FicWad

It was one of those Friday nights when my buddy, Ray, and I went over to our friends’ Mikey and Gerard’s house. I was so excited for a few reasons: One, I wasn’t really an “accepted” person by social standards, so any second I got to spend with my friends I practically adored. Two, Friday night sleepovers freaking rock! And three, I got to see Gerard.

I guess you could say I had some kind of a crush on Gerard. Well, actually that would be QUITE the understatement. My crush him had first evolved when I met him. That was approximately since elementary school. So, as you can guess, I’ve liked, scratch that, loved, Gerard for a while now.

Ray and I arrived at the Way’s residence pretty quickly, as we were so excited to go up and greet Mikey and Gerard. After three knocks on the crimson door, Mrs. Way opened up and welcomed us inside.

“The boys are right upstairs. Feel free to join them,” she told us.
After practically sprinting up the hardwood stairs, I remembered Ray was behind me and checked to make sure he was still there and not abducted by aliens… or something like that.

“Pumped, much?” he asked, with a tangible amount of sarcasm.

“You could say that…” I replied. Actually, I was going crazy. It had been HOURS since I had seen Gerard. I needed a refresher.

We turned the corner and began to hear the muffled sounds of The Misfits coming from Mikey’s room. I rapped on the doorframe and let me and Ray inside.

“Hey guys!” Gerard greeted us. I couldn’t help but feel my cheeks blush. He was so perfect. His dark, midnight hair framing his face in tangled wisps and his wonderland of eyes that I often got lost in for several minutes until he began to look at me funny could easily melt me in seconds. His pale complexion complimented the blackness of his hair and highlighted his every perfect feature. There was no way I could go this whole night without having to hide my face from the embarrassment of my actions around him.

“Uh, hey,” I attempted. Oh no, I was tripping over my own words. Luckily, Ray came in to save me.

“Who’s ready for a kick-ass party?” he yelled with such excitement I stepped back two paces.

Everyone laughed at my near-panic attack. I had to admit, it was pretty funny. Although, I hoped Ray would stay this peppy the entire night so he could come to my aid again if opportunity presented itself.

Mikey finally broke our laughter. “So what do you guys wanna do?”

“Hmm, well I did buy that new game…” Gerard trailed off.

“Alrighty, let’s do that,” his brother agreed.

With that, Gerard went to his room to retrieve his zombie video game that we played for the next hour. I kept dying because my daydreams were clogging my focus. All I could think about was Gerard and how much I just wanted to hold him….

“FRANK! Okay, I’m getting tired of watching Frank die, let’s do something else,” Ray cried. That was probably a good idea.
We ended up watching Dawn of the Dead in the living room downstairs, as Mrs. Way had told us she and Mr. Way were staying with some friends for the night and left us some cash on the counter for snacks.

“Uhg, it’s getting late. Why don’t we turn in?” Mikey whined.

We all agreed, as it was pretty late and we had all tomorrow to hang out. Passing around pillows and blankets, I got lost in my daydreams again and apparently Gerard noticed.

“Whatcha thinking about so hard, Frank?” he asked me.

“Wha- oh, uhm, nothing…”

“Really? Well, okay but usually when people zone out they are thinking about something really intently,”

“It’, uhm, well, nevermind. I was just thinking of… uhm… puppies.”
Puppies? Smooth move, Iero.

“Okaaaaay…” he trailed off, raising his voice higher during the over-exaggerated “a”.

A few minutes passed when we realized there was a problem.

“Guys, this isn’t going to work. I’m freaking bored now.” Complained none other than Ray.

“Yeah, let’s do something,” Mikey pushed.

In silence, everyone pondered what to do on this Friday night. Well, almost everyone. I was getting all wrapped up in my thoughts about Gerard again. Unfortunately, he began to pick up on it again.

“Frank, what on earth are you thinking about up there?” he asked, cocking his head ever-so-slightly to the side. I never told him, but I thought he looked so cute like that.

“Nothing, uhm… just…”

“Puppies?”

“Uh-“

But I never was able to finish, or, well, start that sentence because oh-so-excited Ray had an idea.

“Let’s play Truth-or-Dare!”

So there we were, sitting in a circle on the floor like a group of middle-school girls playing Truth-or-Dare. I always hated this game. Once, I tried to only pick Truth so I wouldn’t have to do those embarrassing dares, but I soon realized that Truth is just as scary as Dare.

