The Untouchables

Gerard arrives in the lunch room, tentatively sitting down at an empty table. He looks around for Frank, and for a moment or two, he thinks that maybe Frank was wrong; perhaps he was assigned the second lunch shift, not first. But when a black mop of hair comes bobbing over in a sea of taller kids, Gerard lets out a sigh, because he knows that can only be one person.

Just as Gerard thought, it’s Frank. Frank sits down next to him, slinging his backpack up onto the table. He begins to root through it, finally bringing out a metal Avengers lunch box. He opens it, and begins to empty its contents, spacing them out in front of himself.

Gerard squints to see what he’s eating. “What is that?”

Frank points his fork at his salad, explaining, “Everything in a salad but a meat, really.”

Gerard pokes a blue Tupperware container. “And those?”

“Sugar snap peas,” Frank replies, taking one of the pods out.

“Why are they called that?” Gerard questions.

Frank cracks open one, resulting in a loud pop. “That’s why.” He offers one to Gerard, who declines with a wave of his hand, insisting,

“I’m a boy who hates veggies.”

Frank shrugs, cracking open another and eating it.

Gerard grins and looks over Frank’s shoulder to see someone approaching. They’re a freshman with a white person afro, which Gerard finds to be extremely intriguing. He sits down by Frank, demanding,

“Frank, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Frank shakes his head, sipping from a juice box defiantly.

Ray chuckles and holds his hand out to Gerard, greeting, “Hi, my name’s Ray.”

“Gerard,” Gerard answers, shaking his hand somewhat cautiously. Gerard feels like people who shake your hand are either really friendly genuine people or giant backstabbing superficial fucktrumpets trying to cover up their trails.

The three decide to go over to Ray’s house after school, since he has a pool in the backyard and a treehouse.

Gerard can tell that Frank and Ray are very close friends and have a very comfortable relationship, and this makes him not only unconsciously jealous, but also anxious. These two are just expecting him to magically weave into their friendship without being a third wheel? Gerard gets so nervous that he considers making up some pseudo excuse to get out of going over to his house. Luckily, as he struggles for a lie, Frank smiles at him and squeezes his knee.

It’s an odd gesture that would more likely be seen in a different relationship, but for some reason, it’s calming for Gerard, so his worries dissolve while the initial butterflies in his stomach stay.

Gerard doesn’t have a single more class period with Ray or Frank, so he spends most of the day absorbed into his own thoughts. When the final bell rings, Gerard texts Frank,

“Where do u want to meet”

Frank responds in seconds, which in most cases would irritate Gerard, but for some reason, Frank’s over eagerness in particular comes off to him as sweet.

“Next to the fountain”

They have a huge fountain in the center of campus, which, being a private school in Arizona, is widely outdoors. Gerard’s glad Frank just so happened to pick this location; if he’d picked anything at all obscure; it’s plausible that Gerard wouldn’t be able to find it.

The fact that Mikey no longer has a ride if Gerard goes to Ray’s house only hits Gerard when he sees his younger brother’s name in his contacts. He panics for a split second, and then calls him, walking as the line rings.

Ray and Frank are sitting on the granite ring around the fountain, waiting for Gerard. Ray has his laptop out on his lap, and his face is so focused that he must be working on classwork. Frank however, either isn’t in the class or doesn’t plan on doing the assignment, because he just pokes Ray and plays with his friend’s hair as Ray makes weak attempts at elbowing the smaller boy away.

When Gerard comes closer, Frank takes a general interest, and listens as Gerard begins,

“Mikes? Yeah, I can’t pick you up. Well, I don’t know, can’t you ride with Pete or someone? Jeez, sorry; I didn’t know! Yeah. Take the bus? Yeah, okay. Tell mom I’m at a friends’ house. No, I don’t feel sick!”

Gerard hangs up with a spat, “Goodbye, Mikey!” and by then, Frank is caught in a mess of laughter. Ray raises an eyebrow and one corner of his mouth at his friend, and looks at Gerard, mouthing,

“What?” to which Gerard simply shrugs.

They all pile into Ray’s car, since they’re all on school permits and therefore cannot drive themselves to his home. Frank gets in the passenger seat, chirping,

“Shotgun!”

Gerard groans and crawls into the back, sprawling his legs out across the seats and turns his back to the window. Ray starts up the car, and the radio buzzes to life, playing “Superman” by Souljia Boy.

“This song reminds me of third grade,” Frank recalls dreamily.

