The entire day was spent thinking about the one thing that had been on my mind practically since arriving in Jersey. By thing I mean person and by person I mean Gerard.

It was next to impossible to get him off my mind to begin with and now that the unforeseen process of getting close to him had been set in motion, he wasn’t leaving any time soon.

Gerard and I had our first and second period classes together but then we didn’t see each other again until next to last period before going home. Normally I’d spend my day wallowing in my sadness, quietly taking in my surroundings and examining my classmates as I thought of the boy next door. This day was a bit different though. Since the movie night, I had a bit brighter of a demeanor; no I wasn’t little miss sunshine now, but I at least noticed a slight improvement in my mood.

Equipped with a different outlook and a slim though unmistakably existent willingness to make lesser the overall suckiness of my day, I walked into my history class and sat down in a new seat.

My teacher didn’t care so much about where we sat so long as we focused and remained quiet, but seeing as I was trying out this new ‘socialness’ thing, I opted to go against the teacher’s wishes, for the first five minutes anyway.

“Hey Frank,” I said timidly upon claiming my new seat next to the shortest of Gerard’s friends I’d met over the weekend. He looked up and smiled upon seeing who’d greeted him. I set my books down and slid into the seat next to his, a slight panic rising as I realized that this was a mistake.

I wasn’t social, I didn’t talk to people; what made me think I could just sit down next to Frank and casually start up a conversation? What was I doing?

Frank obviously didn’t seem as terrified as I was and probably detected some of the fear in my eyes. He tread softly as he started up a light conversation. “Oh, hi Leigh, how’s it going?” He was nice and friendly which definitely made it easier to talk to him. I offered up my best smile, which I’d noticed had been becoming less and less forced lately, and did my best to continue on the conversation with Frank.

“I’m doing alright. How are you?” I asked shyly, my nerves still seeming to get to me too much. Frank was so nice and though it was fairly easy to talk to him I still had trouble making the small talk, though for someone who normally didn’t talk at all, I thought I was doing a damn good job.

Frank smiled again to make the conversation seem lighter, but I could also see that he was still genuinely in high spirits. “I’m pretty good,” he said while fiddling with the pages in his notebook. “So Friday was fun. It was really great getting to meet you.” I smiled at Frank’s compliment and suppressed the blush that had been overtaking my cheeks far too often since I’d been in Jersey.

“Thanks. I liked meeting all of you guys, too. You’re all really nice.” For never giving compliments to anyone before I thought that one was pretty good, and I guess so did Frank who smiled and giggled a little upon hearing my praise.

“You too. We should all hang out again soon.” That’s what Gerard had said when I left his house that Friday night and this morning. I didn’t think he meant it when he said that the guys liked me. It was weird to think that anyone could like me; I thought just Gerard was a stretch, but all of his friends too? I wouldn’t consider this popularity but it was definitely more recognition than I’d ever received before.

Though Gerard’s friends all seemed really great and willing to accept me into their circle, I was still a little weary about being with all of them at once. Talking to just Gerard or just Frank was relatively easy, but being in a room full of teenage boys was a little overwhelming to say the least.

Still, I kept in mind my new outlook. I wanted to see how long I could keep up the positivity and surprised myself by answering Frank. “I’d love to,” I told him just as class started, leaving me to replay the conversation in my head over and over again.

***

The period before last was science, not my favorite subject but I wasn’t too bad at it, and at least Gerard was in my class. Biology was bearable on its own but I did have to say that Gerard made it more so.

Since he was the only person I 'knew' coming in on the first day, it seemed only logical that our teacher paired us up as lab partners. I didn’t really like it at first considering my number one goal up until this point was to avoid Gerard at all costs, but today I was more than happy to have Gerard as my lab partner.

“We’re starting a project today,” announced my teacher towards the end of the lesson. “I hope you and your lab partner work well together because you will be working together to make a cell model. It’s due on Monday so you’ll have the whole weekend to work on it. Let me know of any issues, but I think everyone should be fine.”

