This is so sad!!! You can obviously tell that Frank loves Mikey and regrets that he hid his love. Maybe love would've been the only thing that could've saved Mikey, or maybe even just someone showing that they cared, and Frank deprived him of that. Of the thing that Frank thought he really, really deserved. His reasoning for it was understandable, though. Frank already knew he loved Mikey, and he was afraid that he would help Mikey. Helping Mikey meant that he would lose everything that protected him from having the same treatment as Mikey, and he wouldn't make sense for them to both be in pain. He was still in pain, anyway. In more (emotional) pain than he would've been if he just helped him in the first place. He let Bert, someone he hated, stop him from showing what he really felt about Mikey because he was afraid of that he'd be treated in the same way. He was afraid. He keeps calling himself cowardly at one point, but he's not. Not really, anyway. He's just knows how things are supposed to be and how he's supposed to deal with them. Not that they're done in the right way, but that doesn't make him a coward. Anyway, I love that Mikey was "That Boy." Mikey hasn't really made any kind of wave in the school. He was nameless. He was just someone that got beaten up a lot, just a nobody. To everybody but Frank, at least. I think Frank wanted to believe that he didn't like him at first, but knew it would be pointless to deny it. He did have to continue hiding it because that's just the way things were supposed to be. I also really liked the ending a lot. It gave us a really interesting view into exactly how much Mikey was unnoticed by everybody but Frank. Well, Gerard too. Frank knows sixty six words is definitely not enough to explain how wonderful of a person Mikey is, but he's got more to remember him by than a few words. He's got an insight into what he's like. He's watched Mikey for a long time and he'll never be able to forget him. Even if he wanted to. Everything you write is full of emotion. This is really no different. Its so full of heart and I really loved this. It was absolutely marvelous!!! Brilliant job!!!
Author's response
Frank definitely does regret hiding his feelings for Mikey because I think that it probably would have been his best shot at saving Mikey. I'm glad you think Frank's reason for denying Mikey what he needed was understandable, I was worried that I just made him sound like a jerk when that really wasn't meant to be the case at all. Frank was just scared of ending up in the same position as Mikey, especially as he knew what being in that position can do to a person. I don't think that he's really cowardly in it either, it's just how he felt about himself for not helping the person he loved even though it would have ended badly for both of them anyway.
I called Mikey "That Boy" because that way it could have been anyone, just a nameless blot on society just like Frank could have just as easily been Mikey's "That Boy". Frank didn't like the idea of being in love with him at first because to do so would be going against everything that he worked to get at school.
Thank you so very, very much for taking the time to leave such a detailed and lovely review! :D