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"It was the best date ever."

"Ignoring the fact that he took you to astrip club?"

"He didn't take me to a strip club. That was my fault," I defended the guitarist, because it was true. I was the one who insisted that we check out the new place based on bits of information I caught while eavesdropping on a bunch of jocks. That must be karma.

"This is greatness in the making my friend. If every date we go on is like the one from last night, I see good things for the future."

"Where are you taking him next time, adrug house?" my best friend asked snickering.

"Shut up," I laughed. "It's not about where we go anyway. It's what we do together. Kasey, I'm falling for Frank."

Kasey smiled knowingly at me.

"You know, I could've told you that months ago."

"That's not possible. I just realized it now. How could you possibly have known it months ago?"

"You're stubborn and you didn't want to realize it before, but I'm guessing that Frank is melting that block of ice in your chest towards him. Besides, I don't know if you remember the crush you had on Tray for ages. Well, it was pretty evident that Frank was pretty damn special when you broke up with Tray to be with him," she explained calmly."I'll honestly tell you that I didn't see that one coming."

"I did like Tray a lot," I murmured deep in thought. "But that was a while ago. Frank is different from him. Frank is fun and insane," I giggled. "I can only imagine Tray's reaction if it were him that I accidentally took to that club last night. Frank was so freaked out it was actually adorable. Tray would probably have let me have my way and stayed."

"And that's a bad thing?" she questioned.

I shook my head, "No, but that's the thing, Frank acted like a grown up, being all responsible and getting his not-yet-legal girlfriend out of there as fast as he could."

"You know I still can't get over the fact that you guys are really dating."

"I know," I sighed happily, lying back on my bed. "If you told me a few years or even just a few months ago that it was going to be like this with us together, I would never have believed you."

"I never would've believed me."

"I don't know why I didn't see it sooner," I continued, rolling onto my stomach and stared down at Kasey sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Again, you didn't see it because you refused to see it. I've been around when Gerard told you that you and Frank have a lot in common, but you never wanted to hear it when in fact it's a lot truer than you could ever have dreamed."

"Scary right?"

There was a loud ruckus from the front of the house and I knew my brothers were home.

"How are your brothers reacting to all of this?" Kasey wanted to know, looking up at me, clearly also having heard the animals arrive back home.

"Pretty cool actually. Gerard hasn't said anything since Frank and I started dating unless we really do something to gross him out. Mikey on the other hand likes to make comments on the whole thing, but we've gotten back some of our own. Last night for instance I totally made out with Frank in front of him. I've never seen him leave a room so fast,"I laughed, remembering the incident when Frank dropped me off at the house the night before.

She chuckled, shaking her head.

"Sometimes I feel sorry for your brothers. So when are you going on your next date?"

"We haven't really spoken since last night, but hopefully it will be soon. Let's go ask him."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Ilaughed at the surprised look on her face.

"Come on." I scrambled up off the bed."He's here."

"How do you know?" she frowned also getting to her feet.

I decided not to answer her as we made our way to the living room and found my brothers and Frank sitting around on the couches. Frank and Mikey were playing while Gerard quietly sang to the music.



Frank

"Hey, guys!" Brittany greeted cheerily and all of us looked up at Kasey and the youngest Way as they entered the living room."Don't mind us. Keep playing."

We continued playing and the girls listened until the song ended.

"Why are you playing?" Kasey asked curiously.

"Gerard wrote the song today and we're just practicing," Mikey replied.

"I thought you guys were done recording." It was Brittany who said this while walking over to where I was sitting on the couch with my guitar resting on my lap.

Gerard shrugged, "We are, but maybe we could do just this one last song."

"I want to show you guys something,"Brittany suddenly said excitedly, wriggling her way between me and the guitar before taking control of the instrument. She grabbed the fret board in her left hand and started strumming with her right and I couldn't contain my smile. She was good and I could tell from the looks on everyone else's faces that they thought so too. They all looked dumbstruck.

"Since when do you play?" Gerard asked gaping at her.

"Since Frank taught me how," she grinned proudly.

"And here I was thinking that the two of you only did one thing when you were together," Mikey muttered.

"We're not rabbits," she scowled at him.

"It sounds good though," Gerard told her with a small smile, his eyes darting a quick glance at me. I could tell all of this pleased him. At least now he saw proof that Brittany and I didn't just bond in bed all the time.

