Gerard heard about what happened with Frank and he was about to go over to see him when he got a package.
"What'd you order?" Mikey asked.
"I think it's some comic books I ordered," he said.
Gerard opened the package and gasped. His eyes and throat began to burn. Gerard hurried to the door for some fresh air, Mikey hurrying behind him.
"Oh my god, what is that?" Donald asked as he walked out.
Gerard coughed, crying into his sleeve.
"That was fucking tear gas," Mikey choked out. "M-my friend's dad was in the military, he showed it to us once."
"Someone sent me fucking tear gas?" Gerard asked.
"Can we please stop swearing?" Donald asked as he wiped his eyes. "God, we're gonna have to go stay the night at your grandparents' to let everything air out. Come on, get in the car."
"We have to pack stuff, though," Mikey said.
"Do you wanna go back in there?" Donald asked.
Mikey looked at the smoke through the window before shaking his head. Gerard sighed, getting into the car. They drove up to North Brunswick and Donald called Donna to tell her the situation on the way.
"This sucks," Mikey mumbled. "Do you think it was Lindsey?"
Gerard shushed him, looking out the window. They got to their grandparents house and Donald explained what happened while Gerard and Mikey went to the guest room where they had some clothes and things stored.
"Well, this sucks," Mikey said. "I was gonna go out with Kristin tonight."
"What were you gonna do?" Gerard asked.
"She was gonna take me to a party," he said.
"Your first party? Oh man, sorry, dude," he said. "I hope that she'll take you to another one."
Donald came upstairs, smiling happily.
"Gerard, Lindsey is here to see you," he said.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Mikey mumbled.
Gerard went down and frowned when he saw her standing on the porch.
"God, Lindsey, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Tyler told me he saw you coming into town," she said.
"You wouldn't happen to know everything about that, would you?" He asked.
"Looks like you got maced," she said, pointing to his eyes which he knew were red and puffy.
"Teargas," he stated. "Lindsey, you released my sex tapes. I really can't talk to you anymore.
"Come on, it's not that big of a deal," she said.
"It is, I am with Frank now," he said.
"For how long?" Lindsey asked. "Because we both know you. We both know that eventually you are going to get bored and want something new. Frank is like a mouse and vanilla sex just isn't for you."
"Lindsey--"
"Can I just show you something first?" She interrupted.
Gerard looked into her pleading eyes before sighing.
"Fine," he said, peeking his head in the front door. "Dad, I'll be back later."
"Okay, have fun," Donald said.
They got into the car together, going over to Lindsey's house. Gerard followed her to her old treehouse.
"What did you want to show me?" Gerard asked.
Lindsey smiled and pulled back one of the curtains to show a carving on the wall they had made together in the wood. It was of them holding hands as kids, a rainbow over their heads.
"Remember when we were little and we thought that we were going to get married?" Lindsey asked. "We would always play house together, I would be the mommy and you would be the daddy. We would always have so much fun."
"That was a long time ago, Lindsey," he said. "We're almost adults now, I think it's time that we both really started acting like it."
Lindsey frowned in confusion as she looked at him.
"The notes, Lindsey, they have to stop," he said. "You're wasting time of the police, you're wasting my time. You're hurting Frank's feelings."
"Well, maybe Frank can learn from the videos, stop being such a fucking pussy and learn how to spank some ass," she said.
Gerard scowled. "Frank is perfect just the way that he is. I don't want him to change. I like the way that he is and I like the sex with him."
"I heard a rumor that he was a virgin," she said. "What's it like sleeping with a virgin boy?"
"He isn't a virgin and he wasn't when we slept together," he said.
"Remember the first time that we were together?" She asked. "It was like everything made sense for the first time. It felt so right being with you."
"You're making us out to be something that we never were," he said.
"But you loved me, right?" She asked.
Gerard sighed. "Yes, Lindsey. Of course I loved you."
"Then what's the problem?" She asked.
"It's just not the same anymore," he said. "I really like Frank now. I like him a lot and I want to be with him for a long time."
"Gerard, he doesn't know you as well as I know you," she said. "I practically know you better than you know yourself."
"If you knew me then you knew that doing this wouldn't be a way to win me back," he said.
Lindsey sighed and looked down as she sniffled.
"I-I'm sorry," she muttered. "I-It's just...I'm on this new medicine and it's been giving me these awful mood swings and it just makes me miss you even more. I am so sorry, you know that I've been trying my best with all my medications and I've been seeing my psychiatrist more often but it's just hard, you know?"
Gerard sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"I know that it's been hard on you with all of that," he said. "How are you doing?"
"I've been making good progress but I guess I've had better days," she said. "Th-there are less hallucinations now."
"That's good," he said. "I'm proud of you, Linds."
Lindsey sniffled, pulling her knees to her chest.
