Gerard was just coming back after being at Josh's. Debby was tired and needed sleep but Josh was at work so Gerard volunteered to go watch the baby while Debby slept for a few hours.
"Oh, come on," he muttered.
He found the word 'leave' spray painted in red across his lawn. An envelope was tucked under a rock near the steps. He went to open the envelope but jumped back in pain. Blood began dropping down his hand and he got into the car, driving straight to the police station.
"I need to see Detective Orzechowski," he stated.
"She is out at the moment but she should be back any minute," the lady behind the desk said.
"Can I at least get a band aid?" He asked.
"I'll find you one," she said.
Gerard sat down, waiting for a few minutes before he saw the detective walk through the door.
"Oh, hello, Gerard," she said. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I need to talk urgently," he said.
She led him back to his desk and he sat down, handing her the letter.
"Be careful, it cut me," Gerard said.
The lady from behind the desk came over and gave Gerard a band-aid. Detective Orzechowski used a letter opener to slit the envelope open.
"Someone stuck razors underneath the flap," she said, pulling out the letter.
"What's it say?" He asked.
She read it before sighing, handing it to him.
This is your last warning, go back to Brunswick or else you will be hurt.
"They also spray painted my yard," Gerard said. "And I know who's doing it."
"You did? And you didn't say anything?" She asked.
"She's a friend and she was off her meds and she promised she would stop," he said. "But this is the last straw, I'm going to prom in a few days, I don't want her near there. I don't want her to ruin my night."
"Who is this?" She asked.
"Lindsey Ballato," He said, giving her the address of her house and other information.
"And how do you know it's her?" She asked.
"Because I confronted her and she just sort of confessed," he said. "But I didn't want her to get into trouble."
Detective Orzechowski sighed. "Alright, well, I'm going to bring her in."
Gerard nodded, going back to the lobby to call Frank.
"Hey, I got another letter," he said. "And I turned it into Orzechowski."
"I thought she was done with all of that bullshit," Frank said.
"Yeah, me too," he said. "And there were razors in the envelope, cut my finger."
"That's not right," he said. "God, What a fucking bitch."
"I know, but she's getting arrested now so she's hopefully not gonna bother us," he said. "We can have a perfect time together at the prom."
"Good, and I hope that she goes to prison for harassing you," Frank said.
Gerard bit his lip. "I don't know if I want her to go to prison—"
"You can't keep defending her, what she did was shit," he said. "It doesn't matter if she's your friend, what she did wasn't right."
"God, I know," he said. "But, like, we grew up together and have been best friends for so long, I never thought that she would do anything like this."
"People can surprise you," he said. "But you finally turned her in so this is all finally over. You don't have to worry about it anymore."
"Yeah, I guess," Gerard said. "What if she does end up in some type of institution though because of her mental illnesses? What if they treat her like shit there?"
"She treated you like shit," frank said. "Seriously. You didn't deserve any of the torment she put you through. She released your fucking sex tapes, you were a minor in those videos."
Gerard sighed, running a hand down his face.
"I've never seen her like this, though," he said. "It all just came out of nowhere. She was always so sweet, I never thought she would do anything like this before."
"But she did and you can't just excuse her because she's your friend," he said.
"I know, I know," he said.
They talked for a bit until the doors opened and Gerard saw Lindsey come in with her hands handcuffed in front of her. Her hands were covered in red spray paint.
"Gerard, I didn't do it, tell them I didn't do it," she said.
"You've literally been caught red handed," he said.
"You see it too?" She said, eyes widening as she looked at her red hands. "I thought I was just hallucinating it!"
They took her back and Gerard left. He went home and inside the house.
"What is that in the yard?" Donald asked.
"That was Lindsey," he said. "She's with the police now because she is the one who has been sending me all those stupid fucking letters."
"Stop cursing," Donald said.
Gerard sighed and went downstairs to his room. He still hasn't talked to Mikey and he was fine with it. It was almost prom, almost graduation. Only a little bit longer and he would be moving out to New York. Maybe the little bit of distance would help get Mikey passed all this.
The door opened and Frank walked in with some styrofoam food containers in his hands.
"I brought Chinese food to make you feel better," Frank said. "It's all vegetarian, though, so you're gonna have to suffer."
Gerard smiled, sitting up.
"You didn't have to buy me food," he said. "I know you've been saving up money."
Frank shrugged. "I won't lie, I had a coupon. Besides, now that I'm not buying pot I have so much more money. I didn't realize how much of my paycheck went towards weed until I stopped buying."
Frank went over and gave Gerard a soft kiss.
"You did the right thing by turning her in," Frank said. "She can't just get away with harassing you just because she's upset that you don't want to sleep with her anymore."
