The Chasing of Moons

“Alright small human, what the fuck was that about out there?” Brendon says, finally willing himself to speak when they’re in the sanctuary of the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind them. Frank wants to say something about that being a problem, because what if someone tries to come in here, realizes it’s locked and goes to tell the teacher, but what’s a detention anyway when he just figured out why Gee looked so familiar.

“I just... you didn’t recognize him?” Frank asks.

“Yes of course I did, we’ve been in the same class as that guy for like ever,” Brendon says, “but what does that have to do with the fact that you practically assaulted him? Who did you think he was? You kept saying that it was him? Him who?”

“Him!” Frank shouts, a little too loudly, and he knows he really should watch his voice, because they could get themselves into trouble by barricading that door, but he just doesn’t care right now. He doesn’t have it in him to worry about something as menial as that.

“Once again, we run into that big problem, him who?” Pete says, looking, if it’s possible, even more confused than Brendon. Then again, Pete does make a living of looking pretty oblivious at most things, but this is a new level, even for him.

“You don’t remember? It was...” Frank stops, thinking his words through before saying them, and reminds himself, he’s supposed to be straight. He’s supposed to have gone home with a chick a few nights ago, not their classmate Gerard’s doppelgänger, but not doppelgänger. “That guy. The one who was eavesdropping on us at the bar.”

Brendon’s eyebrows furrow together, and he’s starting to actually debate whether or not Frank really does need to go see the school nurse.

“You mean the guy who literally never turned around so we never actually saw his face?” Pete asks.

“What?” Frank questions, and that’s when he remembers the actual exchange, because, fuck, Pete’s right. He never did turn around in the bar. Frank only got a real look at him a couple minutes later when they were outside. That’s the only time he ever really figured out what the guy looked like.

“Oh,” Frank says, “Well fuck. Because, uh, after you two left he talked to me again, and I got a look at him.”

“Okay, so, that’s nice,” Brendon says hurriedly, “but that does not explain what the hell that was about.”

“They had the exact same face!” Frank insists, “They had the same face! The Gerard guy literally was the guy at the bars twin, but he was older than that. He was, like ten years older, but they still had the exact same face.”

“Alright, great, so they looked similar.”

“No! They had the exact same face!”

“Except one of them was ten years older,” Brendon says and that’s when Frank has the realization that he could literally show the two of them photographic proof, get a police lineup, and have a DNA test, and they still would not believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.

“Oh fuck, you guys are the worst friends ever,” Frank says with annoyance, and still panicking like his life depends on it, before he heads toward the door.

“Where the hell are you going?” Pete asks, following behind him and putting his hand in front of the door.

“I’m not going insane!” Frank says to him, loudly, “I’m not! I swear!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Okay, I know they had the same face. Believe me or don’t, I don’t give a shit, but they had the same face and there is nothing you can say or do to change that.”

“Alright, but, did you ever stop to think that they’re brains are not connected by a wire or something? Like, they have the same face or so you say, that does not mean they know of each other or what the other is thinking, so going up to that kid like that was about as confusing for him as you can get. Like what was that even fucking about? What happened to your fucking filter before you made an idiot of yourself like that?”

“I just, ugh,” Frank groans, “I had a lapse in judgment.” He’ll say anything to get these two off his back. If what he needs to do and say is that he made a mistake and completely screwed up, then so be it. He still knows he’s right, and there’s nothing that will change that, because he absolutely is right. There’s no doubt in Frank’s head that he’s right. Somehow, that guy, Gee, or whoever the hell he was, is Gerard and he doesn’t fucking know how that’s possible but it has to be, one way or another.

Maybe it was just really good makeup. Maybe Gee was wearing makeup to make him look older. Except, Frank supposes makeup would probably fade away after a while, and Frank spent quite a while with him so he doubts that’s it. He’s not discounting that theory though. Maybe it was some big elaborate prank, and this is some weird new prank show. That wouldn’t make any sense though, because why on earth would he have actually gotten to have sex with Gee? There are some lines that he thinks even a practical joke program wouldn’t cross.

The only thing Frank is sure of is that Gee and Gerard are not completely different people. He is positive of that much. There is no way, no fucking way, for it to be possible that they were not connected somehow. Frank doesn’t get how it’s possible, and when he gets home he’s going to do a hell of a lot of googling, but it has to be possible, one way or another. It has to be possible, because it’s fact, and Frank knows it is.

“A lapse in judgment is when you think that you can totally throw that wad of paper across the room without accidentally hitting your teacher in the head. A lapse in judgment is not freaking out a guy you barely know because he looks vaguely like a guy you talked to for a half a minute four days ago.”

“So let me guess, you hit your teacher in the head with a doodle of a dick or something, didn’t you?” Frank asks.

Brendon doesn’t say anything for a moment, “that’s unimportant. What is important is that you never ever make eye contact with that Gerard guy ever again. Okay?”

“Ugh, fine,” Frank says, shoving Pete out of the way of the door, and pulling it open.

