Blush.

Part 1.

First, it was two weeks and now it’s only a few days. How quickly time passes. It doesn’t seem like long, but it is. You think you have all the time in the world when, in reality, you only have very little. It just flies past when you turn your head to look at something, distracted, if only a moment.

But that moment is all it takes. Everything changes, there’s no time anymore. It dwindles to an absolute nothing so quickly.

Mikey’s wedding is in a few days. And, me being me, I was worried. I was stressing out as much as my mind and body would allow. My mother will be there. My family will be there. The ones that disowned me. It doesn’t matter that I was actually the first to walk out; they still disowned me afterwards and never made an effort.

“You walk out that fucking door, Gerard, and I swear you’ll never set foot in here again,” she threatened.

“Like I’d want to,” I shouted, fury taking over all my senses. I quickly and protectively pushed Frank behind me.

“You’re giving up everything for that stupid little boy that you met on the streets! You’re a fucking idiot!”

“And you’re a pathetic excuse for a mother.” I flipped her off. By doing that, I knew she’d be furious. I was right too; I could just about see the smoke coming from either ear. Her eyes were so hard and cold… and I was proud.

Goddamn it, I was fucking proud. I stood up to the bitch and she couldn’t take it.

“I am not your mother,” she hissed.

“Mum? Why are you yelling at Gerard?”

Frank, my mother and I turned to Mikey, so young and innocent at the time. His middle teens.

“Why don’t you tell him Gerard?” my mother questioned, her expression still cold and harsh.

“No, why don’t you? Because I don’t actually know what your fucking problem is,” I shot back. That was the last thing I said before I heaved my backpack up on my shoulder and led Frank out the door. Into a big, bad and complicated world. Into a life that would be hard and difficult to live alone. I left everything behind.

And, at that point, I was fucking glad I did.

“I don’t have anything,” Frank pouted. “There is nothing.”

Quinn sighed. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, bozo. I’ll find you something.”

I watched quietly as Quinn disappeared into his room to retrieve some clothes for Frank. When he returned Frank was still sulking next to me on our new couch, his pout maximising with each passing second.

“What about this?” Quinn held up a pair of black skinnies, a white button-up shirt and a black vest looking thing. “It’s not tuxedo material but it still looks formal. And it has skinnies. You like skinnies.”

I smiled. Quinn was good with fashion needs, even though he’d never admit it. When he found out about the wedding he stayed in his and Frank’s room for four hours planning exactly what he was going to wear. Frank and I stayed in my room and paid him out for it. It was funny, but we didn’t tell Quinn any of the jokes; we were smarter than that and actually liked living.

“I guess it’s…alright,” Frank grumbled from beside me, “I’ll look silly though.”

I leaned over slightly and whispered in his ear, “No you won’t. You’ll look gorgeous, as always.”

“La, la, la, la, la!” Quinn had his fingers in his ears. “Don’t want to hear it, I’m going to puke.”

Frank and I laughed. It was good because Frank hadn’t laughed all morning. “Sorry, were we disturbing you?”

“Yes,” Quinn replied snottily, “you were. I’ve put up with it for the last two weeks and I’m sick of it. It ends here, no more of this sickly love-eey shit in front of me, got it?”

Frank and I just continued laughing. I was happy that we were all getting along now. It’s a nice change.

“What about you and Da-an?” I teased.

“We don’t do that kind of stuff in front of you,” Quinn smirked, looking very smug.

“Yeah, but we still hear it!” Frank laughed. “The walls aren’t soundproof, y’know! Ohhh, Dan! Harder, Oh god yes, right there! Harder!”

Quinn’s face flamed bright red. “Frank, shut up! I don’t sound like that.”

“Uh, yeah you do,” I giggled. “You seriously do.”

Quinn glared at me. “Watch it or I’ll dye your hair pink when you sleep.”

I ducked my head and smiled down into my lap instead of continuing the argument. Who needed to when Frank was around?

“Oh! DAN! God, right…ahh, there!” Frank shouted, squirming around and wrapping his arms around himself.

Within a batter of eyelashes, Quinn had pinned Frank to the ground, tickling him among slight hits across the head. I felt inclined to help Frank out but I the feeling was very small. Self-preservation and all.

“Umm…guys, don’t you think it’s time we kinda started, I don’t know, doing something? Maybe like getting dinner?” I said, watching as they both fought each other to get on top. God, that sounded wrong.

They grunted as Frank tried to push Quinn off, but with no evident success; Quinn was just much too strong for Frank. I got sick of watching them fight so I stepped over their legs and pulled Quinn up and off of Frank and put my foot on Frank’s chest.

“Okay, enough of this. You’ve had your fun,” I said sternly to the both of them.

“I love it when you get dominant like this.” Frank waggled his eyebrows.

Quinn made gagging noises and I looked down at Frank laughing incredulously.

“You are dirty and perverted.”

“Don’t forget downright disrespectful to other’s privacy!” Quinn pouted.

“Hey, you chose to do it in the room next to mine,” I pointed out.

I let go of both of them and told them that I would be in the kitchen making dinner. The kitchen was in need of cleaning. Not because we were untidy…we just weren’t the best at remembering that bench tops and dishes need cleaning.

“Gerard….!”