Bound

“I hate you,” Gerard snarls.
“Gerard Arthur Way, watch your mouth,” Gerard’s mother warns. “You can’t just say things like that as if they mean nothing.”
He rolls his eyes, and asks, “So if I really mean it, it’s okay?”
His mother sighs, pleading, “Gerard, you’ve got to be realistic here. Last summer you did nothing, and when school came around, you were a mess for the first few weeks. This is simply to prevent that. Besides, it’s not healthy for you to spend so much time holed up in your room. You’re in there practically all day.”
“Not all day,” Gerard insists.
“Well, with the exception of food runs and bathroom breaks,” his mom admits. She pulls into the campground and turns in her seat to smile back at Gerard, who just holds his stony expression. “You’ll have fun, sweetie. And who knows, maybe you’ll find some new friends.”
“I get it; I’m a loser,” Gerard grumbles. He opens the car door, stepping out and grabbing his duffel bag.
“Gerard, bye honey,” his mom wishes. “Let me give you a kiss.”
Gerard blushes as he leans in for his mother to peck him on the cheek. She ruffles his hair and then drives off, leaving Gerard standing alone on the campground.
“Howdy there!” a voice booms.
Gerard jumps at the greeting, and glares at who had said it; a perky looking man with black dreadlocks. The man looks perpetually stoned, and Gerard doubts if he even knows where he is. It’s not until he notices that he’s wearing a camp counselor regulation polo and a nametag that reads ‘Bert’ that Gerard realizes he actually works there.
“Want me to help you get all checked in?” Bert offers.
“No thanks,” Gerard murmurs. “I think I’ve got it.” He turns off in the other direction and Bert calls,
“Wait! The registration desk is the exact opposite way!”
Gerard groans and pivots, pushing past Bert, who decides,
“You know, I’ll just make sure you get settled alright. Let’s go see what cabin you’re in.”
Gerard curses beneath his breath, not happy to be stuck with the overexcited, excessively extroverted and simplistic character. He still follows him obediently to the desk, where Gerard is given a schedule and told that he’s in bunk 7-A.
“Where is bunk 7-A?” Gerard demands, squinting at his schedule.
“I’ll show you!” Bert chirps, touching the shoulder of Gerard, who shrugs away and starts walking.
They reach the cabin in what is in reality less than five minutes, but what feels like a lifetime to Gerard, who’s doing his best to dodge Bert’s feeble attempts at small talk.
Even when they reach the cabin, Bert won’t leave him be. He insists on introducing Gerard to the other boys, especially since Gerard’s a new camper. Gerard sulks his way inside, staring at the floor as Bert informs in that megaphone voice of his,
“This is your new roommate, Gerard. Don’t be too rough with him, now.” Bert leaves with a wink and a pat on Gerard’s back.
Gerard slowly shifts his gaze up to see three boys before him. One is a disinterested boy with dark hair and his nose stuck in his phone, another a kid that just gazes at Gerard, a faint smile playing at his lips, and the last who just stares at Gerard from his spot on the bottom bunk.
“Hey,” Gerard greets uneasily.
The boy with the dark hair ignores him, tapping at his phone screen and his bunkmate offers a wave. The boy from the bottom bunk just slowly rises and saunters over, demanding,
“What’re you supposed to be?”
“Excuse me?” Gerard asks.
“What do you weigh, 300?” he laughs, shoving Gerard slightly. “I’d let you sleep on the top bunk but I’m afraid you’ll break it.”
The other boys repress their snickers, whilst Gerard has to fight back the lump forming in his throat. “We may as well get along, seeing as we’re going to be roommates.”
The boy shakes his head, insisting, “No way am I being nice to a land whale.” He trots back over to his bed, moving everything he had sprawled out on it to the top bunk.
Gerard rolls his eyes and takes his place in the newly cleared bottom bed. This won’t be fun.
The boy’s face suddenly appears, hanging down from his spot on the top bunk. “Hey, what’s your name again?”
“G-Gerard,” Gerard stammers.
“My name’s Frank, fuck face,” Frank retorts, snapping back up to his own bed. Gerard sighs, pulling out his I-Pod and earbuds, thinking about how these and comics will be his only escape for the next four weeks.
Gerard’s absolutely positive after an entire night of stony silence and verbal abuse from Frank that things can’t logically get any worse, but he is sorely proven wrong when he actually looks at his schedule that next morning at 9:30 a.m. to see that swimming is his very first period.
