TALK TO ME ¯ᶠʳᵉʳᵃʳᵈ

-ˏˋｔｈｉｒｔｙ ｎｉｎｅ：ｐａｎｉｃˊˎ-

Shane had been coming over to the Way home every day after school. Yeah. Fucking annoying, but I was learning to put up with it. He didn't make a show of fawning over Gerard, so it was bearable. He also never went over if I wasn't there, so that was a plus. The four of us-Mikey included by force-would just sit around and play video games and watch movies for most of the day.

This wasn't bad. I was there any time Shane was around Gerard, so he didn't try shit around him. Shane had gotten comfortable enough around both Mikey and me to text us and not just Gerard. So, overall, it was okay.

Thursday came, and Mikey managed to ditch the three of us, saying he had to call Alicia. I doubted it was true, that ass hole, he just didn't like Shane and hated when I forced him to stay.

Gerard, Shane, and I were in the living room, finishing up a pizza while some random TV show was on. When Shane finished his slice, he pulled out his phone and wrote something. I eyed him curiously, waiting to see who it was for and wasn't surprised when he showed it to Gerard. I rolled my eyes as Gerard read the text, half of a pizza crust still in his mouth.

Gerard already knew that if Shane ever texted him like that, he had to read it out loud so I could hear it. He'd started doing this the moment Shane made it a habit to come over and hang out.

"I have a couple drawings that I want your opinion on, do you mind looking over them?" Gerard read the text and looked up at Shane, smiling. "Yeah, of course! I didn't know you liked to draw."

Shane wrote something on his phone and showed it to Gerard. Gerard read, "I used to but stopped after a while. But seeing you draw made me wanna start again."

I rolled my eyes. Oh, great. Now Shane was an artist, too, thanks to Gerard.

"That's awesome," Gerard said. "Let me see them."

I was sitting next to Gerard and Shane was on the opposite side of him, so he stood up to get his bag that I'd noticed earlier. He didn't usually have it. He was homeschooled, so he didn't attend school regularly.

Gerard looked at me while Shane got his things. He smiled when he saw my angry expression. I fake smiled at him, making it as obviously fake as I could. Gerard almost laughed and leaned in, using his thumb to swipe over the corner of my mouth where I'd left some pizza sauce or something.

"You and that adorable expression of yours," he whispered softly, so that Shane couldn't hear. "I'm all yours, Frankie." He leaned further in to press a quick kiss to my lips, before pulling back. Shane had luckily stood up and seen Gerard kissing me. Ha, good.

Shane sat back down next to Gerard, holding a folder in his hands. He looked nervous about opening it and I had to admit he looked cute when he was nervous. Not in an I'm-attracted-to-him sort of way. But the kind of cute that made me want to be his friend and be there for him. No wonder Gerard wanted to be there for him.

I sighed and leaned in to get a look at his artwork, looking up at him to make sure it was ok. He smiled and nodded, opening the folder.

The first drawing looked kind of like a vampire, but it had this vintage portrait and comic book feel to it. I wasn't sure how those two things worked together, but they did. I hated to admit it, but the drawing was good. The vampire was a guy and he had fangs that just barely poked out of his mouth. There was a trickle of blood running down his chin. Other than that, he looked completely normal.

"Wow, that's really good," Gerard said, taking the paper into his hands to get a better look. I nodded, having to agree.

Shane pulled out the next drawing and it was the same style as the previous drawing, but this time, I think it was a werewolf. There were small hints to indicate it. He had slight fangs poking out. His ear was slightly pointed, but the thing that gave it away was that one arm was extremely hairy, growing furrier at the top, and the other was completely clean. It was like he was in the middle of transforming. Fuck, that was really good.