Witness

“Hey Frank, over here,” Mikey waved me over from his table in the canteen. He’d obviously seen me looking hopelessly around and figured he could be the nice guy. Another head turned around, and I saw Gerard sitting at the table as well. He shot me a small smile before turning back the way he was originally facing.

I began my walk across the canteen, when James stopped me by pulling the strap of my bag. “Hey Iero,” he smiled, almost as genuinely as I was certain he could. “Come sit outside with us?” he asked, pretty sincerely. I looked over at Mikey who had a slight frown gracing his features, before looking back at James and nodding. He smiled again, and clapped me on the back, like he seemed to always do to me, and led me away from the canteen and outside into the barley there New Jersey sun.

I was seated at the table almost forcefully, after which I looked around somewhat awkwardly at all the people who had already seemed to accept me.

This strikes up a question in my mind. How is it decided that someone is going to be Mr Popular who can stomp on everyone? People are all equal, regardless of skin colour, religion, sexuality, weight class or social class. I had been accepted before I was even known here, and if it had gone the other way, I’d probably be suffering from being bullied by now. Who had decided that Gerard should be bullied, and for what reason? High school hierarchies often confused me.

“Frank!” I heard James yell, snapping me from my thoughts. “Dude, I’ve been saying your name for ages. You well zoned out!”

Shit! I’m still not used to my name, so I’m not responding to it!

“Oh sorry, just thinking,”

“No worries. So, where’re you originally from?”

“One state over. New York.” I sighed. Liar.

“Oh cool. And you came to New Jersey?”

“Yeah, my mum kind of wanted a change of scenery from the everyday hustle and bustle of New York. Plus, we kind of needed to move on from there,” Liar.

“Why?”

Did he have to keep asking questions? “My Dad died...so uh, we were finding it hard to stay there anymore,” Not so much of a liar.

Silence flitted around the table like leaves in autumn before James spoke up. “Let’s go find Way again,”

I rolled my eyes and looked up at him, “Isn’t he the one you ‘introduced’ me to yesterday?” I asked, using my fingers as quote marks, and attempting to sound bored. Honestly, my heart was beating faster than it ever has in my life, and my palms were sweating.

“Yeah, pitiful little shit, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, and my opinion still stands. He’s not even worth it,”

James looked at me for a second, and raised an eyebrow. “He’s an easy target,”

“Exactly. There’s no point in that,”

“So you’re saying go after someone else?”

“No. I’m saying give up. You’re not proving anything. Plus, being a bully actually makes you more of a coward than the victim,”

“What?”

“Seriously. There was a huge group of them at my last school. You could tell they were just trying to prove something. It got boring after a while,”

“They bullied you?”

“No. Just people who wouldn't stand up for themselves,”

James paused and raised an eyebrow before looking back at his faithful little gang.
“I’m cool with being a coward then,” He said smugly, before turning on his heel and walking inside.

I sighed, feeling like I'd failed, before following them inside, only not as closely. I paused round a corner when I heard a lot of yelling and laughed, peering round the corner I saw James & Co. completely destroying Gerard and probably any confidence gain from yesterday.

Wow. Mikey really was right. People were just walking past this mess, without a care in the world. It couldn’t even be considered as a fight, because Gerard was just letting it happen!

The bell went, and the group just left him slumped across the lockers. Luckily they went in a different direction to where I was, or they would have seen me, but as soon as most of the people were gone, I approached his bruised and bloodied body.

“Shit man. I really did try today,” I sighed, running my fingers lightly along a cut on his lip.

He flinched a little and looked up at me. “What?”

“I tried what I said yesterday, but it didn’t work,”

“Why would you bother?”

“Because I kind of know what you’re going through. Not directly, but almost,” I sighed, thinking back to the night when my father died. “It ended the worst way, and I let it happen,”

“You let it happen?”

“Yeah, it was so much more complicated than this. I can’t talk about it though,” He nodded, frowning slightly, and I realised that I was waffling way too much about my real past, as opposed to the one I was supposed to be telling. “You want to go to the nurse or something?”

“Yeah, but I’ll go alone, don’t want James hurting you just because you helped me. That’s what happens to Mikey,”

I nodded slowly, biting my lip, before taking a hold of his arm and helping him stand. “I don’t really care what he does to me. I’ll have a clear conscience,”

“Who cares about that nowadays?”

“I do. You’re going to get somewhere Gerard. But him and his little gang? They’re going to be working in some shitty fast food restaurant for the rest of their life,”

I noticed the small smile that tugged at his cheeks, and I helped him walk towards the nurses office. Obviously I didn’t know where it was, but Gerard was showing me, as well as slumping into my side.

“Doesn’t it put you off?” He asked suddenly.

“What?”

“You know why I get bullied,”

“No I don’t,”

“No-one has told you?”

“Nope,”

“Mikey said he told you I was gay though...”

“...What’s your point?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. He smiled slightly, and I smirked before adding; “I don’t even think I’m one hundred percent straight, but if I was, I still wouldn't care about that,”

“Really?”

“Yeah,”

Silence over took us, except for the echoing sounds of our footsteps, collapsing off of the white washed walls past classrooms where people sat learning about things that probably won’t help in their future.

We came to the nurses room, where she sat chewing on a piece of gum, letting it snap around inside her mouth as she looked up at us with an almost bored expression on her face.

“Mr Way? Again?” she asked, pretty disbelievingly.

“Unfortunately,” he offered with a weak smile as he made his way over to a chair, and sat in it while the nurse got something to obviously prevent his various cuts from getting infected.

I leant up against the wall, looking down on him as the nurse began cleaning up various cuts, and checking certain places on his body for others. “You don’t have to wait, y’know,”

“Yeah, I know. I’d rather be here than in class though. Share it with James,” I rolled my eyes.

“He gives you trouble?”

“No. I think he thinks we’re friends,” I shrugged. “And I’m cool with that for now. I’m just wondering how long it’ll take to brainwash him and get him to leave you alone,” I chuckled, hearing him chuckle in reply.

“Don’t worry about it; I’m used to it,”

“Well you shouldn’t be. You shouldn’t have to,”

“Well, I do. It’s better to be used to it than it is to suffer it,”

“You’re still suffering it.”

“I know, but that sounded good, right?”

I smiled down at him from my frustrated state, and laughed slightly through my nose before shaking my head and looking up at the ceiling, waiting for the nurse to finish.

When she finally did, Gerard thanked her again before we stepped out into the hall. I looked up at the clock, and saw that the lesson was already half over.

“How about we skip fifth and go hang out somewhere?” I asked, really hoping he’d agree to the idea.

“Sounds good,” he smiled down at me.

My God. That smile! I hadn’t looked at him properly before, I hadn't had much of a chance, but looking at him right now, I noticed small things that made him who he was. He wasn't perfect, but hey, who is?