The only thing that Frank was thrilled about on Christmas Eve was the fact it was snowing. And it wasn't just snowing, it was snowing. Every surface known to man was layered in thick white sheets. Honestly, it was quite magical. The street lamps made the snow sparkle like glitter had just been dumped all over Jersey.
Thankfully, they'd broken up from school for the holidays a couple of days ago. The first thing Frank had done was snooze for two days straight -with the occasional coffee break.
Surprisingly, Brendon had been texting him, telling him all about how he and Ryan went sledging. Obviously, Frank liked to hear that they were having fun, but it was like a slap in the face because he'd wondered why he hadn't been invited.
Oh well. He didn't mix with outdoor activities anyway. Frank was more of a stay at home, drink hot chocolate and watch the Nightmare Before Christmas with me kind of person.
Though, without a doubt, even though that part sucked, it had been the best Christmas Eve by far -including the ones were his parents were there because they didn't particularly embrace his Christmas horror movie marathons.
-
Just as Frank was about to settle down to watch the Christmas episodes of Friends, someone knocked on the door. He huffed, putting his drink down a little harshly on the table. He hated being interrupted.
Sighing, he dragged himself up and unlocked the door to find Gerard standing there with a bright smile on his face, eyes seemingly twinkling. His black hair stood out against the snow that fell from the dark sky, some getting caught in his hair. Despite the weather, Gerard still persisted in wearing that bloody denim jacket.
Frank just blinked, eyebrows shooting off his head. "What are you doing here?" It wasn't meant to sound rude, but it had that tone behind the shock.
"Hello to you, too." Gerard said sarcastically, though his cheery demeanour didn't falter.
"No," Frank scratched his neck, feeling the awkward course through his veins like an unwanted, pointless superpower. "I'm glad to see you. I-I'm just confused."
Gerard glanced down. "Well," He bit his lip, going over how mad this idea actually was as they weren't supposed to interact outside of school. "You said your parents are away for Christmas, so. . . I thought we could, uhm, celebrate now instead?"
Almost imploding with happiness, Frank beamed, "Really?"
"Of course." He gave him a small toothed smile. "You can't miss Christmas."
"Technically, it's not Christmas yet." Frank pointed out, earning a deadpan glare.
"You know what I mean." He raised an eyebrow. "So. . . Are you coming with me?"
Nodding enthusiastically, Frank grabbed his coat off the hook in the hall, quickly switched the tv off, then joined Gerard outside. He was getting his keys out of his pocket when it occurred to him, "Where are we going?"
Gerard stepped back as Frank locked the door. "Maybe we could go around all the Christmassy shops and dance in the snow like we're in a cheesy film?"
"Sounds rad." He smiled, wrapping his coat around himself to keep warm. They walked to the end of Frank's street. The cars racing past were blinding red and white lights, and they splashed up water from the gutter so they made sure to keep away.
It was when an icy gust of wind almost froze Frank's eyes permanently open that he asked, "Aren't you cold?"
Gerard glanced at him out the corner of his eye, mostly focused on when to cross the busy road. "Actually, not really."
"How are you not? I'm freezing my ass off."
He laughed quietly, and Frank nudged him with his shoulder. "My body gets cold, but I don't feel it."
"What do you mean?" Frank furrowed his brows.
Gerard took his hand out of his pocket. "Here." He pressed it to Frank's cheek, causing him to jump back. His hand was a literally a block of ice, but bright red and purple.
"Holy shit." He took Gerard's hand in both of his own, trying to get it warm as he was afraid it might actually fall off due to frostbite if he didn't. "That's fucking freeing."
Gerard smiled, gaze flicking towards their hands before back to the road. "Shall we cross?"
"Yup."
They didn't bother looking both ways and relied on their hearing instead. Luckily, neither of them got run over and they speed walked across safely. Frank's house wasn't too far from the centre of town, and it only took a little over fifteen minutes to get there. However, with the snow pelting against them, it felt like much longer.
"Where do you want to go first?" Gerard asked as he stared at all the different neon signs flashing in the darkness.
For the festive holiday, there were fairy lights strung from shop to shop, complete with little trees decorated with tinsel, which were stood outside a few of them -well, some of them had toppled over.
They wandered in to the shopping centre, being greeted by reindeer, a Santa and a sled hanging from the ceiling. Honestly, Frank was a little scared to walk underneath it in case it dropped and squashed him, but he wasn't about to admit that to Gerard.
Besides oh my God I'm out with Gerard spinning around in his head, there were also the dreaded thoughts of what if we get caught? What if someone from school sees us? What if another teacher from school sees us? What if Gerard's boyfriend sees us? Though he wasn't too worried about that last one because surely Bert would know where Gerard was on Christmas Eve?
"What's wrong?" Gerard questioned, somewhat worried about Frank's stern expression.
"What?" Frank shook his head. "Nothing. I'm just. . . Thinking of where we should go."
Gerard didn't buy it. He read Frank's mind. "I'm a little worried, too, you know? I mean, we should be fine. . . I think. I'm not clear on the rules of student-teacher relationships."
"Me neither." Frank swallowed the lump in his throat. "We should be fine." He voiced more to himself to settle his hyperactive nerves.
He scanned the shopping centre, briefly forgetting about his anxieties when he saw a tunnel. It was one of those ones that have fairy lights on the walls and the top, intended to allow the customer to see what the fairy lights look like lit up and in use, but Frank just loved to wander through them because they were so pretty.
"Look!" He beamed, grabbing Gerard's hand to pull him towards it. Frank ignored the puzzled expression on the salesman's face when they ran in, and headed straight for the flashing lights.