Ray picked first, “Mikey: Truth or Dare?”

“Truth,”

“Is it true that you sing to your bass at night?”

“WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?”

“That is for me to know, and for you to never find out. Now, is it true? Or not?”

“Yes…” he muttered, making us all crack up.

After our fits of laughter, Mikey spoke. “Alright, alright. But now it’s your turn, Frank. Truth or Dare?”

Oh, God. “Erm, Dare?”

“I dare YOU to draw Gerard.”

“Awl, that’s mean, Mikey. You know Frank has the artistic talents of a kindergartener.” Ray said, with and evil grin, making everyone else crack up again.

Actually that was one of the three reasons that this was quite possibly the meanest dare ever. The second reason was, that Gerard was a freaking Da Vinci-Picasso. You NEVER draw Gerard, he’s just too good at art to be challenged. I swear, his drawings spit in the face of the Mona Lisa.
The third reason, was obviously that I was so intensely in love with him. There was no denying that I was completely head-over-heels for him. The worst part was that he didn’t even know. No one did, except me and my daydream fantasy version of him. He wasn’t even bisexual like me. So, that means he could never love me back. He would never know, either, because I would never tell him. The pain and awkwardness of knowing you best friend is in love with you and he is also the same gender as you would be pretty embarrassing, I could guess. So it just sucks.

Sighing, I picked up the pencil by the coffee table and took a sheet of notebook paper from Mikey.

This was going to be so terrible….

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! He looks like a stick figure!” Ray practically choked laughing.

“THAT’S BECAUSE HE IS A STICK FIGURE!! HAHAHAHA!” Mikey joined in.

“Hmmm,” Gerard thought, “ I think he, I, need a little more detailing…”

With that, he wrapped his soft, yet hard, warm right hand around mine, which still held the pencil. I never once exhaled as he guided my hand around the paper so skillfully and cunningly. A few minutes passed, and my crappy stick figure looked like a masterpiece. I breathed out loudly, eyes as wide as they would go, and jaw slightly dropped as he let go of my hand.

“Something wrong, Frank?” he asked, with a different tone of voice than before. It was questioning, almost… mocking. I finally turned my eyes off the now-perfect drawing to look at Gerard. His head was cocked to the side again, and he had the smallest curve to his lips, like he was taunting me.

“I…uhm…” I stammered as I shook my head. “Uh… Ray, Truth or Dare?”

“Hmm,” he wondered, “Dare.”

“I dare you to…uh…” I began, looking back at Gerard, which was a huge mistake. He had the same look plastered on his adorable face and I turned my head back forcefully, blushing.

“Uh…” I began again, “I dare you to…” and that’s when I got a great idea. “SEDUCE MIKEY.”

Everyone fell over on their backs laughing so hard.

“What?? I OBJECT!” screamed Mikey.

“BWAHAHA! Okay, straight face, Ray, straight face,” Ray told himself.

“Hey baby,” Ray began in a stupid mock-seductive voice, “Is there a ninja in your pants? ‘Cause your butt is kickin”,”

We all died of giggles once again.

“EW! GET AWAY FROM ME!!!” Mikey yelled, throwing a pillow at Ray, which hit him square in the face.

“Awl, c’mon babe, don’t get feisty. I was just wondering if your pants were made of mirrors!!”

“What the hell?!?!”

“’Cause I can see myself in them!” Ray added, with a deeper sucky seductive voice. This only added more fire to our laughing flame. Gerard actually hit himself in the face with his fist from laughing so hard. Mikey, however, went and hugged the trashcan to his chest for fear of vomiting.

“You are so freaking weird, you know that don’t you?” Mikey asked, sounding disgusted. It was hilarious.

Ray came at him with one more. “I know my math: Add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and I’ll multiply!” he said, and then almost gagged laughing at his pick-up lines. That last one set us all off and we rolled around on the floor uncontrollably. Mikey made a bee-line for the bathroom.

When Mikey came back, we were still getting over our giggles, and Ray decided to take his turn.

“Gerard, Truth or Dare?” he asked, still getting over the attempted seduction at him.

Gerard decided, “Truth.”

