Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Whirlwind

The Morning After

by -Dead 5 reviews

Frank is left to think about the previous night.

Category: My Chemical Romance - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Angst - Characters: Frank Iero,Gerard Way - Published: 2012-07-30 - Updated: 2012-07-30 - 2877 words

2Exciting
Even with Gerard ending up smashed out of his face, even with having to wait forty minutes for a taxi and even with the crash causing the journey home to be delayed, Frank somehow managed to make it home before midnight. He supposed it just proved definitively how quickly Gerard had gotten wasted. It was a somewhat alarming thought and one he chose not to think too much about. After all, he was the victim in this situation! The one who’d been let down! The damsel in distress!

Okay, so maybe that was a little too far, but it was certainly along the right lines. Though he’d never actually mentioned it to the older boy, having never had a chance, he had actually been quite looking forward to getting drinks with him, even if they were supposed to have been non-alcoholic. He supposed that taught him not to get his hopes up, especially when it came to older, popular, incredibly-attractive-but-not-really-because-they-were-so-damn-annoying-and-a-complete-liar- boys.

Luckily it seemed that the fates had decided that the sixteen year old had suffered enough for one evening though, because when the taxi pulled up outside his house the curtains to the lounge were firmly drawn, meaning that his parents couldn’t see that he was arriving home in a different car from the one he’d left in. That at least saved him explaining the events which had unfolded. Instead, he simply concentrated in composing his expression into one of joy, an incredibly realistic smile curving to his lips as he pushed open the front door.

“Hey,” he called out, moving to stick his head through the door to the lounge, smiling at his parents who both turned from their position on the sofa to look at him.

“Hello, love,” his mother replied, an almost expectant expression on her face. “Did you have a nice time?”

Nodding, Frank was sure that he managed to look genuinely quite pleased with himself. “Yeah, it was pretty good thanks.” Feigning a yawn with near expert precision, he stretched his arms above his head. “Think I’m going to head to bed now though. I’m pretty whacked.” Obviously his acting skills were above par because his parents wished him a goodnight’s sleep before turning their attention back to the TV, apparently not sensing anything out of the ordinary.

Though tucked up in bed ready for sleep by half past twelve, it was at least five in the morning before Frank finally drifted off. Thoughts swirled around his head mercilessly, not giving him even a moment’s peace. He just couldn’t understand why Gerard had gotten drunk. Sure, he was eighteen – he was perfectly entitled to drink as much as he wanted, whenever he wanted – but it had been his idea to have a sober night. If he wanted to drink, why hadn’t he just said? Frank wasn’t sure what annoyed him more; the feeling of being let down or the feeling of being lied to. What if he hadn’t had enough money on him to pay for the taxi home? What if Mikey hadn’t picked up his phone and he hadn’t been able to find out where Gerard lived?

There were so many things which could have gone wrong, none of which it seemed the older boy cared for in the slightest.

When Frank did eventually drift off to sleep, it was while he was staring at Gerard’s phone which was now sitting on his bedside table, resisting the urge to throw it at the wall.

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He was hardly surprised that he slept straight through his alarm. He was just thankful that both his parents had to go to work early that day; it meant that he was able to skive a day off school without having to think of an excuse. He knew that if he’d told them he felt ill, they’d instantly presume one of two things; either that he couldn’t handle going out on a school night or that Gerard had done something which upset him, meaning that if he did ever want to go somewhere with the boy again, they probably wouldn’t let him.

Not that he did. He’d had enough of Gerard freaking Way and his constant state of inebriation to last him a life time, thank you.

The sixteen year old didn’t wake up until gone midday and even then it took him a good half an hour to physically drag himself out of bed. As he made his way downstairs, making a slight detour via the kitchen to get a cup of tea and some much needed food, he managed to push a certain someone completely from his mind. He was over what had happened last night. Oh, he was so over it. He couldn’t be more over it as he tried.

At least, he was until the phone which he’d brought downstairs with him beeped loudly. He knew that he shouldn’t have read the text, knowing full well it was an invasion of privacy on all kinds of levels, but a respect for boundaries was something which Frank had never quite grasped the concept of. Besides, Gerard had messed him around no end last night – the least he could do to pay Frank back was let him read his text message, even if he had absolutely no say in the matter.

