#4 - Insides
#4 - Insides
#4; Insides
The sky was a jet black blanket, studded with glinting stars and a silvery moon casting pools of light on the peaceful earth below. On a hill, two seventeen year old boys gazed up at the heavens, admiring the view.
"It's so beautiful," Frank murmured to Gerard, his lip ring catching the light and his eyes glittering.
"I know," Gerard murmured back. He heard a shuffling to his right, and turned his head. Frank was suddenly so close to him, Gerard could feel it on his own lips every time Frank exhaled.
"Hi," Frank whispered, his hazel eyes flicking to Gerard's lips.
"...Hi?" Gerard squeaked back. Frank leaned forward, and-
"Move, faggot!" someone yelled, shoving Gerard. He crashed into a locker, dropping all his books. A group of jocks laughed maliciously, kicking his books along the corridor as they walked past. Gerard sighed. Another one of those days. He waited until the corridor was completely deserted before dropping to his knees and picking up his belongings.
"Hey," he heard a gentle voice say. "Here you go." He looked up, about to smile a thank-you at whoever it was...him. Frank Iero.
"Uh, uh," Gerard stammered, scrambling backwards, unable to think coherently. "T-thank you." Frank frowned at him.
"I won't bite," he said. "Unless you want me too," he added, winking and flashing a mischievious grin at Gerard. Gerard could feel his face heating up, feel the blood rushing to his face. Of course, of fucking course that created a mental image.
"Uh, I, uh, got, um, class," Gerard managed to stutter, gathering his belongings and running as fast as he could, leaving behind a bewildered Frank. It was for the best, he reckoned. Frank wouldn't want someone like him.
-
The sunset was beautiful. Fiery colours streaked across the sky, bleeding into one another, making the trees along the beach cast huge, sketchy shadows on the glistening golden sand. Frank and Gerard were ambling down the beach, fingers laced, laughing and chattering.
"So," Frank said to Gerard, stopping and turning to face him. "So."
"Yeah," Gerard said.
Frank leaned closer, and-
"Oh for fuck's sake, Gerard, you haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" his younger brother Mikey said, exasperated.
"Not really, no," said Gerard, because honesty is the best policy.
"You spend too much time inside your mind," Mikey muttered. "What can be in there that's so interesting?"
"Slip inside the eye of your mind, don't you know you might find, a better place to play," Gerard sang under his breath. Mikey shot him a glare.
"I was asking you if you wanted to come to a party tonight." Gerard snorted.
"No wonder I wasn't paying any attention. No."
"Please, Gerard. Alicia wants me there, and I can't leave you here to...slowly rot in your own mind. You have to get out sometime."
"I get out plenty," Gerard pointed out. "Just today I went to school."
"You know what I mean. Please, Gee, please." It was the nickname that got to him. Mikey never used the nickname unless he was deadly serious.
"Fine," Gerard sighed, throwing down his pencil. "There better be cute boys there."
-
One tiny, weeny, incy, minor detail Gerard's dear, thoughtful younger brother had forgotten to mention was that Frank was at the party. Gerard had seen him almost as soon as he'd walked through the door, and had spent the rest of the time so far hiding from him. Right now he was drunk, in the corner of a room packed full of people drinking, smoking and listening to shitty, computerised techno music. Gerard was seriously craving a cigarette, and after checking Frank was nowhere near, he slipped outside and lit up a smoke.
"Sharing is caring," a voice piped up beside him, and he choked on the smoke he had held in his lungs.
"W-what are you doing here?" he managed through his hacking coughs. Frank shrugged, looking at Gerard with concern.
"Shitty music, dude. You alright?" Gerard nodded, still coughing slightly.
"So, you wanna give me a smoke then?" Frank beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"I, uh. Y-yeah," Gerard stammered, fingers fumbling for his packet. He figured he was allowed to be nervous, because Frank.
"Don't be so shy," Frank said. "I'm not scary." Gerard didn't trust his mouth with an answer which didn't include the words "let's", "have" and "sex", so he nodded mutely.
"You don't say much, do you?" Gerard stared at Frank, who laughed softly.
"Let me ask you some stuff about yourself, dude," Frank insisted. Gerard nodded slowly. What the fuck, he yelled at himself internally. Now he was going to have to speak in front of Frank and he'd look like a complete and utter fool.
"What's your favourite food?" Frank threw him off. He was expecting name, age, siblings...
"D-don't you w-want to know my n-ame, age, s-siblings...?" Gerard trailed off, cursing himself for stuttering. He took a long drag on his cigarette to calm him down.
"Oh, that's easy. Gerard Arthur Way, seventeen - your birthday's the ninth of April - and Michael James Way. Better known as Mikey," Frank recited, ticking the things off on his fingers as he went along. Gerard was shocked, and the expression must have shown on his face -Frank Anthony Iero knew this much about him? That must have taken some serious delving - because Frank suddenly frowned.
