Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Romances Of The Chemicalses (No, I haven't thought of a name yet. xD)
Two.
(I made the amendment in the previous chapter that James has been held back a year, making him...18? Maybe? I hope. Well, if he’s not 18, he illegally drinks. Very in character, to be honest. I wanted him to be older because 1) The real James is older than them all, 2) He swears quite a bit, and 3) He sort of fathers the group, which I like because it’s dawhhh. ONWARD WITH YOUR READINGS, GOOD SIR.)
Musician, singer, songwriter, AND astrophysicist. Builds his own guitars. Hell, he even has a better fro than me... Ray ran his fingers across the page, amazed at one of his biggest heroes: Brian May.
It was hard to believe how some people were so talented... He was capable of everything, in Ray’s eyes, alongside Randy Rhoads- another of his heroes.
He closed his eyes.
Ah, well.
It wasn’t like Ray would be anywhere near as good as them, especially when his dad wanted him to stick to drums. And he could hardly get much practice in at home, where drug addicts turned up on the front porch and bodies were found in the park every odd week. Louie, his older brother, encouraged his interest in guitar, but since all three of the Toro brothers shared a room, Ed wasn’t exactly in favour of all the strumming when he was studying for his finals.
Ray closed his book, standing up the comfy armchair (the ONLY comfortable furniture in the school was in the library, of course) and took it back into the music section with an inward sigh.
His family did their best, but they seemed to have only just enough money. And being Puerto-Rican in the area they lived in, it was probably best that they didn’t draw attention. There were racists, druggies, gangs, but the Toro family kept themselves to themselves. After all, it was New Jersey- they couldn’t expect miles better.
Ray’s father had a decent job, but there was the odd week where he pondered at the dinner table whether they needed to sell a few of the instruments ‘lying around the house’- which inevitably started an argument. Louie wasn’t about to give up any of his guitars that he jammed on day and night now that he was studying music in university, Ed bought his own bass with his college bursary, and the drumkit was from Ray’s father’s childhood. And Ray was adamant that his dog, Boy, stayed. The argument would result in no change, and Toro family always managed.
Ray wished he could get a job to help out, anyway. But there was never any good opportunity- not for some kid in his last year of high school. If things were this bad now, how would he manage when it came to getting a real job? He didn’t want some supermarket job; Ray wanted to do something different. Important. Not being a corporate drone, being whatever he wanted to be...
His eyes met two others through the bookshelf. It was a black-haired, light-brown-skinned girl, who was browsing the books on the other side. But her eyes, they caught the sun through the library window perfectly, brown with rings of sandy gold...
Ray jumped a little, feeling some heat on his cheeks as he quickly replaced his book.
What was he doing, staring at a complete stranger like that? Wasn’t his reputation as a weirdo bad enough anyway?
But curiosity got the better of him again- What was someone from this school doing in the music section, really?- and he glanced at her again as he pretended to look at some other random book.
She had a book in her hands, turned slightly away now. Was she laughing at him secretly? Getting a closer look, she had streaks of brown and blonde in her hair. Tabby cat colours. It was so strange... Her hair was a bit frizzy too, but nowhere near fro-style.
There it was, a tiny smile. Ray snapped his gaze back to his book immediately, only to realise it was, obviously, blatantly, upside down.
Damn idiot! Ray thought to himself, imagine what she’ll say to her friends later..
He hurriedly put the book back, face burning again, and moved to another section. One far, far away from Music.
Nice going, Toro.
~
It’s funny how something so insignificant can change everything.
It could be the inkling in the back of the mind, the one that urges you on to do something. Be something more important, even if it’s such a far-off possibility.
It could be the odd way you meet someone, someone that you know you’ll meet again, somewhere in the future. Because they were someone you could understand, relate to.
It could be the meeting of two gazes, only for a moment. When you walk by someone, when you glance over at someone you’ve never seen before.