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and fumbled to pull it out while Brittany was still talking with the others in the room about her guitar playing skills. I checked the caller ID and bit my lip. It was Amy again. I felt bad for ignoring her, but it was either that or lying to her and I preferred ignoring her. It was easier. It was probably cowardly.

I put my hands on Brittany's waist and lifted her up, moving out from under her and sitting her back down on the couch.

"I have to take this. I'll be right back." I excused myself from the room and walked outside, sitting down on the creaking porch steps of the Way house. I stared at the phone for a few seconds still contemplating whether or not to answer it and then brought it up to my ear.

"Hello?" I answered in a small voice.

"Hi," she said sounding surprised. "I didn't think you were going to answer. You've been avoiding me."

I sighed deeply, pushing a hand through my hair.

"I thought you were mad at me," she continued when I didn't say anything after a while. "I thought you were upset by our last conversation. Frank, I thought we agreed. I thought you understood my decision."

"I did! I do, I do understand believe me, now more than ever."

"Why? Did something happen?" She didn't even attempt to hide the suspicion in her voice.

Truth? I sighed once again, nervously tapping my foot.

"I talked to Gerard about all of this and he gave me some advice. You're both right. This is not something I should dive into head first. I need time to think about it and make a proper decision."

She let out something similar to abreath of relief and I swallowed guiltily. It was the truth. I just omitted to tell her about my date with Brittany and some other details.

"But you're thinking about it?"

"All the time," I replied truthfully. It was driving me crazy not knowing what to do. I didn't want to lose either of them and that was a scary realization on its own.

"Okay, thanks, Frank. I'll talk to you soon?" she said hopefully and I subconsciously nodded.

"Yeah."

"Bye."

I shoved the phone back into my pocket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a long drag. I was royally screwed. I was trying to follow Gerard's advice and think this through properly without taking either of their feelings into account, but it was fucking impossible. How did you ignore the feelings of someone you cared about? If Inever ended up in a similar situation it would be too soon.

I flicked some ashes off the end of the cigarette and took another drag. Maybe I should tell Amy about me actually dating Brittany. Maybe she'll understand. All I needed was time, a lot of patience and a little faith. Was that too much to fucking ask? I wondered, frowning.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I looked up startled by Brittany's sudden appearance. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even hear her coming from inside the house.

"Just getting some air," I told her, lifting the hand with the cigarette in it.

Contrary to what I expected, she sat down next to me, hooking an arm through mine.

"Talk to me, Frank. What's up?"

I glanced at her in confusion. Why did she ask? Was I that transparent that anyone who looked at me could see my inner turmoil?

"Don't look so surprised. I'm not blind. Something's wrong and I want to know what."

"Nothing's wrong," I insisted, looking away and putting the cancer stick back to my lips.

She stayed silent for a long time and Iwas just about to think that she let it go when of course she continued.

"You've been acting strange ever since we got back together. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but I know you better than either of us thinks. You're more distant than you were before. Last night we went on our first date and excluding the few hot make out sessions you didn't touch me. And now you're sitting out here all by yourself while the rest of us are inside. Who are you and what did you do with my boyfriend?"

I smiled involuntarily. It was kind of heartwarming to know that she noticed when something was off with me and the fact that she seemed to care about it.

"It's really nothing. I don't want to rush things. We always reach a point where things get too much and one of us bolts."

"One of us being you," she interjected.

I chuckled, "Yeah, but if we take things slowly or at least not keep going the way we always have and act like a half normal couple, I kind of hoped things would last longer."

"But we're not a half normal couple, Frank," she responded, pulling away from me and turning in order to face me, crossing her legs in front of her. "You're not opening up. Half normal couples talk to each other about stuff that bothers them."

"I thought we weren't a half normal couple," I smiled cheekily at her.

"Frank, come on!" she exclaimed. "I'm trying to understand you, but you're not helping. This is me making an effort, but you gotta meet me half way."

I sighed deeply. She was right, she was making an effort and I wasn't returning the favor. She didn't understand though. This wasn't the type of bomb to just drop on her. It was a lot more complicated than that.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. I want to," I hurriedly said, watching her face drop. "Believe me I do, but I can't. Iwill, hopefully soon, I promise, just not today."

No matter when I told her, she was sure to never speak to me again afterwards.

"Okay, fine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to, but I'm going to."

"Maturity. I like it."

"I thought you liked me for my childish whims?"

"For both our sakes, I'm going to say yes to that," I chuckled quietly.

