FicWad

Frank existed in a world that seemed to be separate from this one. He seemed not to care, or even take notice of any other people. In New Jersey, where the scenery was grey and the people were ignorant and boring, Frank had seemed to create a world outside of it. He was so colourful, refusing to blend in and pretend he didn’t exist. He lived in a bubble, and Gerard would have given anything to be in there with him.
Gerard was so ordinary, yet stood out in all the wrong ways. He was chubby, with natural jet-black hair and although he had a natural talent for drawing this furthered his social awkwardness, earning the title of the ‘Art Kid’.
And he was gay.
Well the gayness alone was enough to destroy his social life, not that he would have had one anyway. No one knew of course, why should they? It was a small Christian town, and homosexuality was all but outlawed. Gerard had really tried to be straight, he had tried so fucking hard, asking out girls usually only to get a laugh and a rejection. To be honest he hadn’t really had a crush on anyone as it was, hell, everyone looked the same.
Then Frank walked in one day. Gerard could already tell he wasn’t going to be popular, his red, blonde and black hair, piercings and skinny jeans made sure of that. But there was something oh so intense about the way he cast his eye over everyone, his gaze lingered on Gerard before casually raising an eyebrow and turning away. And that was it. Gerard was fucking smitten.
Frank just seemed not to care about the fact that kids were saying faggot under their breath, or about the fact that as soon as they had him in the hallways they were pushing him mercilessly. He just kept his earphones in his ears, casually humming a tune that Gerard couldn’t quite hear.
Gerard whispered Frank’s name over and over to himself, shocked at how not bothered Frank seemed by the relentless torment. They did less to Gerard, and Gerard had gone home before near to tears, cursing himself for being such a fucking pussy. But Frank, Frank looked almost amused with it all.
Gerard’s first class was English. He tried to concentrate about on the dead poet they were studying, but after around ten minutes his mind started wandering. He took out a fresh piece of paper and could only think of one thing to draw. Gerard’s pen was drawing before his brain could even compute, and by the time he realized what he was drawing he was onto Frank’s eyes. As hard as he tried he couldn’t get them right. It was the intensity, sincerity, complacency and coldness that Frank had, it wouldn’t translate on to the paper, and before long Gerard was screwing it up into a ball, cheeks burning with the silent embarrassment. He looked at his watch, and sighed when he realized that he’d only been drawing for ten minutes, there was at least forty five left of the lesson.
With a heavy heart he went to page thirty in his textbook, Jesus, this would be long.
After five minutes the door opened, and like startled animals the entire class turned to look at the door in perfect unison. Frank strode in, seemingly unaware of how late he was.
The class then all stopped breathing, waiting for the inevitable meltdown from Mr Green. ‘Frank Iero.’ He said sharply, sounding as though Frank’s name was a bad word. ‘What are you doing so late to my lesson?’
Frank merely raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly as he said ‘I got lost.’ His voice wasn’t exactly mocking, but it did have a sense of amused defiance.
‘Lost? How do you get ‘lost’ for this amount of time?’ Mr Green spat.
‘Oh, I got stressed and needed a smoke to calm myself down. You know how is.’ Frank smiled warmly, as if talking to a friend.
‘No, I most certainly don’t. Now sit down.’ Mr Green spat, eyes wide at the level of disregard Frank was showing. ‘Now I think there’s a seat over there, by Gerard.’
Oh shit.
There was a reason Gerard sat alone. No one ever wanted to sit by him. He was the weird kid. Gerard held his breath, waiting for Frank to screw up his nose and go ‘Ew, no thanks sir, I’ll sit in the bin instead.’ But that didn’t happen. Frank merely shrugged his shoulders and breezed over to the seat.
‘Hello Gerard.’ He smiled.
‘H-hi.’ Gerard whispered, keeping his eyes to his textbook, guard completely up.
‘Your name’s odd.’ Frank stated.
‘S-sorry.’ Oh God, Gerard could fucking feel himself blushing.
‘No, in a good way.’ Frank laughed. ‘You seem like a weird individual… I mean you don’t fit the stereotype,’ Frank added after seeing Gerard’s expression at being called odd. ‘and so ‘Gerard’ suits you quite well. Do you like it?’
Gerard looked at him incredulously, either he was openly mocking him, or he didn’t understand how strange this conversation was. ‘No.’ Gerard whispered.
‘Well then shorten it.’ Frank said, ‘Let’s think, Gerry?’
Gerard’s eyes widened in horror
‘Okay, not Gerry, too old man-ish. Gary? No, you don’t look like a ‘Gary’. Fuck, I have no clue!’ Frank laughed.
‘Oh.’ Said Gerard simply.
‘Oh?’ Frank was laughing hard now, ‘You’re not one for conversation are you? Or word’s more than one syllable so it seems.’
Gerard started to blush uncontrollably, embarrassed at his awkwardness.
‘I got it!’ Frank exclaimed, ‘You only give one syllable answers, so you should have a one syllable name. Ger doesn’t sound good, so… Gee!’ Frank smiled warmly, showing no intention to hurt. ‘Gee, I like it!’ He said.
‘Gee’ Gerard thought. He liked it too.