You never forget the insignificant things, not really. Because there’s always a possibility that they aren’t so significant. Just like how you never forget a face, a person... Even if they’re long gone, erased from existence. Even if you wanted to forget, because it hurts that they’re gone.
They never really are.
~
Ugh. Just when I met some decent people.
Frank was leaning against the wall by the car park. It was just out of bounds, but it was the one spot he’d managed to keep private. No one ever followed him here, not even the pricks that shoved him in Gerard’s locker.
Gerard. And Mikey.
Frank sighed again. He must have looked like a complete asshat. He was sweaty, he’d probably ruined half of Gerard’s things by standing on them, and he’d been a stammering idiot when the Way brothers had helped him. But... For a moment, Gerard and Frank had smiled at each other, like they were friends. Like they knew each other. Frank had let his guard down, relaxed for the first time since coming to this damn school.
And then he’d remembered how stupid he looked.
He reached over to his bag, which he’d grabbed from his locker shortly after running away from Gerard and Mikey, and pulled his foil-wrapped sandwiches out.
They didn’t seem like bad guys though, the brothers. Neither of them seemed like anyone he’d met so far. Mikey, with his blonde hair- well, Frank could barely tell from the tufts sticking out from his black hobo hat- thick-framed glasses and an iPod that seemed glued to him. I can hardly criticise that, really, Frank thought wryly, as he disassembled his sandwiches. He was quiet though. It didn’t seem to be out of dislike for Frank (though, he could never tell with people...), he did seem like a genuinely awkward guy.
And then Gerard... Gerard seemed like an oddly charismatic guy. Shoulder-length black hair, slightly upturned nose, crooked grin.. He was kind of- well, cute. That was the only word to describe him with. And he’d been so friendly, for a guy who really didn’t fit in here. Surely he got as much shit as Frank did, but he was a hundred times more cheery.
Or maybe that was an act. Maybe he pitied Frank, and that was the only reason he was so nice...
Seemed about right, really. Well, Frank was better off alone anyway. Just one day closer to leaving school, and then he was out of there and into the real world. Though, to be honest with himself, he didn’t really know which was worse.
Frank tossed the sandwich contents, the tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, all of it, into the foil and launched it at the nearby dumpster before proceeding to eat his butter sandwiches.
He was definitely better off alone.
~
“You alright, Gee?” Matt asked as the Way brothers returned to the library and sat down at the table, “You look sorta... I dunno.”
“That’s some great vocabularies you got there, Matt.”
“Shut up, James.” Matt grinned.
“I got my dice bag.” Gerard sighed, “And we met Frank Iero.”
“That guy who transferred a week ago?”
“Two, actually.” Mikey interjected, and everyone turned to him. It was rare that Mikey commented on trivial things, it drew too much attention to him.
“Since when were you keeping tabs on the guy?” Gerard asked his brother, almost excited. If Mikey had a crush, it would be adorable. Gerard could set them up- but then, Frank was a bit... Still, if Mikey was coming out, Gerard could find him a boyfriend anyway, and then-
“He just seemed like one of us.”
“One of us, how?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are we some rare species?”
“Well...” Gerard shrugged, slightly disappointed at Mikey’s lack of enthusiasm. Maybe another day. “We kind of are. And I kind of see what Mikey means. He had that socially inverted look, and floppy hair. He was wearing fingerless skeleton gloves, for god’s sake.”
“Yeah,” Mikey chewed one of his headphone wires, “But he ran away too.”
Ran away, Gerard sighed inwardly. That was exactly it. Frank seemed so antisocial that he didn’t even want to know them, even though they were only helping. Or trying to help. Maybe they were trying too hard?
“He was stuffed in Gerard’s locker though.” Mikey added.
“Woah, Gee.”
“I knew you were into kinky stuff sometimes, but...”
Gerard shot a look at Matt and James. Frank wasn’t his type. Much. He was cute, though.
“That’s not- It was Danny and his asshole group.”
“Ah, fuck.” James sighed.
