The Chasing of Moons

Not Again

By the time that Frank eventually makes his way to the cafeteria, he's almost petrified. He's anticipating a lot of crap, and he's anticipating it coming from more than one person.

Frank isn't the first to sit at their table, Ray and Brendon are both already there staring blankly at each other. They look very annoyed with each other.

"Contain yourselves boys," Frank says.

"He promised me he'd buy me ice cream," Ray says. "Guess who's a liar."

"I only had enough for him," Brendon says, "I didn't think Frank would be so expensive but he put everything on his ice cream! I thought I'd have enough left over. I'm not the one with the job."

"Are you trying to tell me that minimum wage is enough to buy ice cream? What year do you think it is? I can barely afford socks," Ray says.

"Ah see, and thus are the luxuries of a rich aunt," Frank says.

"Go fuck yourself," Brendon scowls, as his car is secondhand along with most of his things. But that's the curse of having siblings, Frank supposes.

"Oh no," Frank says seeing Pete and Mikey walking over, practically glued at the hip. Frank doesn't think it's fair that he and Gerard got together first and yet Mikey and Pete are practically exchanging wedding vows already. He knows that he and Gerard will still end up together in the end, and that Pete and Mikey will too, but he realized recently that he doesn't know whose wedding is coming first. In the pictures Gerard gave him, there's no clear shot on either of the hands, so Frank can't tell if they've got wedding rings yet. He simply doesn't know who is going to be tying the knot first and it infuriates him. He direly hopes it's him and Gerard. He has a feeling Gerard would get a complex if his younger brother got married before him.

But Frank is thinking way too far in the future, as here comes Gerard looking pissed as all hell. He beats Pete and Mikey to the table, as his walk is fast and determined and his face looks like he's about to yell at the first person who talks to him.

As soon as Gerard sits down, Ray and Brendon both get this look and turn in the opposite direction, like they're extremely fascinated by the window. Frank also happens to become all of a sudden interested in the window, watching the grey sky taunting rain over them.

"So my mom bought a new kind of cleaner this weekend," Brendon says.

"Oh, tell me more!" Ray says, and Frank rolls his eyes at the two because of their very lacking performance. He understands that they're trying to give him and Gerard privacy but he'd rather they just didn't talk at all.

Mikey and Pete finally sit down and Brendon very conspicuously gestures towards him and Gerard as if to say that shit is going down.

"So do you mind explaining why you're ashamed of me?" Gerard says finally, with a stern jaw and focused eyes.

"That is not at all true," Frank says.

"So why are you all of a sudden pretending you don't know me?"

"Okay, so I see why you might get that idea, but it's not true. I'm not ashamed of you, I'm... like I'm more ashamed of myself."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Gerard asks.

"Like, I've never been the gay kid before," Frank whispers, glancing around to make sure no one can hear him. This isn't the right thing to do as Gerard looks even angrier now. Frank just can't do anything right.

"And that relates to me how?" Gerard asks. "I've been the gay kid for about four years, Frank."

"I know, I understand that and you're a way better person than I am too."