"My dad's leaving us," she whispered. "I-I just didn't want to lose you, too."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that your parents were splitting up, I thought that they were doing better," he said.
She sighed, running a hand down her face.
"My sister is moving away, she can't stand being in this town anymore," she said. "Not like it matters, she just spends all her time calling me a schizophrenic freak. It just sucks, you know? Because I'm not crazy, I'm just a little bit different. B-but I'm not crazy."
"I know, Linds," he said. "You are crazy smart, though."
"W-Will you still be my friend even after everything that I did?" Lindsey asked nervously.
"You have to stop sending me things and you have to stop being rude to Frank," Gerard stated. "We are really happy together. He makes me really happy, Lindsey."
"But...I miss you," she whimpered. "Please, move in with your grandparents. We can graduate together like we always wanted to. And we can get married and have babies. You like babies. We can have lots of babies together. You can't have babies with Frank."
"I don't want to marry you, Lindsey," he whispered gently. "You know I love you and you will always be one of my best friends but I don't want to marry you. We've had our fair share of fun but that's all it was. Just a bit of fun, it wasn't anything too serious. It's not like I'll never remember it, you'll always have a little bit of space in my heart. But my heart belongs to Frank now, it's his."
"You're gonna marry him?" Lindsey asked.
"I don't know," Gerard said. "I like him a lot but it is still a little bit soon. He is really great, though."
"Do you love him?" She asked.
"I don't know, Lindsey, I just know that I really like him a lot," he said.
Lindsey looked down sadly and reached for the little wooden box in the corner. She pulled out the box of polaroids that they kept. They ranged all the way back from when they were thirteen to a month ago. Most were innocent and normal. Others were taken in bed.
"Remember when we both went as superheroes for Halloween but we couldn't make up our minds so we mashed them together?" She asked.
"Yeah," Gerard said with a chuckle. "I was Bat-Flash and you were Wonder-Man."
"Wonder Woman and Spider-Man was a really weird combo," Lindsey laughed.
"It surprisingly didn't look as bad as I actually thought it would," he said.
Lindsey smiled and held Gerard's hand.
"You know, everyday could be this great if you just moved back in with your grandparents, you could be really happy in North Brunswick with me," she said.
Gerard pulled his hand away. "You can't keep doing this, Lindsey. If you do then I'm sorry but I just won't be able to be your friend anymore. I won't be able to keep talking to you. You know that I am with Frank now and I am happy and you need to just accept that and be happy for me. And if you can't then I can't talk to you anymore."
"Why?" She asked.
"Because I'm with Frank and it isn't fair to him to keep talking to someone who has feelings for me," he said. "And because these letters are getting out of hand and the sex tapes could get me into so much trouble."
"I'm sorry about the tear gas," she said. "I just didn't know how else to get you to come back to Brunswick other than making you evacuate your home."
"That shit hurts," he said. "And that was totally wrong. Last I heard from my dad on the phone with my mom was that they were going to hand this over to the police."
"You can't tell them it was me," Lindsey begged. "Because of my schizophrenia they might lock me up in an insane asylum. I can't be locked up in a loony bin."
"Mental institutions are better nowadays," he said. "Some of them are actually quite nice."
"Yeah, for the peaceful ones who don't send weapons in the mail," she said. "The ones for the criminally insane are shit. It's shit. This isn't even because of my schizophrenia but they'll probably try to blame it on that or something and I'm gonna go where all the really crazy fuckers are. Please, Gerard, you can't tell anyone that this was me. I-I didn't mean for this to go to the police. I-I guess it is pretty bad what I did looking back on it. You can't tell them that it was me. I-I would get into so much trouble. Please, I promise I'll stop sending stuff."
"Okay, I won't tell," he agreed. "But this must stop, understand?"
Lindsey nodded, giving him a hug.
"And you're taking all your medications?" Gerard asked.
"Yes, pinky promise with a cherry on top," she said.
Gerard chuckled. "That's not quite how it goes. I should get going, though."
"No, stay the night," she begged. "Come on, we can play video games and watch movies, a sleepover just like we used to have all the time before you moved away."
"I really shouldn't," he said. "I need to call Frank. Oh, fuck, I-I forgot my phone at home. I'll have to use Mikey's, hopefully he brought his."
"You can use mine," Lindsey offered.
"No, I really don't think I should give you Frank's phone number," he said.
"It's not like I'm gonna call him or send texts to tell him to leave you alone," she said.
"No, Lindsey, I have to go," he said. "I'll probably be leaving tomorrow morning so I won't be able to see you again before I leave."
"Oh, okay," Lindsey mumbled, looking down.
"But maybe I'll talk to you some other time," he said. "We should probably take a little break though."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she agreed. "I-I'm not crazy."
"I know you're not," he said with a small smile. "Stay safe, Lindsey."
She smiled and gave him a hug. He walked back to his grandparents house, glad that finally everything was back to normal again.