"You don't think I'm creepy, do you?" he asked. No more than I am, Gerard thought, but decided against honesty being the best policy in this situation.
"N-no," he said, blinking owlishly. "Y-you're. Um. Very..."
"Very...?" Frank prompted. He was standing there, stance so casual, hair falling into his beautiful eyes, chewing on that lip ring of his...Gerard couldn't take it.
"I-I have to go," he mumbled, stamping out his cigarette, turning and running, once again leaving a bewildered Frank behind him.
-
"Where did you go?" Mikey demanded, slamming Gerard's door open and scaring him shitless, jeez, because obviously Donna Way had neglected to teach one of her sons how to knock.
"Home," Gerard stated gratuitously.
"Why did I have a distressed Frank come up to me and ask me if you think he's creepy, if you hate him and if you'll hit him if you see him again?" Mikey asked angrily. Holy shit, Gerard thought. Frank thought-
"Why would he think I hated him?" he wondered aloud. Mikey rolled his eyes at him.
"Jesus Christ, Gerard. You fucking ran away once he'd told you he's your personal stalker. Oh, of course it doesn't seem like you're creeped out, or angry, or, or..." Mikey said. Gerard stared at him blankly. All he'd been able to comprehend of that sentence was that Frank stalked Gerard. Gerard wasn't creepy - or, well, he was, but Frank was just as creepy.
"...should call him right now and apologise, you dickhead, he's probably-"
"Mikey," Gerard interrupted calmly. "Repeat the bit about Frank being a personal stalker." Mikey frowned.
"He has a crush on you so big and so obvious you can see it from Andromeda," Gerard gawped.
"Are you sure?"
"I could not be more positive," Mikey said. "Whatever, okay, make it up to him. He's a good kid." With that, he got up to go, leaving Gerard on his own with his whirlwind of thoughts.
-
For once, there was no romantic backdrop. Nothing. Just blackess, for miles and miles and miles.
"Tell me what you can see," Frank whispered, his hand held tight in Gerard's.
"Nothing," Gerard replied after a long pause. "It's all black."
"Can't you see me?" Frank asked.
"No," Gerard answered. "I can't see anything."
"The black abyss of your mind." Gerard shivered. That made it sound so creepy.
"What can you see?" he asked curiously.
"You."
"Me?"
"Nothing but you."
Gerard heaved a sigh as Mr Pickering explained how to factorise quadratic fractions. He didn't care, and never needed to know that information beyond graduation anyway.
"Once you've got like terms, you can cancel them out-" Mr Pickering droned, cut off by the bell. The students of the class began packing up their stuff and filing out of the classroom, leaving poor Mr Pickering helplessly trying to shout about expanding double brackets over the racket of teenagers moving to lunch. Gerard slouched out at the back of the crowd, heading towards the secret stairs where Mikey, Ray and he always ate lunch.
"Dude, wait up!" he heard a voice yell, and oh, oh shit that was Frank again. He couldn't run away, not after yesterday, because then Frank would get the wrong idea and might hate him and flood his house or something. He didn't want his awesome collection of Doom Patrol to be flooded.
"Don't flood my house," he blurted as Frank reached him, then flushed bright red. Great going, Gerard, he congratulated himself. Frank gave him an amused look.
"I might now you've told me not to," he said. "I'm told I have a rebellious nature."
"No," Gerard said. "It's just reverse psychology." Frank giggled, and that had to be the cutest sound Gerard had ever heard.
"Whatever," he pouted slightly. "I, um, I, er, wanted to know if you wanted to um. Maybe...go on a d-date with me tonight?" Frank said, looking so hopeful, gazing up at Gerard.
"S-sure," Gerard said. Frank's smile brightened.
"Mikey told me to ask you," he said, answering Gerard's unspoken question. "He said we were both oblivious and some analogy of love with a lot of symbolism and euphemisms thrown in." Frank shrugged. "Meet me on the hill at eleven pm." He smiled brightly, walking off down the corridor, leaving a bewildered Gerard behind.
-
The sky was a jet black blanket, studded with glinting stars and a silvery moon casting pools of light on the peaceful earth below. On a hill, two seventeen year old boys gazed up at the heavens, admiring the view.
"It's so beautiful," Frank murmured to Gerard, his lip ring catching the light and his eyes glittering.
"I know," Gerard murmured back. He heard a shuffling to his right, and turned his head. Frank was suddenly so close to him, Gerard could feel it on his own lips every time Frank exhaled.
"Hi," Frank whispered, his hazel eyes flicking to Gerard's lips.
"...Hi?" Gerard squeaked back. Frank leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Gerard's softly.