“Okay, who here has the cutest nose?” Mikey asked with a slight giggle. Everyone went into another batch of laughter, except for me. My stomach started doing flip-flops and I could feel the back of my hands starting to sweat.

“That’s an easy one!” Gerard said with so bubbly, “Frank!”

I felt my cheeks burn and I was slightly shaking. Oh my God, me. He picked me. I averted my eyes, but then looked back, unsure of how to play this off. I wasn’t. I turned my attention to Gerard’s face for a split second until I my cheeks flushed even harder, if that was possible. To my surprise, he was wearing a devious grin with a soft twinkle in his eyes.

“It looks so adorable, like a kitty!” Gerard spoke as he scrunched his face up. My palms were starting to sweat and my heart was pounding out of my chest. The guys looked over at me with confused looks, all except Gerard, who was still beaming at me.

“You okay, Iero?” Ray questioned.

Mikey added, “Your face is really red, are you sick?”

“I… uh… erm…” I tried. So much for “playing it off.”

“Yeah, are you okay, Frank?” Gerard asked with a purr. He had leaned into my face slightly while saying this. Once again, my cheeks burned.

“I…”

“Never mind. Okay, Gerard. Your turn.” Ray impatiently started, wanting to get to some more hilarious dares.

“Oh, yes. Ray; Truth or Dare?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you… to make out with Mikey’s stuffed unicorn!”

Oh my God he is so funny! We all cracked up yet again, and it didn’t help that Mikey screamed,
“NO! NOT SPARKLES!”

Ray ran off to get Sparkles from Mikey’s room while Mikey ran off yelling, “I CAN’T WATCH!”,
leaving me alone with Gerard. Oh, no. This was the worst sleepover ever. I had been acting so uncool with all the sweating and shaking.

“You seem pretty tense tonight, Iero. Something wrong?” he breathed to me.

“Oh, uhm, no nothing.”

“Are you sure there isn’t anything the matter?”

“Uh… nope… just dandy.”

“Well you know-” and Gerard could never finish his thought because Ray came bounding down the stairs. I was so relieved; I made a mental note to buy Ray a burger next time I could. He had saved me numerous times today.

After seven whole minutes of Ray and Sparkles’ make-out session, Mikey ran into the room to rescue his unicorn. It took a while, but he finally,”managed to wrestle it out of Ray’s grasp.

“You are getting a bath tonight, my precious. Shhh… the mean poofy-haired man will never get you again.” Mikey soothed. This, of course, made us giggle at him.

“Haha, okay it’s my turn now and I pick Frank. Truth or Dare?” Ray chuckled, still watching Mikey comfort his stuffed animal.

“Uhm,” I had a bad feeling about this… “Truth,”

“Okay,” Ray giggled, as if he had something really mean, but hilarious planned, “Is it true you looooooooooooooooove Gerard?” he smirked, giving a kissy-face.

“Wha-” I started. The other guys started to laugh a little, but Gerard just looked at me with a solemn look on his face, as if he were expecting an answer. Oh, God! How did they know? I never told anyone! Was it that obvious? This couldn’t be happening! No, it couldn’t. I never wanted him to know, I just… I don’t know.

My cheeks burned five times as bad as they ever had that night… combined. I was sweating all over and violently shaking, holding back tears. I wasn’t going to last that much longer. The gigantic knot in my throat was about to explode. Before I knew it, two hot, sad tears fell from my eyes.

No, this wasn’t happening. Mikey noticed first and stopped laughing.

“Hey man, are you okay?”

No, I wasn’t okay. My biggest secret in the whole world was just exposed and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I wanted to go home. Gerard could keep my belongings a burn them if he’d so choose. He would probably hate me now and think I was a weird emo fag.

The pressure was just too much. I finally broke and ran out the front door, hearing Ray screaming, “Frank, man! It was just a joke!” But it wasn’t. I did love Gerard.

Before I fell to the ground on my knees from the exhaustion of running and crying, I heard Gerard yell, “Frank, wait!” Now he sees me as a pathetic teenage boy who can’t do anything right. Well, that was me. I screwed everything up and now I was folding my arms over my head, desperately trying to calm my intense headache, but was only making it worse by sobbing even harder onto the asphalt sidewalk in front of the Way’s house.