There was a collective look of sympathy on everyone’s faces. And a look of disdain from the librarian, who seemed to have a built-in profanity detector. It took about two warning looks before she threw them out usually.
“Those guys are complete di-“
“Dislikeable people, yeah.” Gerard finished for Matt, nudging his foot under the table, the usual signal.
“I think we should help the guy.” James said, looking around at everyone else. “Seems like the kind of guy to get his a-”
“-arms-“ Matt grinned.
“-kicked. And we have enough experience of that thanks to that bunch of fu-“
“-fun-spoiling people-” Gerard.
“-And even if that kid’s gonna learn to not be a pu-“
“-pudding-” Mikey.
“-then he needs us... wait, what?”
James, Gerard and Matt all looked at Mikey, who shrank back slightly.
“I... Well.. I was lonely.”
They all laughed.
“Mikey, you’re fucking adorable.” James grinned, already packing up the game as the librarian got up from her desk to, inevitably, kick them all out.
~
Ray didn’t pay much attention to the group at the library table, too busy losing himself (or trying to forget his earlier shame) in an astronomy book and marvelling at how awesome space was- until they all stood up to leave and he saw the familiar black hobo hat donned by Mikey Way.
Quickly, he returned the book and caught up with them in the corridor.
“Hey,” Ray tapped the socially inept Mikey on the shoulder and making him jump, “Ah, sorry.”
“It’s cool. What’s up anyway?” He smiled, pulling an earplug out.
“Nothing much, just embarrassing myself further in the eyes of society. James get you kicked out again?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault Miss whateverthehellhernameis still lives in the olden days where you’d get stoned to death by saying ‘damn’.” James waved his hand towards Ray and patted him on the fro.
Ray shrugged, still not sure whether James liked him or not. Or whether he was just insane.
Gerard, however, gave Ray a side-hug.
“Sup, Princess FroFro?”
“That’s a new one”
“Glad you noticed,” Gerard beamed, baby-faced showing. “Hey, have you met the new guy yet?”
“New guy?” Ray blinked, looking around the group. No new faces here, just the bulk of Matt, who never looked young enough to be in school still, James, lanky and puffy-haired, and Mikey, his closer friend of the four other than Gerard. But Gerard was everyone’s friend.
“I mean Frank Iero.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell...”
“Oh.” Gerard frowned. “Maybe he’s not in any of your classes... I mean, no one would be in your maths class since it’s full of evil geniuses. And Mikey.”
Mikey nudged him in the arm, of course.
“Well, he has to be in our science class, right? It’s one big class ever since that other teacher set his beard on fire.” Ray mused.
“Wait, really?” James stopped dead and turned to him, wide-eyed. “His.... his beard?”
They all nodded.
“And... you saw this?”
Nod.
“You recorded it obviously, yeah?”
“Uhhh... It was kind of an panic moment for everyone-” Gerard scratched his head.
“....No..?”
“No.”
“ARGH! Fuck, you guys!” James wailed, “These moments are wasted on you!”
Matt chuckled.
“He’s kind of got a point..”
“I’ve got a huge point! You don’t even understand what you could have done with that, you guys just..”
“Anyway,” Gerard grinned, ignoring James’ rant, “I think we should talk to the guy next time we see him, include him a bit more. He might hate it- from what we’ve seen, he’s antisocial as hell- but we were all like that once, right?”
Ray pondered it for a moment. There was a time, about a year ago, when he used to sit as far away from everyone- until he noticed how Mikey did too. They started talking, and Mikey introduced him to his brother, Matt, James. Similar-minded people with similar tastes. That’s all it took to make him feel finally welcome in this place, and he felt a bit better about everything.
But this Frank guy, if he was even more antisocial than they all were, was there much point in trying to force a friendship if he was likely to reject them?
Or it could help him survive the last year of high school, giving him some support that he obviously lacked...
“Let’s do it, then.”