Maybe reality was better than inside his mind after all.
The sky was a jet black blanket, studded with glinting stars and a silvery moon casting pools of light on the peaceful earth below. On a hill, two seventeen year old boys gazed up at the heavens, admiring the view.
"It's so beautiful," Frank murmured to Gerard, his lip ring catching the light and his eyes glittering.
"I know," Gerard murmured back. He heard a shuffling to his right, and turned his head. Frank was suddenly so close to him, Gerard could feel it on his own lips every time Frank exhaled.
"Hi," Frank whispered, his hazel eyes flicking to Gerard's lips.
"...Hi?" Gerard squeaked back. Frank leaned forward, and-
"Move, faggot!" someone yelled, shoving Gerard. He crashed into a locker, dropping all his books. A group of jocks laughed maliciously, kicking his books along the corridor as they walked past. Gerard sighed. Another one of those days. He waited until the corridor was completely deserted before dropping to his knees and picking up his belongings.
"Hey," he heard a gentle voice say. "Here you go." He looked up, about to smile a thank-you at whoever it was...him. Frank Iero.
"Uh, uh," Gerard stammered, scrambling backwards, unable to think coherently. "T-thank you." Frank frowned at him.
"I won't bite," he said. "Unless you want me too," he added, winking and flashing a mischievious grin at Gerard. Gerard could feel his face heating up, feel the blood rushing to his face. Of course, of fucking course that created a mental image.
"Uh, I, uh, got, um, class," Gerard managed to stutter, gathering his belongings and running as fast as he could, leaving behind a bewildered Frank. It was for the best, he reckoned. Frank wouldn't want someone like him.
-
The sunset was beautiful. Fiery colours streaked across the sky, bleeding into one another, making the trees along the beach cast huge, sketchy shadows on the glistening golden sand. Frank and Gerard were ambling down the beach, fingers laced, laughing and chattering.
"So," Frank said to Gerard, stopping and turning to face him. "So."
"Yeah," Gerard said.
Frank leaned closer, and-
"Oh for fuck's sake, Gerard, you haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" his younger brother Mikey said, exasperated.
"Not really, no," said Gerard, because honesty is the best policy.
"You spend too much time inside your mind," Mikey muttered. "What can be in there that's so interesting?"
"Slip inside the eye of your mind, don't you know you might find, a better place to play," Gerard sang under his breath. Mikey shot him a glare.
"I was asking you if you wanted to come to a party tonight." Gerard snorted.
"No wonder I wasn't paying any attention. No."
"Please, Gerard. Alicia wants me there, and I can't leave you here to...slowly rot in your own mind. You have to get out sometime."
"I get out plenty," Gerard pointed out. "Just today I went to school."
"You know what I mean. Please, Gee, please." It was the nickname that got to him. Mikey never used the nickname unless he was deadly serious.
"Fine," Gerard sighed, throwing down his pencil. "There better be cute boys there."
-
One tiny, weeny, incy, minor detail Gerard's dear, thoughtful younger brother had forgotten to mention was that Frank was at the party. Gerard had seen him almost as soon as he'd walked through the door, and had spent the rest of the time so far hiding from him. Right now he was drunk, in the corner of a room packed full of people drinking, smoking and listening to shitty, computerised techno music. Gerard was seriously craving a cigarette, and after checking Frank was nowhere near, he slipped outside and lit up a smoke.
"Sharing is caring," a voice piped up beside him, and he choked on the smoke he had held in his lungs.
"W-what are you doing here?" he managed through his hacking coughs. Frank shrugged, looking at Gerard with concern.
"Shitty music, dude. You alright?" Gerard nodded, still coughing slightly.
"So, you wanna give me a smoke then?" Frank beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"I, uh. Y-yeah," Gerard stammered, fingers fumbling for his packet. He figured he was allowed to be nervous, because Frank.
"Don't be so shy," Frank said. "I'm not scary." Gerard didn't trust his mouth with an answer which didn't include the words "let's", "have" and "sex", so he nodded mutely.
"You don't say much, do you?" Gerard stared at Frank, who laughed softly.
"Let me ask you some stuff about yourself, dude," Frank insisted. Gerard nodded slowly. What the fuck, he yelled at himself internally. Now he was going to have to speak in front of Frank and he'd look like a complete and utter fool.
"What's your favourite food?" Frank threw him off. He was expecting name, age, siblings...
"D-don't you w-want to know my n-ame, age, s-siblings...?" Gerard trailed off, cursing himself for stuttering. He took a long drag on his cigarette to calm him down.
"Oh, that's easy. Gerard Arthur Way, seventeen - your birthday's the ninth of April - and Michael James Way. Better known as Mikey," Frank recited, ticking the things off on his fingers as he went along. Gerard was shocked, and the expression must have shown on his face -Frank Anthony Iero knew this much about him? That must have taken some serious delving - because Frank suddenly frowned.
