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“Look, I love Gee to death, but if this classroom were to catch fire this instant, he wouldn’t bat an eyelash. Probably would go down with it.”
Frank laughed, shaking his head at Mikey. “You should commend him for his complete focus, Mikes.”
“I used to, until he started missing class just to stick around and touch up on his newest piece. Our mom thinks that he’s just ditching to ditch, when it’s really because he’s in another world right now,” Mikey explained.
“I get that. Well, sort of. I can’t focus for shit in this class. There’s always so much going on, I can’t seem to tune it out and get anything done, you know?” Frank looked over to Gerard, who didn’t seem to notice the smudge of blue acrylic on his bottom lip. He truly was in some other dimension, and it mesmerized Frank.
Frank had known Mikey and Gerard all throughout high school, but only ever talked to the youngest. Of course, Frank had spoken some to Gerard, exchanging hellos and small talk, but it never really escalated from there. Frank rarely saw Gerard when he visited the Way home to help Mikey with a project as the eldest was always locked up in his studio (Aka what was supposed to be the guest room, but is now covered in paint and no ones bothered to clean it up). It made Frank so damn curious.
There were only three minutes left in class, and he had AP Euro next, so fuck it, he decided, he was gonna stay in here and try to focus on his art. Or Gerard. Whatever. The bell rang and Mikey waited a couple of moments for Frank to start packing up his bag. “You’re staying too? Jesus. If Gerard doesn’t finish by the time 6th period ends, do me a favor and take the brushes away. It outta snap him out of it.”
Frank nodded and looked back down at his mostly empty canvas. How does Gerard do it? He wondered. He looked back to the red haired boy and stared for awhile, knowing he wouldn’t get caught.
Admittedly, Frank knew Gerard was beautiful, in an intimidating way, one of the biggest reasons he never bothered to conversate with him. Now that there was much less going on, Frank zoned in on his features, absolutely captivated. The way he bit down on his lip in complete concentration, the way his free hand contracted and relaxed in and out of a stressed fist, the way he reached out and grab his paint cup, and bringing it close to his face. Wait.
“That’s not your water,” Frank warned. Gerard was back to Earth now and looked down.
“Shit!” He dropped the paint cup in surprise, spilling greyish-blue water everywhere. He groaned, putting his head in his hands.
Frank grabbed the neared roll of paper towels by the sink and walked over, picking up what he could salvage of Gerard’s papers and art.
“You don’t have to help, it’s okay.” Gerard tried to convince him, but he just shook his head.
“I’ve got it, no worries. If you still wanna continue you can use second seat at my desk, it’s not really cluttered with anything,” Frank smiled, surprised at how well he was handling this.
"Wow, thanks man," Gerard half-smiled, taking a couple of papers to the seat.
Once most of the mess was cleaned up, Frank decided that would have to do and headed back to his desk to see what Gerard was doing. The bottom of the canvas was a little wet, but it wasn't anything too terrible. The painting was absolutely beautiful, still. Two faces, both with their eyes peacefully closed, leaning in to kiss. They were covered in blood, too, Gerard would always find a way to get blood into the picture.
"That's beautiful." Frank echoed his thoughts before he could even think.
Gerard looked up, surprised. "Oh, this? Thanks, but it's honestly just something that's been running through my head all day. A simple and messy concept, a little disappointing if you ask me."
"Disappointing? Have you seen my art? Like, I'm here to learn art, I'm pretty sure you're just here to take advantage of the supplies," Frank joked.
Gerard laughed. "Some days it's like that, I'll be honest. But today, I don't know. I always want to get the message through in my work, and this isn't cuttin' it for me. Along with my dumbass almost poisoning myself a minute ago, I'm just not feeling this piece anymore."
"Well, what message were you trying to portray?" Frank asked.
"That's the viewers call. What message do you see?"
