Butterfly Kisses

“You were late again?” Ray asked in shock. Gerard shrugged.

“Wasn’t my fault. Ran into some kid,” he answered as he took his seat next to Ray, waiting for their English class to start. They knew they had at least twenty minutes to talk, if not longer.

“Really? Who?”

“How am I supposed to know? Some sixth grader…that idiot one. What’s his name?”

“No idea. Oh, look, who’s this?” Ray asked, directing his attention to the front of the room. The school’s guidance counselor had walked in, holding several folded papers in one hand. Gerard shrugged in response.

“Good morning, students,” the woman said brightly. Most people glared back at her. “I won’t take up much of your time. Just delivering these information packets to our new peer tutors.” She began traveling down the aisles of desks, dropping a piece of paper on every other desk. Gerard began to snicker, occasionally muttering about those particular kids being nerds…until one landed in front of him. He simply stared up at the woman with a blank look, but she said nothing and continued walking.

“What the…”

“Can’t imagine how you got signed up for that,” Ray said with a poorly hidden grin. Gerard nearly growled at him.

“I will get you for this, Toro.”

After class ended, Gerard stormed down to the office, not caring who he mauled this time. He knew he must have shoved at least two kids out of his path, but once he reached the room he was looking for, it didn’t matter. He took a deep breath to calm himself and knocked on the heavy wooden door.

“Come in,” the counselor called from inside the room. He opened the door and stepped inside, seating himself in one of the chairs before her desk. She smiled at him. “Ah, you’re one of my new peer tutors, right? I forget your name…”

“It’s Gerard,” he said, trying not to sound too abrupt. “Look, I think there’s been some mistake. I don’t belong in this program.”

“Of course you do! That’s why you signed up for it,” she said with a lighthearted laugh that did little to lift his spirits.

“No, someone else signed me up for it as a joke. I’m really not the right kind of person.”

“I’m sure if you give it a try, you’ll find it to be a highly rewarding experience,” she said, looking him in the eyes. He considered turning around to see if she was reading off of a poster on the wall. “The younger kids love working with high schoolers. We need as many students to help us as possible.”

As much as he was starting to hate the woman, Gerard couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. He could almost imagine the disappointed face of the seventh grader he was supposed to be paired with. What if the kid became depressed or something because of him?

‘I’m thinking too much into this,’ he told himself. He thought for a silent moment. ‘Then again, it would make my college résumé look a little less…horrible…’

“If…if the kid flunks or something-”

“You won’t be held accountable if the student fails to achieve higher marks,” she assured him. “You don’t have to meet in the library, by the way. I know the information packets say that’s the best atmosphere for studying, but if you want to go to each other’s houses or something when you start to become friends-”

“The library’s fine,” Gerard said shortly. He didn’t have any plans to make friends with some middle-school kid. He already had enough problems trying to deal with Mikey on a daily basis, let alone Bob the super-genius. The last thing he needed was another headache. “I guess I’ll stay, then. Who’s the kid?”

“I don’t have the list with me right now, but I do know he needs help in his English classes.”

Gerard nodded. He wasn’t the best at the subject, but he had done well enough in middle school to help some younger kid out. A few weeks of scribbling down answers on homework much easier than his own, and he would be finished and on with his life.

“That’s fine, then. When do I meet him?”

“Right now, actually,” the counselor said with a sly smile, glancing at something behind him. Gerard turned around and did a double take as he realized the same kid he had nearly flattened that morning was now staring up at him with a wide, eager smile.
-
Gerard hauled his backpack to the library after school, reluctantly giving his house key to Mikey so the younger boy wouldn’t be trapped outside upon returning home. His mood hadn’t lifted at all since that morning’s incident, and he was certain he would only remain more miserable as the next hour or so would slowly roll by. Bob walked with him as a last-minute attempt to make him smile.

“It’s not so bad,” the younger of the two said as their steps seemed to become increasingly slow. “All you gotta do is find out what they’re not good at and fix it.”

“For the millionth time, please go off to college already,” Gerard said with a glare. Bob just shrugged.

“It’s really not difficult. Anyway, I have drumline practice for the next hour, so I’ll see you later.” The ninth grader continued down the hallway as his friend stopped at the library’s double doors. Gerard took one deep sigh before entering the room. The usual foul odor of soured milk and expired chicken entered his nose, making him cringe as he realized that the library and the cafeteria were right next to each other. It began to remind him why he never went out of his way to read.

He scanned the room quickly, seeing several pairs of students, some he recognized from his Spanish class. At first he saw no sign of the boy and his spirits lifted slightly, but soon enough he recognized the quiet demeanor and the outline of the top of his head as he constantly stared at the floor. Sighing, Gerard walked over to the desk in the furthest corner and sat down next to the kid.

“Hey,” he said quietly. The boy glanced up at him with a wide, awkward smile. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“F-f-f-frank,” he responded with difficulty. Gerard nearly grimaced, trying not to let it show on his face.

“I’m Gerard.” If at all possible, the boy’s smile widened further. Gerard sighed and shifted in his chair. “So, what do you like to do?”

Instead of responding with words, the boy reached into his backpack and pulled out a picture. He set it on the desk for Gerard to see more clearly. The sharply detailed photograph showed a butterfly perched on a leaf, the insect nearly blending in with the background. The older of the two realized with amazement that the creature’s wings were completely clear.

“A butterfly?” he asked. Frank nodded.

“G-l-l-lasswing. My f-f-favorite,” he stuttered. Gerard wasn’t sure how he was expected to help the boy if they couldn’t even hold a normal conversation. He was beginning to think he should just let Bob take over.

‘No,’ he told himself. ‘I already said I’d help this kid, and I need it more than Bob does. He could go to Harvard right now with no problem.’ As this thought crossed his mind, he noticed the boy had taken a thick textbook out of his backpack and placed it on the desk and was now searching for some particular page. Gerard carefully picked up the picture and attempted to hand it back to him, but Frank lightly shoved his hand away.

“K-keep it.”

Raising an eyebrow, Gerard slid the picture into his own backpack in the middle of a tornado of papers. He saw the kid with a piece of paper in front of him and a pen clutched in one hand, as if planning to take notes. Gerard closed his eyes as if blinking for an extended period of time, acting as if this would be the longest hour of his life.