FicWad

The office was empty, since the office staff were usually late and I was about an hour early. Only the principle was in, but he had locked himself in his office so I was left completely to my own devices, which suited me fine. I found the key to the filing cabinet and unlocked the first draw, scanning the names quickly before closing it again and unlocking the next one, this time I found Franks file quite near to the front. I pulled it out of the draw and sat down on the floor, leaning against the cabinet I opened the paper folder it was held in and removed the paperclip keeping it all together. There was a small, slightly outdated photo of Frank looking away from the camera with flushed cheeks, looking as frightened as he usually did. The photo was stuck to the corner of a sheet of paper with Franks grades and general information on, at the bottom of the paper I spotted something written in red pen in a little box that said 'other information'.
Tends to make up stories.
What the hell did that mean? That he was a liar? Or that he had an imagination? I pondered it for a second before going onto the next page, this was a written document, dated about eleven years ago. The black ink was fading a little and written in a tidy scrawl with flicks at the bottom of each letter 'y'.
"Frank is a charming student and I first spotted the bruise on his back when he was getting changed for P.E. When I asked him about it he told me that his father had hit him when he had been helping Frank get loved by God. I instantly thought this meant that his father was a martyr of some kind, but further questioning of the child caused me to be alarmed that he was suffering some sort of sexual abuse under the guise of religion. I alerted the authorities and after some months of questioning and searching of the Iero household led to the conclusion that Frank was lying and obtained the bruise naturally. I am surprised and hurt that Frank lied but he has always been a quiet boy and it is possible he wanted the attention.
Other than this I have no complaints and he was a pleasure to teach."
The paragraph was signed by a woman but I couldn’t make out the name properly, I guessed this was a report for when he was moving school or something. I re-read the page three times before gently laying it in my lap and taking a deep breath. Sexual abuse? Could it be possible... was Frank being sexually abused by his father? Whoever had written this obviously believed Frank had made it all up, but I couldn’t help but wonder how a six year old child could come up with this sort of thing. Sure, all you have to do is stay up late and you can see all sorts of shit on T.V. But sexual abuse and perhaps some soft-core martyrdom? I don’t care how late you stay up, no six year old can come up with that surely. But then... you did get some creepy programs. I sighed and raked a hand through my hair, my mind was in a mess. Mikey was right - I shouldn’t have looked into this. It wasn’t easy for me to just say it was nothing, that he had made it up. But I knew the police would have looked into the matter thoroughly when it happened, and if they couldn’t find anything then it probably was all a lie. Even so...
I looked at the next sheet of paper, surprised to find a police report on the matter. The school really had taken this whole thing seriously. I read it quickly, slowing down on the important parts.
" - Searched the Iero household. Found nothing untoward, some porn magazines in the father’s bedroom but nothing more.
- A very religious family, Catholic.
- Single parent, the mother died in childbirth.
- Rape tests were carried out, the boy does show evidence of anal dilation. This may mean anal penetration but can also mean constipation - the father upholds the latter, saying the child has always had bowl problems.
- The boy has been spoken to by numerous social workers and therapists, he refuses to speak to any.
- All parties believe this is best not taken to court, as it is clear the boy’s allegations are untrue."
After reading the report I didn’t quite know what to think. There was almost no evidence that Frank was sexually abused, and a lot of evidence that said he was lieing. I sighed and checked to see if there was any more on the matter, finding there wasn’t I put everything back in the file and got to my feet. I don’t know what it was I had expected to find... answers I guess. But now I just had more questions. The sensible thing to do was to trust the police and the teachers on this one and accept the fact Frank had made everything up, but I just couldn’t. Something about this whole thing didn’t seem right, but for once I would listen to my little brother and stop meddling.

Stop staring. Stop staring. Stop staring. Gerard, stop fucking staring. Stop it. Stop it - now!... Now! ... Now! I groaned and forced myself to look away, I had been staring at Frank way too much this lesson, and I knew he knew I was. I just couldn’t help it, it was if I expected a big sign to appear above his head giving me all the answers to my questions if I just stared long enough. I knew that wouldn’t happen, and I also knew I was probably scaring the crap out of Frank by staring at him. He was already blushing and he was pressing down so hard on his pencil I was sure it was going to snap any minute.
I tried to busy myself with marking but my mind couldn’t focus, I had a terrible urge to just walk over to Frank and ask him whether he had been abused when he was six or not. But that was obviously a bad idea, dammit I need a coffee!
"Erm...sir?" I looked up to see Frank stood infront of my desk, arms tight round his body and his eyes directed at the floor.
"Yes?" I asked, leaning back and watching him relax a little.
"Can I go to the nurse please, I have a stomach ache." He mumbled, his voice so quiet I could barely hear it.
"A stomach ache?" I repeated.
"Yes sir." He mumbled back, I considered this for a moment, wondering whether he was lieing just to get away from me. He looked up at me slightly and I saw the bruise under his eye was beginning to fade, now a purple and yellow mix of skin. I was staring again... I couldn’t help it...
"Sir, can I go please?" Frank had a begging edge to his voice and I snapped out of my though stream with a jolt.
"Yes, yes of course - go. I'll put your work away for you if you don’t get back by the end of the lesson." I said quickly.
"Thank you." He muttered before speeding out of the classroom. I sighed and picked up my pen, but I already knew I wasn’t going to be able to concentrate so why even bother...

A/N: Sorry this chapter was so short, it was just to provide a bit of background stuff xD Reviews would still be loved of course :]
xox