Keep the Right One In
Rumors Suck
Gerard’s P.O.V.
On my first day of the Catholic school, it starts out great. Right away, I meet a boy.
The first thing I notice is the way he dresses. He’s got this scrawny, scrawny body, so his clothes all fit him weird. His shirt just hangs off of him and his pants slouch in random places. He’s wearing an extremely faded Sonic Youth shirt, so over worn that the band name is almost completely gone. He’s also wearing corduroys, strange due to the hot weather. His hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in weeks, and his eyes are droopy due to a lack of sleep, distracting you from the beautiful, baby blue color.
“Hi! Who are you?” he asks. “My name’s Matt.”
“Hi, I’m Gerard,” I respond.
“Oh, cool name,” he replies. He grabs me by the shoulder and pulls me over to a circle of kids, simply saying, “You should come meet my friends.”
He points at a boy wearing a stocking cap, despite the fact that it’s at least 70 degrees outside. “That’s Jared instead of Gerard.” He then gestures at a really tall kid with long, stringy brown hair that conceals his face. “That’s Tich.” He points to the last boy, who has icy blue eyes and jet black hair cut military style. “And that’s my brother, Brad.”
I nod, taking it all in. I turn to Matt and ask, “How old are you?” By his boyish blond locks, dimples, and slender build, he looks like a middle schooler. “I’m a freshman.”
“Oh,” I respond. “Is anyone a sophomore?”
They all look at each other. “Brad, Jared and I are juniors,” Tich informs.
“Maybe I’ll have classes with some of you guys,” I suggest casually. In actuality, I’m praying that I have a class with at least one of them.
When I go to vocal, I see no one other than Matt there, bouncing on his heels excitedly. I walk over next to him, greeting, “Hey!”
Matt looks startled and then grins, bearing his deep dimples. “Hi! I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Well, I really like singing,” I explain.
Matt smiles. “Me too. I actually am going to be in a band when I’m older. We goof around now, just kind of jam. It’s really fun, though.”
“Sounds like it,” I respond.
There’s a bit of a silence, and Matt questions, “Why did you move here?”
“I um…” I begin. I look over at Matt, who is looking back at me earnestly, waiting patiently for my reply. That’s when I decide I can trust him. “I was actually bullied very badly. I had to leave two schools because of it.”
Matt smiles sadly and lightly shakes his head, sending his hair swishing. “You know what, I’m bullied too. But it’s not so bad. Mainly name calling, exclusion, stuff like that.”
He looks up at the ceiling. “It’s not so bad that I’d ever have to leave.” He’s quiet for a while, biting his lip contemplatively. “You know, just for being friends with me, you’ll probably get picked on as well.” He stares at the ground now. “I understand if you don’t want to be friends anymore.”
I punch him softly in the arm. “Hey, you know I don’t want to do that.”
He smiles, and the bell rings, so he snaps his head to the front of the room like a command dog.
Vocal is alright, I liked it at my last school better. The teacher is a bit of a fruit loop, but she’s the only teacher to call me Gee, so I guess she’s okay. At the end of the day, Matt finds me and asks,
“Do you want to go to my house?”
I consider the invitation. “Erm, I don’t know. I kind of have… a brother.” I don’t know why I lie, describing Frank as merely a sibling. Matt definitely doesn’t seem like the type to judge, but it just kind of comes out. I guess I’ll tell him in time.
“Oh, that’s too bad. I’d love to meet him some time!” Matt squeaks. He waves goodbye as he heads out the door, tagging along with his brother who is, strangely enough, shorter than his 14 year old sibling.
At dinner that night, I mention,
“I met a really cool group of kids. One in particular is very nice.”
Tre grins. “That’s great!”
Frank chuckles kind of uneasily. “Yeah, great.”
“Oh, Frank. You don’t have to worry, he’s a boy,” I inform.
“Is he straight?” Frank whispers.
“I…. I’m pretty sure he is,” I respond truthfully.
