The Anomaly's Enigma

“Hey Gerard,” Frank calls.

I let out a long sigh and look over at him, “What?”

“Okay so you just sighed deeply, and now I’m getting kind of worried,” Frank says, looking concerned.

“Oh that’s nice to know. A long sigh means more to you than creepy threats in the mail. Got it. It’s nice to know that you have your fucking priorities straight,” I say, putting down the box I’m holding. I look down at it for a second and decide I don’t want to make dinner. I don’t want to make enough food for both of us when Frank isn’t listening to a word I say. He can do it by himself.

Frank starts talking but I cut him off, “Frank, if my sighing is what really bothers you, I’ll let you have fun making your own food.”

I walk over to the front door and wiggle into my shoes, which are admittedly too old and falling apart as it is. I hear him watching me which doesn’t seem possibly but I know it’s true.

“Gerard, what are you doing?” Frank asks, standing up to walk over to me.

“I’m getting away from you so that I don’t fucking punch you in the face,” I say. “I need some time to clear my head, and having you look at me skeptically like that for three hours isn’t going to do the trick. I just need to be by myself, okay?”

“So you’re really mad at me?”

“I’m mad at you for being too stupid to realize that we’re both going to be dead soon if we don’t fucking do something about it. I’m mad at you because I’ve never once lied to you about something this important, and you won’t believe me when I tell you about this. I’m mad at you because no one believes me and I feel like I’m suffocating in this. Yeah, I’m mad at you, but you’ve given me every reason to be.”

Frank groans and tries to stand up to stop me, but I just send him a glare and he stops.

“Gerard, I don’t want you to be mad at me!”

“Whoops,” I say, pulling the door open and walking away. More like escaping.

Before I close the door I look back into the apartment and say, “oh and if I don’t make it back sometime before tonight, than I’ve probably been shot in the head.”

~*~*~*~

It’s getting late when I get back, but I let the time get away from me. When I walk back up to the apartment I glance behind me every few seconds. It’s a nervous habit I’ve picked up recently. I finally reach our apartment, and look down the hall to make sure it’s empty. I open the door quickly and let out a sigh of relief when I step into the place.

“Frank?” I ask when I enter the apartment. It’s dark and I can’t see very far into the room. We usually don’t turn the lights off though. We just forget, so I wonder why Frank remembered today.

I hear him mumble and I look around to see where he is.

“Frank?” I ask again.

“What?” Frank says more intelligibly. I look over to where his voice came from and turn the kitchen light on. I don’t actually see him but at least I can see the room around me now. I walk forward a little bit to see Frank lying on the couch. I look down at him when I get closer to see that he’s wrapped himself up in a blanket and even gotten himself a pillow. That suggests to me that he didn’t just fall asleep on the couch after watching a movie, but rather that it was a premeditated decision.

“Frank? What’re you doing?” I ask and lean over the couch to look at him. I don’t know how to feel yet, because I’m not sure I know what’s going on.

“Humph, sleeping,” he says.

“Why are you on the couch?” I ask him.

“’Cause you’re mad at me,” Frank replies, and rolls over to face the other way so he’s looking at the back of the couch, but not at me since his head is angled downwards.

“Why are you on the couch though?”

Frank grumbles something and all I can make out is “sorry.” I sigh, looking down at him, because he’s really cute, and I’m not so mad at him that I want him to sleep on the couch.

“Frank, c’mon,” I say, walking around the couch and intending to pull him up.

“No,” Frank says and he wiggles my hand off of his shoulder when I try to get him up.

“Frank, you don’t need to sleep on the couch, it’s fine.”

Frank just grumbles and settles even more so in the couch. He doesn’t take up very much of it actually, his legs are too short to hang off the other end.

I just sigh, and decide that if Frank won’t relent, then I won’t try to convince him. I walk away from Frank on the couch, turning the kitchen light off behind me.

Ten minutes later I’m trying to fall asleep in bed, but I keep looking over and seeing Frank’s empty spot is making me lonely. He’s not there and I miss him. He’s just so close though, but he’s not there and it doesn’t make any sense.

I decide to ignore the coldness of the bed for a few minutes longer. It just doesn’t feel right without him there though, especially knowing how close he is. I look up at the ceiling and try to convince myself to let it go, but I can’t. Eventually, I stand up and walk slowly out of the room, leaving the door open behind me.

