Baby I'll Be Your Frankenstine

Claudia's POV

I wake up to my father yelling at Gerard. I know he’s hitting him again, but Gerard avoids making sounds, as always. I finally hear my father’s footsteps going down the stairs and then hear the front door close with a loud thud, leaving for work.

I walk out from my room and hurriedly make my way to the bathroom. I grab the first aid kit out of the counter, then rush into Gerard’s room. I just can’t stand having him in such pain.

Since Bert’s death, Gerard has been very depressed, and resorts to alcohol a lot. Our father beats him up a lot too. Lidia and I help him and care for him all the time. We all care for each other a lot, although Mikey is more distant.

“Gee?” I ask softly, as I enter. He’s lying on the floor, holding his sides, crying. I notice tears stinging in my eyes as I kneel next to him and help him sit up, then hug him.

I pull away, taking the first aid kit I dropped on the floor and start cleaning him up. I put some antiseptic in a cotton ball and rub it on the bloody bruise in his cheek. He winces.

“I’m sorry.” I say quietly, trying to avoid his pain as much as I can while still cleaning the cuts.

“I’ll be fine, Cloudy.” Gerard says trying to brush me off by using my nickname. Only he and Lidia are aloud to use that. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Please, Gee.” I beg him.

He sighs and lets me continue. I see Lidia standing in the doorway, a sad expression on her face. She hurries next to me and helps me with Gerard.

-Time elapse-

I sighed, entering English, my second period. I was worried about Gerard and Lidia.

I walked to the back, where I usually sat. As I sat down I noticed Frank a couple chairs away from me. I turn to him and smile. He notices me and moves to be sitting next to me.

“Hey!” I say happily.

“Oh, hi… Claudia, right?” He asks

“Yep. I didn’t know you had any classes with me. But I was late yesterday to this class… so no wonder I missed you introducing yourself and that...Those things are always so awkward, though.” I ramble. “Wait, I’m rambling. I do that sometimes.” Frank giggled lightly.

I decided this was the time to start digging around, trying to find out more about Frank for Gee, taking advantage of the fact that our English teacher is nearly deaf, and doesn’t really pay attention to what’s going on in the class.

We chatted through most of the class, about music and what-not. I was obviously not gonna ask him straight out about his sexuality, after a day of meeting him, so finding his interests first was my main goal today. Gaining his trust. Oh, I feel like a private investigator! That would be so cool. I-Oh no, I’m rambling in my head again.

So all the small talk lead me to finding out Frank’s taste in music and random facts about him. Suddenly the bell rings for us to go to our next period.

“See you later.” I tell Frank as we walk out of the classroom. He nods at me and disappears into a hallway.

I smile to myself, heading down another hallway. I have to find Lidia and Gerard and tell them about this. Gee will be happy.