When Both Our Cars Collide (Frerard)

23: You're someone you're not

Gerard's POV

I woke up in a slight panic, trying to remember how the hell I ended up sleeping on a foreign couch with three other people passed out in the nearby vicinity before it all came rushing back to me.

Somehow Mikey had convinced me to attend his New Year's Eve party, even though they weren't really my thing, mostly because I didn't drink anymore. He had bullied me into it, saying I was becoming a hermit lately, but it wasn't my fault if watching him and Ray get wasted didn't rate high on my list of exciting things to do.

With a tired grunt, I pulled out my phone to check the time; it was only seven in the morning, what the hell was I doing up so early?

Electing to leave instead of awkwardly hanging around a bunch of soon to be hung-over people that I honestly didn't know that well, I gathered up my keys and left Mikey a note - explaining that I had headed home.

I felt marginally bad for abandoning Mikey so early, but he knew I wasn't the most social of people, so he probably wouldn't be too surprised.

Wincing as the bright sunlight assaulted my eyes, I began the short walk to where I had parked my Trans Am.

I never really understood why everyone made such a big deal about New Year's, to me it was just another day. Sure it was one more year that I had made it clean and sober, but besides that, there was nothing special about it.

I found my thoughts wandering to Frank; I wondered how his day was going, and if he had made a New Year's resolutions. I had actually let myself make one this year; I was going to find him, I didn't know how, but he was the only missing piece that was required to make my life perfect.

I realized that so much had probably changed between us now, and I doubted he still loved me; he would have to be as crazy as I was for him to feel the same. Still - I needed to know where he was, and how life had been treating him since I last talked to him.

I had been lax in my search of him lately, instead focusing on getting my life together so he wouldn't come back to the wreck he had left behind. Now that I had accomplished that, the burning desire to be reunited with him had begun to take over my mind.

By this time, I had reached my car, which had been a Christmas present to myself. I began driving back to my apartment, enjoying the traffic free streets; everyone else was still trying to sleep off last night's festivities.

My stomach grumbled with hunger, and I began racking my brain, trying to remember if I had any food in the fridge, or if I would need to stop at the grocery store on the way home.

Apparently my musings about food had distracted me from the road, so by the time I glanced up, it was too late to avoid the Toyota that had drifted into my lane.

Bracing myself for impact, I swerved as best as I could, but my poor car still got clipped by the clueless driver who didn't seem to notice me until the collision snapped him to his senses. Honking his horn, he pulled off sharply to the side of the road, and I quickly parked too, ready to chew out the asshole who had damaged my brand new car.

A hasty glance showed that the damage actually wasn't that bad, my headlight was busted, but the scrape could easily be buffed out. That did nothing to diminish my fury toward the probably drunk idiot that still hadn't gotten out his car, I guess I was lucky that he hadn't driven off though.

"Hey!" I waved my arms in front of the rolled down window, trying to get the guy's attention. When he didn't respond at all, I began to get worried, and I bent down so I could see inside the dirty interior.

"Oh fuck," I cursed when I realized the driver was passed out in the front seat, his dark shaggy hair obscuring his face.

I tried the door handle, and luckily it was unlocked, not that I couldn't have opened it through the window. I didn't see any blood or broken bones, so I wasn't one hundred percent sure what had caused the man to faint in the first place.