Before his conscience could get the better of him, Frank picked up the phone, pausing only briefly when he saw the text was from Mikey. Better that he read a text from his brother than a potentially dirty one from some girl, right? Right.

I told Bob that you were off ‘cause you had a migraine. Seriously, bro, you need to sort your shit out. I’m not going to carry on lying for you. Frank’s not in today either. You need to apologise to him. He seemed pretty pissed off last night and I don’t even blame him. It’s one thing expecting me to sort you out, but you can’t expect other people to.

The dark haired boy had to read through the message several more times, just to see if he’d read it right. He couldn’t quite decide what part of it was the most confusing. He got the first bit fine; Gerard was clearly off school with an awful hangover. That at least was hardly surprising. He doubted there was a person alive who could drink as much as Gerard had, as quickly as he had, and not feel a tad delicate the next day.

What he couldn’t understand though was why Mikey had lied in the first place – Bob was Gerard’s friend. A friend who, as far as Frank knew, liked partying just as much as Gerard did. Surely he wouldn’t care in the slightest if Gerard took a day off school because he was hungover?

And then there was the whole ‘sorting his shit out’ thing. What the hell was that all about? It almost sounded...It almost sounded as if it was a regular occurrence. Exactly how often did Gerard get completely wasted, because it certainly didn’t sound like last night had been the first time when it was unexpected? Did that explain the brief moment Mikey’s face had expressed something which looked almost like pity?

Sighing, Frank marked the text as unopened and put the phone back down on the table. If he’d thought there was any sort of vindication in reading the text, then he’d been sorely mistaken. All he’d managed to do was confuse the hell out of himself, so much so that he pushed himself off the sofa and walked back into the kitchen, intent on eating his way through as much icecream as humanly possible.

That would take his mind off the Way brothers and the fact that as soon as they were involved, he had absolutely no idea what was going on, what they were talking about and what he was supposed to be doing.

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The hours dragged by relatively slowly, probably not made any better by the fact that Frank had pretty much consumed his body weight in icecream. He hadn’t even known they had that much of it in the house! What were they, like secret icecream dealers or something? No one had six tubs of unopened icecream just chilling in their freezer.

After munching his way through his third tub of the delicious treat, resisting the urge to go and find a t-shirt, despite the fact that being shirtless and ingesting a shit-tonne of ice didn’t make for being particularly warm, the doorbell rang. He genuinely did consider not answering it; what if a teacher had somehow found out he was skiving? A quick glance to the clock dispelled that fear though – school had been finished for half an hour. Woah, he really had wasted an entire day.

Placing the now empty icecream tub on the table, complete with well licked spoon, Frank pushed himself up from the sofa somewhat reluctantly. If he thought he should have stayed on the sofa before opening the front door, then he definitely did once he saw who was stood there.

His expression changed from one of surprise to one of indifference, before quickly changing again, this time to one of embarrassment as he realised the fact that he was currently shirtless and his pyjama pants were slung a little bit too low across his hips for when in company. Tugging them up slightly, he promptly folded his arms across his chest as he arched an eyebrow.

“Gerard,” he said in way of greeting.

At least the older boy had the decency to look sufficiently chagrined. And so he should – he had absolutely no right turning up on Frank’s doorstep like this, especially considering how he’d acted last night! So why was Frank just a tinsy tiny bit happy to see him, not that he’d let him know that of course?

“Hey, man.” It was clear that Gerard was feeling a sight more nervous that he wanted to let on, everything from his light tone which seemed suspiciously forced to the way he shifted awkwardly on the spot giving it away. “Mind if I come in?”

Instead of saying anything, Frank simply stepped out of the doorway, allowing Gerard room to enter. It was safe to say that he was feeling pretty pleased with the cold shoulder he’d managed to give the other so far. His guilty conscience was yet to kick in, the left over irritation from the previous night telling him that it was nothing more than Gerard deserved. When Gerard moved past him and into the lounge though, as if he owned the freaking place, he had to bite his tongue to stop a somewhat out of order comment slipping past his lips.

“See you’ve been having fun,” the eighteen year old gestured towards the icecream tubs, characteristic smirk making a triumphant return.