Gerard grinned, picking a small glowing decorative reindeer off of a shelf. "This is cute."
Frank turned to look at him. The coloured lights reflected in Gerard's eyes, casting patterns on his face, and Frank just smiled. "Yeah," He muttered, "Cute."
Gerard swapped the reindeer for a snowman. "I shouldn't be allowed to have a bank account. I'd buy everything here."
"That's the fun part of Christmas, though, you get to spend money on pointless festive things because they're cool."
"Yeah," Gerard sighed, putting the snowman down. "I just can't afford to do that."
Frank frowned. He would have bought Gerard anything he wanted, but he couldn't get the words to form. They just stuck at the back of his throat, staying there in case of embarrassment if they came out.
"Sorry." Gerard gave a weak smile. "I shouldn't talk about anything that could put a downer on things. Today is about you."
"Me?" Frank was glad the lights made it hard to see him blushing.
"Well, yeah? I'm cheering you up because-" He paused, taking Frank's feelings in to consideration. "You know why. . ."
Frank nodded. "And I can't thank you enough."
A redness tinted Gerard's cheeks, and he pretended to be distracted by the lights, though it wasn't that hard to pretend.
Frank was about to melt. Gerard was so beautiful with his tangled hair, chapped lips, and wide hazel eyes, which gleamed fucking golden. His stupid crush was begging to be more of an annoyance; he couldn't have Gerard. He could only gaze at him from a distance. With his crush came curiosity as he started to wonder whether Gerard had any romantic feelings for him at all. Maybe, just maybe he did. Otherwise, why would Gerard have put his career on the line to take him -only a student- out for Christmas? Or maybe he was just a super nice person? Or was he just doing it out of pity?
Frank's smile faltered.
"Hey," Gerard caught his attention. "Where else do you want to go?"
"Oh, uhm." They exited the tunnel, giving Frank time to think. There was a stall selling little gifts such as calendars, sketchbooks and diaries near the other end of the centre. Frank squinted, spotting the Green Day calendar, then the Twenty-One Pilots calendar. "There." He grinned.
Unfortunately, as they got closer, the crowd around the seemed to grow bigger. He wasn't exactly the tallest person in the world, so Frank instantly felt like he was five years old. He reached for Gerard's hand to reassure himself, but he wasn't there.
"Shit." Frank muttered, panic creeping up on him. He despised crowds. Everyone was moving so fast, urgent to finish their late present shopping, and Frank was fighting against them, trying to get out. They were a huge tidal wave and Frank was practically drowning.
Just when his anxiety doubled, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whipped around, expecting to see someone to ask him if he knew where his mummy and daddy was. But no, thankfully, it was Gerard.
"Gee." Frank breathed.
"Are you okay?"
"I lost you." He said pathetically, hating how he sounded. He took a deep breath, focusing on their shoes.
"I'm sorry." Gerard was genuine, calming Frank a little. "I got distracted by mince pies."
This caught Frank's attention. Straightening his slouched shoulders, his eyes fell upon the little paper box he was holding out to him. He grinned, still not believing this night was real, and this gesture just made him think he was dreaming even more.
"I got you one." Gerard smiled and Frank just about exploded for the billionth time that day.
"Thank you." He's so sweet, Frank thought. He took the mince pie gratefully. It was warm in his icicles for fingers. "How much do I owe you?"
"Nothing, don't worry."
"They were free?"
Gerard chuckled, "No, it's a gift, you idiot."
"Oh," Frank blushed.
Half way through eating their mince pies, Gerard spoke up, abandoning his for a moment as he dug around in his pocket.
"Hey," He said, tugging the sleeve of Frank's jacket. "I have an idea. Can I have your phone?"
Frank furrowed his brows, "Why?"
"I'm going to put my number in it."
Raising his eyebrows, Frank repeated, "Why?" Though he wasn't complaining.
"If you get lost, you can call or text me." He paused, hoping he didn't sound too forward. "I don't want you to panic if something like that but worse happens again."
"Something worse is going to happen?" He scoffed and Gerard narrowed his eyes at him.
"You know what I mean. Please?" He added.
"Yeah, sure." Frank fished out his own phone, handing it to Gerard. That was the easiest he'd ever gotten anyone's number that he had a crush on. He couldn't wait to text Gerard the most random things.
After he was done, Frank texted him to made sure it worked, and indeed it did.
-
When they'd traipsed around all the fancy shops, ducked in to cosy cafes to hide from the bitter air, and just about frozen their toes off, they returned to Frank's house -much to Frank's disappointment. Albeit, Gerard was slightly disappointed too. They'd both had a lot more fun than they would have had sat at home.
"Thank you." Frank beamed, sure he'd said it a million times that night.
It was quite late by now, the moon shining above them and illuminating the clouds around it.
"You're welcome." Gerard smiled.
Frank stopped at his door, turning around to face him. Gerard had snowflakes in his hair, his cheeks were red, and his eyes -God his eyes- were just so. . . Pretty. Frank couldn't think of a word better as his stomach was practising gymnastics.
It felt like they were coming to the end of a spectacular date, and Frank, God forbid, actually subconsciously leaned in to kiss him. Gerard didn't move away, but Frank would never know if Gerard would have kissed him back because he quickly made it out like he was going in for a hug instead.
Frank's heart was pounding, he was surprised Gerard couldn't feel it against his chest. "Thank you." He whispered, pressing his face in to Gerard' shoulder.
"Again," Gerard replied. "You're welcome."
[Published 14 November 2019]