Gerard looks back into his own eyes in the reflection of the mirror. He blinks back at him, looking as pale and nervous as Gerard feels. All he can do is feel his whole body shaking, and he's not exactly sure what it's from.
On the one hand, he's not really nervous. Nothing is really changing, when he thinks about it analytically. His life isn't going to be that much different. He'll still be Gerard, Frank will still be Frank, everyone will still be who they were before today. Except, in less than an hour, everything is going to completely change.
The world will still spin the same way, Gerard will still use too many similes, Frank will still say 'rad' too much, and they're still going to be that weird gay couple who have a gnome sticker on the door to their apartment because they can't have a proper garden gnome.
It's just that, soon, Gerard's going to be someone's husband. He's going to be someone's spouse. He's going to have to start checking the box that says married when he fills out contact information. He won't be calling Frank his 'boyfriend' or his 'fiancé' or his 'arch enemy' or 'this twat who sleeps in my bed' anymore. Well, he might still call Frank that last one, but he'll also be married to that twat who sleeps in his bed.
Gerard watches himself breathing in the mirror, because that's the only way he's able to slow down his heart rate. He looks at the way his hair is too messy, and the way it's too violent a color for his age, but he doesn't care. He looks extremely askew, and that's also how he feels. He watches himself for a few seconds, just trying to calm down when he sees Mikey in the mirror entering the room with someone else. Gerard looks for a second to see it's Franks friend Brendon.
"You look scared," Mikey says.
"Yeah, well, I've never done this before," Gerard says.
"And if all goes to plan, you won't be doing it again," Mikey says.
"Don't say that! That makes me a million times more terrified," Gerard replies, horrified at the prospect of what his future brings. He's looking forward to it, sure he is, he's looking forward to pancakes on Sunday mornings with Frank, and grocery shopping with their kids, and going to see bad action movies, and being the first person Frank sees every morning, and congratulating him when he plays a good show, and all the other amazing things that Gerard always considered dull until he started dating Frank.
"Gerard, the point of life is to be terrified. If you're not constantly terrified, you're doing something wrong."
"Everything you say sounds like you read it off of a fortune cookie," Gerard groans.
"You're annoying," Mikey rolls his eyes, "just, calm yourself down. You'll do fine. It's not that big a thing when you think about it. Weddings are just a formality, and an excuse to obsess over every little thing that could and probably won't go wrong. Whether it's at a courthouse, or you do a big grand thing, what matters is that you're marrying Frank."
"There you go again, you fortune cookie spewing man."
"Oh, shut up," Mikey rolls his eyes.
"He's right," Brendon says.
"Why are you telling me to shut up? This is all your fault you know," Gerard says, "all of it. This is your fault!"
"And I'm still very proud of myself. I should literally just be given a Nobel Prize now or something, because no one in the world could ever possibly know how convoluted you and Frank's relationship is, but here you are, I totally got you two together. It's all me. You should be thanking me every day of your life."
"You know, if you told me a year ago that the guy Frank described as being 'the antichrist with a face like a broken washing machine' would end up marrying him, I'd have had you admitted into a mental institution," Brendon says.
YOU ARE READING
When We're Both Thirty
RomanceFrank and Gerard were childhood friends. And then they were enemies. Finally, they became strangers. They'd been friends though, and maybe they'd been a little too affectionate, because everyone thought the two of them would get married someday. Bef...
