I'm the Last One That You'll Ever Remember

Upon walking up to the front door of his home with his family, Gerard’s plaguing worries scurried away into the darkest reaches of his mind at the display of halloween decorations on his front porch. On each side of the door were small black decorative leafless trees wrapped in tiny orange bulbs, and at the foot of each was a circular black sheet with fake pumpkins of every size on it and two tall fake lanterns. For the first time since that morning, Gerard smiled at the example of how hard the Iero family had worked on his home even though he was told it wouldn’t be as scary as they all had hoped. The children became frightened of their original decor and had sobbed incessantly until it was fully removed from viewing pleasure. The Ieros then had to choose carefully what would stay and what had to go.

Inquisitive to see what the interior looked like, Gerard entered his home to see taped to the wall black bats sprinkled with...rainbow glitter? Both of his brows rose at the odd color choice for a bat, but he ventured onward past little pumpkins with happy goofy faces on them...and pleasant Christmas elves with black and orange material taped over their red, white and green clothes?

“Frankie!” Gerard called out, invoking a series of excited screams from his children before their little feets padded towards him in a stampede. Swiftly removing his coat, keys and wallet, he crouched down just in time for Lorenzo to barrel into his outstretched arms first. “There’s my boy!”

“Daddy!” Lorenzo squealed, clinging to the older man with an open mouth grin. “I mizz ouuu!”

One by one all of his children minus Venetia flocked to him until Frank appeared at the rear with Milo garbed in an adorable pumpkin onesie. “Hey, baby! Did you have a good day at work?”

“Yeah, actually. My supervisor tells me I’m a fast learner.” Gerard boasted, hoisting Lorenzo and Jovani up into his arms, making them squeal with delight. Closing the distance between him and Frank, he placed a quick kiss on his lips then asked. “Where’s my little Princess at?”

Frank’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh my god, that’s what I was going to call you about! Mommy wants to see her in her flower girl dress and I can’t for the life of me remember where the hell I put it! Do you?”

“Yeah. Do you want me to go get it real fast after I go up and change?” Gerard offered, nodding to the ceiling indicating the upstairs.

“Yes, please! That’ll be awesome!” Frank praised him, leaning forward for another deeper kiss. “Mommy will love you for it.”

“Your mother already loves me.” Gerard chuckled, following Frank as he led him back into the living room where Frank Sr. was on a ladder taping up more rainbow glittered bats, and Margo was standing beside the ladder vigilantly watching him in case he had an accident.

Venetia stood on the couch watching them until she saw her parents come into view. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her daddy, and she threw her hands outwards for his sole attention, her bottom lip pouting threateningly. “DADDY!”

“Oh, calm down, Netia.” Frank shushed her with an eye roll as he sat himself down on the couch with Milo. “You’re not gonna die if daddy doesn’t hold you.”

“My little Princess!” Gerard gushed to his daughter, lowering her brothers down to the couch so he could sweep her up in his arms and hug her just as tightly to his chest.

“Oh, hey there, Gerard!” Frank Sr. greeted from the top of the ladder, not glancing his way due to his fixed concentration on the last few bats.

Margo flashed him a delighted smile though and wave. “Hi there, Gerard! How was your day at work?”

“It was great. But I hear someone has been looking for a certain dress for our little princess here to wear.” Gerard grinned, lowering a clingy and reluctant Venetia onto the couch with her brothers.

“Yes! My pumpkin over here misplaced it, can you believe that?” Margo lamented with a disapproving shake of her head to her son. “It’s a one of a kind gown!”

“Hey! You can’t blame a pregnant person for anything!” Frank warned everyone in the room with a stern finger. “So as long as I have a baby in my belly, I’m innocent here!”

“For now.” Margo warned him, narrowing her eyes on him. In the blink of an eye she switched her attention to Gerard and smiled radiantly. “Gerard, would you be a dear and fetch the dress for me, please?”

“I’m on it!” Gerard saluted before racing up the stairs, the children having to be ordered to not follow him up the stairs for their safety. After changing his clothes to a more comfortable attire, he located the dress and returned downstairs to present it to Margo in it’s protective cover. “Here it is.”

Giggling with excitement, Margo ditched the ladder to rush over to him, pleading. “Open it, open it, open it!”

Chuckling, Gerard complied and swept the tiny gown out from the cover to display it for all to see. Even Frank Sr. stepped down from the ladder to take in the exquisite work with his own two eyes. “What do you think? Is it suitable for the wedding?”

Margo gasped and covered her mouth in awe. Her eyes filled with joyous tears as she took the hanger from Gerard’s offered hand and examined every minute detail more closely. She could see her granddaughter adorned in it right now. “My god, this is...so beautiful, Gerard!” Remembering that her son wasn’t in the living room with them anymore, she called over her shoulder. “FRANK! FRANK, GET BACK IN HERE AND SEE THIS!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming! Sheesh!” Frank rushed in with a bottle popped in Milo’s mouth. He never reached them when his eyes caught sight of the dress and made him halt in his steps. His jaw dropped in awe as he gawked at the most beautiful dress he’d ever seen before. Tears instantly filled his eyes, forcing him to clamp a hand over his untrustworthy mouth that trembled. “Oh Gee! Is this really THE dress? Oh, our little Netia is gonna look like a real life Disney Princess, baby!”

“I know, love, I know.” Gerard concurred, draping an arm around his fiance and pulled him close to his side to console him. He couldn’t find the words himself on what to say about the dress. He’d already seen it before, but that didn’t stop it from robbing him speechless a second time. He couldn’t wait to see how they’d react when they got to SEE his daughter in the dress.

“It’s incredible work! Utterly exquisite!” Frank Sr. couldn’t resist voicing as he too eyed the custom made dress. The sketches he’d studied sent from the designer to his wife didn’t do this dress justice at all! Truly, the man went above and beyond what he was requested to do, and did it exceptionally.

“It is.” Margo whispered with an unsteady voice, marveling over the dress.

The four ogled the dress some more, ignorant of the kids roaming the house, trying to climb on the fake pumpkins or into the large cardboard box of decorations. It took Frank Sr. getting himself together first and then glancing at Gerard to break the spell over them all. “Ah, I almost forgot to ask you, Gerard. What do you and the family have planned for Halloween this year?”

“Well, we wanted to take the kids out for candy.” Frank interjected, rubbing a hand over his stomach. “But I’m no longer sure if my belly is gonna let me out long enough for that. Still, I don’t wanna ruin their halloween, you know?”

Gerard glanced down at his fiancee and volunteered. “I can take the kids out for Halloween alone then. I don’t mind.”

Frank’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he stared incredulously up at Gerard. “Seriously? You’re gonna take ALL four of the kids out on your own? I don’t know, babe, that’s a lot of kids to look out for on a crowded night like Halloween. Especially in our gated community.”

“Then we can lighten his load a little. Milo probably shouldn’t be going out this year anyway. The weather is supposed to be very chilly that night.” Margo informed them, moving around them to grab a hold of Jovani who was seconds away from falling off a pumpkin he was trying to balance himself on and cracking his head open. “Besides, he’s still a baby. He won’t really be missing anything this year.”

Frank didn’t consider that for some reason. “Yeah, you’re probably out. He won’t miss anything.”