I heard footsteps coming from behind me, but I hadn’t moved from my stiff position. Whoever it was knelt down behind me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I couldn’t believe how quickly this night, and the whole rest of my life, for that matter, had fallen apart.

“Frank, what is wrong?” the stranger’s voice asked me. I recognized it very easily and turned around to face him. A look of pure concern was plastered on his face, and his eyes were glowing.

“Nothing,” I muttered, knowing he would see right through me, especially after the episode I had just pulled.

Gerard pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me. “Frank, you know I know something is wrong so go ahead and tell me.”

“No. You’ll hate me and think I’m some kind of loser. You will never want to talk to me again.”

“You know that’s not true. I will never be mad at you. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I… I can’t!” I wailed through sobs.

Gerard loosened his grip on me and stared me right in the eyes. He tilted my chin up with his firm hand.

“Frank,” he spoke softly and warmly, “What is wrong?”

“I…I… Gerard…you…”

“Yes?”

“I can’t do it!” I screamed, yanking free of Gerard’s hand on my chin and covering my face up with my arms.

“Yes you can. Look at me, Frankie. I mean, uhg. Just-” What? Gerard called me “Frankie.” That wasn’t my name. My name was Frank and he called me Frankie…

I cut off Gerard’s thoughts by turning my head up to look at him in fascination. Why had he called me Frankie? My tears stopped falling as I gazed into his eyes, while he averted his.

“Gerard?” I asked. “Why did you call me Frankie?”

“Well, I…” he began. He turned his eyes to stare into mine. They were so beautiful. He was so beautiful. The world seemed to melt away as I looked at him and his gorgeous self. And, without thinking, we simultaneously leaned closer into each other, still curled up on the asphalt ground in front of his house, without a care in the world.

I took one last look at his perfect, somewhat scared, and wonderful eyes before I closed mine. We were just heartbeats apart and I could feel his warm, welcoming breath on my skin. It tickled by lips and greeted me with the mouthwatering scent of cigarettes and Starbucks. I couldn’t wait another second. I leaned my lips into his, pressing them together with nothing but kind, happy thoughts of him.

My mind went through only positive thoughts of seagulls in the summer and snowmen in the winter. I felt the warmth of a pumpkin pie in the fall and the scent of morning dew in the spring after a dance in the rain. All the fuzzy, cheery thoughts flushed my brain until it went blank and all I could focus on were the soft, peachy lips of Gerard. I could finally feel all the sadness and hate running out of my ears and I smiled despite the fact that my lips were currently busy.

After what seemed like ages, but glorious, amazing ages, we pulled apart. I sat there, smiling like an idiot, but what could I say? Gerard just looked at me, expressionless. He looked into my eyes, and I gazed back, causing him to blush. After a few seconds of silence, I regained his confidence and asked me,

“Erm… uh… what, uh, was it you were going to, uh, ask me, Frankie? I mean Frankie, err… DAMMIT!”

He covered his face with his hands. I pulled them away gently and stared right into him.

“I love you, Gee.” I promised, giving him a nickname. I smirked softly.

Gerard took in a deep breath. “You mean that?”

I nodded.

“I love you, Frankie.”

I blushed again, and kissed his cheek before I stood up. I held out my hand to him, helping him up and off the asphalt. When he was up, he turned to let go of my hand, but I held it close. He looked at me concerned, as if afraid the others might find out, but I smiled at him, letting him know it was okay. We were almost at the front door when he looked at me and said, “Frankie, I thought your drawing of me was lovely.” This, of course, made my cheeks burn.

We walked hand-in-hand through the front door and sat down on the floor to join the others.
“Well, there you are! I was just about to beat the crap out of Ray for making that whole embarrassing Truth…” Mikey started, angrily, but with a pang of reassurance.

I waved it off. “Naw, it’s okay, Mikes.”

“Alright, well why don’t we watch another movie?” he suggested.

About five minutes later and we were all ready to start the film. It was another horror flick, as that was all we ever watched. Gerard, Ray, and I sat on the floor, while Mikey took up permanent residence on the couch, outstretched. The movie was pretty good, but what made it amazing was Gee leaning his head on my shoulder and grasping my hand the whole time. At the realization of this I blushed and smiled real big once again. By mistake, I caught Ray’s eye on the other side of Gerard.

“You’re welcome,” he grinned, and added a wink.