FicWad

So, i had an epiphany. After changing the angle of this story like four times, i finally decided where I want this to go. :D I think it's going to be amazing, like..i'm psyched. Thanks to the raters and readers! I can't wait until you all see this story unfold.

“Hi, is Linda Iero here?” A man said as he approached the counter. Frank nodded, not even turning around to face the questioning man.

“Yeah, hold on.” Frank stopped playing around with the failing coffee machine and walked to the edge of the counter, just were it turned into the kitchen, and stuck his head through the door.

The man could hear a faint, 'Ma, there's someone out here for you,' before he saw the kid walk back to the coffee machine, playing with the dials on the front of the machine again. Soon the single mother made her way out of the kitchen. She smiled at the man that stood in front of the counter before turning back to her son.

“Frankie, go wait on table four. You can fix that machine later.” Frank nodded and slumped out from behind the counter, taking out his notepad as he made his way to the awaiting table.

“Hi, Gerard.” Linda Iero turned back to the man, Gerard, smiling brightly. “Are you ready for your first day?” She asked, bending down behind the counter to grab an apron, passing it over the counter to Gerard.

“Yeah, I am.” Gerard answered sincerely, “Thank you for the job, Ms. Iero. It means a lot.”

“It's no big deal. Honestly, sweetie.” Linda smiled and walked out from behind the counter. “Now just follow me and we'll get your paperwork started before you start to train, okay?” Gerard nodded and followed Linda to the back office.

~~~~~~~~~


“Benny, I need two cheese omelets, one with onions, and two cinnamon buns, pronto.” The slightly stir crazy nineteen year old said as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing the plates for a different order, making his way out of the kitchen. It was only ten am, and he already wanted to leave. He did not want to spend his summer working at his mothers cafe. Again.

“Anything for you, Frankie boy.” The middle aged chef replied to the boy that he had watched grow.

“Still with the name, Ben? I thought we established that would end once I left for college.” Frank stopped in the doorway.

“Unfortunately for you, I will always call you Frankie boy. It's the right of passage I get from changing your smelly ass diapers.”

“Yeah, well, as long as you washed you hands before going back to work.” Frank shook his head, walking out of the swinging doors of the kitchen.

He walked to the table that the plates belonged on and set them down in front of the customers, asking if they can get them anything else. When the probably a very influential business woman by the looks of her attire, asked for more water, Frank nodded walking to the counter, grabbing the glass container, turning around quickly.

Unfortunately, the turn was not so...graceful. Frank nearly knocked into the man that was just coming out of the kitchen, nearly showering him in water.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Frank asked the person as he steadied his hand around the handle of the pitcher. He faintly heard the man mumble 'yes' before his mother came over, her hands on her hips.

“Frank, you need to be more careful and watch your language. I’m not going to tell you again.” Linda spoke sternly. Linda's Cafe was a family cafe and foul language was simply not acceptable...Blah, blah, blah. Frank had heard it all before. “Now go give Mrs. Allen her water and come back to the kitchen. You're going to be training Gerard today.”

“Yes, Ma'am.” Frank said earnestly, saluting his mother as he made his way back to the table where business woman, Mrs. Allen awaited with an empty water cup.

After filling up Mrs. Allen's cup, and few other customers that stopped him for more water, Frank made his way into the kitchen. Once he was inside the kitchen, he stopped in the doorway taking in the sight in front of him. This man, Gerard, was literally tall, dark and handsome. He had tight black jeans on, accenting certain... assets, short black hair that framed his pale face perfectly, and the most perfect that was adorned with dark eyes. Frank was was frozen in the doorway, watching this man adjust his apron, nervously.

“Alright, Frank, this is Gerard.” Linda's warm voice came barreling into the kitchen. She nearly knocked into Frank, who was still staring at Gerard, from the doorway. “Gerard, Frank.” She spoke again, looking at the two men.

When Gerard looked up from tying the knot in his apron, he smiled sheepishly as he saw Frank's eyes on him. “Hi, Frank.” Gerard said shyly, extending his right hand to shake.

Frank snapped out of his daze and took a hold of Gerard's hand, shaking it. “Hey. Sorry about earlier. I’m a little out of it sometimes.” Frank let out a breathy laugh, letting go of Gerard's big hands.

“It's alright. Don't worry about it.” Gerard smiled. Frank's heart melted.

“Okay, Gerard, you'll be shadowing Frank today, tomorrow you'll take the orders with him there and by Thursday, you'll be on your own.” Linda smiled, placing a hand on Gerard's arm. “Welcome to the team, honey.”

“Thank you, Ms. Iero.” Gerard blushed, his naturally pale skin, turning a beautiful shade of pink. In Frank's eyes, anyway.

“No problem.” She smiled again before turning to face her son, her eyes squinting slightly, “Be good, Frankie.”

Frank shook his head turning away from his mother to face the beautiful man. “Ready?” Gerard just nodded, shoving his hands in the pocket of his apron.

Gerard stayed quiet for most of the training. He followed Frank around and watched intently, taking notes in his mind. He observed how Frank interacted with the customers, how the smaller man seemed at ease with it all. Like it was second nature. He asked questions quietly, always making sure that he was out of the view of customers. He helped Frank carry out the plates, although Frank said he'd been used to carrying out three or four full plates at a time. Gerard wasn't sure he'd every be able to carry more than one plate in each hand but Frank assured him that the balance came with time.

