FicWad

Chapter three

I was still gaping at him, figuring at how to use my mouth muscles again, when he started to back away into his practice room. Seemingly snapping out of my trance I shook my head.
‘Hey, yeah sorry, I’m Gerard.’ I smiled shyly at him, at clueless of what to say next.
‘Umm, are you the one from down the hall, with the piano?’ He asked me, saving us from the awkwardness that was building around us.
‘Yeah! That’s me! I heard you playing your guitar and thought that it was perfect to go with my piece, so I thought I would investigate...’ I lost trail of my thought then, as I looked into his eyes, and I felt myself sinking in, deeper and deeper. He blinked, ruining the illusion, and I tried to stop myself from shaking my head again. Keep yourself together, Gerard!
‘Oh yeah, sorry about that...’ He sounded embarrassed, as if he was in the wrong. He pulled his sleeves over his hands, so only the tips of his fingers could be seen. I bit my lip, and then grimaced, as pain shot from my cheek. I then realised what a mess I must’ve looked like, with bruises and cuts covering my face, and I turned around.
‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, ‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’ What was I thinking? He wouldn’t want to speak with me, I was the outcast, I was the favourite piece of prey around here.

The hardest part is letting go of your dreams.
Shut up head.

But then, as I had nearly started walking back to my room, a hand clutched itself onto my arm. I looked at the letters on his fingers and felt a ghost of a smile come through.
‘Why don’t you come in and practice with me? I would love hearing more of your stuff...’ He said calmly, completely assured with himself. All I could do was nod and try not to stick my tongue out like a hot dog.
‘Sure, just let me get my stuff!’ I said back, chipper. What’s the worse that I could say? Things are better if I stayed.

Hurrying back, with my bag and folder under my arm, I tried to think if I had seen Frankie before. He wasn’t in any of my classes, which made me think he was in the year below me. That would make sense; it would explain my not seeing him before, because I defiantly would have noticed him... I closed my eyes for a second, imaging his voice, his face. Don’t look like that, I told my inner Gerard, it’s not my fault he’s so dreamy!

I made it to his door in one piece, and he invited me in with a sweep of a hand, grinning all the way. Oh... he has the most adorable smile. I bit my lip again, ignoring the pain.
‘Make yourself at home.’ He said, his voice threatening to make me shiver. I smiled back, unable to move my lips. ‘So...’ he said. ‘I kinda heard you playing your music down the hall and picked out the main chords...that’s why I was playing along with you.’ He seemed to be laughing at me, but then I realised that he was just laughing at himself.
‘That’s cool; in fact, I was outside your door because it sounded so good!’ He blushed at that, though he did try to hide it. Bless.
‘Thanks, I guess.’ He said, suddenly nervous. I wondered what I said, but then realised that my honesty did sound a bit stalkerish. He picked up his guitar and started doing the fingering for chords. It seemed that he just couldn’t keep his fingers still. Not for one second. Oh crap, I’d been staring at him again. I coughed, trying to banish the air between us. It seemed to make both of us jump to attention.
‘Right, yeah, so I was doing the chords for your song, I could only hear the piano but yeah... but I thought that these ones would work once you’ve finished doing the intro?’ Frankie said to me, starting to strum his guitar. Then, a big clown-like grin broke out on his face. I wanted to know what he was thinking. I needed to know what he was thinking. But as soon as he was onto the second set of chords I felt a grin breaking out on my face too, because what he was playing was so amazing, even more so than before, when we had walls between us. I couldn’t help but look up at him in awe until he finished what he was playing.
‘So...how did that sound? I thought that if it fits then we could look at your other bits of music and see if there is a chance for a guitar part to be added!’

Oh no...

The beautiful boy wanted to be my friend.

‘Look, Frankie. Haven’t you seen my face?’ He just looked at me puzzled.
‘Yes, it looks painful...’ He winced for me.
‘And you still want to be friends with me?’ I said, doubtful.
‘Of course I do! Your music is just so goddamn amazing!’ Oh...he doesn’t understand.
‘I can’t let you be friends with me, Frankie, no matter how much I want to.’ He had NO idea. ‘Cus if you’re seen with me, then your face will look like mine. I don’t want you to get hurt. I can’t get you hurt. The safest thing for you to do right now is to send me away. Tell me that you hate me, and get as far away as me as possible. I can’t let this happen to you, not on my watch. Frankie, go get yourself a life, far away from me, don’t let yourself be dragged into my mess.’ I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see Frankie get up and leave. I waited for the door to open, close, and for his footsteps to fade away, forever. But it there was just silence. Finally I heard the creaking of his chair and the door move. I sighed, knowing I had done the right thing.

Chapter four

I opened my eyes, jumping about ten foot in the air.
‘Smile, sunshine...’ murmured Frankie sadly. He was balanced on the balls of his feet, his face twenty centimetres in front of me. What was he still doing here? He was meant to leave! I only just realised he had tricked me, making me think that he had left. He should of left. But sub-consciously I could hear myself screaming with happiness. The angel had stayed! My angel had stayed! Frankie still sat there, close to my face. He lifted his hands and let them glide over my bruises.
‘Poor little Gee...’ He whispered to me, twiddling with his lip ring with his tongue. I winced at his touch, yet it was so pleasant to feel his skin graze mine that I didn’t pull away. ‘What have we done to you?’ I glanced at him quickly, trying not to go cross-eyed. What did he mean by “we”? He must have seen my looking puzzled and explained. ‘You, a perfect specimen, yet humans have ruined you... Why would we do that?’ I looked at the porcelain doll in front of me and blushed. He giggled lightly and then rolled back onto his heels, heaving himself up.
‘So, are we going to practice or not!?’ He said to me, a smirk on his face.
‘Last chance,’ I warned him, ‘you really don’t want to be friends with me.’
‘I know.’ And then he winked at me.

Time seemed to pass very quickly with Frankie, so much so that when he said the time I jumped to my feet. I was going to be late! I left Frankie with a quick hug, thinking my lyrics: Now, I know that I can’t make you stay, but where’s your heart?’

I practically had to race home to my foster parents, and not even stopping to say hello, ran into my room to get changed. Done with that, I grabbed a coke and raced back out again.

Charging down the streets, running into pedestrians and nearly getting run over was what it took to get to the gates before the church tolled five ‘o’ clock. Those gates. I loathed them. But I didn’t pause, scared that I wouldn’t be able to go through them. It’d happened before. I scrambled through them, nearly tripping myself up, and ran along the path.

I ran through the graveyard until I reached a relatively new headstone. Then I lowered my head and wept.