"Frank, can I speak to you for a minute please?" I asked, calling Frank back just as everyone else was scurrying out of the classroom. It was the end of a long week and I only had one period left which luckily was a free hour – however, I had vowed to spend it with Rosie as I had barely seen her that week. It had been my toughest week yet. All of the kids were so rowdy and they were behaving badly as they were obviously not pleased to be back at school, but it wasn't just the behaviour of my students that was affecting me. Due to preparing some of my classes for exams, I was forced to spend most of my free time marking work or preparing study sessions which inevitably meant that the only time I could see Frank was during his English lessons and I was desperate to speak to him properly. He was stood awkwardly in front of my desk, his hands deep in his jeans pockets while we waited for everyone else to file out of the room. "How are you?" I asked, getting up and walking to the other side of my desk to stand in front of him. I put my hands on the edge of the desk and casually leaned backwards.

"Fine," he said, but I noticed that he had answered a little too quickly. I wasn't at all convinced by his response, but I let it slide this time as I knew I had to be quick – Frank had another class to go to. "What about you?"

"I'm okay I guess. Do you think that everything feels a little, you know, awkward between us? We've barely spoken all week... have I done something wrong? If it was about how fast everything seemed to progress last week then I'm really sorry."

"No! No, of course you haven't!" Frank exclaimed, his eyes widening with shock at my question before he began to giggle. I felt a blush creeping over my collar bones and up my neck. "You could never do anything wrong. And I also don't think that we moved too fast – it was just kissing with a bit of grinding, Gerard. I've moved a lot quicker with other people before. Anyway, I would tell you if I wasn't comfortable with something. But I know what you mean about us not having talked very much. I guess I just don't want to talk to you too much at school in case someone catches on… I'd hate for you to get in trouble over me."

"Nobody is going to find out, Frank – I promise. It's all going to be okay." I reached out and touched his arm comfortingly, wishing I could just pull him into a hug and stroke his hair… but that would be far too much of a risk. "Do you want to stay over at mine tonight? I could tell my mom that you're staying in Mikey's room but you can sleep in my bed if you want. I'm sure that she won't mind you staying over if I ask her as soon as possible so that she has a bit of notice. Maybe we can finish what we started last week." Frank giggled again. "What?" I asked, pouting a little as Frank laughed at me.

"It's funny that you're an adult and you still have to ask your mom if you can have people stay over."

"Not my house – not my rules," I replied, smiling back. "But I see your point. I'll text you during next lesson and if mom says yes then you can just catch a ride home with Mikey and I – we'll stop at your house on the way back so you can grab some clothes, toothbrush and so on." Frank nodded quickly and said goodbye before leaving the room and rushing to his next class.

.

I sighed heavily and forced myself to head towards the reception area, dragging my feet and taking a longer route in order to lessen the time that I had to spend with Rosie. As always, she greeted me enthusiastically and I forced a smile, trying to keep up the façade that I wasn't bothered by the way that Rosie acted around me.

"How have you been?" she asked, but she continued talking before I could give an answer. "I haven't seen you properly in so long – I hope everything's going okay. Have the kids been okay this week? We've had a lot of complaints from other teachers about how badly behaved they've all got over the holiday…. I hope your classes have been okay."

"I'm fine, thank you. I'm really enjoying teaching and all of my students are making brilliant progress so far. I must admit that some of my students have been somewhat challenging this week… but it's been nothing I can't cope with."

"Awesome!" she exclaimed. I flinched slightly how loudly she said it. "So how are other things going… found a special lady yet?" I tried not to let my smile falter at this obvious attempt to find out if I was still single. Instead, I decided that I would use this opportunity to try and get Rosie off my back.

"I've found a special someone," I mumbled. It was her turn to maintain her smile, although she was a lot less successful than me. I saw her smile momentarily falter and I noticed the hurt in her eyes, which did awake feelings of guilt inside me… but eventually she managed to give me her normal wide grin as she leaned forward enthusiastically.

"Who is it?!"

"I- I can't tell you. I mean, we haven't told anyone else about it yet and we're going to keep it rather quiet for now just to see how it goes," I said, avoiding her inquisitive gaze.

"Is she pretty? What does she look like? Do I know her?"

"Well… It's kind of hard to explain…" I started, but once again I was interrupted.

"Oh well never mind then," Rosie said with a casual wave of her hand. "One day I can meet her, yeah? Then I'll see for myself."

"Sure," I said, smiling awkwardly at Rosie. Obviously I had no intention of telling her about Frank, but at least maybe the mystery of the secret suitor would keep her satisfied for a while.

"I promise I won't tell a soul!" She mimed zipping her lips which made me genuinely smile a little – despite her forwardness, she did have good intentions.

"Thank you, Rosie – that's really kind of you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and make a call."

.