Frank scoffs, and folds his arms, staring into his lap. Finally, he removes his arms, rubbing his temples deeply. “Look, I’m sorry I’m so cranky. I just… I had a shitty day, alright I’m glad you made friends.”
“Thanks,” I reply, surprised. Usually, Frank doesn’t apologize for himself, even when he’s totally wrong. Frank, admitting he was over the line, is a rarity.
“What happened?” Billie questions.
“Look, nothing to be worried about,” Frank assures. “It’s just, some kids started a rumor that I’m a girl, because they saw the binding over my wings. They thought I was hiding my boobs. And even though a quarter of the male student body has seen me shirtless in my grade, they still spread it. So, anyways, a bunch of girls called me an ugly slut. And no one would sit near me at lunch, and a boy pulled my pants down, saying he was checking for a vagina and….” Frank begins crying, his sobs small and tired. “I just can’t handle it.”
I reach across and grip Frank’s hand, stroking it with my thumb. “God doesn’t give you what you can’t take.”
Frank looks up wearily. “I don’t believe in God.”
I hug him, assuring, “Well, he’s watching over you, whether you believe him or not.”
Frank’s P.O.V.
I walk through the halls, my head up in trepidation. I cautiously cross my arms, covering my chest. As I make it to the second floor, I tighten my belt, just to make sure no one pulls my pants down again.
When I reach the floor, I open my locker to see notes flood out. “Fuck yourself, lesbian freak” catches my eye on one. I paw through them slowly, finding phrases like “No trans allowed in our school” and “Get the fucking surgery, freak”. I begin crying, and I leave the school. On my way out, no one stops me other than Logan and Joey.
“You… you started this… didn’t you?” I demand.
Logan laughs and Joey merely shrugs.
“I honestly thought you were a girl, Iero. Common mistake,” Joey jokes.
“Shut up,” I growl.
Logan shoves me, barking, “Don’t order us around, you freak.”
“I can tell you to stop when you’re being assholes!” I snarl.
Joey tackles me, kicking me in the ribs as he shouts, “Are you going to tell me to stop now?”
Logan smiles maliciously and kicks me in the side. He then grips the front of my shirt and punches me in the jaw, sending my head back to the ground. He whips it back up and punches me again so hard that I’m lucky I didn’t get whiplash.
Joey flips me over onto my belly, and he attempts to take it. I clutch on the strap for dear life, and Joey tugs until he finally shakes me loose, bringing me back onto the ground. Logan beats me some more as I see Logan root through my bag in the corner of my eye, tossing random objects to the side.
“Oh my god, look at these notes!” Joey declares. My eyes swell with horror as I realize that he found the nasty letters that kids had left in my locker.
Logan grins evilly and asks, “Hey Joey, do you have any duct tape?”
They strip me of my shirt, tossing it into the bushes, and duct tape the signs onto my back, stomach, and chest. They also take off my pants, sticking one onto the butt of my Flash boxers as well. They leave laughing, my clothes sprawled out everywhere. I quickly locate my pants, sliding into them, and unfortunately, I can’t find my shirt. So I walk the whole five blocks home with “Fags like you die of AIDS” on my front and “We hate trans!” on my back.
When I get home, Tre shakes his head sadly at me, muttering, “Look at you.” With a lot of painful tearing, he gets rid of the duct tape, so I can finally remove the horrible signs. One is stuck over my nipple, so Tre lets me bite a wooden spoon as he pulls that one off.
He then sits me down, saying, “Frank, I think you should go to Gerard’s school.”
I nod quietly, agreeing, “I think that’d be best.”
Tre smiles at me, his grin covered by traces of melancholy, and pats my back as he leaves the room.
I spend the day watching horror movies with Billie, and we both cringe horribly together in the rape scene in Evil Dead. That night when Gerard gets home, they tell him that we’ll be going to school together.
“Hey, awesome! We’ll be classmates again!” Gerard cheers. “I have got to introduce you to Matt and his friends.”
I grin, and watch as Billie enrolls me in Gerard’s new school. I can’t wait until tomorrow.
On my first day of the Catholic school, it starts out great. Right away, I meet a boy.
