Polly

There's a girl in the crowd that has captured his attention, though she is not my mother.

She's plane but pretty, dressed in a skirt and vest and with long fair hair. Frank thinks about maybe going over to talk to her or even to dance, but he decides better of it and instead votes on going for a cigarette break. The chances are his mother will scold him more on the smoking than the drinking but he thinks he has some mints in his jumper pocket so perhaps she wont have to know. Of course, she never finds out about the drinking or the smoking but that's no thanks to the mints.

It's cold outside due to it being October and Jersey but Frank remains in his t-shirt, he doesn't think he'll be long. The house belongs to a good friend, Bob, and most of the garden is paved over and lit with security style lights that switch on when detecting movement. Frank doesn't see the irony in this until much later.

There is someone already outside when Frank gets there, the figure is hidden by shadows and is unfamiliar to Frank at this point. The figure turns on hearing Frank enter the garden and they blow smoke rings up into the night, reminding Frank of what he came here to do. 

Frank is not a very good smoker- Bob got him in to the habit, being one of those friends Frank's mother calls a bad influence- as he has not been doing it very long. But he is learning and even graceless nicotine is better than none.

Frank doesn't smoke anymore; the amount of time he spends in the hospital as well as the lung cancer don't allow much leeway when it comes to the nicotine sticks. In fact, neither of these things allow leeway for much at all.

Frank doesn't plan on speaking to his smoking company, the man next to him is not anybody he knows and, as previously mentioned, teenagers like Frank are none too good at communicating with others of their kind. Though, actually, this man seems to be more than a teen, a tween perhaps. A little too old to be at Frank's birthday bash, anyway. Frank wonders if perhaps this man is an older brother of one of the guests then lets his curiosity go.

Frank can feel himself staring, that's never a good habit.

It is the man that makes the first move, he captures his smoke between two long pale fingers and turns more properly towards Frank. He's not smiling but his face is warm and bright against the cold night. Frank does smile, if a little stiffly, and that is all it takes for the man to start off.

“Hi.” He says and his accent is local. “This is your party, right?”

At the time Frank thinks it's odd that the man knows this just from seeing him, but the thought is fleeting, right now man is not a threat.

“Yeah and you are?”

“Mikey's brother, Gerard.”

It does not strike Frank as strange that he has not actually seen Mikey at his party. Mikey is only a boy Frank knows through Bob, he is all and mousy with long, skinny legs and glasses, a good few years older than him. Gerard looks very different to Mikey with thick black hair and a round face, he's bigger too. A lot bigger than Frank. This does little to scare Frank either, though. At this point Gerard is just a stranger at a party. An attractive one at that.

“Frank.” Frank offers even though he suspects that if the man knows that this is his party, he almost certainly knows Frank's name. But Frank has good manners and his mother is bound to find out if he doesn't use them now.

“It's lovely to meet you, Frank.” Gerard says, putting a little emphasis onto Frank's name as he tries it out for what Frank assumes must be the first time.