Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part III: Chapter 2

"Sold."

***

We found a shade tree to sit under in the center of the park, behind the vendors on the street. Frank balanced his ice cream dish between his knees as he took the corner of his flag and draped it around my shoulders, his hand landing on my right. I let my left hand reach across me to hold it there. Of course, this required us to sit much closer together; something he, no doubt, was hoping to achieve. Despite the heat I eagerly snuggled closer to him while he took a bite of ice cream.

"So where do your parents think you are right now?" I asked him.

"Mm, I told them I was hanging with a friend. It's not really a lie," he said quickly, like he was afraid I'd call him out for dishonesty, "but still I'm not sure they bought it."

He sighed, and I felt his chest rise and fall.

"Hey," I nudged him. "No pressure, okay? Don't rush into coming out if you're not ready. I only worry about it happening wrong, and that kind of requires outrunning everyone else."

"Right, yeah. No pressure." He sounded like he was trying to brush it off, yet it was hard to say if he believed what he was saying.

"Wanna come with me to get another water bottle?" I held up my empty one for him to see.

"Sure; I'll need more soon, too."

"Can't be passing out due to dehydration today. Too much to do and see!"

He offered me a bigger smile. "You're right. I don't want to miss a second of this."

***

By the time the sun was setting and the weather finally cooled to a more decent temperature, Frank and I headed back to where I'd parked the car.

"You know," Frank murmured, looking down at the flag he was carrying, "I can't really take this with me. Do you want to keep it?"

"Sure, I'll hold onto it." He passed it to me, and I tossed him the keys. "Be there in a second."

We split when we got to the car so I could put the flag in the trunk and he could sit in the front. A little piece of me was heartbroken that Frank couldn't be himself at home, and one little piece of cloth (okay, one huge piece of cloth) could cause so much controversy at his house. I closed the trunk before I could start overthinking that and sat up front with him. Because there was some Higher Power on our side, apparently, the car was facing perfectly west, with an ideal view of the sunset through the windshield.

Frank gave me the keys back and I turned on the car for the sake of the air conditioning, but it was obvious neither of us wanted to leave quite yet. We only stared at the gorgeous oranges and yellows hidden behind purple clouds in near silence, content that way. A bird flew across the scene and Frank's fingers brushed over my hand. I laced our fingers together as if they hadn't been lingering over each other almost constantly the past few hours.

The sun sank lower in the sky, slowly turning the golden glow to a deep red.

"What time do you need to be home?" I asked.

"No specific time, really," he answered. "My mom knew I'd be out for a while."

"Okay."

Silence once again. I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed mine back.

"Um," Frank said a minute later, and I tore my gaze from one beautiful sight to another, "because I'm too afraid of doing this when you drop me off at my house, I'm going to get it out of the way now."

My heart seized up when he leaned toward me in the near darkness, but what a good kind of heart attack it was. His eyes flicked down to where I was subconsciously biting my lip and back up to my eyes. I met him in the middle.

We didn't kiss right away, only let our foreheads rest against each other, anticipation rising. Then our noses. I felt his breath on my upper lip.

Finally, we collapsed into a deep kiss.

I'd be lying if I didn't say it was a little uncomfortable, nothing like how romantic car-kisses seem to be in the movies. There was physically too much between us, and if we tried to move any closer the gear shift would press into our sides.

I found it easier to ignore the overwhelming desire to pull him closer to me as soon as he started smiling against my lips. That was more contagious than I thought it would be. I reached my hand behind his head and pulled him in further, entwining my fingers in his hair. His hands slowly found their way to the back of my neck and the side of my face. Was I thinking about something a moment ago? All I needed was him, the pressure of his hands on me, the press of his kiss on my lips. All I cared about was him. Right now, he was all that mattered.

A/N

Hello hello! This is actually one of the very first scenes I wrote in this book and it didn't change very much through editing; I hope it's up to par with the rest of it.

I was thinking about making this book a little more reader-interactive, should you choose to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets to the comment section on Wattpad (that's a joke; I see what your dirty minds are thinking at any given point in a fanfic. You can't hide). So leave a comment – your name, your sexuality, and your favorite concert you've ever been to (they all feel relevant to the chapter, don't you think?).

~Cassidy, pansexual, Trans-Siberian Orchestra!