Gerard's POV
Another week had passed, and I was slowly getting over my guilt about what had happened to Patrick. Frank was right, and even though I wasn't kind to Patrick, what he had done wasn't my fault, and I was going to try and stop torturing myself over it for now.
I still wanted to apologize to him at some point, but I was too nervous to approach Pete about it, and Frank had encouraged me to take my time. He had even offered to try and get Patrick's number from Pete for me, and even though I had told him to hold off for now, I might take him up on that eventually.
Frank was always going out of his way to help me, and even though I didn't tell him nearly enough, it meant the world to me, and I was so grateful to him for being willing to risk one of his good friendships just to help me ease my conscience.
Frank was helping me accept so many things about myself, not just the situation with Patrick, but everything. Talking to him about Bert had taken a huge weight off my chest, especially because Frank hadn't seemed bothered by it at all, and just being around him improved my self-confidence immensely.
I was currently at work again, and I missed Frank already, even though I had spent a decent amount of time with him at school today, but I always wanted to be around him lately. This wasn't usual for me; with my previous boyfriends, I was typically pretty distant with them unless I wanted to have sex, but Frank was different, and I found myself wanting to spend my entire day with him, and luckily for me, he seemed to feel the same way.
It didn't help that work was slow, and time seemed to be dragging, which made my shift feel one hundred times longer than it already was, and I was seriously tempted to fake sick and see if I could get cut for the day. I just wanted to go home and hang out with Frank for a little while, even though we would just be doing homework together, but Frank made even that abhorrent task enjoyable.
Thanks to Frank and his odd habit of doing his homework in my house, my grades had improved immensely, because I really didn't have much choice but to pull out my own papers and get something done with him. Instead of maintaining all C's like I usually did, I had gotten most of my grades up to a solid B average, and my mom had even taken notice. Being with Frank was making me a better person, and even though I had been really freaked out by it at first, I was nothing but thankful to him now.
"You awake in there Gerard?" Ryan nudged me gently, snapping me out of my daydreams involving Frank.
"Yeah - I'm just fucking bored," I grumbled sullenly. There was literally nothing left to do, Ryan and I had already cleaned everything that needed it, and there was only one customer in the shop at the moment.
"Tell me about it," Ryan huffed out, swinging himself up on the counter that we had just wiped down.
"So you never told me how you date with Brendon went." I had only just now thought about it, but it was actually pretty odd of Ryan not to have told me; he spent the majority of our breaks gushing about Brendon, but he had been abnormally silent on the subject lately.
"That's because I don't know how it went..." Ryan sighed out, and I didn't miss the worried expression on his face.
"Where did you end up taking him?" I wondered, because I remembered how badly Ryan had been freaking out about it the last time I had brought Frank in here.
"We went to Olive Garden, and the date seemed good. We talked a lot and he kissed me at the end of it," Ryan shrugged, spreading out on the counter obnoxiously since our only customer had just vacated the premises.
"And then what - come on Ry, I know you, and the fact that you haven't turned into a gushing fan boy means something went wrong," I pressed, because I really did want to know what had happened. It was discerning seeing Ryan like this, especially since just the mention of Brendon used to send him into a fit of happiness.