The first thing I notice is the way he dresses. He’s got this scrawny, scrawny body, so his clothes all fit him weird. His shirt just hangs off of him and his pants slouch in random places. He’s wearing an extremely faded Sonic Youth shirt, so over worn that the band name is almost completely gone. He’s also wearing corduroys, strange due to the hot weather. His hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in weeks, and his eyes are droopy due to a lack of sleep, distracting you from the beautiful, baby blue color.
“Hi! Who are you?” he asks. “My name’s Matt.”
“Hi, I’m Gerard,” I respond.
“Oh, cool name,” he replies. He grabs me by the shoulder and pulls me over to a circle of kids, simply saying, “You should come meet my friends.”
He points at a boy wearing a stocking cap, despite the fact that it’s at least 70 degrees outside. “That’s Jared instead of Gerard.” He then gestures at a really tall kid with long, stringy brown hair that conceals his face. “That’s Tich.” He points to the last boy, who has icy blue eyes and jet black hair cut military style. “And that’s my brother, Brad.”
I nod, taking it all in. I turn to Matt and ask, “How old are you?” By his boyish blond locks, dimples, and slender build, he looks like a middle schooler. “I’m a freshman.”
“Oh,” I respond. “Is anyone a sophomore?”
They all look at each other. “Brad, Jared and I are juniors,” Tich informs.
“Maybe I’ll have classes with some of you guys,” I suggest casually. In actuality, I’m praying that I have a class with at least one of them.
When I go to vocal, I see no one other than Matt there, bouncing on his heels excitedly. I walk over next to him, greeting, “Hey!”
Matt looks startled and then grins, bearing his deep dimples. “Hi! I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Well, I really like singing,” I explain.
Matt smiles. “Me too. I actually am going to be in a band when I’m older. We goof around now, just kind of jam. It’s really fun, though.”
“Sounds like it,” I respond.
There’s a bit of a silence, and Matt questions, “Why did you move here?”
“I um…” I begin. I look over at Matt, who is looking back at me earnestly, waiting patiently for my reply. That’s when I decide I can trust him. “I was actually bullied very badly. I had to leave two schools because of it.”
Matt smiles sadly and lightly shakes his head, sending his hair swishing. “You know what, I’m bullied too. But it’s not so bad. Mainly name calling, exclusion, stuff like that.”
He looks up at the ceiling. “It’s not so bad that I’d ever have to leave.” He’s quiet for a while, biting his lip contemplatively. “You know, just for being friends with me, you’ll probably get picked on as well.” He stares at the ground now. “I understand if you don’t want to be friends anymore.”
I punch him softly in the arm. “Hey, you know I don’t want to do that.”
He smiles, and the bell rings, so he snaps his head to the front of the room like a command dog.
Vocal is alright, I liked it at my last school better. The teacher is a bit of a fruit loop, but she’s the only teacher to call me Gee, so I guess she’s okay. At the end of the day, Matt finds me and asks,
“Do you want to go to my house?”
I consider the invitation. “Erm, I don’t know. I kind of have… a brother.” I don’t know why I lie, describing Frank as merely a sibling. Matt definitely doesn’t seem like the type to judge, but it just kind of comes out. I guess I’ll tell him in time.
“Oh, that’s too bad. I’d love to meet him some time!” Matt squeaks. He waves goodbye as he heads out the door, tagging along with his brother who is, strangely enough, shorter than his 14 year old sibling.
At dinner that night, I mention,
“I met a really cool group of kids. One in particular is very nice.”
Tre grins. “That’s great!”
Frank chuckles kind of uneasily. “Yeah, great.”
“Oh, Frank. You don’t have to worry, he’s a boy,” I inform.
“Is he straight?” Frank whispers.
“I…. I’m pretty sure he is,” I respond truthfully.
Frank scoffs, and folds his arms, staring into his lap. Finally, he removes his arms, rubbing his temples deeply. “Look, I’m sorry I’m so cranky. I just… I had a shitty day, alright I’m glad you made friends.”
