Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part III: Chapter 18

"Oh no, I didn't know he wasn't open about it. I hope the word didn't get out if I ever mentioned it with my friends... I let you go to pride, too, and I'm sure that raised questions...!"

"Mom, this is the furthest thing from your fault. You didn't know."

I explained how I had urged him to say something. My voice was shaking, but I fought the urge to cry. Not right now. I'd done enough of that.

"Frank finally came out a few days ago, and... and it didn't go well."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said, gently placing a hand on my shoulder.

"No... I'm using euphemisms now." Keep it together. "They told him to leave. He's been calling relatives to see who will take him in instead. And now I'm just terrified that no one will love him. If he moves too far, it'll even be hard for me to. God, he doesn't deserve this..."

"Honey, he is welcome here. What if you asked him to stay with us until graduation?"

I looked up at her, unconvinced. "Actually?"

"Of course I'll have to discuss it with your father, but I'm sure he'll have no qualms. When we were younger he used to tell me he wished we would have had another son." She patted my knee. "I miss how happy you've been all summer. I want him to be happy, too."

"Mom, oh my God, I love you." I threw my arms around her, the tears finally leaking out of the corners of my eyes. There was an entirely new feeling behind them now.

"Hey, don't use the Lord's name in vain. Now, you have to know," she said, peeling my arms off of her, "there will be rules. He won't be in your room after nine, I expect you to maintain your grades, and you're going to have to smile a lot more."

"Yes. Absolutely. Anything. Thank you, thank you, thank you; you are the most wonderful human on this planet." I hugged her again. She squeezed me tightly and kissed my cheek.

"I love you, hon. Now go call that boy! I'll be downstairs."

She closed the door, and I was truly crying now. How was I to contain the amount of emotion that had swung by these past few days? It took me a good fifteen minutes to calm down enough to be able to dial Frank's number.

He picked up almost immediately. "Hey."

"Hey! How's house hunting going?" I tried to laugh.

"Gerard, have you been crying again? You really need to relax. It's not my execution I'm marching off to in a few days."

"I – yeah. I'm sorry. But I've been crying for other reasons, actually."

"Oh, what happened? Are you okay?"

"I am more than okay. I'm actually really, really okay. But you didn't answer my question. Found a place yet?"

"Not yet. I texted my Aunt Ratched and my Uncle Vernon, but they can't help. I tried calling..."

He listed off various family members, some I'd heard him talk about before and others I hadn't. Still, all I needed to know where the first two words he'd said.

"...but I'm still confident. I still haven't called my Aunt Caroline – who's like a cat lady, but with dogs – so I'm thinking of calling her next. She lives in Ohio, though. I'm hoping to not have to move that far."

I realized now I had done no rehearsing, not even in my head, about how to ask him to move in. This was usually something people did when they were preparing to get married, or at least more than a few months into a relationship. Part of me was disappointed that this was the circumstance that made it happen, but still, I was more than happy to offer it if it would save him from moving to a place where no one would know him or love him other than a few dogs. I got out of my head and let myself just talk, hoping everything would come out right.

But then again, this wasn't about finding the perfect word choice; it was about the message.

"You don't have to move that far."

"I might; I just don't know yet."

"No, what I mean is... I was just talking to my mom. I told her what happened, and she was really understanding. And also very eager to open our doors to you, if you wanted to stay with us."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, making me worry for a second that there had been some kind of error and the phones had disconnected. All that filled my ear was static, but somewhere in there I could hear him breathing, letting me know he was still there.

"Frank?"

"You wouldn't joke about this." It was a statement, like he'd been considering that possibility but also shutting it down immediately.

"No." The smile was evident in my voice.

"You're serious. She said that. And you're sure?"

"She made it very clear and very specific. Frank, imagine this!"

"I don't want to imagine – I want to do it." He started laughing with joy. "How soon can I come over?"

"I'll talk to her again and let you know!"

"I can't believe this," he breathed. "I never dreamed it would even be a possibility."

"Neither did I, until my own mother walked in and made it sound like I was ridiculous for not suggesting it. I'm so glad she said something."

"Let's not even think about what would happen if she didn't."

"Agreed."

He laughed again. "You know what the best part is?"

"What?" I grinned.

"This is the biggest fuck you to my parents I could possibly dream of."

At that point, my emotions were so out of whack that I couldn't stop laughing for a long time. Neither could he. We needed to laugh so badly by that point, considering the events of the week, that it hardly mattered that it wasn't funny at all.