Pinned

Over the next few weeks, Frank finds himself actually counting down the days until Gerard arrives at their school. For some unknown reason, he is desperate to meet this boy. But, part of him is extremely worried. What if his little brother told him about getting beat up by him and Ray? What if Gerard hates him for it? Frank, if he had to, would smooth things out with Mikey. He was a sociopath of a sort; even though he was seen as a dick by a lot of kids at their school, he had teachers, parents, and select kids tricked into believing that he was a charming, upstanding young man.
The day finally comes where Gerard is at the school. Frank is so excited that he can hardly contain himself. He wonders if he has any classes with him. He sees him in the morning in the hallway, struggling to open his locker.
It’s weird, seeing Gerard in person, especially since he’s just as gorgeous in real life as in pictures. It’s almost like meeting a celebrity, which is strange, seeing as he’s just another student, especially because Frank doesn’t even know him. For all he knows, he could be a huge jerk.
Still, Frank hurries over, his heart racing a million miles an hour. “You um… you have to turn it a full circle to the left before putting in the third number. Like…” Frank checks the back of the padlock, to see that the tape is still there, the combination clearly written on it in red ink. Frank puts the combination back in. 28-30-69. “Like this.” He eyes the last number again, and snorts.
“What?” Gerard asks.
“N-nothing, it’s just that…” Frank giggles, explaining, “The last number? It’s a sex position.”
Gerard stares at him before breaking into a smile. “Wow.”
Frank blushes, and wants to kick himself. “Um…. Yeah…” Frank murmurs. He waves before walking up another flight of steps to his own locker. Great, not only was he a blushing fool, but also a mumbling, incoherent idiot.
He bangs his head on his own locker, ashamed of himself. F
“Frankie, what’s up?” Ray asks.
“Nothing!” Frank lies, plastering a fake smile onto his face. “I saw the Gerard kid, by the way. He’s pretty small; I don’t think he could take either of us.”
Ray looks horrified. “Smaller than you?!”
Frank turns red again. “N-no! But small!”
“Did he know who you are?” Ray questions.
Frank shakes his head. “Nah, I guess Mikey didn’t tell him about it.”
“Good. Let’s bury that shit,” Ray concludes.
Frank goes to P.E. fourth hour. He enters the locker room to see a very particular pale, blond boy standing in the corner, his shirtless back to him.
Frank gets dry mouth at the sight of him shirtless, even if it is just his back. His shoulder blades protrude almost awkwardly and the outline of his ribcage is visible. Gerard pulls down his pants, revealing pink American Apparel briefs.
Frank leans over to get a look at Gerard’s package, and nearly falls over in the process. All of the boys in the locker room shoot him weird looks.
“You okay, man?” his friend Pete asks.
“Yeah,” Frank lies, moving over next to Pete. He strips off his shirt, and then his jeans. As he stands there, he can’t get over the fact that he’s nearly naked in the same room as his love. He suddenly becomes very self-conscious, quickly throwing on his cutoff tee and basketball shorts. He stomps into his sneakers before going out into the gym.
Once they get into the gym, all of the boys run their four laps before playing mat ball. Frank watches Gerard run, and boy does the kid look miserable. His arms remain at his sides and his feet barely lift off of the floor.
They play mat ball, which is the school’s modified version of kickball. Really, the only difference is that there’s one out, they have to hit it a certain ways due to the class’s small size, the bases are mats, and there’s no order for the mats.
Now, when a person’s on a mat, they can take the ball and throw it anywhere, giving a great opportunity for their team to run. Gerard’s on the mat, and one of the girls on their team must like him or something because they kick it straight to him. Gerard catches the ball, and immediately Pete, who is on the other team, is blocking him. Pete glances over at the P.E. teacher, who is not watching, and then shoves Gerard down, stripping the ball from his grasp and throwing it back to the pitcher.
“That’s not fair! He pushed him!” Frank objects. Usually he’s an extremely competitive student, even cheating at times or lying in order to win in class. But now, he’s calling a foul on his own teammate, Pete.
“He fell,” the teacher replies flatly.
“You weren’t watching!” Frank insists.
“Iero, stop fighting me! If you keep this up, you’ll have a detention!” the teacher chides.
Frank scowls. He looks over at Peter, to see his friend shoot him a “what the fuck are you doing?” look. Frank turns away, shaking his head.
Later in the game, when Gerard is on the base, again, Pete gazes over at the teacher, who isn’t paying attention, before turning to Gerard and chucking the ball at him, hitting him in the face.
Pete just broke two rules. A. Gerard was on base, he can’t hit him with the ball. B. That was a head shot. If someone gets hit in the head, the person who threw the ball has to do twenty pushups, and the hit person is not out.
But still, the teams switch positions. Gerard, his eyes tearing up from getting hit so hard, heads out to the field. Frank reluctantly goes to the batting spot, feeling sick to his stomach. Frank nudges Pete, asking,
“Why are you being such a dick to Gerard?”
“Why are you defending the little faggot so much?” Pete retorts.
“Are you going to…” Frank lowers his voice, asking, “Are you going to beat him up? Or bully him?”
“That was the plan,” Pete answers earnestly.
“Give the kid a break,” Frank pleads.
“Why should I?” Pete snarls. “Aren’t you the asshole who beat up his little brother? A freshman? That’s low, Frank.”
Frank’s voice catches.
“No comeback?” Pete mock gasps. “Wow. The Great Frank Anthony Iero, speechless.”
“Shut up,” Frank growls. “My point is, just leave him alone.”
“Or what?” Pete demands.
Frank grimaces. “Or I’ll stop you.”
Pete takes a step towards Frank, demonstrating how much bigger he is than him. “I’d like to see you try.”
For the rest of the game, Gerard keeps accidently kicking it into the hands of the other team while Frank and Pete exchange icy glares. Gerard’s team is pretty fed up with him, and the poor boy gets progressively more and more nervous looking.
At the end of class, they are dismissed to their changing rooms. Gerard looks anxious as he heads down there, so Frank jogs up next to him, placing a hand comfortingly on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” Frank coaxes. With that, he lets go, backtracking to get a drink. When he gets down to the locker room, he finds Pete pinning Gerard’s arm behind his back, causing him to squeal.
“Hey, leave him alone!” Frank barks, stepping in between the two. Gerard has his shirt off, and Frank protectively crosses an arm over Gerard’s body, faintly touching his ribcage.
“You want to protect him?” Pete scoffs.
“Maybe I do,” Frank challenges, his hand quivering.
Pete takes a step forward, placing an oversized hand into the center of Frank’s chest and shoving him back, causing him to bump into Gerard and almost bring both of them to the ground. “Are you shaking?” he smirks.
“No!” Frank lies.
The rest of the boys in the room quietly watch, dressing silently.
That smug smile stays on Pete’s face as he tells, “If you’re so serious about defending the fag….” Pete looks thoughtful, and then an evil smile crosses his jaw. “Then fight me for him. You win, I leave him alone. Now, if I win…..” Pete steps closer to the two, making them back up until they’re pressed against the wall. “I can do whatever I want to the two of you.”
Pete leaves, but soon returns. He grabs Gerard by the forearm, adding, “By the way, Gerard.” With that, he pulls Gerard’s shorts to the floor. “Nice pink panties!” He chuckles as he walks away, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
Gerard breathes to Frank, “You don’t have to do this. I mean, he’s your friend.”
Frank glares at the space where his ex-friend just stood. “No. I don’t have to.” He turns to Gerard, smiling as he responds, “I want to.”

Notes

Long chapter, I know.

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