“Alright! Let’s convert that emu.” James grinned, infernal-beard-rant over.
(I made the amendment in the previous chapter that James has been held back a year, making him...18? Maybe? I hope. Well, if he’s not 18, he illegally drinks. Very in character, to be honest. I wanted him to be older because 1) The real James is older than them all, 2) He swears quite a bit, and 3) He sort of fathers the group, which I like because it’s dawhhh. ONWARD WITH YOUR READINGS, GOOD SIR.)
Musician, singer, songwriter, AND astrophysicist. Builds his own guitars. Hell, he even has a better fro than me... Ray ran his fingers across the page, amazed at one of his biggest heroes: Brian May.
It was hard to believe how some people were so talented... He was capable of everything, in Ray’s eyes, alongside Randy Rhoads- another of his heroes.
He closed his eyes.
Ah, well.
It wasn’t like Ray would be anywhere near as good as them, especially when his dad wanted him to stick to drums. And he could hardly get much practice in at home, where drug addicts turned up on the front porch and bodies were found in the park every odd week. Louie, his older brother, encouraged his interest in guitar, but since all three of the Toro brothers shared a room, Ed wasn’t exactly in favour of all the strumming when he was studying for his finals.
Ray closed his book, standing up the comfy armchair (the ONLY comfortable furniture in the school was in the library, of course) and took it back into the music section with an inward sigh.
His family did their best, but they seemed to have only just enough money. And being Puerto-Rican in the area they lived in, it was probably best that they didn’t draw attention. There were racists, druggies, gangs, but the Toro family kept themselves to themselves. After all, it was New Jersey- they couldn’t expect miles better.
Ray’s father had a decent job, but there was the odd week where he pondered at the dinner table whether they needed to sell a few of the instruments ‘lying around the house’- which inevitably started an argument. Louie wasn’t about to give up any of his guitars that he jammed on day and night now that he was studying music in university, Ed bought his own bass with his college bursary, and the drumkit was from Ray’s father’s childhood. And Ray was adamant that his dog, Boy, stayed. The argument would result in no change, and Toro family always managed.
Ray wished he could get a job to help out, anyway. But there was never any good opportunity- not for some kid in his last year of high school. If things were this bad now, how would he manage when it came to getting a real job? He didn’t want some supermarket job; Ray wanted to do something different. Important. Not being a corporate drone, being whatever he wanted to be...
His eyes met two others through the bookshelf. It was a black-haired, light-brown-skinned girl, who was browsing the books on the other side. But her eyes, they caught the sun through the library window perfectly, brown with rings of sandy gold...
Ray jumped a little, feeling some heat on his cheeks as he quickly replaced his book.
What was he doing, staring at a complete stranger like that? Wasn’t his reputation as a weirdo bad enough anyway?
But curiosity got the better of him again- What was someone from this school doing in the music section, really?- and he glanced at her again as he pretended to look at some other random book.
She had a book in her hands, turned slightly away now. Was she laughing at him secretly? Getting a closer look, she had streaks of brown and blonde in her hair. Tabby cat colours. It was so strange... Her hair was a bit frizzy too, but nowhere near fro-style.
There it was, a tiny smile. Ray snapped his gaze back to his book immediately, only to realise it was, obviously, blatantly, upside down.
Damn idiot! Ray thought to himself, imagine what she’ll say to her friends later..
He hurriedly put the book back, face burning again, and moved to another section. One far, far away from Music.
Nice going, Toro.
~
It’s funny how something so insignificant can change everything.
It could be the inkling in the back of the mind, the one that urges you on to do something. Be something more important, even if it’s such a far-off possibility.
It could be the odd way you meet someone, someone that you know you’ll meet again, somewhere in the future. Because they were someone you could understand, relate to.
It could be the meeting of two gazes, only for a moment. When you walk by someone, when you glance over at someone you’ve never seen before.
