’s name obnoxiously.

“I’m not going to debate about this. I don’t want to cancel my date,” Frank says, walking back into the living room.

Gerard huffs, and his foot stomps on the floor. Ever since Frank’s been seeing Aaron he’s always with him. He’s almost never here anymore, and it’s starting to really pile up. He has a date nearly three times a week.

That’s what Gerard hates about Aaron. He’s hogging Frank. Aaron is monopolizing all of Frank’s time and that is not okay.

Gerard scowls, and crosses his arms, trying to find a way to say what he thinks without coming across as rude. He can’t say the truth though without being rude. The absolute truth is that Frank doesn’t have time for his friends anymore, and it’s only been a month. What will it be like in two months?

Gerard looks over at Frank, with his jaw set, “when did Aaron become more important than your friends, Frank? Because you certainly don’t give a damn about us anymore.”

Frank stands stunned for a minute, because that was a fairly cold thing to say, especially considering Gerard is the least arguable person in the world. He will literally do anything to avoid confrontation, and the last thing he would ever do is initiate it.

“Gerard, I-”

“Whatever, Frank,” Gerard says, and turns to the door, “have fun on your date, it’s not a big deal. It’s just a three year tradition. Pointless. I’ll be at Pete’s, I don’t want to be here when your date comes.”

“Gerard!” Frank calls after him, but Gerard’s making his dramatic exit before he can respond. You can’t just stop during your dramatic exit, that makes the drama part go away, which means you just sort of exit. It’s not as fun that way.

Gerard takes sanctuary in Pete’s apartment while Patrick lectures him about being polite. Gerard is actually the second least arguable person in the world. Behind Patrick.

“I kind of don’t blame Gerard actually,” Pete says finally, “I mean, it’s something we’ve been doing for a long time. Three years or so. It’s really rude of Frank to just flake out on us, because he got a better offer. Aaron may be his boyfriend, but we’re his friends.”

“Were supposed to be happy that he’s happy,” Patrick says. He’s taking Frank’s side in the dispute.

“But at what cost,” Gerard responds, “it’s one thing to hang out with your boyfriend, it’s another to leave your friends behind you.”

“He’s not doing that,” Patrick says.

Pete makes a ‘well’ sound and then says, “He kind of is. Missing a Batman marathon is one thing, but missing a tradition we’ve had for three years is a totally different thing. I mean, Patrick, you’re looking at it like this is just pizza and movies, and on the outside, yeah, it is just pizza and movies, but there’s this whole maudlin structure to it.”

“You must see it differently than I do,” Patrick says, “it’s just a thing you do on Friday’s.”

Pete tries to give Gerard a look that says something like ‘sorry about the new guy,’ but it’s not like he’s actually new. Pete’s been dating the guy for nearly three years, it’s not recent. Pete’s a little ridiculous though.

Gerard’s phone starts ringing a second later, and he sighs, but looks down at the caller ID.

“Mikey what do you want,” Gerard asks a moment later.

“You’re not at home, but I know where you hide the key, so I‘m just going to steal all of your stuff,” he replies.

Gerard walks over to the door, opens it, and pokes his head out to look at Mikey standing a little ways down the hall. He looks over at Gerard and frowns at him.

“We don’t even hide a key,” Gerard says, speaking into the receiver for some reason.

“I took a shot,” Mikey shrugged.

Gerard rolls his eyes, and then looks back into the apartment, “I’m going to go make sure that Mikey hasn’t committed any crimes in the past week-”

“Only two,” Mikey interrupts.

“Right, I’m going to go hire Mikey a lawyer. I will see you two later.”

Pete nods and says, “Well since Frank’s gone that means we can-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Gerard stops Pete before he says anything more.

“Make macaroni art,” Pete says with a toothy grin.

Gerard hangs his head slightly and closes the door behind him when he leaves.

“Gerard, dear brother, I think that was an innuendo.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

Gerard unlocks the door and Mikey walks in before him like he owns the place. He strides across the kitchen, and turns when he gets to the counter that separates the kitchen from the living room.

“Please,” Gerard says to the empty hallway, “come in. Make yourself at home.”

“You’re really slow on the uptake,” Mikey notes, when he sits at the counter.
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So I think there's going to be an update on this tomorrow as well.