Fuck this pretty kid, getting all deep on me. Frank sighed. "What do I see? I see that when you're not alone, you can get through tough shit. And I'm not saying just being in a crowd of people, but being with someone that makes this fucked up world seem okay. That when you're near them, every surrounding thing can be going to shit but all you know in that moment is that they are there and you're alive."
Gerard was silent for a long time, staring at the canvas. He looked up at him. "Fuck, Frank. It's like you took my thoughts and put them into full polished sentences." He looked down and laughed quietly. "Shit."
"What?"
"I want you to interpret all of my art for me. Just so I can hear what you think of it, because wow. That actually made me like my art for a moment," Gerard pursed his lips. "I think I'm gonna head out after a quick smoke break, I've had enough of school for today. Wanna join?"
Smoking with Mikey's hot older brother? "I'm down, sure." Frank was hoping that his nonchalant exterior was convincing because on the inside he felt like a gay little schoolgirl.
-
"Mikey said you usually aren't the kind to ditch."
"He's right," Gerard said, his mouth muffled by an lit cigarette. "But today's different."
"How so?" Frank fumbled through his backpack to find the beaten up pack under his textbook. He stuck the least fucked up one between his lips and patted his pockets, struggling to find his lighter.
"Well, I failed both of my tests in Civics and French, which sort of fucked up my day. That is, until some cute boy decided to make me feel good about my art," Gerard paused, leaning forward to light Frank's cigarette with the cherry of his. "And ditch with me for a smoke. That's some good day material."
Frank froze, wondering if he'd choke if he tried to breathe in the tobacco. "Me?" He asked dumbly.
"No, I've got some other boy waiting around the corner who said my sketches looked cool. Yes, you." Gerard leaned up against the wall, eyes closed. He exhaled, leaving a cloud around him for a moment. "I've never met someone who picked up on my concepts so damn quickly. You understand me. And for a sophomore, you're not too bad looking."
"Junior," Frank corrected.
Gerard laughed. "There is no way in hell that you're older than 16. You're so tiny!"
"I'm 17, accept the facts Gee!" Gerard didn't seem fazed at all by the nickname, which made Frank smile.
"Sorry kid, don't think I can." Gerard was leaned up against the wall now on one shoulder, facing Frank with a smirk.
"I'm not a kid," Frank restrained from whining as it would only prove pretty boy's point.
"Sure," Gerard smiled, dragging out the 'u' and letting out a thick cloud of smoke as he did. "Can you even drive?"
"Oh my god, shut up!" Frank groaned, his cheeks now a good shade of red.
"Make me."
Frank rolled his eyes. "Oh and I'm the kid-"
Gerard cut Frank off, tossing both of their stogs to the ground. "Make. Me."
Before he could think twice of it Frank's lips were on Gerard's, hands of the back of his neck, and oh, now he was completely up against the wall and he had no problem with this. Gerard took Frank's bottom lip between his teeth and pulled back softly. Frank's brain was going off like a siren, screaming don'tmoandon'tmoandon'tfuckingmoanyouhornyteenager but as soon as Gerard moved his lips down to Frank's neck to make pretty little marks he was gone. His head still felt light from the cigarette, on top of the fact that his friend's older brother was sucking at his fucking neck. He couldn't think for a minute as Gerard wove his hands under his shirt. Were they still at school? Were they in space? Fuck if Frank knew.
They jumped back for a moment when the bell went off, and covered their ears as they realized they were standing under the loudspeaker outside.
Frank was still up against the wall, trying to make his heartbeat slow down from the crazy rate it was going at. "That, uh. That." You sound like a genius, he thought, mentally kicking himself.
"We should hang more, I could show you a couple different painting techniques, maybe some movies, maybe more of... that," Gerard looked down, smiling.
"That would be cool," Frank said, still trying to casually catch his breath. "Yeah."
There was a pause for a moment, broken by Frank's quiet laughter. "What?" Gerard grinned.
"Mikey's gonna kick my ass."