My eyes have adjusted to the dark a little better this time when I enter the living room and see Frank, still in a lump on the couch right where I left him.

“Frank, get up,” I say, but Frank doesn’t show any sign that he heard me, or he just doesn’t care. “Frank!”

He lifts his head up slightly to look over at me, before it falls back and he’s trying to get back to sleep.

“Alright,” I say, shaking my head, “if you’re going to be like that.”

I walk over to the couch and push him further against it.

“Okay Frank, scoot over,” I say, and clamber onto the couch behind him. Frank’s usually the little spoon anyway, so he’s facing away which is a good angle for me to just press up behind him and put my arm around him.

“Gerard!” he whines, trying to readjust himself.

“No. I’m not going away, dumbass,” I scowl, “I still love you, Frank, even if I am mad at you.”

Frank squirms for a minute before giving up, because we can both tell how tired he is, and he looks damn comfortable right now anyway. Instead, Frank just grabs my hand and repositions it on his stomach before sticking his head back into the pillow.

He’s usually pretty pliant when he’s sleepy. I think it’s cute. I always have. He just gets all honest and clingy when it starts getting late.

I kiss the back of his neck, and I hear him exhale softly like he’s happy I’m here. There’s no other times where I love Frank more than when we’re just not doing anything. I don’t know why, I just really like that about us. It’s not that I don’t like hearing him talk, or doing things with him, but there’s something about just relaxing that’s nice. We don’t always have to be doing something to enjoy each other’s company. Frank is special because he’s the only person in the world who I can just sit and be quiet with, without feeling uncomfortable or feeling the need to fill the silence with conversation.

That kind of thing isn’t always easy to come by, because there are some people where not talking is just really awkward, and I guess trying to get to sleep is a different think to just not talking, but there’s no one else I’d let fall asleep on me. I don’t want someone else pressed up against me whose body is fairly warm and may make me get too overheated under the blankets. That’s just Frank. He’s the only person I’d be willing to cuddle with even if it makes me uncomfortable. I love him and I don’t fucking care if I’m mad at him, because I still love him.

I don’t know if I’m going to be losing him sometimes soon. I might, and that’s a scary thing, so I’m not going to let a silly thing like anger stop me from holding him if I might not get to in the future. I’m still hoping I’ll be able to convince him that someone wants us dead before it happens, but at the rate I’m going, it’s not going to happen.

I’m fairly sure I fall asleep but it’s so hard to tell when you’re asleep while you’re actually asleep. The point is that I’m fairly sure I fall asleep until about three hours later, when I think I fall on the floor. I’m fairly sure that’s what happened, because the next thing I know I’m looking up at the ceiling from the hard floor. I’d taken one of the blankets with me, and when I look around me, I see the couch about a foot away.

Frank’s head pops up from above me and he looks worried, “sorry, fuck, I’m so sorry Gerard.”

“What?”

“I think I elbowed you,” he says, “Hold on.”

“What are you...?” I start but then Frank topples down next to me, nearly kneeing me in the stomach, but his aim was good and luckily he didn’t crush me.

“Now we’re even,” Frank says.

“What time is it?” I ask, because I’m still tired.

“Time to go back to sleep,” He says and reaches up to grab something. I watch him pull the pillow off the couch and then a blanket. I don’t really question him, I just let him do whatever, because I’m tired and I don’t want to think.

Frank frowns and sighs, before pulling himself into a sitting position on the floor. I grumble something that even I can’t make out, and then pull myself up with him.

“Let’s go to bed,” I say before standing up carefully and grabbing Frank once I’m on my feet. Frank’s feet almost fall out from under him but I grab him before he falls.

We’re essentially zombies as we walk down the hall and collapse into bed. It’s more comfortable though. Frank just grabs ahold of me and I think he’s already asleep. I assume he must be, and I try to make out his form in the dark room.

“I’m sorry, Gerard,” Frank says quietly. I hadn’t expected him to talk, as I had thought he was asleep but evidently not.

I don’t reply, because I don’t know what to say. I can’t really forgive him while he doesn’t believe me, even if I want to. I’m not sure whether I do or not.

“Explain it to me, kay?” Frank asks, “tomorrow morning. Tell me why you think we’re in danger.”

“Okay.”