"If it was the right thing then why do I still feel like so much crap?" He asked. "She had spray paint on her hands and she just pretended she thought she was hallucinating it."
"Maybe she's just gonna try to use her schizophrenia to get out of it," Frank said. "Maybe she'll say the voices told her to do it."
"She doesn't want to end up in a mental institution," he said. "I don't think she would stoop that low."
"Does that mean there's gonna be a court case and we're all gonna have to go to trial and shit?" Frank asked. "Good thing you gave me that suit because I am probably gonna end up getting some pretty good use out of it."
"Thank Mikey, It's his suit," he said.
"Are you two still not talking?" Frank asked and he shook his head. "You know, if I had a brother I wouldn't wanna ruin my relationship with him."
"I'm not ruining it, I'm letting him fix it because the more I try to fix it then the more I actually do ruin it," he said.
Frank pulled chopsticks out of the bag and they began eating straight from the containers.
"So, are you wearing a dress to the prom?" Frank said.
"Yeah, Jamia helped me pick one out yesterday and I already got you the tie to match," Gerard said, pulling the tie out of his nightstand. "It's a beautiful pale yellow color, I thought it would look beautiful with your green eyes."
"You matched your dress to the color of my eyes?" Frank asked.
"Yeah, of course," Gerard said. "Your eyes have these little golden specks in them and I think they're so beautiful, I can't keep my eyes off them."
"You have pretty eyes, too," he said. "Beautiful and hazel."
Gerard smiled and gave him a kiss.
"And you're gonna look beautiful in your prom dress," Frank said. "I am so excited. Are you sure I can't pay for half the tickets at least?"
"Baby, it's okay," Gerard said. "They were expensive and my parents offered to pay for them so let's just let them pay for the tickets."
Frank sighed, nodding his head.
"Well, Everything is sorted out for the dance, right?" He asked. "You're going to Jamia's and then Pete's gonna pick me up and we're gonna go pick the two of you up."
"And maybe we can go somewhere else after," Gerard said. "My parents will be home so we can't come back here."
"My mom will be back by that time, too," Frank said. "Maybe we can get a motel. I know it's not very special or romantic for prom night but we already had special and romantic."
"That sounds like a good idea," Gerard agreed. "Unless you wanna do it in the backseat of Pete's car."
Frank snorted. "Oh god no. Although, Jamia's parents are away for the weekend."
"I feel like it would be weird with ya just having sex in different rooms in the same house," Gerard said.
"Jamia and Pete actually still haven't had sex," he said.
"Really? Still?" He asked.
Frank shrugged. "I think Jamia let him touch her boob over her shirt one time but that's the farthest they've gone. Pete is hoping that prom night is the night where she finally lets him do her."
"What's holding Jamia back so much?" Gerard asked.
"I don't know, I think she's just nervous," he said.
"You were nervous af one point too," Gerard said. "Maybe you could talk to her."
Frank seemed to pale a bit before his cheeks turned red. "Yeah, I don't really think that having that kind of discussion with her is really the best decision. She shouldn't have that conversation with me, maybe you could talk to her instead when you go over to her house to get ready for the prom."
"Yeah, I could," he said. "I just thought that since you two were best friends and all that you might be able to have a more real connection and better conversation."
"Trust me, we really shouldn't be talking about our sex life with each other," he said. "Listen, it's just a sort of complicated relationship, we argue a lot and it would probably just be really awkward if we talked about our sex lives with our partners."
"Yeah, I guess I get that," Gerard said. "Oh well, I'm not going to push it or anything. I'll just bring it up to her and have a nice, light-hearted conversation with her. It's understandable that she's nervous about losing her virginity."
"Oh, she's not a virgin," Frank said.
"Oh, then what is she so nervous about?" Gerard asked.
"I don't know, maybe it's because she's only had one partner before and is just nervous about doing it with Pete," he said. "She's really self conscious of her body and I think that's the biggest part."
"She's gorgeous, got curves for days," he said. "I could give her some tips for that. Maybe we can go out and get some lingerie before the prom, something that she feels sexy and confident in."
"Ooh, Maybe you could get something for yourself," Frank said. "God, seeing you in some black lace would be amazing."
"Well, I already have something for you that I'll be wearing underneath my prom dress," Gerard said. "Too bad it's a surprise but I know for a fact that you are going to absolutely love it."
Frank blushed, a big grin on his face.
"God, I cannot not wait for prom," he said. "I'm so glad I get to go with you, I love you so much."
"I love you too, Baby," Gerard said.
"We are gonna have the best night ever at this dance," he said.
Gerard nodded and the two spent the rest of the night laughing in each other's arms.