“Thanks,” I reply, surprised. Usually, Frank doesn’t apologize for himself, even when he’s totally wrong. Frank, admitting he was over the line, is a rarity.
“What happened?” Billie questions.
“Look, nothing to be worried about,” Frank assures. “It’s just, some kids started a rumor that I’m a girl, because they saw the binding over my wings. They thought I was hiding my boobs. And even though a quarter of the male student body has seen me shirtless in my grade, they still spread it. So, anyways, a bunch of girls called me an ugly slut. And no one would sit near me at lunch, and a boy pulled my pants down, saying he was checking for a vagina and….” Frank begins crying, his sobs small and tired. “I just can’t handle it.”
I reach across and grip Frank’s hand, stroking it with my thumb. “God doesn’t give you what you can’t take.”
Frank looks up wearily. “I don’t believe in God.”
I hug him, assuring, “Well, he’s watching over you, whether you believe him or not.”
Frank’s P.O.V.
I walk through the halls, my head up in trepidation. I cautiously cross my arms, covering my chest. As I make it to the second floor, I tighten my belt, just to make sure no one pulls my pants down again.
When I reach the floor, I open my locker to see notes flood out. “Fuck yourself, lesbian freak” catches my eye on one. I paw through them slowly, finding phrases like “No trans allowed in our school” and “Get the fucking surgery, freak”. I begin crying, and I leave the school. On my way out, no one stops me other than Logan and Joey.
“You… you started this… didn’t you?” I demand.
Logan laughs and Joey merely shrugs.
“I honestly thought you were a girl, Iero. Common mistake,” Joey jokes.
“Shut up,” I growl.
Logan shoves me, barking, “Don’t order us around, you freak.”
“I can tell you to stop when you’re being assholes!” I snarl.
Joey tackles me, kicking me in the ribs as he shouts, “Are you going to tell me to stop now?”
Logan smiles maliciously and kicks me in the side. He then grips the front of my shirt and punches me in the jaw, sending my head back to the ground. He whips it back up and punches me again so hard that I’m lucky I didn’t get whiplash.
Joey flips me over onto my belly, and he attempts to take it. I clutch on the strap for dear life, and Joey tugs until he finally shakes me loose, bringing me back onto the ground. Logan beats me some more as I see Logan root through my bag in the corner of my eye, tossing random objects to the side.
“Oh my god, look at these notes!” Joey declares. My eyes swell with horror as I realize that he found the nasty letters that kids had left in my locker.
Logan grins evilly and asks, “Hey Joey, do you have any duct tape?”
They strip me of my shirt, tossing it into the bushes, and duct tape the signs onto my back, stomach, and chest. They also take off my pants, sticking one onto the butt of my Flash boxers as well. They leave laughing, my clothes sprawled out everywhere. I quickly locate my pants, sliding into them, and unfortunately, I can’t find my shirt. So I walk the whole five blocks home with “Fags like you die of AIDS” on my front and “We hate trans!” on my back.
When I get home, Tre shakes his head sadly at me, muttering, “Look at you.” With a lot of painful tearing, he gets rid of the duct tape, so I can finally remove the horrible signs. One is stuck over my nipple, so Tre lets me bite a wooden spoon as he pulls that one off.
He then sits me down, saying, “Frank, I think you should go to Gerard’s school.”
I nod quietly, agreeing, “I think that’d be best.”
Tre smiles at me, his grin covered by traces of melancholy, and pats my back as he leaves the room.
I spend the day watching horror movies with Billie, and we both cringe horribly together in the rape scene in Evil Dead. That night when Gerard gets home, they tell him that we’ll be going to school together.
“Hey, awesome! We’ll be classmates again!” Gerard cheers. “I have got to introduce you to Matt and his friends.”
I grin, and watch as Billie enrolls me in Gerard’s new school. I can’t wait until tomorrow.
Notes
Anyone recognize Cage the Elephant in there? Who's excited for their new album?!Thanks for reading! Please comment!
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Yay cause I love this story
3/19/14