I’d never really done any projects for school with other people, even if I’d had the option to. I much preferred to work alone and be dumped with twice or even three times the work than have to interact with another person to get the job done, but this time I didn’t mind. I was admittedly relieved that Gerard was my partner for this project; if it were anyone else I would have opted to work by myself instead.

After our project guidelines sheet was passed out, we were left to consult with our partner on how we would construct our model. “So,” Gerard said, turning his seat to face mine. “How about we make it with modeling clay.” I had next to no idea what Gerard was talking about when it came to his artsy stuff, but I think I at least knew what modeling clay was.

“Okay, I have no artist skill though so don’t expect my contributions to be pretty or anything.”

“It’s okay,” Gerard said with a breathy chuckle. “I’ll help you. This is gonna be the best damn cell model he’s ever seen.” I smiled at Gerard’s joking and turned back to my paper; one, to look at it and two, to hide from Gerard. Even though I was undoubtedly in a better mood than usual I didn’t want Gerard to notice too much.

Every time I showed even a little bit of surrendering to his charm with a smile or blush, Gerard seemed to take advantage. He’d try to wring out the moment and get me to open up more which normally just led me to shutting down completely, but he didn’t push me today.

The bell rang and the class stood. I ignored the teacher as he called out over the noisy students to work on the project and have it ready by Monday. I picked up my books and stood to leave, but just as I was about to walk through the door I felt a hand on my wrist forcing me to turn around to face Gerard.

I was nearly winded by the sudden contact and jolt of electricity that came along with it. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be touched by Gerard Way, seeing as the last time anything like this had happened was over a month ago. I had forgotten what kind of effect Gerard had on me, how the slightest touch or sideways glance was enough to make me stumble over myself, forget the rest of the world.

I turned to see him ready to tell me something. “Hey, uh,” he started as I just stood and stared at him. “So, if you want to come over tomorrow we can work on the project.” My conversational success throughout the day was completely compromised in that one moment. Yes, just say yes, my conscience prompted me. “Sure,” I said a little too quickly. “I’ll uhm…what time should I go over?”

Gerard thought for a second before replying, “Well, if you come over in the morning we can get it done and then maybe spend the day together?” I felt it again, the warming of my cheeks. A whole day with Gerard; one part of my was ecstatic to spend so much time with him but the other part of my warned me not to get too close to Gerard. I shut that bitch up.

“Sure, okay.” What can I say? It’s hard to resist Gerard Way. He smiled and nodded then replied, “Cool, come over around 8:30. I know it’s early but that way we’ll have plenty of time.” I just nodded back at Gerard, confirming out meeting.

The moment following was slightly awkward as we just stared at each other neither of us knowing what else to say with Gerard’s hand still holding my - his hand was still on my wrist!
A sudden panic washed over me. One, because of the electrifying effect Gerard’s touch had on me and two, because of where he was holding me. He had his hand right at the edge of my sleeve. If he pushed it up, even just a little bit, he’d see them. He’d see all of my scars.

I suddenly pulled away and quickly brought my arm down to pull on my sleeves, ensuring they stayed down and covering my arms.

Gerard gave me a slightly jarred, slightly confused look, but quickly composed himself and said, “Uh, well we should get to class.” He said it with slight trepidation, like there was something he wasn’t telling me. I looked around at everything but him as I nervously held onto my wrist and replied, “Uh, yeah. I’ll see you later.” He smiled softly as he waved once before turning down the hall to go to his last class. The car ride home wouldn’t be too awkward. I hope.

Notes

So, yesterday after school, I passed my English teacher's classroom and he was listening to Mama; he's like the coolest person ever. Anyway, thought I'd share that with you guys, but back to the writing. Hope you like this chapter. Get pumped, stuff's about to get interesting...
Enjoy the reading, leave a comment if you like, and I'll be back with the next chapter on Friday!!!