“Oh yeah,” Frank drawled sarcastically. “Endless sources of icecream. It’s like a dream come true.” He received some sort of twisted satisfaction in seeing Gerard’s smirk falter slightly. Moving over to the table, he picked up the other’s mobile and held it out to him. “I forgot to give your phone back. You got a text.” He decided not to mention that he had already read it.

What he did do though, was carefully watch Gerard’s expression when he read it. He saw something which almost looked like guilt flicker across his face, though it was quickly composed into the almost ever-present smile. Pocketing the phone, Gerard plonked himself down on the sofa, even going as far to pat the spot next to him. “So...you weren’t at school today.”

This time Frank really did bite his tongue and sucked in a deep breath through his nose as he sat down, being sure to move as far away from Gerard as physically possible. “And how do you know you just didn’t see me?”

“I have my sources. How come you weren’t there?” Frank was sure that he imagined the almost regretful tone he heard.

Because I couldn’t sleep because I was too busy trying to figure out what the hell you were playing at getting so drunk! “Because I slept through my alarm and couldn’t be bothered to go in late. How did you cope? You must have been feeling pretty rough after last night.” Call his bluff. Good move.

Gerard chewed his lower lip for a moment and Frank was pretty sure he was considering whether or not to lie to him. If he was, he obviously decided that he’d dug himself far enough into a hole already. “I didn’t make it in either. I was in no state to set an alarm last night, so I just didn’t bother.”

Well, the topic had been breached – it was now or never. Having never been one for subtly, Frank just came out with it. “So, tell me.” That was good. Keep your tone neutral. Lull them into a false sense of security. “What the hell was last night about? What happened to ‘we won’t be drinking’, huh?!”

Gerard’s dark eyes, framed by even darker eyeliner, flickered down to stare at the floor as he sighed softly, one hand moving to push his hair out of his face. “Frank, I’m sorry. Like, seriously. I didn’t meant to get that drunk—”

“You weren’t supposed to be getting drunk at all!” Frank’s angry yell cut him off, the sound ringing out strongly around the room. Once silence once again settled over them, two pairs of eyes met each other, one narrowed into a glare, the other wide with shock.

“I messed up, okay?! I messed up real bad, but I didn’t mean to. Surely that means something?”

It should have. It really should have, but as it happened it somehow only managed to make it worse. “All it means, Gerard, is that I’m obviously so boring that you couldn’t bear to get through the evening sober.” Oh god, he sounded like a whiny child. It wasn’t supposed to have come out quite like that, but he couldn’t bring himself to take back the words because, whiny or not, that was how he felt. And it hurt more than he thought it would.

“Don’t be stupid! That’s not it at all! Why are you getting so pissed off about this? Everything ended up alright. Stop acting like such a freaking girl!”

If Frank had been angry before, then he was positively livid now. “Because you lied to me! Because you let me down! Because I thought it was going to be a fun night and it ended with me wanting to leave you passed out on the pavement outside that pub because you fucked me off so much!”

Obviously realising that both of their emotions were quickly running away with them, Gerard took a deep breath, hand once again tugging at his hair. “Look, just let me make it up to you. I’ll take you out somewhere where’s there’s not even a single drop of alcohol.”

“That was the you making it up to me!” Standing up, Frank nodded towards the door. “Just go, Gerard.”

Apparently the eighteen year old realised that Frank wasn’t in the mood to be messed around and he stood up after a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, the sound a stark contrast from how het-up he’d been a mere second ago. “Frank, I really am sorry. And I’m going to make this up to you, whether you want me to or not.”

Before Frank had a chance to ask him how exactly he planned to do that, Gerard turned and left the room. The sound of the front door opening and closing met his ears just after.

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Author's note: Hey guys! Thank you for all the reviews you've left so far! They mean a lot. :D So, here's the deal. I've got quite a lot of time on my hands right now, what with being off until the last week in September. Soooo, I've been thinking about taking requests for stories. This will work in the following way;
-I'll put up a form as a new 'story'
-If you want me to write you a one-shot story, just fill in the form and I'll see what I can do
-I will probably only take four requests the first time, but if it all goes well, I'll consider doing more.

If you're interested in this, I suggest that you add me to your author alerts or whatever it is, just so you know when I've posted it. Feel free to take me off it again once you've requested your story. ;)

So, yeah. If you're interested, please drop me a review here, just so I can figure out if it's worth doing or not. :)
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