Wanna Be Somebodies

At breakfast that morning, Gerard can immediately tell that something’s off with me. He’s about to say something, but then his eyes flash to August, Coulter, and West, who are tied up in a discussion about the death penalty. He grabs my arm, dismissing the table with,
“Excuse us; boyfriend meeting.”
He drags me to a bathroom, and bangs on each stall door, shouting, “HELLO!?!”
He adjusts the hem of his shirt, announcing, “No one’s in here. Now tell me what’s wrong, Frankie.”
It’s no use lying to him, so I speak the truth. I tell him everything, and he chews on his lip and fidgets with his hands. Once I’m finished, he asks,
“Well, what did you ever do to him?”
I shrug. “He was being a jerk about me being gay; saying I was selfish for not liking girls. So, I defended you, pissed him off, and been on his bad side ever since. I’m pretty sure he’s a closet homophobe.”
Gerard grimaces. “Yep. Those are the worst kind.”
I slump to the floor, tears leaking from my eyes. “What am I supposed to do? It’s going to be exactly the same…”
Gerard crouches next to me, suggesting, “You can report it.”
I shake my head. “Matt Ellis’s dad is the principal; Matt and his friends wouldn’t get expelled or suspended or maybe even given a detention for bullying.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Gerard reasons.
I nod, and Gerard helps me stand, holding out his hands. I take them, and he pulls me to my feet, putting an arm on my upper back and rubbing it as we walk down the halls to the principal’s office.
We wait in the office for about three minutes, during which Gerard offers,
“Do you want me to do the talking?”
“Please,” I reply, more tears dripping off my jaw.
Gerard holds my hand, which he drops as soon as the principal comes in. Coulter updated me on the school’s strict restrictions on PDA.
“Mr. Way, and Mr. Iero. Nice to see our two newest students. How are you boys adjusting?”
I look at Gerard helplessly, so he answers for both of us. “Overall, well, but I do have one concern.”
Mr. Ellis takes his seat, removing his sports jacket and laying it over the back of his chair. “And what would that be?”
“Your son, Matthew, and some of his friends have bullied Frank,” Gerard accuses. “And I’m very upset.”
“What exactly have they done? And did it happen more than once?” Mr. Ellis interrogates calmly, almost dancing over the fact that they are indeed bullies.
“They cornered him in a bathroom, said a good amount of words that can put them in quite compromising positions, and beat him by tackling him to the floor, and then proceeding to repeatedly kick him,” Gerard answers confidently. “Your son also spat on him.”
“What did they say?” Mr. Ellis presses, folding his hands on top of his desk.
“They called him, a gay student, a faggot. They also proceeded to mock him, despite his numerous attempts to resolve the conflict,” Gerard retorts.
Mr. Ellis writes all of this down, and then emphasizes, “But this was only one occurrence?”
Gerard’s self-assurance wavers, and he stammers, “W-well there’s only one that-that I know about.”
“Then I’ll be seeing you boys. I’ll talk to Matthew and his friends,” Mr. Ellis finishes.
Gerard stands, prepared to leave.
“Wait!” I say urgently.
Gerard slowly sinks back into his chair, and Mr. Ellis lets out a sigh. “Yes?”
“There was, um, and incident in which Matt had announced to the locker room that I was gay… and most of the boys proceeded to laugh, even not allowing me to shower with them. One person stood up for me, and that was it,” I confide.
He writes this down as well, and mentions, “You boys will be seeing me 9th hour during guided study so we can discuss this in a bit more detail, alright?”
Gerard and I both nod, and then leave.
“Thank you for talking to me,” Mr. Ellis thanks.
“That’s a load of bullshit,” Gerard grumbles.
“Never done that before,” I admit.
“I’ve done it plenty of times, and nothing was ever done,” Gerard confesses. I give him a scared look, so he hastily continues, “But that was at a public school, so this will probably be different.”
“I sure hope so,” I mutter.
We return to breakfast, and West asks,
“Where were you guys? You were gone for like ten minutes.”
“Frank had to grab something from his room,” Gerard lies smoothly. “We ended up getting caught up with Frank’s movie collection; time just flew.”
“Or, you were reporting to the principal whatever situation happened last night,” Coulter interrupts.
I make a ‘shut your fat mouth or I’ll kill you’ face to Coulter, who doesn’t see it.
“What do you mean ‘whatever happened last night?’” August wonders.
“Frank came into my room after lights out crying,” Coulter claims. “I was pretty sure that Matt Ellis was a factor, but I could tell that Frank wasn’t in the mood to talk about it; nor did he want me to know.” Coulter looks over in my direction to see my flushed face buried in my hands. “And I now realize that this is private information that I should not have the discretion to share.”
West punches Coulter in the arm, and then slides over to me. “It’s okay. Was it Matt?”
I nod. “Yeah. We just told Mr. Ellis.”
“Did he do anything?” August asks.
Gerard shrugs, massaging my shoulders. “We don’t know. He’s going to see us again during guided study.”
“Good luck to you,” Coulter wishes. “Frank, I hope you get that bastard expelled.”
I’m about to yell at Coulter about how a real friend would be more concerned over my interest than the expulsion of the enemy, but then I realize that in his world, this is a compliment, and a fine one at that. So I respond instead with, “Thank you.”
The bell rings, and we all scatter off to our own classes. All day, my stomach is in knots about what exactly we’ll be talking about ninth hour.

Notes

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