FicWad

"So."
Gerard poured himself a glass of wine.
"So?" Frank asked in between mouthfuls.
"So, what made you end up here, of all places?"
"It's none of your fuck--" he started snarling before realizing how rude it was. The man had, after all, let him sleep in his bed and was currently feeding him pasta that wasn't that great, but wasn't so horrible either.
"Shit life." he ended up whispering.
The older man smiled.
"Well, we've all had one of those, haven't we? I don't even know your name."
"My name's Frank."
"Well, pleased to meet you, Frank. I'm Gerard."
"I know." he snapped.
"I know you know."
He had no idea who this stranger was, but he'd given him food and money and a couple of kind words and as cliche' as that sounded kindness was everything Frank really needed right then and there. He glanced at the pictures sitting on a tiny shelf.
"Who's that?" he nudged towards them.
Gerard turned around, and his eyes met with Bert's. A sudden, heavy blow to the back of his neck.
"A--a friend." he managed to wheeze out. His eyes went sad, and he sighed.
Frank realized he'd said something dumb. The rest of lunch went by in awkward silence.
"Do you have a place to stay, Frank?" Gerard suddenly and impulsively asked.
He knew it was a stupid (and somehow infantile) question, but he'd felt lonely for so long he needed someone: not a lover, just a friend. Company. A voice in the morning, someone to make coffee for.
"No. Yes. Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"I--uh. Used to. Up to three days ago. I was crashing at a girl's pad until recently."
"And you broke up?"
"Seeing as she found me in bed with her brother--yes."
Gerard nearly choked on his drink.
The giggle blossomed in the pit of Frank's stomach, and it was a feeling he hadn't had in a while: pretty and pure, he couldn't help but feel fits of uncontrollable laughter beg to explode as he stared at Gerard staring back at him.
Frank's answer hadn't been particularly witty, but they looked at each other for a few seconds more before they both started giggling maniacally.
Something big and ugly inside of Gerard's chest seemed to vaporize for a moment. Just a second, but a second nonetheless. He breathed more freely than he had in months.
Frank wiped his eyes, feeling incredibly stupid and incredibly alive.
"But, yeah. I no longer have a place to stay."
"I have an extra bed."
"I don't accept offers from strangers."
"You accepted the food."
Gerard was right: Frank had broken, in the matter of little under a day, many of the self-preservation rules he'd come up with in his head. One of them being "don't accept offers from strangers", which somehow clashed with the fact that, many times before, he'd accepted sex, a ride, money and drugs from people he knew nothing about except for a fake name.
The only difference was that right now he was completely sober. Well, mostly sober. For a big part, he was sober.
The professor stood up and started clearing the table. Frank helped.
"So you teach, right?"
"Yes. English lit."
"And do you like it?"
"For the most part, yes."
He turned the tap on and started rinsing the dishes out.
"Were you serious?"
"About what, Frank?"
"About the extra bedroom."
Gerard stopped to think for a moment. He turned towards Frank (who'd in the meantime lighted himself a cigarette) and smiled at him.
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."