I felt my brother’s hands slip from mine, and suddenly I was being pushed back by a massive crowd. I was trying to scream “Mikey!” over the loud honking and chatter of the city, but my voice must not have been carried far enough to hit my family’s ears.
More and more people kept smacking into me, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was trying to swim against the current, and I wasn’t strong enough to fight it. I was being pushed back more and more, and I was trying not to fall to the ground. Time after time I almost fell backwards, and no one would say “sorry” or “excuse me” or even try to catch me. They just kept going on with their lives, ignoring my existence. Not that I wasn’t used to that, of course.
One especially large person sent their full body weight into me, and I was unable to keep my balance and was knocked to the ground. They pressed on, as if I wasn’t there. No “sorry!” or “Let me help you up!” or any aid of the sort. I frowned, hoping for help, but the only help I got were people stepping on me, sending sharp pains through my body as their feet used me as the sidewalk. I groaned in pain as I lay on the ground, trying to find the strength to get up. But like, anyone would have a hard time when people were constantly stepping on you and sending your head back down on the concrete ground. People sent taunts my way, laughing and yelling stuff like, “Get up drunk fag!” or, “God, how much did you snort?”
I finally managed to crawl to the side of the sidewalk, but not without managing to hit my head hard into the brick wall of some building. Dizzily, I wrapped my arms around my legs and it took all my will power to not break down crying. Everything hurt now, my head, and all the bruises I felt forming on my body from the punishing feet of pedestrians. I could feel the stares of people that passed me; they burned through my flesh and right into my gut. My stomach was flailing everywhere, and I thought I might vomit.
“Hey, are you alright?”
I looked up upon hearing another kid’s voice. He sounded about my age, and pretty friendly. I didn’t answer his question, though.
“You seem really upset, and really hurt.” He said again, not ready to give up on me. That was certainly a first.
“I-I’m lost.” I managed to rasp out, my throat on fire as I fought back the tears that threatened to pass through my eyes. I was trying so hard to contain them. Gerard, you’re fucking 19 years old, get a grip of yourself. I thought.
“Oh, where are you trying to go?” Why hadn’t he left yet? Why was he interrogating me?
“F-Find my family.” I was trying not to sound helpless, but it didn’t really work out. That wasn’t even a full sentence. Smooth one, Gerard.
“Don’t you have a cell phone to call them? Or did you lose it?”
I bit my lip. “I don’t have one.”
“Oh. Okay. I can help you then! Do you know where your parking garage is?” He was going to help me?
I nodded and bit my lip.
“Okay!” His fingers brushed against my hand, sending electricity through my body. They felt like smooth snakes, which constricted around my wrist. He pulled a little, explaining in the force of the tug that he wanted me to get up. I took a deep breath and used my shaky muscles to stand. I was trembling with fear, but I hoped it looked like the cold was just getting to me. Either way, the boy didn’t say a word to me.
“What is the name of the parking garage?” He asked. I reiterated the name to him. “Alright, you see down that street?”
I shook my head. “c-could you take me there? Actually?” Wait, why did I trust this stranger? He could take me somewhere and rape me. Oh god, what was I doing? Something in my heart was telling me I wanted his help and could trust him. But god, how often was I supposed to trust that?
“Oh! Of course! I mean, I don’t have anything else to do actually. I’m waiting for a concert to start. I told my parents I’m getting food, but like, I’m not even hungry.” I heard a nervous laugh and I smiled a little. He seemed a little bad for lying to his parents. I liked kids like that, that really showed true character. “Name’s Frank, by the way. Frank Iero.”
“Gerard Way.”
Frank brought a shaky hand to my cheek. At first I felt a wave of warmth flow through my body, but it was suddenly replaced by a horrible sting as Frank’s finger brushed against a scratch.
“you’re bleeding.” He frowned. “Let me get that.”I closed my eyes and I felt a wet rag be wiped across the scratch, and I realized he had used his shirt that he dampened with his tongue. But I wasn’t disgusted by that. For some reason I smiled and felt a little fuzzy in my head.
“Thank you.” I smiled at him, and I swear I could tell he was smiling back.
“let’s go find your family.”
Lucky for me, he didn’t let go of my wrist when he began dragging me through the crowd once more. I followed him for dear life, praying he didn’t let go of me and let me get taken away by the tsunami of crowd again.
“Gerard huh?” Frank said after awhile, and it took me a minute to bring my attention back to him and not my own thoughts. “I like that name a lot.” I heard a little bit of affection in his voice. I could tell he was smiling a little.
“Thanks.” I was blushing like crazy at this point. Frank was such a cool kid, usually I was just ignored. No one wanted to bother a loser like me. I was a home schooled freak, with no friends at all. I had the socialization skills of…well, a rock. But that didn’t seem to repel Frank from me. Well, at least not yet.