You never forget the insignificant things, not really. Because there’s always a possibility that they aren’t so significant. Just like how you never forget a face, a person... Even if they’re long gone, erased from existence. Even if you wanted to forget, because it hurts that they’re gone.
They never really are.
~
Ugh. Just when I met some decent people.
Frank was leaning against the wall by the car park. It was just out of bounds, but it was the one spot he’d managed to keep private. No one ever followed him here, not even the pricks that shoved him in Gerard’s locker.
Gerard. And Mikey.
Frank sighed again. He must have looked like a complete asshat. He was sweaty, he’d probably ruined half of Gerard’s things by standing on them, and he’d been a stammering idiot when the Way brothers had helped him. But... For a moment, Gerard and Frank had smiled at each other, like they were friends. Like they knew each other. Frank had let his guard down, relaxed for the first time since coming to this damn school.
And then he’d remembered how stupid he looked.
He reached over to his bag, which he’d grabbed from his locker shortly after running away from Gerard and Mikey, and pulled his foil-wrapped sandwiches out.
They didn’t seem like bad guys though, the brothers. Neither of them seemed like anyone he’d met so far. Mikey, with his blonde hair- well, Frank could barely tell from the tufts sticking out from his black hobo hat- thick-framed glasses and an iPod that seemed glued to him. I can hardly criticise that, really, Frank thought wryly, as he disassembled his sandwiches. He was quiet though. It didn’t seem to be out of dislike for Frank (though, he could never tell with people...), he did seem like a genuinely awkward guy.
And then Gerard... Gerard seemed like an oddly charismatic guy. Shoulder-length black hair, slightly upturned nose, crooked grin.. He was kind of- well, cute. That was the only word to describe him with. And he’d been so friendly, for a guy who really didn’t fit in here. Surely he got as much shit as Frank did, but he was a hundred times more cheery.
Or maybe that was an act. Maybe he pitied Frank, and that was the only reason he was so nice...
Seemed about right, really. Well, Frank was better off alone anyway. Just one day closer to leaving school, and then he was out of there and into the real world. Though, to be honest with himself, he didn’t really know which was worse.
Frank tossed the sandwich contents, the tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, all of it, into the foil and launched it at the nearby dumpster before proceeding to eat his butter sandwiches.
He was definitely better off alone.
~
“You alright, Gee?” Matt asked as the Way brothers returned to the library and sat down at the table, “You look sorta... I dunno.”
“That’s some great vocabularies you got there, Matt.”
“Shut up, James.” Matt grinned.
“I got my dice bag.” Gerard sighed, “And we met Frank Iero.”
“That guy who transferred a week ago?”
“Two, actually.” Mikey interjected, and everyone turned to him. It was rare that Mikey commented on trivial things, it drew too much attention to him.
“Since when were you keeping tabs on the guy?” Gerard asked his brother, almost excited. If Mikey had a crush, it would be adorable. Gerard could set them up- but then, Frank was a bit... Still, if Mikey was coming out, Gerard could find him a boyfriend anyway, and then-
“He just seemed like one of us.”
“One of us, how?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are we some rare species?”
“Well...” Gerard shrugged, slightly disappointed at Mikey’s lack of enthusiasm. Maybe another day. “We kind of are. And I kind of see what Mikey means. He had that socially inverted look, and floppy hair. He was wearing fingerless skeleton gloves, for god’s sake.”
“Yeah,” Mikey chewed one of his headphone wires, “But he ran away too.”
Ran away, Gerard sighed inwardly. That was exactly it. Frank seemed so antisocial that he didn’t even want to know them, even though they were only helping. Or trying to help. Maybe they were trying too hard?
“He was stuffed in Gerard’s locker though.” Mikey added.
“Woah, Gee.”
“I knew you were into kinky stuff sometimes, but...”
Gerard shot a look at Matt and James. Frank wasn’t his type. Much. He was cute, though.
“That’s not- It was Danny and his asshole group.”
“Ah, fuck.” James sighed.