When it was time for the two men to take a break, they both ordered something from the kitchen and took it to the park across the street. When Frank found a picnic table that was relatively free from bird shit, he sat down, gesturing to Gerard to take the seat across from him. Gerard did and the two men began eating in silence. Occasionally they would look up, catching each others eyes before blushing and looking down at their sandwiches.

The silence lasted until they finished their sandwiches. Both men are awkwardly trying to figure out how they're going to spend the next fifteen minutes of their breaks. That was until, Gerard took out a pack of Marlboro Reds and a blue bic lighter, pulling out a cigarette to light for himself.

“Oh, fuck, man, can I bum one? Ma doesn't let me have smokes on me at work.” Frank asked, leaning forward on his side of the table.

“Are we not allowed?” Gerard froze, the cigarette pinched at the filter between his thumb and pointer finger.

“Nah, it's fine. She just doesn't let me do it.” Frank shrugged, his hand inching forward for the cigarette Gerard hadn't even offered him yet.

“Oh, okay.” Gerard handed the cigarette in his fingers to Frank before grabbing another from his pack. While his eyes were cast down, Frank took the opportunity to reach forward, grab the lighter, and light his cigarette. Gerard looked up at Frank questioningly but Frank just grinned and handed back the lighter, putting the cigarette back to his lips.

“Yeah, she's the best boss in the world, except for when your her son.” He said all while holding in the smoke. He exhaled and watched as Gerard lit his own cigarette. Gerard nodded understandingly, inhaling the smoke into his lungs. The silence once again overtook the men as they smoked their cigarettes.

After a little while, Gerard looked across the table at Frank and stared at him. He tried to be discreet about it, casually glancing at the tree behind Frank before turning back to the beautiful face in front of him. After memorizing the structure of Frank's cheeks and the way his nose rounded perfectly, he began to look deeper, taking in the similarities between son and mother. It was just something he did. Something he saw.

Frank was half way to the filter before Gerard's eyes finally left his face. Confused and slightly creeped out, he raised his eyebrow, looking at Gerard. “Uh?” He motioned between the two of them with the hand holding the cigarette.

“Shit,” Gerard mumbled under his breath. “Sorry. I, uh. I’m not a fucking weirdo, I swear. I just..” Gerard hesitated, inhaling his cigarette trying to find the words. “Okay, don't be fucking creeped or anything okay?” Gerard asked looking at Frank, exhaling the smoke from his lungs. He was the kind of person to just blurt out the truth. To anybody.

Frank's mouth turned into a smirk and he looked down at the wooden table, joking lightly, “Too fucking late for that.”

“What?” Gerard looked at Frank and saw the boy laugh softly and wave his hand dismissively, “Oh, uh, okay. Well, um,” He inhaled, this time smoke free. Mostly. “I think you're fucking beautiful, which I know is really creepy, but I don't really care. I’m an artist and I like to draw beautiful people. So you know, I’ll be doing that. Then, like, I was comparing the similarities between you and your mom. You have the same eyes, you know? Like not just the color, but the shape too. It's really perfect, actually. And then I started to think about what you and your dad have in common. Like, face wise, and it really intrigued me. And now I want to know what your dad looks like.” He spoke quickly, making wide, nervous gestures with his hands.

Frank sat in awe, watching this man dig himself out of a hole, stumbling over his words. He was quiet for a minute, taking in everything that he had just heard. When he finally did open his mouth to speak, Gerard was staring at him with intense eyes, wanting him to say anything.

“I want to know, too.”

“What?” Gerard furrowed his eyebrows together, but then it hit him. Frank didn't know his father. He's never met the man, and Gerard, the asshole that he is, just brought it up. “Fuck, I’m sorry, man. I forgot. My mom told me and I fucking forgot. M'so fucking sorry, man.”

“No big deal.” Frank shrugged, putting his cigarette out on the wooden table before checking the time. “So go I get to see 'em?”

“See what?” Gerard asked, looking at Frank.

“The drawings. You know of beautiful people? I figured if your going to to draw me I should at least be able to see them, right?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Gerard nodded, finishing the last bit of his cigarette, stubbing it out on the table. “I'll let you know when I finish yours.”

“Nah, man, I need to see all of them. If I’m going to be, like, a subject or something, I need to see all your work.” Frank clarified, looking at Gerard with his wide, beautiful eyes. How could the man say no?

“Okay. Sure. I can show you tomorrow on break?” He asked slowly, not sure if that would satisfy the boy.

“That's fine. Whatever. I just wanna see them.” And with that, Frank stood up, picking up his and Gerard's garbage, throwing it out in the green can a few feet away from them. “Come on, we gotta get back.”

The rest of the day went quickly. Things weren't awkward, surprisingly. Gerard was sure that Frank would be either pissed at him for bringing up his deadbeat dad, or weirded out because of the staring thing. Yeah that was a bad thing to do on your first day....to the owners son. But no, it was good. The two men talked briefly, mostly about Gerard's art. Frank was extremely interested.

Gerard was sure that he'd be fine to work on his own tomorrow, too. But he was selfishly glad that Frank was going to be following him around tomorrow though. He liked the attention he got from Frank. Maybe it was because he was training Gerard or maybe it was because Gerard seemed to look way to far into things, but Frank seemed to be...to put it into 90's terms...into him. It was weird.

The two men shared a cigarette leaning against Gerard's car before they both headed home. This was when they found out they had the same taste in comics, but pretty drastically different tastes in music. It was okay, though. It seemed to fit the two of them.

When Gerard arrived home after finishing the communal cigarette, he bypassed his family and made his way into his artistic cave, taking out his sketch pad, drawing Frank from different angles. Each drawing he started with the eyes. Those had to be perfect. Those were perfect.