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

For the rest of the week, Frank and Gerard, the babysitter, took care of the twins together, and were quickly becoming good friends. Everything was just easy when they were around each other, they could relax and talk about literally anything from important events such as Frank’s terrible past to what kind of hilarious thoughts a fly would have bouncing against a window to escape, all the while watching the kids. And when Frank was at work, Gerard would fill up his time with bonding with the twins. Not only was he getting closer to Frank, but he was strangely enough getting closer to the twins. He didn’t care for them much at first when he got hired to babysit them, but that was until he started spending time with the trio together, and then began to see how adorable and lovable the kids were…which was weird. Gerard didn’t find babies cute or lovable, he usually found them unbearably annoying and overly needy. Venetia and Lorenzo had somehow become that exception.

Unbeknownst to Gerard, Frank had already developed a crush on him, his very first legitimate crush, in fact. Because of how he was raised to speak openly to his parents about anything that had to do with any romantic relationships, or sexual intentions, Frank felt compelled to talk to them on Wednesday after Gerard had treated him and the twins out to ice cream sundaes. Opening the front door to his house, Frank walked in before locking the door behind him. “Mom? Dad? Are you home?”

Margo Iero walked out of the kitchen with an apron on and waved him over. “In here, hun! You better hurry up and get your plate before your father eats all the food.”

“He better not!” Frank exclaimed in panic as he kicked off his shoes and tossed his backpack and coat aside to race into the kitchen. He found his untouched plate sitting on the counter, and let out a sigh of relief. Picking it up, he took it over to the dining room table to join his parents who were already digging in. “So, how was your day?”

“Good, I manage to get your father to do a little bit of gardening with me.” Margo shared quite proudly as she glanced at her husband beside her.

“Wow, mom, that’s pretty impressive!” Frank congratulated her sincerely.

Frank Sr. rolled his eyes in displeasure. “Yeah yeah, whatever. You finally got your way, big deal.”

The family settled into silence as they ate their dinner, but Frank sat there occasionally chewing his bottom lip anxiously in thought. He was nervous about how his parents would react to the idea of him developing a crush on his children’s babysitter, especially after what he’d been through the year before. He could only hope they wouldn’t get too upset, and would instead try to understand that it was normal for a 16 year old to be interested in relationships...at least ones that weren’t kidnapped and rapes, he supposed. “Mom, Dad, I have something important I need to talk to you about.”

Margo gasped in shock and dropped her fork onto her plate. “Oh my god, you went behind our backs and got a new tattoo!? Pumpkin, what did I tell you? You’re only 16 years old! You don’t need to cover yourself with those pictures! You inherited your mommy’s nice skin, and you’re ruining it!”

Frank scrunched his face up when his mother reached over to pinch his cheek with a pout on her face. “No mom, I didn’t get a new tattoo! I know better than to go behind your backs a second time, trust me. It’s actually about…something else.”

Wiping his mouth, Frank Sr. pushed his empty plate aside and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were narrowed in on his son. “What’s going on, Frankie? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Frank chewed on his bottom lip again as he looked down at his plate where he was pushing his broccoli into his mash potatoes. “Um, not really. At least I wouldn’t call it trouble.”

“Well, then what would you call it?” Margo asked him, reaching over to take her son’s hand in hers, sensing that what he had to say was very serious. “Go on, you can tell us.”

Frank sighed and lowered his fork onto his plate. He kept his eyes down casted though. “Remember that…babysitter Aunt Edith and Uncle Peter hired to watch the twins?”

His parents both gave him a nod.

“Well, as you both already know, I’ve been dropping by to see them.” Frank reminded them.

“Yeah, we’re aware.” Frank Sr. confirmed.

So um…he and I started becoming friends and…well, I’ve recently noticed that I’ve developed a…likeness to him.” Frank struggled to explain as delicately as he could.

His parents both shared a frown, not quite certain of what he was implying. Margo raised an eyebrow at him in question. “A…likeness, you say?”

Frank awkwardly nodded. “Yeah…a-a likeness.”

