A Case of Unknown Identity

“So, Lucas is it?” Frank asks, looking at the blond haired boy in the seat next to him.

“Yep. It’s fuck-face, right?” he asks.

That’s kind of a bland nickname from Lucas compared to twat-breath and skank-leach, but he doesn’t say anything, because Gerard throws an eraser at him in warning. The teacher isn’t there yet, but they have a freshman science teacher for detention today, so none of them know necessarily what to expect from her.

The teacher, a woman shorter than Frank and in her late twenties, named Ms. Nicolai, enters the classroom a few minutes later and asks them each for their names.

“Well I’ve been instructed to keep Lucas away from Gerard so I’m going to have you both move to opposite ends of the room,” she says with a delicate voice, that’s actually quite pretty. She points for Gerard to move to the right hand corner in the back and for Lucas to go to the left in the front so that they’re nowhere near each other, and then tells Frank to stay where he is in the middle.

He wants to go sit by Gerard, obviously. Well, what he really wants is to stick his tongue down Gerard’s throat but that wouldn’t be the best idea in the world right now.

“I don’t think you’re allowed phones so turn them off, and do homework or something,” she says, and then sits down at her desk.

Frank frowns, and turns to look at Gerard who gives him a smile.

He mouths the words, “turn your volume off.”

Gerard nods and grabs his phone, and a book to make it look like he’s reading, and then Frank looks at his own phone, which is on silent, but the screen turns bright because he has an incoming message.

He smiles at the name. Gerard. Not Watchman, but Gerard. His boyfriend.

Gerard: U look cute 2day.

Frank: U look soggy.

Gerard: haha, funny. I am goin to murder that kid someday.

Frank: r u going to need me to help hide the body?

Gerard: I don’t know do u have any boyd hiding tips?

Frank: yes, bcuz thats what I do in my spare time. look up how to hide dead bodies

Gerard: hey u never know. maybe I’m a serial killer. u wouldnt kno.

Frank: well ARE you a serial killer?

Gerard: ... no

Frank turns around to look at Gerard at this and smiles while rolling his eyes. Ms. Nicolai isn’t all that strict it seems so she doesn’t even notice them texting each other.

Gerard: i promise i wont hurt u tho. i make no promises on mikey.

Frank: but then we wont have any1 to teaze us and interupt us while we’re... actually u know on 2nd thought, I could get on bord with this whole killing mikey thing.

Gerard: then it’s settled. I will be an only child soon

They both have to keep themselves from gigging while texting each other, but Lucas and Ms. Nicolai aren’t paying any attention to them anyway.

They continue texting throughout the entire span of detention and are finally released, much to the joy of all four of them, because Ms. Nicolai wasn’t keen on the whole detention thing either.

Gerard and Frank stay back a few minutes after Lucas leaves so that they don’t have to run into him, but all does not go according to plan.

When they walk out, a safe distance from each other just in case, Lucas is waiting just outside the back entrance of the school to meet them. He’s leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, and his foot against the wall when they see him.

“So I guess this is why you wanted to stop wailing on the kid, isn’t it Gerard?”

“What?” Gerard asks, looking a little panicked, “what do you mean?”

“I mean that you’ve got yourself a little boyfriend,” Lucas says, and he looks sure of himself but there’s no way he could possibly know. He’s almost definitely just teasing for the sake of being mean.

“You must be kidding. Me and him?” Frank says with uncomfortably good acting, “you must be a lot dumber than I gave you credit for.”

Lucas pushes off from the wall at that and walks closer to Frank with an unreadable expression. He’s way taller than Frank so he’s definitely a little scared of him.

“What did you say to me?” Lucas says, and he doesn’t touch Frank but his voice and eyes are like a slap to the face.

“Lucas calm down,” Gerard says.

“You two are so lame,” Lucas says with venom, looking at Gerard, “You’re so puny and sensitive.”

“Just back the fuck off man,” Frank says, with way more confidence than he has.

Lucas turns his head back to Frank and his long arm pushes Frank into the side of the wall, not overly hard or painful but it’s not pleasant either.

“Lucas, stop!” Gerard says and he puts a hand on Lucas shoulder while he’s narrowing down on Frank against the wall.

The guys has a really fast right hook though, because he turns around, and hits Gerard in the jaw before he even knew what was happening. Gerard staggers backward for a moment, a little surprised.

Frank loses his cool though at this, and while Lucas’ back is towards him he does the stupidest thing ever imaginable.

