Medicate Your Lives (Frerard)

Chapter Four: Gerard

I live for coffee.

I could see the shop approaching and wanted to speed up to get there, but Frank seemed to slow down. Probably just to annoy me. Fantastic.

We finally reached the grey building after what seemed like a year of walking and Frank opened the door for me. I muttered thanks and he sarcastically bowed. I laughed. Actually, may or may not have giggled. Stepping into line, Frank watched others. Couples in booths, college students studying, loners who were reading books. We were surrounded by low chatter and the sounds of coffee mugs clinking against each other. Frank ordered two shots of espresso, while I ordered a cappuccino.

We grabbed our coffees and picked a booth in the corner. We sat across each other while Frank gently blew on his coffee.

There was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes until I spoke up. "How long until school lets out?"

Frank glanced at his watch and frowned. "About two hours. I'd get home by 5:00 if I were you. It's not very safe for you after that."

"Okay. Thanks." I took a sip of my cappuccino and grinned. Coffee this good is hard to find.

"So where do you live?" Frank asked.

"Roanoke Road, for now. My mom wants to move to a better area, but money is tight, and..." I trailed off. Frank nodded knowingly.

Suddenly, a group of guys who looked older than me burst into the shop and scanned it. Once they spotted Frank, they made a beeline for our table.

"Hey! Tommy!" I glanced at Frank, confused. He simply shook his head.

The owner of the cafe appeared from behind the counter. "Hey, hey, what did I tell you last time? Get out." He slapped his towel onto the counter.

The leader of the group raised his hands in innocence. "We'll be gone before you know it," he said, flashing a smile. Everyone in the shop was watching us.

They reached our table. "Hey, who's this?" The asked, his muscles evident under his shirt. He towered over the rest. "Your boyfriend? Hey, look, Tommy got 'imself a boyfriend," The group laughed nastily.

"No. Fuck off, man," Frank said with surprising force.

A guy at the back of the group spoke up. "Hey, don't pretend we haven't saved your ass a thousand times." The guys murmured in agreement.

"You owe us," the leader sneered.

Frank stared coldly at him for a second before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a 50 dollar bill. He slammed it on the table. I watched the exchange in shock. I could hear my mom's voice in my head, warning me to stay away from groups like these.

"Happy?" Frank asked.

"Very," the leader leaned in close to Frank's face. "Till next time." The group began to retreat. "See ya around, Tommy." The bell rang, indicating that they left the coffee shop.

"What the hell was that?" I finally mustered. "Why do they call you Tommy?"

"Nothing. It was nothing." Frank's expression was dark. "They call me Tommy because of, like, Tommy DeVito. I like music and he went to our high school. It's stupid."

We quickly payed for our coffees and left our mugs on the counter with a tip underneath.

"But why do you owe them? What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Why did they save your-"

"It doesn't matter, okay?" Frank exclaimed, exasperated.

"Okay," I muttered. We stood for a minute. "So you like music?"

"I guess, it's the only thing I've ever really excelled at."

"Do you play anything?"

"Yeah, I play piano and guitar. You?"

"Piano. I sing a bit, I guess. I've never taken lessons for it, so I guess just piano."

Frank took out his pack of cigarettes and offered me one, which I took gratefully. We sat outside the cafe and smoked, talking about music, until the sun began to set.

"Go home," Frank said. "It's getting dark."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine," he smirked. I glanced at him doubtfully. He looked to be about 5'4" at most, but he seemed tough enough.

I stood up and looked down at him, scuffing my shoes against the step.

"So. I guess I'll see you at school then?"

"Christ, Gerard, you're acting like it's the end of a date. I'll see you around." Frank smiled, the first time I'd seen him do it. It was gone before I could see if it was genuine or mocking.

"Okay," I forced out a laugh. "See you around."

——-

Author's Note

I'm usually strongly opposed to writing author's notes, but I felt the need to inform everyone about what's going on with this story.

Please read this before asking any questions.

First of all, I apologize that I haven't published anything for a while. I've been working on this chapter throughout a period of two or three weeks, a little bit at a time. I'm busy a lot of the time, so it's difficult for me to stick to a set schedule for this story, and I can't write every day, but I'll publish a new chapter whenever I can.

Secondly, I'm still working out a style of writing, so some chapters may seem different. I know this one is different when it comes to dialogue.

Third - the positive feedback about this story has been fantastic, thank you so much! Comment or message me if you have any suggestions or questions.

I'm trying to make chapters longer, but I'm still getting into the swing of things, so it will get better as time goes on.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys next time.

-SB