Colourful

***2 years later***
"Mr. Barakat!" My eyes fluttered open. Shit. I fell asleep in the middle of a lesson.
"Hmm," I mumbled, not quite forming words yet. Alex snickered beside me, causing me to quickly glare at him.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Barakat?" The cranky lady asked with a scowl.
"Hmm, no, no I don't think so," I quickly sputtered.
"Then maybe you should not make it a habit to fall asleep in my class. That's a detention for you, come to my class after school," she sighed, exasperatedly.
"Yes, Ms. Belle," I rolled my eyes when she wasn't looking, flipping Alex the finger as well because God dammit, he was still grinning like an idiot.
The bell rang, dismissing the class (the teacher was really supposed to dismiss you but no one listened to that rule) letting me wait for Alex at the door. When we stepped out the door, his snickering started up again.
"Shut up! It's not funny," I snapped, irritatedly.
"Maybe you should've gone to sleep earlier last night," he remarked.
"Fuck off! It's not like it's my fault you can stay up all damn night and not feel a single bit tired the next day!"
"Well, yeah, but why the hell do you insist on staying up with me? You could go to bed."
"But then I seem weak," I pouted.
"What's up, sluts! Guess who just got out of prison," a friendly voice called from across the hall.
"Gerard, you were in history class, not prison," Alex sighed, letting his smile be noticed.
"Same thing," Gerard shrugged, skipping to the two.
Alex and Jack had met Gerard halfway through their first year here. He was actually almost the exact opposite of how he is now. Quiet, achingly shy, very reserved. He was often called out of class, having to see the school's guidance counsellor almost every day. In Gerard's last year of middle school, he had came out of the closet, losing most of his friends, and all together being frowned upon. The kids at his school were bigoted ass-holes who were so scared of anything out of the ordinary, they'd beat it up. So the school was quiet for a while after that and Gerard was confused. But on graduation night, he was beaten up. He was so severely injured, he had to be hospitalized. This news about him being gay got to his abusive father which made things all the much worst. He was sent to a "pray-the-gay-away" camp, forced to leave his little brother Mikey, with their dad. At the camp, they almost destroyed Gerard. But one day, he snapped, spiralling into a mental breakdown. One of the volunteers tried to get him to stop. Nothing was working, so he tried using force. The volunteer beat Gerard. He kept swearing and yelling and throwing insults at Gerard, who by now was just lying there, almost lifeless, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was in some sort of a daze.
"Worthless faggot! Listen to me!"
Gerard shivered at the words, connecting them to his father. Thinking about his father, he grew worried for his brother, choking out the word, "Mikey."
"Mikey? I bet that's your stupid gay boyfriend! Why didn't you tell me about him," he screamed, losing control over the younger boy.
Eventually, someone noticed, calling the police, for Gerard was near dead by now. They came, taking Gerard away. That was when he spilled about his father. When deemed unfit to care for his sons, he was released of custody and arrested for obvious reasons. Gerard and Mikey then were forced to move from New Jersey to Baltimore to live with their loving aunt. So as Gerard started school, he didn't talk to anyone, just kept to himself, often seen wearing headphones. People noticed when he'd play the piano beautifully in music class, they'd compliment him even. Although he only gave a nod back.
One day when Alex and I were skipping gym class in the locker room, we were bored of the silence, pulling out my iPod and playing music. The two of us goofed around, singing along obnoxiously loud, when we heard another voice join in. This initially frightened us. We looked over to the corner where a boy with dark hair and smudged eyeliner sat.
"You've two have got a great music taste," he shyly smiled up at us.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, curiously.
"Well I like this type of music, and my music taste is simply incredible," he cockily replied, surprising both Alex and I. After all this time of not talking, did we think his attitude would turn out like this.
"I'm Jack, and this is Alex," I introduced the two of us.
"Why are you talking to us?" Alex abruptly asked, not at all intending to be offensive.
Gerard looked embarrassed or nervous for a second before realizing what he had meant with his question. "Well, I guess I was waiting for some decent conversation, I guess."
"So you basically think the rest of the school is too boring or stupid to talk to?" I asked.
He nodded, smirking.
"Well I'll gladly take that as compliment, thank you. Stick with us...-"
"Gerard."
"Ok well, stick with us, Gerard. You seem pretty cool," Alex smiled. The three of us laughed.
Gerard did stick with us, obviously. His shy reputation was ruined when he came dancing into school, the next day, singing along to his music. Some students managed to snicker, but they all had to admit that somehow, Gerard looked like a total badass (how he could do that by dancing, beats me). When he reached our lockers and Alex and I stared at him in awe, asking how he did that, he grinned, catching his breath.
"If you want everyone to know you're fabulous, just be fabulous. I looked fucking majestic ok," he replied, looking up at the ceiling.
That was the moment when Alex and I decided we really wanted to stay friends with Gerard.
"Look who it is!" A threatening voice interrupted my thinking about how we became friends.
"Oh god, not Bert," Alex rolled his eyes.