My mother agreed that Mikey could have Frank sleep over as she was going out for a meal with her colleagues that evening anyway, so I quickly texted the good news to Frank, hoping that he would get the message before the end of class. For the rest of the hour I listened to Rosie rambling on about her life and her friends but I paid very little attention. I let my mind begin to wonder to thoughts of Frank in bed with me, cuddled up into my side with his head on my chest. It was moments like those that made me realise how insignificant everything else was – all of my troubles and worries seemed to melt away when I could feel the warmth of his breath through my t-shirt. However, a different kind of worry was beginning to creep into my mind – did Frank want to take the relationship further? I knew that it had been almost two weeks since Mikey's party where we had first kissed, but everything seemed to be moving so fast. Was it normal for a relationship to progress at this rate? He had said himself that he thought we weren't moving fast at all, which made me wonder just how many people he had been with before me and just how far he had gone with them. A new worry began to arise within me – what if Frank did something tonight? I had no idea how to react in intense, passion-fuelled situations and therefore I would probably end up embarrassing myself or doing something completely inappropriate. I bit the inside of my cheek, annoyed that my own lack of experience was fuelling my insecurities. There was no way that I could know what a normal progress rate in a relationship was… and I wasn't a teenager anymore, so maybe fast was normal. I couldn't be sure.

.

The second that I heard the metallic ringing of the school bell I practically jumped out of my seat and rushed towards the car park, only pausing to say a brief goodbye to Rosie. As I was hurrying through the glass doors of the reception I heard her shout something after me, but I was so intent on spending as much time with Frank as possible that I paid no attention to what she said and merely shouted back a general "okay, I'll see you soon!" I climbed into the car and started up the engine, fingers tapping impatiently against the steering wheel as I waited for Mikey and Frank to appear. I was grateful to be relieved of the stiflingly uncomfortable atmosphere that seemed to surround me every time I was in a room with Rosie until I realised that the car journey home was probably going to be just as awkward.

.

After a few minutes of waiting impatiently in my car the two boys eventually showed up and Mikey slipped into the front seat as Frank sat quietly in the back, his leg jittering up and down in a nervous manner.

"How was school?" I asked, sarcasm ruling my voice. Frank didn't reply but Mikey began ranting about how 'stupid' everyone in his year was.

"Basically at lunch time Hannah started trying to flirt with Ray and I swear I nearly punched the stupid slut in the face but Bob had to control me. I mean, she knows that Ray is taken… I think her friends put her up to it. Oh my god, then Charlie started picking on Frank again-"

"What?" I interrupted, turning back to throw a worried glance at Frank and accidently causing the car to swerve a little. Frank just looked at Mikey with wide eyes before staring out of the window in silence.

"Oh shit. I'm sorry, Frank. I didn't mean to say anything I was just getting so worked up about everything."

"Just leave it, Mikey," Frank said in a flat tone, looking down in his lap and clasping his hands.

"What happened, Frank?" I asked - neither of them replied. "Can someone please tell me?" I was becoming increasingly irritated.

"It doesn't matter," Frank muttered, his voice shaking a little. I shot him a wary glance via the mirror and he shrunk into his seat. "Fine, I'll tell you later." Satisfied with this answer, I returned my full attention to the road and focused on getting us to Frank's in one piece.

.

Frank quickly got out the car and scuttled up to his house to fetch the necessities he would need for staying at our house. Mikey remained in the passenger seat, still looking exceptionally guilty.

"Mikey… how many people has Frank been with before me?" I asked, using the moment alone to get some answers from my brother.

"I don't think it's really fair of me to tell you," Mikey mumbled, biting his nails. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

"I'm just worried about how this relationship is progressing. I obviously have nothing to compare this experience to but I am aware that Frank has had previous lovers."

"Don't say lovers, Gerard. It makes you sound so old and it's creepy," Mikey teased, smiling at me. "He's been with two other guys, but that's all I'm telling you. Anything else, you can ask him," he said quickly as Frank came running back down the path towards the car.

"I'm sorry if I made you wait," he panted, clambering into the car and putting on his seatbelt. "I couldn't find any clean t-shirts so I had to look all over the house to find one…"

"Frank, it's fine," I chuckled, starting up the engine again. "You were only gone five minutes… you need to stop apologizing for things like that."

.

When we got back to my house, Frank and I immediately headed up to my room so that Frank could put his rucksack somewhere out of the way to avoid running the risk of my mother complaining. Frank placed his bag at the side of my bed before sitting down and looking up at me through his eyelashes.

"My mom is going out in about an hour," I said, joining him on the bed. "I think that maybe to avoid suspicion you should go and hang out with Mikey until then. My mother may be oblivious to a lot of things, but I think that even she would notice that my brother's friend was hanging out with me instead…"

"But I want to spend time with you," Frank said, pouting as he leaned sideways into me and rubbed his head against my shoulder. "I haven't seen you properly for ages and I just want to cuddle and stuff." I sighed and lightly placed a kiss on the top off his head.