She shifted closer to me and grabbed my chin, turning my head so I would look at her.

"Look at me. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, honestly."

"That's all I wanted to know," the teen smiled, leaning forward and planting a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Mm," I made a small satisfied sound. "I like this," I murmured, looking down and taking a hold of her hand, squeezing it lightly. "This is so much less complicated than before or is it just me?"

She laughed, "It's only been a couple of days. Give it time. I'm sure our inherent need to argue with one another will surface soon enough."

I leaned back, whining, "Don't say that."

"Okay, this time, Frank Iero, we're going to win couple of the decade. All our dates are going to be memorable ones like the one from last night. I'm going to graduate high school and then the two of us are going elope and have beautiful babies."

"That was not something I wanted to hear!" Mikey exclaimed loudly and we both turned to stare at him in amusement.

"What is it, Mikey? Don't you think that Frank and I will make pretty babies?"

"Stop it! I do not need those kinds of images in my head, thank you very much."

"I wonder whose eyes they'll have," I wondered out loud, grinning evilly. "Hopefully your emerald ones," I said to the blonde teen.

"Uhm, what?" Mikey gaped at us in horror.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Brittany shrugged. "The fun is in the making of them."

Her brother groaned loudly. "I'm going to need a shrink now. Thanks a lot!"

He turned on his heel and disappeared back inside the house. Brittany and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What did you say to Mikey?" Gerard asked when he and Kasey stepped outside.

"You don't want to know," I assured him with a chuckle.

He looked at me amused, clearly dying to know and crouched down next to me, stealing my still burning cigarette. There was barely anything left and he sucked the last bit of life from it before tossing it down and stomping it out.

"But really I'm just dying to know," he smirked, blowing the smoke from his lungs.

"Me too!" Kasey agreed, coming around to stand in front of us at the bottom of the porch steps.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I smiled as Brittany opened her mouth to fill them in on the details.

"We just told Mikey that Frank and I thought that we would make beautiful little Iero babies."

"You warned me," Gerard conceded, straitening up while Kasey giggled uncontrollably. "Why were you on that topic anyway?" he wanted to know.

"We weren't really. Brittany made a joke and Mikey only caught the wrong end of it."

"So we decided to drag out his soul alittle," she added laughingly.

"I can't really blame him for being traumatized. The two of you together," Kasey shook her head in completion of her sentence.

"I'll second your opinion," Gerard agreed. "Hey, Frank are you going to come back inside so we can finish the song?"

"Yeah," I nodded, pushing myself up and rubbing my hands down the back of my jeans.

I offered a hand to Brittany to help her up, but she shook her head.

"I'm going to stay out here with Kasey."

"Okay," I turned and followed my best friend back inside the house to finish our newest song.



Brittany

I turned back around with a broad smile, absentmindedly kicking the cigarette my brother just stepped out.

"Do I even want to know why you and Frank were talking about making babies?"

I looked up at my best friend and squinted slightly at the bright sunlight that actually won over the clouds today.

"I made a joke in an attempt to cheer him up. Something's wrong, but he won't tell me what it is."

"Are you sure you're not just imagining it?"

"Something is definitely up with him, but I told him that I would let it go so now I'm going to let it go," I stated.

"While we're on the topic of Frank, how did you know he was here?"

"We have this deep emotional connection. I just know when he's close by..."

"You're kidding me!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yeah, I'm totally bullshitting," I laughed. "I heard him playing. Besides, wherever Gerard is, Frank will always be in the nearby vicinity. Those two are inseparable. It wasn't too hard to guess that he was here."

"You had me wondering there for amoment," she admitted, sitting down next to me.

"I know, but you can relax. Frank and Iaren't eloping."

"Eloping?" she asked bewildered. "Who said anything about eloping? Brittany, should I be worried?"

"I'm only eighteen, what do you think?"

She sighed in relief, "Good, because your divorce would be within the blink of an eye and it would be a blood bath."

"Jeez, where is the faith?"

"Oh, I have faith, faith that the two of you will screw up a relatively short lived marriage."

"Thanks, Bestie. It's good to know you've got my back," I said sarcastically.

"That I do," she grinned broadly and I playfully shoved her. "I'm starving, Let's go over to my house. My mom recently baked abunch of cakes and we can both do with something sweet in our lives right now."

"Sounds like a plan," I agreed, jumping up and pulling her to her feet. "Plus your mom bakes the best cakes."

"That she does," Kasey agreed as we started in the direction of her house.