Pretty Boy (You Make Me Want To Live)

Visiting Again

Frank awoke with a start. He let out an involuntary sigh as he glanced over to his alarm clock, finding that it was 6:43am. Time to get up for school then.

He rolled over, sitting at the edge of his bed for a moment while the dizziness cleared from his head before standing up and wandering over to his closet, sifting though his clothes and eventually pulling out a tight-fitted royal blue cropped top and a pair of full length black dungarees and setting the clothes on his bed.

He took a shower, humming to himself as he ran his hands through his hair and scrubbed a strawberry scented shower-gel over his body, thinking about the events of the night. The least he could say was that he was curious about this man. He didn't even know what the guy looked like!

Frank dried himself off, wrapping his towel around him like a cloak and running back to his room, hoping that none of his housemates had woken up yet, although his hopes were dashed when Jamia walked out of her room and the two collided, Frank almost dropping his towel out of surprise.

"Oh! Frank, g'mornin'" Jamia croaked hoarsely, obviously showing that she'd only just woken up.

"H-hi Jamia." Frank nodded with an awkward smile and hurried off around her, returning to the safety of his room. He had just started his first year of University and had opted to rent a house along with a group of other first-years. He had been there almost two weeks - along with the rest of them - and still only knew two out of the four of their names.

Well, that was a lie, he learnt all their names before he'd even moved in, but panicked when any of them approached him and momentarily forgot. Hell, the young adult had even gone out of his way to friend everyone he lived with on Facebook so he knew something about them.

He pulled on a clean pair of underwear and socks before tugging the tight denim up his legs, slipping the top over his head and fastening the buckles on his dungarees. He glanced at himself in the mirror, smiling a little at his appearance and moved across to the small vanity in his room, rifling through the drawers to find a royal blue bow clip to match his outfit.

He twirled in his mirror, a small giggle escaping his lips. Frank grabbed a lip-gloss off his vanity and spread it across his lips, grinning into the mirror again.

He turned back to his bed, picking up his backpack - that he had dumped at the end of his bed the previous afternoon - and dropped it onto his bed, grabbing his timetable from the front pocket and checking which lectures he had that day. He smiled and mentally fist-bumped himself when he realised he only had one.

He checked his clock again, it had 7.30 now, a good time to leave. He grabbed his bag, slipping it over his shoulders and slipping his feet into his very worn out black converse. The shoes were bound to break any day soon, but that didn't stop Frank from wearing them everywhere, with everything.

As he left his room and walked down the stairs, his mind wandered to his little park bench meetups. The man had been on his mind an awful lot lately, especially this past week since he had first 'met' - if that's what you'd call it - the guy.

"Hey! Frank! You want anything to eat?" A voice called from the kitchen as Frank tried to sneak past, but his attempts were foiled and he turned around to face an overly-smiley housemate.

"I made pancakes and bacon, there's some syrup on the table." Maxx grinned holding out a plate to Frank.

The smaller male took the plate and seated himself at the table, Maxx joining him seconds later sitting on the opposite side of the table and tucking into the small stack of pancakes he had already piled onto his plate. Frank followed the blonde's lead and took a pancake for himself, drizzling syrup over it before cutting it carefully with his knife and fork.

"So," Maxx started, pausing to swallow his mouthful, "How are you? You got up early this morning."

"I'm good." Frank gave a small smile, glancing up at Maxx momentarily before looking down at his pancake again.

"Yeah? That's good. Who do you have today?" Maxx asked, clearly trying to start a conversation with Frank.

"Uhh... Mr Toro I think, you?"

"You mean Ray, right? I have him too! At ten." Maxx grinned over at Frank, taking a gulp of coffee before forcing some more of his pancakes into his mouth.

"Oh! You do? I never saw you at his before?"

"Yeah, I always sit right at the back, but you sit near the front, right? Like on the second or third row?"

"Yeah." Frank gave Maxx a genuine smile, his eyes crinkling slightly as he did so before returning his attention to his pancake and finishing it off.

----------

The day passed quickly and all too soon Frank was lying on his bed - on top of his duvet still fully dressed - staring at his ceiling and wondering why he wasn't tired yet. He let out a long sigh and turned his head so he could see his alarm clock. It was almost 2am.

He rolled over and slid out of bed, pulling his black converse on again. Was he really about to do this? Yes, absolutely.

He turned the handle of his door slowly, sneaking out of his room, down the stairs and out of the house, pausing before pulling the front door closed to check he hadn't woken anyone up. He locked the door and leant back against it for a second, taking a deep inhale of the cool air.

He stood up again, heading towards the park, just letting his feet carry him away from his room. Anywhere away from there was better than being trapped.

He soon found himself seated on the rotting park bench, one foot tucked up under him and the other swinging idly beneath the bench, occasionally brushing against the ground.

"Thought you weren't gonna come today." A husky voice murmured from behind him, and Frank felt the backrest of the bench bend under the other man's weight as he leant down against it.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Dunno, thought yesterday might've been a one-off or something." The man said, and Frank felt the bench move slightly as the man - presumably - shrugged.

"Why?"

"You don't seem like the type to be taking midnight walks to the murder park on a regular, if I'm honest."

"Fair enough, fair enough." Frank sighed, the man wasn't exactly wrong, but this was the only bench he knew of that was outside his house and no more than a ten minute walk.

The pair fell silent again and Frank let out another breath, watching as it swirled away into the inky blackness.

"You heard that Black Flag are touring?" The man suddenly asked, leaning closer and Frank heard him shuffle around slightly and could see the man's hands appear next to him, so could tell that the man had leant onto his forearms on the bench.

"Yeah, I did, I can't go though." Frank muttered sadly, looking down at his lap and shifting as he realised his leg had gone to sleep under him.

"Oh? Why?"

"Don't have enough money, aren't the tickets like fifty quid? And if I wanted to go I'd have to go with a friend and none of my friends like them, so I'd have to pay for their ticket too..."

"Oh... I'm sorry." The man said, standing up again. Part of Frank had hoped that maybe the man would offer to go with him, but another part was glad that the man wasn't trying to do anything, they'd known - if that's what you'd call it - each other for barely a day.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure they'll be back soon anyway." Frank gave a weak smile into the darkness and leant back against the bench. He could just feel the man's fists either side of his torso and his head brushed against the man's chest, or it might've been his jacket, Frank didn't know, he couldn't actually see the man, remember?

"Yeah I'm sure they will." The man agreed and Frank could feel his hands flexing around the splintering wood behind him, as if he were debating on leaving or not.