We walked in silence the rest of the way, but I wasn’t bothered by it because Frank seemed to be very urgently making his way through the city streets. His grip was tight on me and he was walking quickly. I kept almost bumping into him when he made sudden stops as we reached crosswalks. Finally, after walking for about ten minutes, Frank slowed to a stop. I almost tripped over him but he caught me and laughed a little before releasing my hand. I panicked a little, wanting his touch of assurance that I wasn’t alone again.
“Do you know your moms cell phone number?” Frank asked, and a wave of relief washed through me at the realization he was still there. I nodded. “Good. I would use my cell phone to call her, except I left it with my parents accidentally. So hopefully here, we can use their phone and it’ll be easy for her to find you.” I couldn’t help but smile at Franks practically genius plan. I had no idea what I’d do without him. He grabbed my arm once again and dragged me to the counter. He explained our situation to the lady at the counter, and I told her my mom’s phone number. The lady called my mom and she then told us my mom would be here shortly.
Frank took us to sit down on the ground to wait for my mom. I smiled. “Thank you Frank, for helping me. It really means a lot to me.”
“It’s nothing! Oh, by the way, you can take off your sun glasses. Its kinda really dark in here!” Frank chuckled.
I laughed and blushed a little as he hit a weak spot of mine. I repositioned my glasses on my nose. “Well, I kind of like wearing them. “
“Oh, okay. “ Frank said.
It was silent for awhile. So I just closed my eyes and leaned my head against the wall, listening to the sound of people walking by. I tuned in on people’s conversations and the sounds of cars tires rolling against the city streets.
Through this silence a sudden terrifying thought rolled into my head and I sat up from where I was slouched on the wall and looked in Franks direction.
“I’m not retarded.” I burst out almost immediately.
My outburst was followed by a short period of silence, which gave me a hell of a lot of time to regret the statement. Why would I say that? God, what was I thinking? Now I just seemed even more retarded! I mean, I wasn’t, but, to Frank I sure looked like it.
“I never thought you were.” Frank finally responded, and I thought I heard hurt in his voice. God, why did I say that? “Why would you think I thought that?” He asked.
I was blushing hard from embarrassment and looked down. It took me a moment before I could speak. “Everyone always thinks I am.”
Before Frank could ask why, I heard my mom’s familiar voice. “Gee!” she screamed, and I stood up. I was embarrassed that she had called me that name in front of Frank, but I didn’t say anything. Suddenly her arms were wrapped around me as she pulled me into a tight hug. “Oh God, I was so scared! I’m so sorry baby!” She planted a kiss on my forehead. “And oh gosh, who’s your friend?”
“I’m Frank.”
“Oh, Frank, thank you so much for helping Gerard. How could I ever repay you?”
“It’s okay! Really, he’s a cool kid.”
“Oh, it’s so wonderful that you found him. Thank you thank you!” my mom’s voice was so relieved and sincere, I felt kind of embarrassed. She was really making me look retarded. “I’m going to go pay for the parking. You boys stay here.” She directed to Mikey and I and headed off, leaving the three of us alone. Suddenly I remembered something I wanted to ask Frank.
“Hey Frank, where do you live?” I asked.
“Jersey.” He responded.
“Awesome! Us too!” Mikey suddenly shouted before I had a chance to respond.
“Oh God, that’s awesome! Oh, I’ll give you my phone number Gerard! You can totally call me up and we can totally hang out!” Frank exclaimed.
My jaw almost dropped. He wanted to hang out? with me?! A real live human being wanted to hang out with me? No one had ever wanted to be my friend before…
“Here is my phone number!” Frank said.
I bit my lip as I heard the tearing of paper. “Take it!” Frank said. My hand started shaking and I slowly drew my arm out. Oh God, please, just let me get this right. Just this once.
It was silent as I drew my hand out, but as I went to wrap my fingers around the paper I just clasped my hand around thin air. I frowned and tried again. Mikey was chuckling to himself.
My rescuer came soon enough, coming to my side and taking the paper from Frank. “I’ll take that Frank. I guess you don’t know do you?” My mom said.
“Know what?” Franks voice of confusion arose through the air.
My stomach dropped. I looked at my mom and shook my head. No, this was going to ruin my only chance at having a friend! I really liked this Frank. I wanted to keep him in my life, God, if she told him the truth about me he’d never want to hang out with me. I was hoping she could read my thoughts somehow, and not tell Frank the truth. But no, she blew my only chance at a friend.
My mother’s voice was hushed, yet intense. “Frank, sweetheart, Gerard is blind.”

Notes

So I had this idea for this fic tonight and I decided to post it cuz..well cuz why not. I need to be up in four hours. oopsy.