"Watch where you're going," Bert bumped into Gerard on purpose. "Ladies," he cockily waved at Alex and I.
"Please stop talking, my IQ is being lowered," Gerard snarled back.
Bert's friends (or 'goons' as I like to call them in my head) came rushing behind him, an intimidating look on their faces. There was Pete and Frank, who both happened to be the shortest high schoolers I've ever laid eyes on.
"Have a nice day," Bert retaliated, knocking the books out of Gerard's hands, to which the three walked away staring back as Gerard bent over to pick them up.
"Stop staring at my ass, Frank!" Gerard yelled loud enough for people to turn their head to the kid. Frank's eyes went wide and Bert just scoffed before muttering a simple "let's just go." Gerard stood back up, his signature smirk on his face.
"How did you know he was staring at your ass?" Alex asks, eyes still slightly wide.
"Was he really?" Gerard giggles, which shouldn't quite fit the situation, but it does. "I was just trying to be funny."
The three look at each other for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.
"SOOO, what do you guys have next?"
"Umm art I think. Oh god, I'm terrible at art," I groan.
"Well I have art as well and Id say I'm pretty damn fantastic," Gerard replies, smiling.
"Well whatever, I'm sorry I can't be good at everything like you," I rolled my eyes.
"I think I have Spanish," Alex hums.
"Why do you even bother with all that second language shit?" I ask, scrunching up my nose.
"It's good to be bilingual," he butchers the pronunciation of 'bilingual'. "You know, helps you with jobs."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I shrug my shoulders.
The bell rings, it's familiar sound making me groan.
"Well, um I'll see you later, Jack," Alex shyly smiles and adds, "You too, Gerard."
"Yeah, yeah get to class bilingual boy," I wave.
Gerard smiles at me after he's left. I've seen that smile before. He does it all the time now but I can't figure out what it fucking means!
"Stop," I sigh.
"Stop what?" Gerard asks, seemingly clueless.
"Smiling like that!"
"Whatever are you talking about, Jack?" He puts on an over the top confused face. He's knows what the fuck I'm talking about.
"You smile like that all the time now and I don't fucking know what it means!"
"Well sorry, Jack, that I'm not a mopey mess like you. I'm a happy person ok, I smile once in a while."
"Yeah, but like, that's a different smile! I just- Why do you do it?"
Gerard opens his mouth, preparing to answer, but his answer never comes out because suddenly the teacher comes into class, slamming a large book on the desk. I can't even remember when I got into the classroom. So Gerard just smiles at me and brings his attention to the teacher. That lucky fucker.
-
"They're expecting us to do swimming in gym class next week," Gerard whines.
"Really? Ok that's not bad. I can swim and even then I'll just stand in the pool," I reply, shifting position of the way I was sitting on Alex's bed.
"Fuck you. I can't swim, don't rub it in," Gerard sticks his tongue out, successfully knocking out my character on Super Smash Bros Brawl. "Teach me?"
"No dude, I'm not gonna give you fucking drowning lessons," I breath, glaring at him for the win.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Gerard throws his arms up, video game remote still in hand.
"You cannot swim for shit, Gerard," Alex laughs.
"We've established that, Alex," he pushes him, teasingly.
"Yeah but if I had to teach you to swim in pretty sure you'd just drown. You can't be good at everything, Gee."
"Whatever, fuck this, I'm going home," Gerard stands up going to the door.
"Come on, dude, we're not being mean. We're just speaking the truth," Alex tries not to laugh.
"I know, I know. But I gotta get home anyways. See you guys tomorrow," Gerard spins as he exits the room, closing the door.
"I guess we should start getting ready for bed," Alex, yawns, only to prove his point.
"Yeah I guess," I walk over to my dresser drawer. I started staying over almost every night a couple years ago. Sometime along the way, Alex just figured I should keep some of my clothes at his house. All my favourite clothes are here. Grabbing a pair of pyjama bottoms, I go to the bathroom across the hall.
When I've returned from changing, Alex is already lying in his bed. I stare at him for a moment, his eyes already closed (through I could tell he was not asleep) and then over to my unused sleeping bag. It was actually quite small for me now but that didn't matter. Alex and I usually shared the bed anyways. We're just that good of friends. My stomach feels weird for a moment but my thoughts are interrupted by the other boy in the room.
"Are you coming or not?" He whines, shuffling in his bed.
"Yeah," I almost squeak out (squeak!) and go to join my best friend in his bed.
"I think our English assignments are due tomorrow, right?" I whisper.
Alex hums, "Yeah I think they are, but I won't be there."
"What do you mean?"
"There's a check-up tomorrow," he mumbles, unsure of himself.
"Oh," the word escapes from my lips and I add, "I forgot, right."
Minutes go by in silence, and I start to think Alex has gone to sleep, but my instincts kick in and I know better.
"It's going to be alright, you know," I reassure the boy.
"Y-yeah," he replies, appreciatively.
Ten minutes later, I find myself drifting off into sleep listening to the steady and calming breaths of the boy beside me.