Gerard woke up slowly. Every ounce of his will was being put into trying to stay in his dream, but all that he could see was the inside of his eyelids. He had already forgotten what the dream was about anyway.  He sighed, slow and heavy, and opened his eyes. It took them a minute to adjust but he saw that Mikey was still heavily sleeping on the couch. The love seat that Frank had been sleeping on last night was empty. 

He sat up in the recliner and it folded back up. He walked into the kitchen where Frank was standing with a cup of coffee and his phone. He had the same bored expression as he scrolled up and down on the screen. He peeked up at Gerard and turned it off. 

"Your mom is a nice lady. I caught her on her way out and stayed out of her way but we had a brief conversation. She knows my mom. I don't know what connection they have but she told me that she was glad to finally meet me." He smiled and shrugged. "And then she made some coffee."

Gerard had already helped himself to one of the mugs and added sugar. He felt like it was the type of day to add some sugar. 

"Yeah. She works as a hair dresser mostly, but she works weird hours. She might do your mom's hair, she always likes to hear about the kids in the area."

"She also said that you would give me a tour of the house. Like where the bathroom is. I've been holding it for half an hour now," Frank said, flatly. Gerard wondered how long he had been working on that line. 

He quickly led the way and went back into the kitchen to finish off his coffee. When Frank came back out he had also washed off all of the face paint that had smeared when he was sleeping. Gerard pointed to all of the rooms in the house and said where they led to. He opened his bedroom door to show Frank the inside.

His eyes went wide as he stepped past Gerard to get a closer work at some of Gerard's art. It was messily hung up on the walls and scattered on the desk. Gerard kicked some laundry into the small closet in the back and watched Frank wander around the room. 

The room was small and cramped. It had more furniture than it probably needed and few windows. It didn't help that it was overflowing with papers. The space seemed even smaller when he was showing it to someone new. Gerard felt more and more claustrophobic he walked around the room, trailing a few steps behind Frank and picking up his room sheepishly. Frank either didn't notice or didn't care, he was taking in all of the art. 

Gerard looked at the papers. At eye level, it was hard to tell that his room was even painted anymore. The walls were covered in papers that had been taped up, some of the heavier ones were being held up by sticky tack. The papers were overlapping in some places, but they needed to in order to fit in the little space that he had. He stopped to look at some of the pictures. There was one from four years ago that needed better shading, but he didn't touch it. One from last year that wasn't his best work but he remembers what he made the piece for and he smiled.  

Frank was stuck on the drawing that he did of his grandma. He pointed to it, "did you draw this? Did you draw all of this?" Gerard looked around the room. It was covered in a couple of years worth of art, some of it considerably better than others. "Most of it yeah. I think that Pete has a couple of drawings that he put up. Mikey too, probably. And some of it was stuff that I found for inspiration or whatever, but yeah. Most of it is mine." 

Frank was looking at some of the dates in the corner of some of the pictures. "They're incredible. Like, really cool." He moved to a drawing of batman. Then to last year's costume idea. And he kept jumping from piece to piece. 

It felt like no one looked at his art anymore. Mikey and Pete were so used to seeing the art hung on the wall that they didn't really stop to look at what was new. When something got their attention they usually told him it was cool and went back to what they were doing. It felt good to have someone get excited about it. 

"What is this one?" Frank asked. The paper didn't have a drawing on it, it was just brown and curling on the edges, like it had dried. It was just normal copy paper, and it was hidden in one of the clusters of drawings. Gerard leaned forward and sniffed it. "It looks like a piece of paper that Mikey spilled coffee on and then hung up. He even signed his name at the bottom," he said pointing at the tiny signature that was done in pencil. 

Frank laughed and looked at the wall that the head of his bed was pushed against. He lifted one of the papers to look at the drawing underneath. It knocked off the paper on top and Frank apologized but Gerard waved him off and told him just to put it on the bed. Frank complimented him on a picture that was messily hung in the corner that Gerard could barely remember doing. 

Frank approached the desk and looked at some of the drawings that were above it, but he also stared at the mound of papers that occupied most of the space. It was covered in sketchbooks and miscellaneous papers, some of which was homework. "That is the unfinished stuff," Gerard stated. "Or the stuff that didn't make the wall because it needs work. Some of them I gave up on. The stuff on the wall is usually the stuff that I am proud of or I worked hard enough on to deserve the wall. Most of it is original characters, too, but some of them are real people."

It was about half an hour later before they could hear Mikey noisily making breakfast in the kitchen. "I'm going to go ask him about the coffee paper," Gerard said. "Yeah. I'll go with you," Frank said absentmindedly, staring at one of the characters that Gerard had drawn. He was hoping that Frank would find it. He was especially proud of the detail on that one. Frank followed Gerard out of the room but his eyes lingered on some of the drawings and other knick knacks that Gerard kept in his room. Gerard grabbed the paper that Mikey signed and folded it up so it fit in his pocket. 

Mikey had breakfast in full swing. He had already made enough pancakes to feed the the three of them and still had enough batter to make twice as many. 

"Pete is coming for breakfast, too," he explained as he poured another glob of pancake batter onto the skillet. "At least he is bringing drinks. All we have is coffee and water and we're running low on coffee. And I don't like water with my breakfast."

On cue they could hear the front door starting to unlock. They could barely hear the rustle of shopping bags over the sound of Pete shouting, "I brought chocolate milk!" He held a half gallon jug of it above his head triumphantly. "I thought I was going to have to make it, but they have it in that little grocery store that I pass on the way here! Oh, and I brought apple juice for anyone that would rather have that." He had already made his way to the cabinet that they kept the cups in and was pouring himself some grocery store chocolate milk. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mikey finished off the last of the pancake batter and told everyone to dig in. Pete went first and grabbed himself a stack of five, while the rest of them grabbed two or three. Pete started telling them about his morning trip to the grocery store and how many weird people that were there when Frank's phone rang.

He looked conflicted and quietly mumbled, "sorry I have to take this." He pushed his chair away from the table and walked into the hallway. Pete continued his story but his eyes kept flickering to the hallway. 

When Frank came back he was walking towards the door. "Sorry, that was my mom. She freaked because I didn't come home last night. I explained everything but I'm still in a lot of trouble so I gotta get going." He was tugging his coat on and he had his shoes in his hand.

"Take a pancake for the road," Mikey told him. Frank grabbed one of the ones off his plate and a paper towel to wipe the syrup off his hands. "I'll see you guys on Monday," he said before he closed the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry that chapters have been far and few between. 

-soonmonster