Candy Hearts ✰ Frerard

.CHAPTER TEN.

sweet, sweet booze
~[|]~

"Gerard, you're smiling too early in the morning and it's really off-putting. I'm trying to enjoy my breakfast." Mikey said sourly, taking a large sip of his orange juice.

The morning sun reflected through the diner's windows, lighting up Mikey's glasses, and Gerard was really trying to use that to distract himself from looking at the purple hickey on his little brother's neck.

"Sorry." Gerard said softly, still not being able to fight off the grin lingering on his face.

"Disgusting." Mikey said around a forkful of waffle.

"Hey Way, Bryar asked me to tell you we're closing after five today since half of the others aren't here, and it's probably gonna be cold without heating." Pete said as he wandered from the kitchen with two clean plates in his hands.

"Fuck yeah." Gerard said with an internal cheer.

Though when he looked over, he couldn't help but notice how Mikey seemed to keep his eyes trained solely on his food and Pete had flushed red cheeks.

Gerard chose to ignore the weird atmosphere, and instead decided to focus on the fact that he would be allowed to go home in six hours- he'd be able to change into sweatpants and re-read the dozens books on his shelf. Maybe pop by to see Frank... whichever.

When more people walked into the diner, he didn't actually have to force a smile like he usually did- and he even made one of the customers laugh. Gerard could tell both Mikey and Dallon, which was a newer employee, had never before seen him not cuss at customers or passive aggressively cut pancakes that early in the day.

But Gerard couldn't quite help it, he felt light and cheerful and every two seconds he would think about Frank his cheeks would heat up.

Maybe it was a bit weird considering they'd only admitted their feelings practically less than a week ago, but seeing how fast Gerard became attached to him at the start really did impact the way he felt about their unofficial dating status.

Gerard wondered if Frank thought about him too, maybe as he poured some drinks he would think of the time Gerard had ordered that drink- or how the colour reminded him of Gerard's hair or eyes. Gerard swore he wasn't addicted or anything, just happy.

"When you're done verbally making out with that family can you start making the pancakes for the table near the door?" Wentz asked as he furiously scrubbed at a plate.

"Gross," Gerard recoiled, "and why can't Weekes do 'em?"

"Because he's busy making eggs, bacon and salad." Pete rolled his eyes, setting the plate aside.

Gerard nodded, wow, he hadn't realised how much a shortage of staff affected the workload.

Since it was almost the end of October, there weren't as many customers compared to the summer, only because there was a movie theatre that opened up near them and most people would go there and then drive by a fast food restaurant or something. Gerard was fine with it, because as much pain as it was- him and his coworkers had a fixed salary of fifteen bucks an hour. People often wondered why it was so high, and it was because Action Cat was probably one of the nicer, more comfortable places to eat in Belleville, and that came as both a blessing and a curse.