"You don't think I'm creepy, do you?" he asked. No more than I am, Gerard thought, but decided against honesty being the best policy in this situation.
"N-no," he said, blinking owlishly. "Y-you're. Um. Very..."
"Very...?" Frank prompted. He was standing there, stance so casual, hair falling into his beautiful eyes, chewing on that lip ring of his...Gerard couldn't take it.
"I-I have to go," he mumbled, stamping out his cigarette, turning and running, once again leaving a bewildered Frank behind him.
-
"Where did you go?" Mikey demanded, slamming Gerard's door open and scaring him shitless, jeez, because obviously Donna Way had neglected to teach one of her sons how to knock.
"Home," Gerard stated gratuitously.
"Why did I have a distressed Frank come up to me and ask me if you think he's creepy, if you hate him and if you'll hit him if you see him again?" Mikey asked angrily. Holy shit, Gerard thought. Frank thought-
"Why would he think I hated him?" he wondered aloud. Mikey rolled his eyes at him.
"Jesus Christ, Gerard. You fucking ran away once he'd told you he's your personal stalker. Oh, of course it doesn't seem like you're creeped out, or angry, or, or..." Mikey said. Gerard stared at him blankly. All he'd been able to comprehend of that sentence was that Frank stalked Gerard. Gerard wasn't creepy - or, well, he was, but Frank was just as creepy.
"...should call him right now and apologise, you dickhead, he's probably-"
"Mikey," Gerard interrupted calmly. "Repeat the bit about Frank being a personal stalker." Mikey frowned.
"He has a crush on you so big and so obvious you can see it from Andromeda," Gerard gawped.
"Are you sure?"
"I could not be more positive," Mikey said. "Whatever, okay, make it up to him. He's a good kid." With that, he got up to go, leaving Gerard on his own with his whirlwind of thoughts.
-
For once, there was no romantic backdrop. Nothing. Just blackess, for miles and miles and miles.
"Tell me what you can see," Frank whispered, his hand held tight in Gerard's.
"Nothing," Gerard replied after a long pause. "It's all black."
"Can't you see me?" Frank asked.
"No," Gerard answered. "I can't see anything."
"The black abyss of your mind." Gerard shivered. That made it sound so creepy.
"What can you see?" he asked curiously.
"You."
"Me?"
"Nothing but you."
Gerard heaved a sigh as Mr Pickering explained how to factorise quadratic fractions. He didn't care, and never needed to know that information beyond graduation anyway.
"Once you've got like terms, you can cancel them out-" Mr Pickering droned, cut off by the bell. The students of the class began packing up their stuff and filing out of the classroom, leaving poor Mr Pickering helplessly trying to shout about expanding double brackets over the racket of teenagers moving to lunch. Gerard slouched out at the back of the crowd, heading towards the secret stairs where Mikey, Ray and he always ate lunch.
"Dude, wait up!" he heard a voice yell, and oh, oh shit that was Frank again. He couldn't run away, not after yesterday, because then Frank would get the wrong idea and might hate him and flood his house or something. He didn't want his awesome collection of Doom Patrol to be flooded.
"Don't flood my house," he blurted as Frank reached him, then flushed bright red. Great going, Gerard, he congratulated himself. Frank gave him an amused look.
"I might now you've told me not to," he said. "I'm told I have a rebellious nature."
"No," Gerard said. "It's just reverse psychology." Frank giggled, and that had to be the cutest sound Gerard had ever heard.
"Whatever," he pouted slightly. "I, um, I, er, wanted to know if you wanted to um. Maybe...go on a d-date with me tonight?" Frank said, looking so hopeful, gazing up at Gerard.
"S-sure," Gerard said. Frank's smile brightened.
"Mikey told me to ask you," he said, answering Gerard's unspoken question. "He said we were both oblivious and some analogy of love with a lot of symbolism and euphemisms thrown in." Frank shrugged. "Meet me on the hill at eleven pm." He smiled brightly, walking off down the corridor, leaving a bewildered Gerard behind.
-
The sky was a jet black blanket, studded with glinting stars and a silvery moon casting pools of light on the peaceful earth below. On a hill, two seventeen year old boys gazed up at the heavens, admiring the view.
"It's so beautiful," Frank murmured to Gerard, his lip ring catching the light and his eyes glittering.
"I know," Gerard murmured back. He heard a shuffling to his right, and turned his head. Frank was suddenly so close to him, Gerard could feel it on his own lips every time Frank exhaled.
"Hi," Frank whispered, his hazel eyes flicking to Gerard's lips.
"...Hi?" Gerard squeaked back. Frank leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Gerard's softly.
Maybe reality was better than inside his mind after all.