Never Coming Home // Frerard

Chapter 10

I began to notice little things about Frank as we started talking more.

His laugh was high pitched, almost like a girl's, but I found it really cute and contagious. He messed with his hair a lot, brushing it out of his face when he spoke. He also tapped his foot subconsciously when he listened to music. He looked around a lot, taking in little details of things, and he always pulled the sleeves of his hoodie or jacket further down his arms.

"Okay, but what about the jock with the Nike logo shaved onto the side of his head?" Frank laughed. We were at my house, drinking coffee and talking about the most ridiculous looking people at our school.

"That's a pretty stupid haircut," I agreed, "But what about the guy with the American flag design on his beard?"

"Where do people even go to get those haircuts?" Frank wondered out loud. He did that a lot.

"Are you considering the Blink logo on top of your head or something?" I joked.

"Possibly," He returned my joking tone. "Maybe grow a beard and have the Green Day logo in it."

"You strike me as the kind of person who would just get a tattoo, rather than temporarily get something shaved into your hair," I thought out loud.

"Actually, I have lots of plans for tattoos that I want," He pulled the subject in that direction, leaving the bad haircuts behind.

"Like?" I asked.

"I think I want 'keep the faith' on the top of my back. I'm not religious, far from it, actually, but it would be more to mock religion and the people held down by it." I nodded, interested by the way he thinks. "I want a portrait of my grandpa on my shoulder, with 'my family, my hero,' in Italian. He's the person that made me who I am. He's the one who really made sure my life revolved around music. I wouldn't be anywhere near as passionate about music as I am now if I didn't have him in my life."

"I would get a tattoo of my grandma, Elena, but I'm terrified of needles. Like, Mikey has to talk to me for about twenty minutes to calm me down when I get shots."

"You and Mikey seem really close," Frank observed.

"Well, yeah. He's my younger brother. We basically help each other through everything life throws at us. We were basically never apart after Elena died. I stayed in his room every night for almost a month to make sure he never had nightmares. For the past two weeks or so, he's been the only person keeping me sane about Lindsey's death."

"I always wished I had a brother or sister, but people always told me that it was annoying and obnoxious to have one."

"I don't really understand that. Mikey's my best friend. He always has been."

"So, tell me more about Lindsey," Frank said after a little bit of silence.

"Lindsey... She was really talented. She played the bass so well that she put some professionals to shame. She was really dorky. Extremely. I remember I took her to an Iron Maiden concert for birthday, and she saw them getting into their bus after the show and she was so nerdy and shy that she made me go up to them and ask them to take a picture with her, because she was too shy to talk to them," I laughed at the memory. "She was a really talented person. She worked really hard when was doing something she was passionate about." I felt tears sting the back of my eyes, but made no effort to wipe them away when they fell onto my face.

"Hey," Frank brushed the tears off my face. "It's alright. You don't have to talk about her if you don't want to, Gee," He said in a soothing voice. I smiled at him to tell him that I was okay, and he smiled back.

"Hey, Gerard," Brendon called as he walked into the living room. "Can you drive me to Ryan's?"

"Yeah, sure. Let me grab my coat," I got off the couch and grabbed my coat. "Frank, do you want to come with us?" I asked, pulling my jacket on.

"Nah, I'll stay here, if that's alright."

"Alright, I'll be back in, like, ten minutes." Brendon and I leave the house and climb into my car.

"Do you ever worry about Frank?" Brendon asked as we pulled out of the driveway.

"A little bit, why?"

"Well, he always leaves during the school day and then comes back later smelling like a hospital. He hasn't told anybody what happened to make him switch schools. He just... arrived at our school. He's been acting really secretive, Gerard. I'm worried about what might have happened to him."

"I don't know if I've told you this yet, but... when I was in the waiting room for Lindsey... I heard the doctor call his name into the waiting room, meaning he was a patient there." Brendon looked at me as if I had just said I was going to quit drinking coffee.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"What was he in there for?"

"I don't know. Like I said, I was just there for Lindsey."

"Man... I wonder what happened..."

"We can talk about that later," I said as I pulled up in front of Ryan's house. "Now go make out with your boyfriend."

"Okay, thanks for the ride." He climbed out and closed the door. As I started to drive home, my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my coat pocket to see Frank's name, so I pulled over and answered it.

"Hello?" I asked.

"G-Gerard..."

"What's wrong?" My voice instantly became concerned when I heard Frank's voice. It sounded weak, as if it could crack at any second.

"It's... Gerard... It's Mikey."

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*hides*

~XoChase