shara

2002

Frank's been Gerard's best and only friend for as long as he can remember, and as they leave their middle school hand in hand, Gerard remembers this. Tears sting his eyes and run down his cheeks, mixing with the blood steadily dripping from his nose and trickling off of his chin. Gerard is slumped against Frank, listening numbly as he spouts out words angrily. It’s not until Gerard groans and hiccups around his sobs once more that Frank looks at him, pressing his lips into a thin line and searching in the pockets of his stiff school slacks for the starchy paper towels he stole from the bathroom.

“Your nose is still bleeding. It’s gonna get on your clothes, man..” Frank mumbled, pressing the harsh paper against Gerard's nose, pulling a whimper and another sob out of him. He keeps holding the paper towel against Gerard's nose while they walk, waiting expectantly for him to grab it himself. When Frank realises that he won't, he sighs and pulls Gerard's hand up to hold it. “C’mon, Gee.. Work with me here!” Frank groans, pulling a frown in annoyance. He isn’t really upset at Gerard, he just wants him to cooperate.

“M’trying.” Gerard murmured around his hand, pressing the paper towel against his nose to help the bleeding. He can’t help but wish Frank had grabbed an actual tissue, or toilet paper, just anything but the scratch paper towels meant for drying hands. They aren’t pleasant to use on your hands, let alone your nose. “Can we go to the park? I don’t wanna explain this to Ma.” Gerard asks the other boy, looking up at him through tear brimmed eyes.

“Of course we can.” Frank nods, squeezing Gerard closer to him for a moment before loosening his grip. They walk in near silence to the park, interrupted only by Gerard's hiccups and sniffling. Each time Gerard sniffles or blows his nose Frank slightly scolds him, telling him that his nose won’t stop bleeding if he keeps doing that. Gerard knows he’s right but he can’t stop.

When they get to the park Frank pulls Gerard down and wordlessly swaps the bloodied paper towel for a new one for Gerard. This pulls another groan out of him, complaining about how rough the paper is on his skin. “Seriously Frankie, what do they make this paper out of? It feels like concrete.”

“Stop complaining Gerard, it’s all I have. I wasn’t really prepared for you to get beaten up and handed a bloody nose.” Frank says offhandedly, scoffing and looking away before scooting closer to Gerard and willing his hand away from his nose, taking the paper towel with it. “Let me look at it. It should be stopping now” He was right, Gerard's previously steady downpour of blood now reduced to only a thin trickle. Frank eases the bloodied paper towel out of Gerard's hand and balls it up with the other one. “Yuck.” He wipes his hand on the grass in front of them, looking up at Gerard with an apologetic look, hoping he hadn’t taken his comment personally.

Thankfully, Gerard didn’t take it personally, and instead stared at Frank with a deep sense of admiration. Gerard's never been the most popular boy in school, never had any real friends except for Frank. Well, and Mikey, but Gerard found it sad to refer to his brother as one of his only friends, so he didn’t. They often find themselves in this situation, Gerard with some sort of injury and Frank practically vibrating with anger helping him out. While it’s a sad dynamic, Gerard can’t bring himself to wish for anything different.

Gerard watches Frank carefully as he shrugs off his school bag, unzipping it and delving his hand inside. “It just pisses me off, y’know?” Frank sighs exasperatedly, looking up at Gerard for a moment. “I don’t understand it. The way they pick on you, Gee. It doesn’t make sense– Hey, want this?” Frank's angry mumbling is cut off as he produces an apple from his bag, holding it up triumphantly and presenting it to Gerard.

“No thanks.” Gerard hums, waving him off.

“Awesome! ‘Cause I wanted it.” Frank cheers, flinging his bag off of his lap and springing up, taking a large bite out of his apple and kicking at the loose dirt around his feet. Gerard lets out a girlish squeal as the dirt cascades around him, hitting him like raindrops.

“Anyways, as I was saying.” Frank says around the apple in his mouth, crunching and licking his lips in between words. He takes another bite and swallows it before speaking again. “It doesn’t make sense, what they bully you for.” Frank kicks once more at the ground around him. “Sorry, remind me what it was for this time?” He pauses, looking up from his feet to Gerard.

“I look like a girl so I must be gay.” Gerard says boredly, they’ve had his conversation more times than he can count. “Oh, and for my art.” He adds as an afterthought.

“Jesus! See, that’s so stupid.” Frank angrily rips another bite from his apple. “First of all, you’re not even gay– Wait, are you?” Frank pauses, looking at Gerard curiously and tilting his head. This is something he should know, but he can’t remember. “Anyways. You don’t even look like a girl! So what if you've got long hair?” Frank moves on, changing the subject and not giving Gerard a chance to answer his question. Not that he wanted too anyway. While he was speaking, Frank walked up to Gerard and tugged lightly at the long strands of inky black hair that dusted his shoulder. “I like your hair.” He murmured before walking away and biting into his apple again.

“And for the record, your art fucking rocks man.” Frank pauses again, jabbing a finger at the other boy. “They’re just jealous! Believe me. They’re jealous that they’re not a fraction as good as you are.” He spat, his passion for the subject growing as he began to speak with more aggression, almost yelling.

They both fell into a silence after that, Franks chewing stopping after a while. Gerard again looks at Frank with admiration, looking at the way the thin hoops in his ear glint in the sun. His mother said he could stretch them when they go to high school next year, and Frank is nothing short of excited. He’s been begging Linda for years.. Suddenly, Frank reels his arm back and throws his apple at the nearest tree. It thuds loudly against the trunk and explodes into chunks and falls to the group.

“It’s pathetic!” Frank cries, dropping to his knees in front of Gerard as tears brim and threaten to spill over. “I hate it.” He says weakly, slumping his head onto Gerard's shoulder and soaking away his tears.

“It’s okay, Frank.” Gerard frowns, hugging him and rubbing his back soothingly. He wasn’t sure why Frank was suddenly so torn up about it, as this isn’t the first time it’s happened. Quickly, Frank composes himself and pulls his head up and away from Gerard's shoulder.

“In highschool,” He starts, rubbing his eyes, the thin streak of eyeliner on his waterline smudging away. “I’m gonna make sure no one bullies you, yeah? I’ve had enough.”

“You don’t have to do that. And besides, Frank, there’s no way you can—” Gerard sighed and shook his head, Frank cutting him off before he had a real chance to finish.

“I don’t care! I’ll do whatever I can. You’re my best friend.” Frank declares, placing both of his hands on Gerard’s shoulders and holding him at arms length and looking into his eyes. “You’re my best friend and I love you. That’s what good friends do.” Frank nodded sternly before leaning in and smacking a loud kiss on Gerard's cheek.

Now, this wasn’t the first time Frank had kissed Gerard like this, and vice versa. There's nothing sexual about it, it’s not like they’re dating. It’s just what friends do. They’ve always done it. Neither of them remember who kissed the other first, and exactly why. Maybe it was a birthday gift, maybe one of them had gotten injured, or maybe they just felt like it. Regardless, it was normal, it was a way of showing their gratitude towards each other. Gerard likes it when Frank kisses him. Frank likes kissing him. It’s just what friends do.

At least that's what they do.