The Sharpest Lives

Chapter Twenty-Three: That Shade of Lipstick Suits You Too Well

[Frank]

I turned up for my coffee again, half-expecting her to be there again. Well, not half-expecting. By the time I'd gone through my usual routine, the expectations had dwindled down to almost nothing. Besides, she hadn't been back all week.

It was stupid to hope. It always was.

So imagine my surprise when I turned around after ordering and picking up my usual coffee, and saw that she was sitting there, in the exact same place as before, but with just different clothes.

I hurried over there way too fast. I looked so incredibly desperate.

Then again, I kind of was.

She glanced at me like she had that day and smiled. 'Hello again' she wrote. It was a new page, a new character this time, I noticed.

"Why're you here again?" That didn't mean to come out as rude as it did. God, I felt like such a prick for saying it like that…

'I actually kinda like this place…why, am  I annoying you, being more fashionable than you?'

I snorted, trying to hide my laugh. "What, can't afford Starbucks anymore, or…?"

'My, your jealousy is caustic. If you beg, I could teach you how to actually dress.

"I am dressed!"

'Like a motherfucking hobo, yeah. Fabulous.

"Who the fuck am I going to get dressed up for?" I was enjoying this far, far too much.

'I don't know…girlfriend?'

I laughed, one hard, humorless laugh. "Sure-"

She started scribbling before I could finish. 'Actually, hobos don't have girlfriends, never mind'.

"Fuck you," I mumbled into my coffee.

'You know you want to'.

This, of course, resulted in me inhaling my coffee, spluttering, choking, and becoming horribly red in the face.

And while I was choking- actually laughing through my choking- I realized that even though I had several pairs of eyes on me at that point, I could only really concentrate on one, even as my eyes watered. And when my eyes finally cleared, I realized why.

I couldn't miss those eyes anywhere.

No matter how impossible it may seem.

No matter if this person was supposed to be dead.

For a second, no one knew what to do, as we both just stood there and stared, wide-eyed at each other. Her (her?) eyes had suddenly widened once mine had, either out of recognition or out of the realization that I'd found out…her secret.

The silence in the room was suffocating. But for a minute, everyone around us didn't even matter.

She (Jesus, I don't even know at this point) shifted uncomfortably in front of me, but said nothing. Didn't move. Probably didn't breathe either.

"You were right," I said, breaking the incredibly awkward silence. "You do look hot as a chick."

He blinked at me for a second, trying to understand what the fuck I even meant. When I grinned, he looked even more bewildered.  As for the rest of the customers in the room at the time, they were loving the drama. It's like they thought we were deaf, they were whispering so loud.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, probably trying to make up some excuse. I stood there, grinning, not even knowing why I was grinning. I should've been punching the living the shit out of him. I should have been screaming at him. Throwing my coffee in his face and screaming some more.

But none of that ever happened.

Because he grabbed his sketchbook and took off.

For a minute, I just stood there and watched him run, my grin slowly slipping off my face in horror.

Rejection. I'd finally gotten my taste of it, four years later.

He could've at least ripped my heart out in a nicer way.

The place was still for an entire minute while I watched him sprint across the road and almost get run over.

Then:

"What the fuck're you waitin' for?" some old man yelled from his table.

I stared at him, bewildered. "What the hell d'you-"

"Run after her, ya dumb-ass! Give the old man some entertainment would ya?"

This guy was an asshole…but he sort of had a point, I guess.

So I ran after her…him. I ran after him.

And again, here I was, chasing him all over again.

I just kept hoping and hoping that this wouldn't end like it did in my nightmares.

I only just found you, I begged, Please,  just don't fade away again yet.

Please.

Somehow, I caught up to him. How, I'm not really sure, but I got close enough to scream. To scream, because my life depended on this.

"Gerard!"

I screamed his name. I screamed his name and watched him skid to a halt and listen to me scream until I crashed right into him.

I crashed back into life, and it held me. He held me. And before I could even think about it, my lips were crashing against his, my mouth smashed to his in a sudden burst of passion and undiluted joy.

I could barely breathe. The kiss, how tightly he was holding me, the emotion, the happiness I hadn't felt in so, so long, made it so hard to breathe.

It was here, what I wanted. What I'd waited so long for, it was here, in my arms.

We pulled apart from our sudden, frantic kiss and just took a second to look at each other. Really look at each other.

And then another kiss came naturally, softer this time, slow. Everything we had ever meant to say was in this one kiss, the kiss we were always meant to have. His lips were warm and gentle, moving with mine in slow, even motions, caressing, loving.

We had a lot to work out. A hell of a lot to work out. Shit, I didn't even want to think about what we had to work out after this.

So I didn't. I just…didn't.