You Taught Me Love

Frank's P.O.V.s

Monday
Lunchtime

Room 304. His door was half-opened. I took the opportunity to sneak a quick glance inside and saw that there were four students working on a poster at the front of the classroom. Mr. Way was drawing at his desk with a blue coffee mug in his hand. I knocked on the door to get his attention and he lifted his head towards me.

"Franklin! Hey, come in."

"Hi, Mr. Way."

He got up and went to the other students.

"I need to go explain a project to Franklin. If you need anything, we'll be in the storage closet, OK?"
They nodded and went back to work. Mr. Way walked to a small room and motioned for me to follow him.
Oh, boy. What we could do it that closet...

I pushed back the thought and made my way into the room. Well, it wasn't that small after all. Half was used for storage, but the other was customized as a «relaxing zone». There were famous paintings on the wall, cushions on the floor, colorful lighting and a stereo system on a shelf. I noticed a table and three chairs and sat down on one of them. Mr. Way closed the door and took a seat next to me.

"There, now it'll be more intimate."
Ugh. Could he please stop giving me these... kind of thoughts?

"Oh, wait. I'll put on some music so it'll block the sound."
Not helping.

He got up and put a CD in the machine. He pressed a couple of buttons before sitting down in his chair. As the music started, I immediately recognized the song. How could I not? I had listened to it a thousand times on replay!
«Last Caress» by the Misfits?!?!?!?!

"You... Y-you like the Misfits?" I asked, astonished.

"Of course. I think they're the best..." he answered, smiling.

"Really? They're my favorite band!"

"Whoa! You're the first guy I meet that actually likes them too."
Could he be any more perfect?

He got more cozy in his seat and broke the silence that had settled after the shock.

"Let's start, will you? Did anything else happen after Thursday that you wanted to tell me about?"

"Not really, I just wanted to talk to someone... about-- Well, it's complicated."
He nodded and let me continue.

"There isn't a lot of people to whom I can talk to about this kind of things. I don't feel too comfortable discussing it with my parents, and my friends don't want to get involved in that stuff. They help after, but it's not the same."

"Yeah, I get it. Can I ask you a sort of, well, personal question?"

"Go ahead."

"Are you actually gay?"

"I, em. Y-yeah" I said nervously as I lowered my gaze.

"Don't worry, I have absolutely no problem with homosexuality. Can't help who you fall for, right?"
I raised my head and smiled to him.

"But, how did they know?" he asked.

"I had confessed to one of my «friends»... Turns out, he was homophobic and told the whole freaking school. Oops, sorry."

"Oh, I don't mind. It was Mark, wasn't it?"
How had he guessed that fast?

"Yes."

"The friends you hang out with now, do they accept your sexuality?"

"Yeah. They comforted me in the beginning and were very supporting."

"Do your parents know?"

"I told them when it came out at school. I didn't want them to learn it from someone else."

"How did they take it?"

"My mom said she suspected it already, and my dad eventually accepted it. It was hard, though. He's Catholic and let go of some of his convictions for me, I'm quite grateful for that. But it's not the same with him anymore. My parents had just separated at the time, so I only saw him on the weekends, but now I can only go visit on Saturday because of his Sunday religious meetings, to which I can't assist, of course."

Mr. Way gave me an empathetic and understanding look. He seemed to really know what I was going through.

"At school, how's it going?"

"There's the insults, the notes, objects they throw me... " I started.
I didn't tell him about the kicks, the punches, the lockers and the ice-cold showers.

"If it ever gets worse or if you wanna talk again, please don't be shy to come see me. The other days, I lunch at room 122 with some other teachers, but you can come get me. Oh! And this week my class is opened on Wednesday at lunchtime. For now, the only advice I can give you is to stay away from them. I could easily tell you to ignore them or to denounce them, but I'm sure you've heard that already, and I know it's more complicated."
He was so honest... and he was damn right.

The bell rang and we got out of the closet (no pun intended). He looked at me in the eyes and I felt myself melt. I know it doesn't make much sense, but that's exactly what it felt like: a wave ran through my spine and drowned somewhere in my stomach as I lost myself in his green beauties. Those amazing enchanting forests, fading into strands of gold, as if a beautiful sunset had been captured through his orbs. For a fraction of a second, I had smelled the ocean and the moist earth, felt the soothing wind on my skin, seen the birds fly away and heard the sounds of the nature I could perceive in his eyes.

I was completely overwhelmed and barely heard him whisper:

"It gets better"

"Thank you. So much" I said as I came back to reality.
He had helped me. For once, someone had actually helped me.

* * * * * * *

Gerard's P.O.V.

Our little chat had went well, but a detail still disturbed me:

Why had I been... relieved...when Frank had confessed he was gay?