Frank jumps on top of Lucas’ back, angrily, and pulls at his hair viciously. He can’t believe what his adrenaline is making him do, but he does it anyway. How dare Lucas hurt Gerard? He deserves much worse than Frank is capable of.

For a few moments Lucas is dumbstruck, and doesn’t do anything as the small boy pulls at his hair, and then he composes himself and manages to throw Frank off, and to the ground.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Frank gets to his feet quickly and Gerard looks almost as surprised as Lucas had, but Lucas is a lot more anger than anything else right now.

“Stop being a prick and leave us alone!” Frank says, and he pushes Lucas back aggressively.

Lucas towers over Frank and answers back with an identical push, “make me.”

Frank grits his teeth and he honestly doesn’t know where the strength or idea comes from, but he goes for Lucas with a clenched fist, and he hits his target right in the eye.

The second Frank’s skin hits Lucas he can tell that the latter is going to have a black eye, and he’s actually really proud of that, despite his throbbing hand. No one ever told him how much punching a guy hurts, because oh my god!

As soon as Frank lowers his hand from the hit he bends down slightly, and wraps his other hand around his aching fingers, while Lucas recovers from the blow.

Frank watches Lucas fumble backwards, but he stays on his feet and then brings his hand to cup around his eye and chin.

“You freak!” he screams looking angry.

Frank smiles slightly even though his hand is killing him and he looks at Lucas. Gerard is still standing behind Frank looking aghast.

“Stay away from us,” Frank spits at him.

“In your dreams,” Lucas says, and he moves his hand away, and starts advancing at him again, a little less determined, but a lot more cross.

Frank is on a roll though, and he sees an easy way out of this one, because Lucas is kind of outmatched right now.

Frank does what any sane human would do.

He knees the guy in the crotch.

And down he goes.

Frank winces himself seeing Lucas double over, but he doesn’t have any sympathy for him.

He just quickly turns around and says to Gerard, “and now we run.”

Gerard doesn’t need telling twice as he and Frank leap over a pile of snow, and start running across the field quicker than either has ever cared to run from the school

When they’re far enough away, and just outside of Frank’s house, Gerard attacks Frank with a gigantic hug.

“That was fucking amazing, where the hell did that come from?” He asks, with his head on Frank’s shoulder.

“I have no idea, I just hated seeing you hurt. I told you it bothers me,” Frank responds, a little flummoxed by the intensity of the embrace.

“Oh man it was great,” Gerard says pulling away, “terrifying, and scary, but absolutely great.”

Frank tries not to blush at the way Gerard is looking at him with pure admiration.

“I love you so much Frankie,” He says, and he grabs Frank’s shoulders, and pulls the short boy into a kiss.

Frank doesn’t move or do anything because he’s just so happy right now, with Gerard here with him. He only pulls away at the sound of a garage door opening behind him. Frank blushes furiously when he sees that it’s his dad’s house that’s making the racket. His dad has never even met Gerard, come to think of it, but it looks like he’s about to.

He sees his father’s head in the dark garage, and he walks out of it when he spots Frank. He turns to Gerard who doesn’t look even remotely unsettled.

“Hey Frank, I’m glad I caught you before I left!” he says approaching the two boys who are standing at the end of the driveway.

“What’s up?” Frank asks trying not to look nervous.

“Um, is this Gerard?” His dad asks curiously while pointing at Gerard.

Frank nods, and Gerard smiles at him politely.

“Nice to meet you Gerard,” he says, and he formally shakes Gerard’s hand which isn’t all that odd but Frank finds it so.

“Frank’s never stops talking about you,” he says, and Frank is prepared to go dig his own grave, because he’s going to die from embarrassment.

“If you’re going to do the whole, embarrass your son thing, then can I get a warning so I can go drown myself?” Frank asks.

“Sorry,” he says, and turns to look at Frank, “anyway, I’m not going to be home tonight, because your aunt slipped on some ice. It’s nothing serious, but I have to go help her out and I’ll stay the night too. I should be back by tomorrow night, though. I haven’t called your mother so you can call her to come pick you up, but I’m going to head off.”

Frank nods and he and Gerard walk to the side so that his dad can pull the car out of the driveway.

When he’s gone Frank gets a wide grin and turns to Gerard, “you know what this means?”

“Uh, no?” Gerard responds.

“My dad is gone. Empty house,” Frank says, with a childishly stupid wink.

“He said to call your mom though,” Gerard points out, looking a little disappointed.

“Yeah but he didn’t call her, so she doesn’t know, and what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.”

“I like the way you think, Iero.”