“Likeness as in a best friend’s likeness, or…a sexual attraction likeness?” Frank Sr. questioned him as he gave his son a hard stare. Considering Frank’s awkwardness throughout their conversation, he had a feeling that the subject was a serious and sensitive one. He read his son’s motions, behavior and tone of voice and came up with the conclusion himself that he might have taken a liking to the boy babysitting their grandchildren.

Margo shot her husband a disapproving glare at not giving their son a chance to say it himself, before softening her features as she glanced back at her son. “Is this true, pumpkin? Do you have a crush on this 17 year old boy that’s babysitting the twins?”

Frank’s cheeks turned a bright vibrant red shade as he finally glanced up at his parents. “I-I uh…”

Letting out a sigh, Frank Sr. sat up in his chair. “We’ll take that as a yes, then.”

Frank couldn’t believe it. His parents weren’t reacting terribly at all to him confessing that he had an intimate attraction to someone, and not just anybody, but someone that was the same gender as him. He hadn’t expected them to react so calmly, not that they had ever come off homophobic before. Interestingly enough, homosexuality was never really a topic discussed in the Iero household, and so Frank had discovered it for the first time by his friends, namely Kellin and Victor, who never could keep their hands off each other in or out of public. At a young age, he had a few ideas as to how his parents would react if he ever were to tell him he was gay. They would have either struggled to try and accept it, or be disappointed with him. Most teenagers didn’t care about disappointing their parents, but ever since Frank was kidnapped and returned back to his family, he’s been doing whatever it took to show them that they matter to him more than anyone else in the world, that was until the twins were born. Right now, his parents didn’t appear to be struggling to accept it, nor did they appear disappointed. Frank looked between the two completely confused. “Wait, so you guys don’t have an issue with it?”

Margo gave him a frown. “No pumpkin, we’ve always known you’d develop a crush at some point, and so in the mean time we’ve prepared ourselves for it with the years we had left until it came.”

Frank waved her comment off. “No no, I mean…that I’m attracted to someone of the same sex.”

Margo thought about it before giving him a shrug. “I had a feeling you might want to try and dabble a bit perhaps when you were younger, considering some of your closest friend’s personal preferences in partners. Homosexuality and Bisexuality wasn’t ever a subject your father and I ever felt comfortable talking to you about, so you were probably unaware of it growing up. We suspected you would have learned about it sooner or later without us, and we were right. Since then, we’ve been waiting to hear which gender you were attracted to, or if you were perhaps interested in both.”

Frank lowered his eyes down to his kitchen table. Was he gay, or bisexual? Sure, his first crush was a boy, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like girls right? He supposed there was still time for him to explore his options, so he didn’t have to put a label on it right away. He was only 16 years old, after all. “I uh, I’m not quite sure what I am. I do like Gerard, but I may end up liking a girl someday too.”

“Take your time, you don’t have to decide right away.” Frank Sr. assured him. “Until then, how far do you plan on going with this boy you’ve developed a crush on? I mean, on an intimate level?”

“Daaaad!” Frank whined as he covered his face in embarrassed. “Don’t ask me that! I’ve only started liking him for like two days already. Geeze, I’m not gonna just sleep with him!”

Margo laughed at his reaction. “Yes pumpkin, but you need to remember what differentiates you from most boys your age, and that’s that you have a working womb that can support a human life. If you have sexual intercourse with this boy without protection, you will become pregnant.”

Frank let out a stressful sigh as he dropped his hands to his lap. “Look you guys, I don’t plan on having sex with him right this second and getting knocked up a second time. I mean, at least not this early when he doesn’t even know I like him yet! I think I want to take this slow, and see where it goes first.”

“Either way, we know we can’t stop you from having sex even if we really wanted to, so you better make sure you keep us posted about any important decisions you plan on making in the future that involves sex.” Frank Sr. strictly decided, pointing a stern finger at his son.

Frank nodded and smiled at his dad. “Trust me, if I make a huge decision like that you two will be the first to know.”