Butterfly Kisses

Gerard learned to settle into a different routine. While he continued helping Frank with his homework – he even tried working on some of his own occasionally – he learned to force down feelings of shock and hatred upon seeing his friend covered in bruises and cuts, instead focusing on getting him somewhere safe to help treat his injuries.

“So, his birthday’s next week,” Gerard said as he took his usual seat at their lunch table.

“Does this mean eating ourselves sick on cake like always?” Bob asked, looking extremely excited.

Mikey laughed. “Because that’s the only thing that makes Bob crazy: insane amounts of sugar.”

“Well, besides the obvious,” Gerard continued, also smiling. “But what are we going to get him?”

“You mean like a present?” Ray asked.

Gerard rolled his eyes. “Yes, Ray. That was the general idea.”

“Does he like music?” Bob asked, building off of the thing he understood most about life.

“Yeah, he loves it.”

“So…what does that mean?” Ray questioned, looking confused.

“Don’t you still have that old guitar in your closet you haven’t looked at since fourth grade?” Gerard asked.

Ray nodded. “Why?”

“You know, for a Spanish-speaking genius, you’re pretty stupid,” Mikey answered, lightly hitting him upside the head. “Put new strings on it and give it to the kid.”

“Oh.”

“Hey, almost forgot,” Bob said suddenly, grabbing a few pieces of paper from out of his backpack. “Band people don’t really like giving up their music. If I hadn’t promised them the drumline would dance during the next football game, they never would’ve let me have it.”

Ray laughed. “I might actually go to one of those now.”

Gerard placed the sheets of paper in his backpack, ignoring the confused looks from everyone else at the table and focusing on how to get through the rest of the day with his focus mostly intact.
-
“Leaving early again?”

Frank nodded as he stuffed the last of his books in his backpack. “S-see you t-t-tom-m-morrow.”

Gerard gave him a sympathetic smile as he stood and hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder, meeting Lyn at the door as he had for the past few weeks. He was already starting to like her; for one, she had actually noticed his existence, unlike most of the other people at the school. And she liked a lot of the same music as him. Mostly, though, she didn’t laugh at him when he tried to tell her Frank wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought he was.

“So, are you going to the football game this Friday?” she asked as they slowly paced down the rain-soaked sidewalk.

He shrugged. “I usually don’t. Why?”

“Any chance you’d go with me?”

Gerard stopped walking, a look of blank surprise on his face. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “It’ll be fun.”

“Okay.” He found himself grinning like it was the best day of his life. Maybe it was.

He dreamily walked through the front door, dropping his backpack on the floor and collapsing on the sofa to take a nap before dinner.

“Hi, sweetie,” his mom said as she walked in, mixing a bowl of something that smelled fairly edible. “Your little friend called.”

“Huh?” Gerard opened one eye and glanced up at her.

“Your friend Frank, silly. He called a few minutes ago. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, though…so I couldn’t really take a message…”

“It’s fine, mom.” A knot of worry settled into the back of his throat as he climbed to his feet and found the house phone, dialing Frank’s number and hopping up on the counter. It rang at least four times before being answered.

“H…h-hello?”

“Hey, Frank. Did you need something?” Gerard asked. Frank’s breathing shuddered harshly, and his usually choppy words were even less put together than normal.

“Someo-one broke in,” he stuttered, letting out a choked sob. Gerard’s eyes widened, and he quickly jumped off the counter.

“What?!”

Frank sniffled. “M-m-my r-room…”

“Hold on, Frank. I’ll be there in a few.” He hung up the phone and yelled to his mom that he would be back soon, then dashed out the door into the fading light to see what had happened, a few thin tears dripping from his eyes as he wondered who could’ve done something so horrible.
-
The house was in worse shape than he had thought. The front door had been forced open and broken off of one hinge, and it looked like the entire doorframe would have to be replaced. Furniture was missing, and what wouldn’t fit through the door had been turned upside down and splintered. The TV was gone, and small chunks of wood lay strewn all over the carpet. He hurried down the hallway and into Frank’s room.

“…oh, God…I’m so sorry…”

Frank sat in the middle of the floor, crying quietly to himself. Every single cage had been turned over and the tiny trays of sugar water turned over. He saw the butterflies still fluttering around and was thankful they were mostly unharmed, but the caterpillars’ plastic cups had been torn open and thrown on the floor. He looked away after seeing shapeless green blobs that looked ground into the carpet.

“W-why did th-th-they have t…h-have t-to-” Frank broke into a fit of sobs before he could finish the broken sentence. Gerard carefully stepped over the mess and sat next to the boy, wrapping him in a hug. Frank clung to him tightly, crying even harder.

“It’s okay, Frank,” Gerard said quietly, trying to keep his voice calm so it wouldn’t make his friend panic any more. “It’ll be okay.” A flicker of movement caught the corner of his eye as one of the butterflies jumped to the side of its cage, and he carefully reached over to tilt the thing right side up so it was level.

“M-m-my c-camera’s g-g-gone.”

Gerard’s eyebrows knit together in an angry frown. Frank’s camera was one of the most important things to him, one of the few ways he really had of connecting with the outside world. He silently promised he would do everything he could to get it back, no matter what. It was time someone in the world started being fair to him.