Crushes
Frank was a good kid, or at least that's what his mother would say if you asked her. To be fair though, his mother doesn't know much about him, or how to raise a kid in general. She didn't know to set a curfew, or that one has to hide the alcohol at a certain age. She didn't realize that the reason their house always smelled like cigarettes was Frank, and not a neighbor's fire. She was clueless about Frank's grades and his sexuality. So, in her eyes, he was a model child.
Ask anyone of his friends, and get a different story, one that most likely has the words "gay" and "fuckin' insane"(Brendon's words) . It's not like his friends weren't the same way, especially two in particular, Brendon Urie and Pete Wentz. They were both the right amount of homosexual and uncontrollable to match Frank's own personality.
He got to see Brendon at the bus stop each morning, although weirdly enough, they didn't really talk. It might have been because of how early in the morning it was, but Frank somehow got the idea in his mind that it was because of the other person there. Frank didn't know him, but Brendon seemed to, Frank could swear that he saw them talking in school.
This specific day, Frank trudged through the rain to get to the stop. Through a set of trees, he saw Brendon talking to the unknown kid. All conversation ceased once they noticed him, well before he was within earshot. Brendon gave a friendly wave, and as soon as Frank got to the bus stop, the bus pulled up.
As they boarded the bus, Frank shoved himself into a seat with Brendon. "Who is that guy? I know that i've seen him before." he questioned Brendon, wondering if he had asked this before. It was too early for him to remember.
"His name is Ryan." Brendon replied in an interesting tone of voice, causing Frank to raise his eyebrows. "No, there's nothing going on between us, don't you think you'd know? He is cute though, gotta admit. I mean-"
Frank cut Brendon off, "Okay, i'm gonna stop you before you describe every detail of this Ryan kid's appearance in excruciating detail. "
"I wasn't-"
"Yes you were, isn't picture day today?" Frank said in a desperate plea to change the subject."
"Oh yeah, i totally forgot. Guess it's time to look like shit in another picture." Brendon said with a laugh, as the bus pulled up to the school. The school just gave off a vibe of dreariness, and it seemed to affect the entire bus because the chatter died down as students filed off the bus.
~~~
Frank walked to his first period class in silence, he hated social studies, the only good thing about it was that Pete was in that class. As he entered the classroom he gave Pete a high-five.
"Yo, you know we have pictures this period." Pete said with a smile, obviously happy to be missing social studies.
Frank pushed his hair out of his eyes, "Yeah i know, dumbass." He said jokingly, hitting Pete softly on the back of the head. Pete reminded him of an overexcited puppy sometimes, though, people sometimes referred to Frank as the same.
They walked down the hall, talking about pretty much nothing until they reached the cafeteria. The room was set up so the tables and chairs were pushed out of the way, in the middle of the room there were two green screen backdrops, accompanied by a stool, a camera, and a photographer each.
One was a woman, probably in her late 30s, Frank decided she looked incredibly average. Especially compared to the other one. He had fairly long bright red hair, and radiated 'artist type'. He was young, couldn't be that long out of college. He was decidedly attractive, almost pretty. Frank urged Pete to come with him to wait on the line for the man with the red hair, even though it was a bit longer.
Pete, for once in his life, had a sense of what was going on. He smirked, "He is pretty hot right?"
Frank could only roll his eyes, "Shut up, Pete."
~~~
Soon enough, it was Frank's turn to take a picture. He sat in the uncomfortable stool, and tried to read the photographer's crumpled up name tag.
"Gerard?" He said, almost accidentally out loud.
"Hmm?" The photographer- Gerard replied.
Frank didn't answer, and waited in silence as Gerard sorted through his paperwork.
"Okay," Gerard spoke up, "Can you tilt your head slightly to the left?"
Frank tilted his head, making note of Gerard's apparent New Jersey accent.
Gerard shook his head, and approached Frank, "Do you mind if i move you?"
Frank nodded, almost enthusiastically. "Yeah i don't mind."
Gerard let out a short laugh, "I wouldn't think so, not many people do. I used to not ask and once i tried moving a kid's head and he started screeching. You can guess how the conversation with that parent went." He moved to become eye-level with Frank, almost studying him. Frank turned red. He smiled as he carefully moved Frank's head.
Frank shuddered slightly, Gerard's hands were cold, but not unwelcome. He moved his head as asked and put on a smile that only had a hint of fakeness (thanks to Gerard) while the picture was taken.
~~
Frank waited with Pete patiently as everyone else in their class got their picture taken, and to Pete's disgust, he spent the entire time staring at Gerard.
"Will you just admit you have some weird-ass dumb crush on this guy? It's not like you're ever gonna see him again." Pete spoke in murmurs, accompanied by a shrug.
Frank was hit with the same realization, and felt a pang of sadness. He frowned a bit, and Pete noticed.
"Hold on, you should probably be happy you won't see him again."
"What the fuck do you mean?" Frank was bemused.
"Because of this. CAMERA GUY! RED HAIR- YEAH YOU!" Pete shouted across the entire room, a shit-eating grin on his face. Gerard turned to face them, startled. "COME OVER HERE!" Pete yelled again, in that moment Frank wanted the world to end.
Gerard made his way over, he seemed confused or concerned- Frank couldn't tell. "What's wrong?"
Pete was on the verge of hysterics, he pointed to Frank. "This kid, has a huge gay crush on you. I'm not even lying. Look at this fucker."
Frank wanted to scream, but the best route here was probably to just play it off as a joke. "Pete stop being fucking dumb, what are you doing?" He realized that he probably blushing yet again, but the show must go on. "Sorry about his yelling, haha." Frank glared at Pete.
Gerard seemed slightly flustered too, "Okay? It's alright, i guess." He tilted his head before giving an awkward wave and walking away.
As soon as Frank was sure that Gerard couldn't see them anymore he full out hit Pete on the back. "I'm not sure whether i want to kill you or thank you, because i sure as hell never want to see him again."
"You sure? What about his beautiful face or amazing hair?"
"You shut up, you are just like this half the time."
"I know, but at least for once i have something to use against you for once instead of the other way around."
"I'm looking forward to not seeing you until lunch." Frank rolled his eyes, before departing.
~~
At lunch Frank met up with Pete, Brendon and two other kids. One was a new kid, Frank hadn't caught his name yet. He was a lanky, nerdy looking kid. He had glasses and long-ish brown hair. The other was Ray, a taller boy that Frank knew, but wasn't as friendly with.
Frank couldn't stop himself from practically gushing to Brendon, who looked on, laughing almost the entire time. "So you can tell me about your dumb crush but i can't tell you about mine? Rude." He shook his head, smiling still.
Pete took this time to explain Brendon about what he did, causing Frank to scoff and pretend to be angry at Pete while Brendon poked fun at him.
The bell rang, signaling that all the students should move to their next class. Frank stood up and walked with Brendon to their next class, art.
Frank liked art a lot, well not art, but his art class. The teacher was a sweet lady, who at the moment was heavily pregnant and didn't really tell students off when they did anything wrong. The classroom was decorated with bright colors and decorations, a nice contrast to the gray bleariness of the rest of the school.
He sat down next to Brendon, throwing paper wads at him until the bell rang to signal the start of class. The class quieted down as Frank pulled out his sketchbook. Brendon started laughing, but Frank was too preoccupied with drawing to look up.
Brendon nudged Frank softly, "Frank, you might wanna see this."