There was a collective look of sympathy on everyone’s faces. And a look of disdain from the librarian, who seemed to have a built-in profanity detector. It took about two warning looks before she threw them out usually.
“Those guys are complete di-“
“Dislikeable people, yeah.” Gerard finished for Matt, nudging his foot under the table, the usual signal.
“I think we should help the guy.” James said, looking around at everyone else. “Seems like the kind of guy to get his a-”
“-arms-“ Matt grinned.
“-kicked. And we have enough experience of that thanks to that bunch of fu-“
“-fun-spoiling people-” Gerard.
“-And even if that kid’s gonna learn to not be a pu-“
“-pudding-” Mikey.
“-then he needs us... wait, what?”
James, Gerard and Matt all looked at Mikey, who shrank back slightly.
“I... Well.. I was lonely.”
They all laughed.
“Mikey, you’re fucking adorable.” James grinned, already packing up the game as the librarian got up from her desk to, inevitably, kick them all out.
~
Ray didn’t pay much attention to the group at the library table, too busy losing himself (or trying to forget his earlier shame) in an astronomy book and marvelling at how awesome space was- until they all stood up to leave and he saw the familiar black hobo hat donned by Mikey Way.
Quickly, he returned the book and caught up with them in the corridor.
“Hey,” Ray tapped the socially inept Mikey on the shoulder and making him jump, “Ah, sorry.”
“It’s cool. What’s up anyway?” He smiled, pulling an earplug out.
“Nothing much, just embarrassing myself further in the eyes of society. James get you kicked out again?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault Miss whateverthehellhernameis still lives in the olden days where you’d get stoned to death by saying ‘damn’.” James waved his hand towards Ray and patted him on the fro.
Ray shrugged, still not sure whether James liked him or not. Or whether he was just insane.
Gerard, however, gave Ray a side-hug.
“Sup, Princess FroFro?”
“That’s a new one”
“Glad you noticed,” Gerard beamed, baby-faced showing. “Hey, have you met the new guy yet?”
“New guy?” Ray blinked, looking around the group. No new faces here, just the bulk of Matt, who never looked young enough to be in school still, James, lanky and puffy-haired, and Mikey, his closer friend of the four other than Gerard. But Gerard was everyone’s friend.
“I mean Frank Iero.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell...”
“Oh.” Gerard frowned. “Maybe he’s not in any of your classes... I mean, no one would be in your maths class since it’s full of evil geniuses. And Mikey.”
Mikey nudged him in the arm, of course.
“Well, he has to be in our science class, right? It’s one big class ever since that other teacher set his beard on fire.” Ray mused.
“Wait, really?” James stopped dead and turned to him, wide-eyed. “His.... his beard?”
They all nodded.
“And... you saw this?”
Nod.
“You recorded it obviously, yeah?”
“Uhhh... It was kind of an panic moment for everyone-” Gerard scratched his head.
“....No..?”
“No.”
“ARGH! Fuck, you guys!” James wailed, “These moments are wasted on you!”
Matt chuckled.
“He’s kind of got a point..”
“I’ve got a huge point! You don’t even understand what you could have done with that, you guys just..”
“Anyway,” Gerard grinned, ignoring James’ rant, “I think we should talk to the guy next time we see him, include him a bit more. He might hate it- from what we’ve seen, he’s antisocial as hell- but we were all like that once, right?”
Ray pondered it for a moment. There was a time, about a year ago, when he used to sit as far away from everyone- until he noticed how Mikey did too. They started talking, and Mikey introduced him to his brother, Matt, James. Similar-minded people with similar tastes. That’s all it took to make him feel finally welcome in this place, and he felt a bit better about everything.
But this Frank guy, if he was even more antisocial than they all were, was there much point in trying to force a friendship if he was likely to reject them?
Or it could help him survive the last year of high school, giving him some support that he obviously lacked...
“Let’s do it, then.”
“Alright! Let’s convert that emu.” James grinned, infernal-beard-rant over.
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