The Enigma's Anomaly

It's All Downhill From Here

"Well don't you look handsome?" Gerard says when I walk down the stairs.

"Shut up, you're the one who looks good," I say looking down at my attire. I did my best to dress up, but neither of us had a tux so this is the best I can get. Black pants and a dress shirt. At least it's not skinny jeans and a hoodie.

"You both look fucking dashing, now would you hurry up and leave? I can't stand all this sentimentality, it makes my ears bleed," Mikey calls from the couch.

"You're just jealous," Gerard calls back.

"Mhm yes, you've caught me. I want Frank for myself, am I that transparent?" he says sarcastically. At least I think it's sarcastic because he's only really got two different vocal tones. Mikey should really sit down and work on his inflection one of these days.

"We're leaving," I say grabbing Gerard's hand. He does truthfully look great, and I think he cleans up better than me anyway. The hair is kind of off-the-wall, but he still looks pretty good. Dapper. I like that word. That's a really great word. He looks dapper.

After dragging Gerard out to the car I have trouble keeping myself still. I'm all jittery. I've never celebrated an anniversary before and I've certainly never been with someone for six months. I think my longest relationship was three weeks. Gerard is my exception. He's the anomaly in my data. In a lot of different ways.

"Frankie, would you settle down you're being way too cute. It can't be healthy to be that adorable all the time," Gerard says and I blush instinctively.

I hope it's not too noticeable because I don't want him to say something that'll make me blush more. Vacantly I check my reflection in the mirror and that's when I notice the car behind us.

I don't recognize it, it's sleek black and big, but the odd part is that it's behind us at all. This road is always deserted. Sometimes you pass a car on the road, but there's never two going one way at the same time.

I brush it off as just a weird abnormality, but it doesn't soothe my nerves at all. I can't help but glance back at it and see that it has gotten closer. Only by a few feet, but there's plenty of space on this road, so there's no reason for someone to be that close. If we're driving to slow they could just pass us, but they don't. The car gets closer and then even closer.

"Uh Gerard, I think that we're, um, being followed," I say tugging on his sleeve.

Gerard looks at me skeptically and then into the rearview mirror, "It's just a car. That's not exactly a strange thing to see on the road, Frank."

"Yeah but there are never cars behind us. Or in front of us. Never. So why is there one now?"

"You know it's not impossible," he says, "and that can't always be true, because we're on this road, and this road isn't made exclusively for us. It's just a car so it's not true right now. It's fine, Frank."

I hear him and what he says makes sense, but I do not believe it. I have a gut feeling, that something is not right. Maybe I'm paranoid but I've come to the conclusion that any cars with blacked out windows are not to be trusted, so I really don't trust that car.

"Gerard, I don't think this is just an irregularity in a set. I think they're following us," I say firmly.

"Frankie-"

"No Gerard. I'm not convinced that they're just on this road behind us. Why are they so close? There's a whole road to take up so why are they staying tight with us?"

Gerard doesn't have an answer for that and he looks at the mirror again, so I see him get a little more wary.

"But we got away from that life. We got away from Banks. Why would there be... why? Frank, why would someone be following us? Did hefind us?"