"I know, Frankie, I know. I want to spend time with you too but I just don't want to push our luck… Mikey is your best friend anyway so you should probably go and spend some time with him. Besides, I should get my work done now so that I can give you my full attention for the rest of the night." Frank grumbled a little but seemed reasonably satisfied with this answer and so stood up, placed a quick kiss to my lips and headed across the hallway to Mikey's room.

.

About an hour later I headed downstairs to say goodbye to my mom and to find the number for the local takeaway pizza delivery – I didn't want to waste any time cooking, so I thought ordering a pizza would be far less time consuming.

"I'll be back around eleven o'clock so don't wait up for me," mom said, picking up her keys from the table. "Make sure that Mikey and Frank get something to eat and make sure they don't go to bed too late. Oh, and please don't let them make a mess. I'll see you tomorrow," she gushed, scuttling out of the house in her black patent heels. I shut the door behind her and headed back upstairs to find out what kind of pizzas I should order – and to take Frank off Mikey's hands.

.

"So what happened at school today?" I asked, shutting the door behind me as Frank and I entered my bedroom. Mikey had agreed to order the pizza and he was going to let us know when it arrived. Instead of answering my question, Frank just sat heavily on the bed and began picking at a loose thread on his hoodie sleeve. I sat down carefully next to him and put my arm around him, attempting to comfort Frank because he obviously needed it. "What's up, sweetheart?" Frank leaned into me and rested his head on my chest.

"It's nothing, really… It was just Charlie. He pushed me against a wall and called me so many names… sometimes he just makes me question whether being with a guy is the right thing to do." I stiffened slightly before pulling Frank into a tight hug.

"Frank don't you dare ever think that," I said quietly, stroking his hair. "The only thing that's wrong about this situation is people making you feel like that. Don't ever be ashamed of being yourself, because I would never think less of you for something like that and neither would Mikey or anyone else that cares about you." Frank's eyes began watering. "I'll have no tears tonight, Frank – even happy ones." Frank rubbed his nose with his hoodie sleeve and my heart melted with how cute he looked.

"Okay," he mumbled. "Can we cuddle now?"

.

I picked up a random film off my DVD shelf and put it on, knowing full well that Frank wouldn't care what was on the TV – he just wanted to spend time in my arms. After pressing play I strolled back over to my bed and lay down, letting Frank crawl across to me and immediately rest his head on my chest, his right arm slung carelessly across my stomach. I slid my arm around him and pulled him in closer, wanting to be as near to him as was physically possible. These moments were so precious. These moments where neither of us was speaking, neither of us was fretting… these moments where we were one. These moments when the world stopped turning just for us and the only sound I could hear was Frank's soft breathing. The only thing I could feel was the heat of his body against mine. It was in these moments that I felt whole… I felt perfect.

.

Unfortunately I was brought back into reality by the sound of the doorbell ringing, signalling that the pizza was here. Frank made an unhappy noise into my chest and latched himself onto me, attempting to stop me getting up off the bed.

"Frank, I need to get the pizza! I have to pay for it," I giggled, trying to pry the small boy who was smiling from ear to ear off me. My arm gave way underneath me and I lost my balance, thus falling off the bed and dragging Frank with me. We lay in a heap in the floor laughing uncontrollably until Mikey stormed up the stairs to demand money off me, looking deeply unimpressed by our state. It was only then that I managed to escape Frank's clutches and dash downstairs with my wallet to pay the pizza man, receiving the warm cardboard boxes in exchange. I carried the boxes upstairs and passed one to Mikey who skulked back into his room and shut the door behind him, evidently hoping that we wouldn't disturb him. It didn't bother me – I didn't want to be disturbed either. I put our pizza box on the bed and sat down with Frank to tuck in, trying not to worry too much about the amount of crumbs that were going to end up in my bed.

.

"You don't have to order vegetarian pizza just for me you know, Gee. I could buy my own… I don't want to be a pain," Frank mumbled through a mouthful of pizza.

"It's fine, Frankie," I replied, although I waited until I had finished my mouthful. "I like this pizza anyway."

"Do you want any money towards it?" he asked, rummaging in his pocket to try and find something to offer me. I rolled my eyes at him and tutted.

"No! It's my treat, sweetheart. I promise it's absolutely fine," I said, trying to make him stop worrying – it seemed to work. We ate the rest of the pizza in silence and then cuddled again until the end of the film. As I stood up to put another film in, Frank grabbed my hand and pulled me back. I looked at him with a confused expression etched onto my face, but I was met with a wry smirk.

"Frank?" I said, my mouth going dry as Frank bit his lip seductively.

"I want to give you something in return for the pizza," he drawled, pulling me on top of him with a reasonable amount of force. "This is my treat for you."