We're Just Friends (Frank Iero)

3.

First period...Chemistry class. I dragged myself out of bed for this crap? Yawning, I made my way into class and took my place in the back waiting for Frankie to show up. He didn't turn up for breakfast at my place and he wasn't in class yet...which was unusual. He skipped class sometimes, but he usually skipped it with me when we would think of better things to do.

The class started and ended and Frankie didn't show up. Confused, I decided to text him. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see a text from Gerard, asking if I wanted to hang out again tonight. In the middle of texting him back, I bumped into somebody in the corridor.

"Ouch Pops!"

"Frankie!" I shouted, hitting him on the arm. "You skipped class without me!"

"Sorry," he said, looking awkward. "I didn't wanna go because I couldn't do my homework last night, so I just decided to skip instead." He looked genuinely guilty and a little bit embarrassed.

"Oh Frankie I'm sorry," I said, linking my arm with his and pulling him down the corridor with me. "I should have helped you. But you really do need to study else you're gonna fail your midterms! Did you do your Math homework? We have Math now."

"No," he said, looking guilty again.

"I will do it for you in class," I said, trying to make him feel better. I felt guilty for doing his work for him, because it probably wasn't going to help him in his midterms. At the same time, I wanted to help him out. "But soon we're gonna have to start studying. Promise?"

"Yeah," he pouted. "You're amazing Pops."

"Poppy!" I corrected him through gritted teeth.

We went into class and I quickly did Frank's homework for him before our teacher took them from us. I'm pretty sure the teacher knew that I did Frank's work for him, seeing as it was always in my handwriting and was always identical to mine. The only class I didn't have to do his work for him in was Music class- Frank excelled at music and our music teacher was so into him, always using him to show the rest of the class how to do stuff.

"So, wanna hang out tonight?" Frank asked as we walked out of school at the end of the day. "I've got like six movies I wanna see but they're all horror movies and I only wanna watch them if you're gonna be there to hold my hand."

"Uh...Gerard wants to hang out with me again tonight," I said shyly, anticipating Frank to mock me.

"Again?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Jeez Poppy, a second date? At this rate I'm gonna be alone every damn night!"

"Oh don't complain," I grinned. "I spend loads of nights alone when you're out with various girlfriends! I didn't see you for like a month when you first started dating Jamia."

"That's not true," he insisted. "It was more like a week. Anyway she broke up with me, no thanks to you!"

 I rolled my eyes in frustration. Although I knew he was joking, Frankie blamed me for his break-ups so often that I was starting to believe that they were truly my fault.

"Why don't I invite him round to watch a movie with us?" I suggested. "That way I can hang out with both of you, and you can keep an eye on him and make sure he's not a psycho who tries to kill me."

"Yay," Frank said, smiling at me. I sent Gerard a text and invited him over, making sure he knew that Frankie would be there so it wasn't a weird surprise. Gerard agreed but he didn't sound overly excited. He turned up at my place that night, looking cute but very shy, like a scared puppy.

"You've got a guy over?" Bob said, sounding surprised and wary. "Don't you dare do anything to my little sister," he warned at Gerard, making Gerard look terrified. Gerard nodded and mumbled something about not doing anything, but I hurried him upstairs quickly before Bob scared him off.

"Hey Frank, this is Gerard," I said, bringing Gerard into my bedroom.

"I know you!" Frank said, startling Gerard. "You're in some of my classes. You know my buddy Ray- he's done a few gigs with me around town." Gerard nodded and smiled at Frank, before awkwardly sitting down on the edge of my bed. I jumped onto the bed in the middle of the two of them and switched on my TV which was positioned opposite my bed, so we were all facing the TV in a line. Frankie pulled a bag of popcorn out of his bag and we decided to watch some awful horror movie which was so bad that we all just ended up laughing at it, but I'm pretty sure I felt Gerard jump a few times at the scary moments. Gerard was so cute. Towards the end of the movie he abruptly grabbed my hand during a scary scene and kept a tight hold on it for the rest of the movie. 

"Well that was shit," I laughed, turning off the TV.

"I was scared," Gerard admitted. Frank laughed out loud when he said this.

"It was a bad movie," Frank said. "So...should I give you kids some privacy?"

"N-no!" Gerard stuttered. "I mean, I have to get going, it's kind of late now."

"I'll walk you out," I said, leading Gerard out of my room, ignoring the stupid faces that Frank was pulling at me. I walked him downstairs, feeling thankful that Bob wasn't hanging around waiting for us, ready to scare Gerard again.

"T-thanks, I had a good time," Gerard said, smiling at me in the doorway.

"Me too," I said, blushing slightly.

"S-so are you and Frank like, did you used to date or something?" he asked, looking awkward.

"Me and Frankie?" I said with a laugh. "No, we've been friends for like a decade or something. We've never dated. That would just be...weird."

"Okay," he said with another smile. "I was a bit worried- when I told my brother that I was going on a date with you, he said that you and Frank were a thing."

"A lot of people think so," I said. "But we're not, I'm all yours."

All yours? Why did I say that?! How embarrassing...

"Okay," he said, his smile widening. "See you at school?"

"See you," I said. I thought he was going to kiss me, seeing as this was our second date, but he just turned and walked away. I shut the door and headed back upstairs.

"So, what do you wanna do now?" I said to Frank, climbing into my bed. "Bedtime? Or a second movie?"

"Uh...I'm gonna go," he said. "I'm meeting a girl."

"Seriously?!" I said, throwing the half-empty bag of popcorn at him. "You made me feel guilty about ditching you so I invited my date to hang out with us and now you're ditching me for some girl?"

"What's wrong, can't you sleep at night without me here?" he said with a mischievous grin.

"I find it difficult," I said with a serious expression on my face. "I"m not used to sleeping without you anymore."

"Oh Poppy..." he said, clambering on top of me and slowly moving his face close to mine. He slowly closed his eyes and pouted his lips, until he was so close to me that I could hear his breathing. I kept my eyes open and slowly moved towards him, until our lips were barely an inch apart.

"Ahhhh!!" I shouted, pulling away quickly and laughing loudly. "You win, I can't do it."

"I always win at gay chicken," he grinned. "You're weak Pops."

"I wish you wouldn't call it gay chicken," I laughed. "You make me feel like a guy."

"Whatever," he laughed. "See you later okay?" He picked up his bag and left quickly, leaving me alone in my room. I sunk down into my bed, preparing to fall asleep, but for some reason I couldn't. I tossed and turned for a good ten minutes before sitting upright in bed. I looked out of my window to see if I could see Frank in his room. From my window I could see directly into Frank's bedroom, and I could see him walking around, making me feel comfortable. I was so used to sleeping with Frank in my bed that I think the reason I couldn't sleep now was because he wasn't there, but seeing him made me feel better. Then, I saw a girl walk up to him and kiss him. I recognised her- she was one of the more popular girls from our school. She was slim, tall and blonde, making me feel a bit intimidated as I was so short at five foot two. I wondered to myself how he managed to get such a popular girl considering we weren't the most popular kids in school. But the thing that I was most confused about was the fact that I felt a slight twinge of jealousy. I had seen Frankie date loads of girls...why was I feeling jealous all of a sudden?