The Chasing of Moons

Part II

"I don't think I've ever been insulted so poetically," Frank frowns, "and yet I kind of want to punch you in the face? But, like, I know you're right? You make a good point, and I wouldn't expect you to be on my side in this all when Gerard is your brother, but damn, still wanna hit you."

"Well, I'm not neutral in this, Frank, and don't think for one second that I'm not on Gerard's side. If this were a real war, I do hope you realize I would be on his team and I would shoot you in the face without a second thought, but seeing as this is not a war and it's mostly just a quest to see if you're capable of not being a little shit, then I will provide advice, but I'm still not on your side, and you really have no merit to punch me. In fact, I think the punching permission lies in my favor."

"I really hate you Way's," Frank shakes his head, "you're so smart but you're mean about it?"

"It's a genetic thing."

"So is fibromyalgia," Frank says, trying to highlight how pointless that statement was by inadvertently making himself sound stupider.

"Right," Mikey says, "so I'm just going to walk away from you and you had better have a fucking plan by tomorrow. Gordon Ramsay this shit, okay, take it from zero to a hundred overnight."

"Did you just say without irony 'Gordon Ramsay this shit'?" Frank asks.

"Don't question my methods," Mikey says, "you absolute fucking walnut."

Frank nods, "I'm going to go cry in my car and listen to breakup albums now." Somehow that sounds less embarrassing than his other alternative which was to just cry in the hallway.

"Just know that if you ruin Gerard's birthday I will hunt you down and make your life hell for every waking moment that you continue to exist."

"Noted," Frank says, turning around and walking away as quickly as he can in a way that doesn't make it look like he's trying to run away from Mikey, but it's still pretty obvious that he's running away from Mikey. Who wouldn't?

When Frank gets out of the building, the front steps are flooded with students all talking about this or that, with the air drizzling so sparsely around them that it might just be wayward spit from people talking too emphatically.

When Frank does make it to his car, and out of the parking lot, which feels blissful to him, all he does is get far enough away from the school so that no one is going to see his pitiful crying in the front seat of his car. First of course he stops at a convenience store for a massive bag of Kit Kat's because that's what a breakup, or whatever this is, demands. It's like meeting a Dementor, as soon as you experience that, you have to binge on chocolate, it's just a fact of nature.

Frank pulls out a Taylor Swift CD from his glove compartment, which he will tell anyone who asks that he received as a birthday present from his aunt the cat lady from Hell, Michigan, literally, and which has never in it's entire life been inside a CD player, nor has it even seen the light of day. What actually happened was that he got it as a joke and then realized it was good after it was too late, and he can't turn back. He can't turn back now, it's far too late. Too late. It's just too late.

Also it's really good to soothe a good heartbreak. Not that Frank's ever had his heart broken, because he's never really dated anyone. But he watches a lot of teen shows that he also would deny ever having seen. But goddammit, Clare and Eli were meant for each other.

Even more so however, he and Gerard were meant for each other. Not only meant for each other, they bend time and space for each other. That's how meant for each other they are. Fuck off Marshall and Lily, Gerard is way fucking cuter and has less obnoxious siblings. Frank is aware that that analogy entails that he is Lily, and he is very much okay with that.