Ray flicks the radio to another station, declaring, “Too bad it’s terrible.” Frank recognizes the song that’s playing, and cranks up the volume. He turns around in his seat, unbuckling his seatbelt and facing Gerard, who watches with a blank face.

Frank mouths the words to the song playing (Crawling out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine), and as the song continues (And it’s all in my head but she’s touching his chest now), he climbs into the backseat, wiggling in next to Gerard. He serenades him, yelling along with the chorus (Jealousy turning saints into the sea). Finally, when the song ends, Frank sets himself in Gerard’s lap, folding his legs over each other and setting both palms on the top knee. He grins at Gerard, and Ray is dying laughing from the front seat.

Gerard just smiles uneasily, because he really appreciates his personal space and Frank’s little butt is very bony. Fortunately, Frank gets off before Gerard has to shove him and slides to the other end of the backseat.

Frank’s quiet for the rest of the ride, but every couple of seconds or so, Gerard will catch him stealing glances over at him, that dumb grin on his face. Whenever Gerard glares at him in return, Frank just smiles bigger, and Gerard ends up letting out an exasperated sigh and turning away in defeat.

When they reach Ray’s house (which happens to be in the middle of nowhere), Frank is hopping all over the place, which Ray explains is normal for him. Gerard studies Frank, who is currently attempting to climb one of Ray’s many trees, and is fascinated by his childlike ambition. It’s almost charming.

“Frank, we’re heading in!” Ray calls as he opens the front door.

Frank leaps down from a branch and sprints to the door, pushing Ray out of his path and stepping inside the house. “Beat you.”

Ray shakes his head and enters, and Gerard follows.

The trio immediately goes down to the basement, and Ray asks, “Do you want to play video games?”

Gerard nods, and Frank zooms over to the opposite side of the room, plopping himself about a foot in front of the TV and snatching a controller. He opens a nearby mini fridge, taking out a Coke, and slams it shut.

A chuckle escapes from Gerard, and he blushes upon realizing this. Ray must not notice, because he all he does is inform,

“There’s one shitty controller. I’ll use it.”

Gerard and Ray sit behind Frank, and Ray is chosen as Player 1 to make up for having the worst controller.

As Frank sits in front of them, the waistband to his jeans cup out and expand backwards, revealing a large deal of white underpants. Gerard reddens; he feels embarrassed for Frank. He wonders what kind of high schooler still wears tighty whities. He nudges Ray and motions at Frank, and whispers,

“Should I tell him?”

“I’ll tell him,” Ray resolves. He leans forward as if he were going to whisper in Frank’s ear, but instead reaches down and grabs a handful of Frank’s underwear and yanks them upwards.

Frank squeals, and squirms free, shoving Ray in the chest. “Jerk!”

“That’s what you get for wearing tighty whities, dork,” Ray retorts.

Frank pounces on Ray, tackling him. The two wrestle around clumsily, and Gerard sits, fiddling with his controller.

Finally, Ray pins Frank, who struggles beneath him. “Ha!”

Frank looks over at Gerard, insisting,

“Lighten up, Gerard. Wrestle with us, have some fun, be a kid.”

Gerard shakes his head. “I’m okay, actually.”

Ray releases Frank, who instantly springs up to his knees. He crawls over to Gerard and falls onto him, grabbing his wrists and holding them to the floor.

“Let me up,” Gerard groans.

“Not until you loosen up and fight back,” Frank bargains.

“Frank, this is ridiculous, let me get up!” Gerard protests.

Frank shakes his head. “Nope.”

Gerard scoffs, and turns his head over to Ray, begging,

“Ray, help me. Or reason with him.”

Ray crosses his arms across his chest, sitting back. “Frankie actually has a point. You need to learn to relax, Gerard.”

“I’m not going to do it,” Gerard replies.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to remain on the floor,” Frank smirks.

Gerard lets out a whine. He lays there for about a solid minute, no one saying a word. He then blushes as he makes a feeble attempt to move his arms.

“Oh, come on,” Frank laughs. “You can do better than that.”

Gerard begins to writhe beneath Frank, and Frank encourages,

“There you go! Now you’re getting it!”

Gerard finally breaks, and he head butts Frank in the chest, bringing the littler boy on his back. Gerard straddles him, grabbing his forearms and holding them to the ground.

Gerard looms over him, and stares down at him, panting. Frank is sweaty, and breathless, his mouth open as he breathes. Finally, he breaks out into a smile, complimenting,

“Good.”