What Happens in Art Class...

I knew Ryan wanted as little people as possible to know about his situation. That’s why I was hesitant to tell Mikey anything more than the bare minimum about it. He was very stubborn, though, and insisted that if he didn’t learn the whole story he would go to the police himself. That would obviously be the worst possible thing to do, and even the spoken idea sent Ryan into a frightened frenzy. So we eventually broke down and told him.

This actually turned out to be a great idea. Mikey became super sympathetic and nice towards Ryan. In fact, he and Ryan got along great. After that first night it became clear that Gerard and I wouldn’t even really be needed to take care of him. Mikey had it completely covered. I still wanted to stick around and make sure everything would be okay, but Gee insisted I go to school and then home.

Gee went back to teaching as well, but we didn’t get to have our after school hang out sessions because of Gee wanting to get back and check on Ryan. Apparently Mikey could only be trusted with another human life for so long. It wasn’t until Friday that I was able to go back over, but I was very pleased when Gerard didn’t object to me climbing into his car.

When we walked in the door we immediately froze after hearing a shout, “Are you crazy?!”

I looked at Gerard before dashing into the kitchen where the noise had come from. Ryan was sitting on the counter as Mikey stared at him with a bewildered face. It made me happy to see him, especially since his bruises had mostly faded and his cuts were healing rather quickly as well.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“Ryan here thinks he’s going to go home tonight.” Mikey spat.

I looked at Ryan again, “What? Why?”

He shrugged, “I’m pretty much all good physically, and I know my dad is wondering where I am.”

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t go!” Mikey stepped closer to him, “What if he hurts you again?!”

Another shrug, “I’m used to it. Besides, he’s had a few days to calm down. He’s probably at the point where he thinks he’s going to stop drinking and when I walk in the door he’ll shower me with tear filled apologies.”

“Does that ever last?”

“Course not. After a while he’ll think that maybe a couple beers a day won’t hurt and then he’ll slowly get worse and worse until he snaps at me again. It’s a cycle. Like I said: I’m used to it.”

“You’re not leaving.” Gerard’s voice made me jump. I didn’t realize he was behind me.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed, “Says who?”

“Me. You don’t want me reporting your dad to the cops. That’s fine and dandy. But I’m at least going to have a talk with the guy before just sending you back to him. It would be irresponsible of me to do otherwise.”

Ryan huffed, “That’s a bad idea. If he’s sober, he’ll turn you in for kidnapping. If he’s drunk he’ll try to beat your ass.”

Gee sighed, “Well what am I supposed to do? I can’t just send you back.”

“Yes you can!” Ryan jumped off the counter and stormed towards him, forcing me to move out of the way, “It’s my life. Let me deal with it, because it’s none of your damn business!”

“None of my business?!” Gerard roared back, “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but you’ve been living in my house eating my food for the past week! I think I have a right to stick my nose in.”

Something shocking happened then. Tears blossomed in Ryan’s eyes and he ran out of the kitchen. We all stood there, too stunned to move, before Mikey sprinted after him.

“Shit, Frankie, what’d I just do?”

I hugged him, “It’s not your fault. Ryan can be a little shit sometimes.”

“That’s not an excuse for me to yell at him like that, though. He’s got enough on his plate as it is.”

As much as I hated to see him so torn up, it also warmed my heart. To think just a few days earlier Gerard hated Ryan’s guts. Now he was getting protective and worried. I smiled and kissed his cheek, “It’ll be okay. Mikey’ll get him to calm down and then we can have a quiet dinner. Okay?”

He nodded before chuckling, “I feel like this isn’t right. If anything, you should be upset and me comforting you. You’re too young to be my conscience.”

“I’m not that much younger than you. And I’m your boyfriend, so I have every right to cheer you up.”

“Oh do you now?”

We continued our witty banter as we made our way into the living room and fell on the couch. I instinctively curled in his lap. Somehow thoughts or Ryan completely melted out of my brain and it was just Gerard and me in the universe again. I cuddled close to him and we kissed and talked and were normal for a while. It was nice after the stress I’m sure we were both feeling that week.

“You guys are gross. Can’t you at least go to the bedroom,” Mikey’s voice broke off our completely PG kiss.

I glared up at him, “No.” Then I realized that something was missing in the current situation, “Wait, where’s Ryan?”

Mikey looked at the floor, “He…went home.”

“What?” Gerard and I said at the same time.

“Well, I decided to sit and talk to him instead of yelling objections at him, and…he had a point. We don’t have a right to keep him here. If we aren’t going to report his dad then we might as well let him make his own decisions.”

I was suddenly flung off of Gerard’s lap as he stood and grabbed Mikey by the collar, “So you just let him go?” his tone was calm and deadly. It gave me chills.

“”Of course not. I made him promise to come back if he ever felt endangered again. Because the most we can do in this situation is let him know that he has a safe place to run to.”

Gerard dropped him with a huff, “Whatever. I don’t like it, but you’re right. Call us when dinner’s ready. Come on Frankie.”

I gave Mikey an apologetic look before following after Gerard into the bedroom. We situated ourselves on the bed in the same position we had on the couch. He ran his fingers through my hair, causing me to close my eyes. That’s how we stayed, sat in a comfortable silence until dinner. We laughed and joked like normal through the meal even though I knew Gerard was still worried about Ryan. He’d get over it, though. It wasn’t like he liked the kid that much anyway.

I decided to try and take his mind off things later on. When we were curled up in bed I snuggled close to him and nipped his earlobe playfully before kissing down his jawline. He smiled slightly and closed his eyes before moving his had to kiss me properly, slipping his tongue into my mouth and threading his fingers into my hair. His other hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer as I gripped the back of his neck.

He pulled away after a while and rested our foreheads together, his hot breath ghosting over my face as I’m sure mine doing to him, “Frankie, we need to sleep. We have an interesting day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Interesting how?” I didn’t remember having anything planned. I was hoping to just lounge around with Gee, enjoying our renewed freedom from a certain fifteen year old. (Okay, that sounded kind of jerkish. I was still worried about Ryan, but at this point he was bringing his troubles on himself and he wasn’t hurt as bad anymore so…)

“Don’t you remember? We’re having dinner with your mom tomorrow.”

I froze in my movements of trying to slide my hands up the back of Gerard’s shirt. How did I forget that? Why did he have to remind me?! I groaned and buried my face in his chest, “Oh, joy…”

Notes

Two chapters in one week! A am on a ROLL! And OMGee this is the 40th chapter. This is seriously the longest story I've ever written. So, this is mostly a filler thing. I mean, it needed to happen, but....not much happened, yknow? In any case pleeease comment and tell me what you think. even if its to tell me this is trash. I welcome feedback of any kind, and i kind of miss all the comments i used to get :/

bye