Witness

“You are officially the biggest rebel at this school!” James shouted as I walked through the gates to the school the next day.

“Excuse me?”

“You appear out of no-where, you’re fine with me skipping class, you dye your hair a bright colour and then you miss one of your first lessons! I have respect for you, man,” he laughed, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

“Oh yeah, uhm, most of those were accidents really,”

“So, you’re still kick-ass,”

I laughed slightly, and felt an almost overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment. I felt accepted by the big-shot, and although I didn’t like him, I wasn’t complaining.

It was like Mean Girls. I didn’t like James, but I would pretend to and then push him in front of a bus. Okay, so she didn’t push Regina in front of a bus, but those are just minor details.
Amidst my Mean Girls ramblings I completely missed that James had started talking to me again.

“...this weekend?”

“Sorry, what?”

He chuckled. “I said, how about you come hang with me and the boys this weekend?”

“Oh, I don’t think I can, sorry,”

“Why not?”

“ I’m just...busy,”

The bell rang out through the halls and everyone started making their way to lessons. This time, because James was standing next to me, I wasn’t being beaten like a rock in the rapids, instead people swerved around us. “Well, think about it, iite?”

“Yeah,” I smiled, turning and walking toward where I assumed art was. I was pretty certain I’d seen a sign for it on my way in this morning. The halls once again went quiet, and I hated that I was always the last one wondering around lost. It’s not my fault I didn’t know where to go!

“Frank!” A voice called from behind me. I tensed up for a second. If there was some other kid in a locker, he was just going to have to fight his way out.

Upon turning around though, I saw Gerard walking towards me, a small but nervous smile on his face.

“Hey, I saw you wondering aimlessly, thought I’d lend a hand,”

“So you should. But why aren’t you in class at the same time as everyone else mista’”

He laughed throatily. It was actually quite hot. “Because, if I do say so myself, I’m pretty fantastical at art, and they don’t care when I show up,”

“Teachers pet,” I laughed, flicking his nose. “It also appears we’re in the same lesson,” I grinned. I didn’t miss his eyes lighting up either.

“You’ve got art? That’s so awesome!”

“Yeah, now lead the way,” I said, pointing ahead of me, my timetable and map still in my hand.

He pushed the door open and the chattering class fell silent as I stepped in. I looked around and noticed that there was no teacher. “Okay, so this is the main reason the teacher doesn’t care if we don’t show up,” he smirked. “Because they don’t either. Now sit still, I want to draw you,”

I smiled slightly at him before opening my mouth to speak deciding that he wouldn’t need to draw my mouth straight away.

“They don’t show up?”

“Nah, why should they. Teaching a bunch of kids who don’t even care? I don’t blame them,”

“You care,”

“I already know what I’m doing,”

“Touché,”

He smirked at me and continued drawing, the concentration on his face was almost captivating. The amount of love and devotion that he obviously put into his art work was really evident in the way that you could see him looking at it. The way his eyes focused solely on what he was doing, unprepared to break them away for anything. I respected him for that.

It was a debatably quiet room. I half expected that with a teacher not present people would be taking the time to throw paint at one another, or destroy Gerards work since it was pretty evident that no-one liked him all that much. I couldn’t work out why, he was exactly the same as everyone else in that he didn’t care if no teachers showed up, and in many ways he preferred it like that, just like everyone else. It wasn’t like he enjoyed lessons, which is another reason that people normally got picked on in schools, so the only reason it could have been was that he was gay.

That strikes me as all around odd. He’s still a human being, just because he happened to like members of the same sex didn’t make him any different to the rest of the world. It’s a pretty strange subject in my opinion.

“What’cha thinking about?” Gerard voice cut through the silent hum of the room. He only took his eyes off of the paper to compare what he was he was drawing to my actual face.

“Nothing really,” I said, sighing slightly.

“You zoned out for a while,”

“ I do that sometimes,”

“I’d noticed,” I smiled at him as he continued to draw, his eyes still flickering from me to the paper. “What?” he laughed as he noticed me smiling dreamily at him.

“You really care about this, don’t you?”

“Well yeah, art is one of the only things I’m good for, even people who hate me have admitted that, why do you ask?”

“You look so concentrated,”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to destroy your pretty little face, would I now?” He smirked, as my face began to tint with a slightly darker shade of pink.

“I’ll be sure to add that little blush in there for you,” He laughed, continuing to draw as my blush grow bigger and more prominent.

The bell rang, and everyone grabbed for their things, standing from their seats and leaving the room. to go to their next lesson. I, too, grabbed for my things, but Gerard stopped me. “Stay, please?”

“I can’t, I’ve missed enough lessons,”

“Yeah, but you won’t get in trouble if the teacher knows why you’re still here,”

“And why would I still be here?”

“Because I need you for my art,”

“I’m sure you’ve memorized my face well enough, I really need to go,”

“What have you got?”

“History, but that’s not the point, I need to be there,”

“Whyyyy?” he said in a childish tone.

“Becaaaause,” I retaliated in a tone matching his, smirking as I did so.

He pouted at me before agreeing and putting away his things, walking with me out of the room.

“So, you’re not going to let me see it?”

“No, it’s not finished, I don’t want to jinx it,”

“Fair enough,” I grinned before giving him a quick hug goodbye and moving into my classroom, once again, all eyes on me.