“Where are you going?” Pete asks him, and Frank turns around looking irritated and ready to go off about him being a dick, when he realizes that Pete is holding Frank’s backpack up to prove how much of an idiot Frank actually is.

“Oh,” Frank says, walks over and grabs it from Pete, who just rolls his eyes, “Well fuck you too.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Pete shouts after him. Frank says nothing back, he just walks down the hall, and tries to figure out how he’s going to waste the next five minutes before lunch ends. He decides to walk to his locker which is down three hallways in the dead end part of the school, and when he gets there, all he can think to do is stare into the contents of it for what feels like hours. Frank’s only real revelation is that he has too many wads of post it notes.

Frank almost finds the sound of the bell merciful, because he doesn’t have to stand here looking bored anymore. He does end up being the first person in the classroom, which is pretty much a first for him, not even the teacher is back yet. It’s pretty creepy being alone in a classroom and it definitely makes him uncomfortable.

Not long after though, people start to file their way in, and Frank’s relieved that he won’t have to deal with either Pete or Brendon until next period.

But his stomach drops the slightest bit when the guy who he just made a massive idiot of himself in front of walks in. He makes very brief eye contact with Frank and then looks away hurriedly. Frank watches him, still not used to the name Gerard, and Frank doesn’t even care how blatantly obvious his staring is. How has he never looked twice at that guy? It’s like he’s been invisible for the last however long he’s been in the background of Frank’s life. That’s all he really is. Just a background character to Frank. He’s no one, and Frank is probably no one to him too. Or at least, Gerard was no one a week ago. Now he’s the guy who has the exact same face as the guy that Frank slept with.

Frank hates to think it, but he’s having a lot of trouble not seeing Gee naked in his head and it’s a really bad thought to have in the middle of civics. But here he is now, looking over his shoulder every few minutes at that guy and he’s having flashbacks to things that Gerard would probably have an aneurism if he knew about. What would he think if he could see inside Frank’s head right now? Because Frank knows precisely what he looks like naked, and that’s something that Frank imagines isn’t something a lot of people know.

Given the fact that he’s literally never looked twice at the guy before today, Frank highly doubts that Gerard is a very socially promiscuous person. It’s always possible, but Frank literally has only ever seen him with maybe two friends and one of them is apparently his brother. The only other friend he has that Frank knows of, has hair that is honestly bigger than the Empire State Building. Suffice to say that he’d probably be mortified to learn that Frank has literally seen him naked without his knowledge. And he knows what kind of noises he makes too.

Frank actually blushes, literally turns red just thinking about it and he has to turn away to hide his face. He’s about four hundred percent certain that Gerard knows Frank’s been looking at him all throughout the class, but he’s been doing whatever he possibly can to pretend he hasn’t noticed. He’s looked everywhere, every single corner of the room to avoid making eye contact with Frank. Frank can’t stop looking back at him now though, because all of a sudden, he’s sure that Gerard is easily the most attractive guy in school.

Now obviously, if you were to think about it objectively, he really isn’t. There’s this guy on the swim team who could be a direct descendant of Adonis. There’s definitely some students who would contest that the student teacher for the Sophomore AP History class is the most attractive guy in the school. There’s that one popular Junior that everyone knows, even in Frank’s grade which is a year ahead of the guy, that could be a male model. There’s literally dozens of people who are more typically attractive than Gerard, but Frank can’t think of anyone at all who could ever be as gorgeous as he is. Ryan Reynolds doesn’t even have anything on Gerard at this point. Frank’s just completely targeted Gerard as the most beautiful man he can think of, and there’s nothing he can do to change that right now.

Maybe it’s just because Frank knows Gee is gone, but he almost thinks that there’s something more attractive about the awkward looking teenager version of him. That’s easily untrue as well, because he’s really not, but Frank thinks he’s got this charming likeability to him. Gerard still has a little bit of baby fat in his cheeks, he’s kind of pimply, and his hair looks pretty greasy, but he’s just magnetic to Frank.

And so what if Frank is being majorly creepy with how much he keeps looking at Gerard? He can’t help it. He’s not really hurting anyone, he’s just being super creepy. But he can’t help himself.

Frank’s actually kind of sad when the bell rings, signaling the end of the class, because he knows he doesn’t have his next period with Gerard. He doesn’t know why that’s so upsetting, it just is. He really wants to look at him some more, maybe talk to him.

Frank’s struck with a sudden idea when he’s packing up his things. He’s taking his time, not anticipating having to deal with Brendon or Pete making weird remarks for an hour of class, when Frank looks around to distract himself to watch Gerard and his friend split up after leaving the room, which means that he’s on his own now. So if Frank were ever to go talk to him, it would be now.

He doesn’t know what the hell he’s going to say, and he’s fairly sure that Brendon, Pete, or both of them are going to lecture him later for this, but Frank stows his stuff away as quickly as he possibly can, and he runs out of the classroom to catch up with Gerard.