He reluctantly gets into the one pair of swim trunks he owns, changing in the bathroom. Frank and the other boys are changing in the main room, and Gerard’s much too shy to strip in front of them, and just Gerard changing would probably evoke some nasty comment from Frank, which Gerard does not need at the moment. He decides to pull on a shirt over it, knowing that no way in hell is he going swimming.
Unfortunately, Gerard is stuck with Frank for the swimming period. He supposes it’s not so bad; Frank is swimming in the lake with the rest of the boys while Gerard just sits on the dock, legs tucked up beneath him.
The lifeguard hovers over Gerard, telling, “You’ve got to swim too, kid.”
“No way,” Gerard replies. “Ways don’t like water.”
The man frowns, stuffing his lip ring into his mouth and biting at is as he contemplates what Gerard had said. “You know what, you’re going in, okay? You can swim, can’t you?”
“Of course I can swim,” Gerard answers.
“Then get in,” he orders, grabbing Gerard’s arm and pulling him to his feet.
Gerard yanks his arm away, snarling, “I can get up myself!”
Gerard gets splashed with cold lake water, and not even just a little, but so badly that he’s drenched. He turns sharply to see who had done it, just to see Frank smirking in the water. Frank splashes him again, calling,
“Hey, what’s got your panties in a bunch?”
The rest of the boys laugh, and Gerard blushes as he lowers himself into the water, shirt still on.
Frank grins to himself and swims away, ducking beneath the water.
Gerard opts to tread water, bored the entire session.
That period isn’t let out soon enough, despite the fact that they’re let go twenty minutes early to go back to their cabins to shower and change for their next class. Gerard skips the shower, trading his sopping wet trunks and shirt for some new clothes in the bathroom stall attached their cabin. Gerard isn’t comfortable changing in there; he can hear Frank and the other boys talking as they shower, and he’s really not a fan of any of them. He dresses with fifteen minutes left until he has to leave for arts and crafts, so he lies on his bed, pulling out a comic book from his bag.
Frank and the other boys emerge from the showers, towels wrapped loosely around their hips. Gerard keeps his eyes focused on his comic, trying to block out all of the naked teens around him.
Gerard glances up momentarily to check the time, but Frank is much more interesting at the moment. The boy’s sitting on one of the beds, one leg crossed over the other tightly. He has this almost pained expression on his face and he’s blushing.
“Frank, what’s your deal?” Gerard growls.
The other boys instinctively look at Frank, only causing the boy to go redder.
“N-nothing!” Frank stammers. “What’s your deal?”
“Oh my God,” one of the boys chuckle. “Iero has a fucking boner!”
The other two boys burst out laughing, and Frank sits there, beat red and not sure what to do.
“Can we see it?” the other boy teases, tugging at Frank’s towel.
Frank readjusts his towel, shoving the boy away. “Knock it off; it’s not funny!”
“I beg to differ, Frankie,” the kid chortles. He pulls Frank into a headlock, grinding his balled fist into Frank’s scalp.
Frank squirms around until he’s free, and the other boys finally leave him alone when he quickly stands and turns to the back corner where he can’t be seen.
The other boys dress and leave, and to add insult to injury, one of them calls, “Frank, you might want to wank that one out!”
Frank storms over to his backpack, yanking all of his clothes out and chucking them at the floor. He dresses, and Gerard watches in the corner of his eye as he angrily stomps into some shoes. Gerard feels guilty, yet satisfied. He knows that Frank is such a dick that surely he can take some teasing, but it was still Gerard that sold him down the river, even unintentionally so.
Frank sits on the bed across from Gerard, his head buried in his knees. Gerard closes his comic book, slowly getting up and starting out of the cabin.
Frank stands abruptly, grabbing Gerard by the back of the neck and tossing him against a wall. He grips the collar of Gerard’s shirt and nearly lifts the heavier boy off the ground as he spits,
“This is your fault, you little shit.”
Gerard shrugs, replying calmly, “I’m not the one that popped a boner for no reason, now am I?”
Frank chuckles hotly, no mirth behind it. “You fucking humiliate me, huh? I’ll make your life here fucking Hell.” Frank turns Gerard over, and Gerard immediately feels he knows what Frank’s going to do. Gerard struggles, but his stomach is so tight to the wall as Frank’s knee is in his back, holding him in place. Frank brings his hand beneath Gerard’s jeans, resurfacing with a fistful of Gerard’s pink Calvin Kleins.
Frank yanks Gerard’s underwear up his back until the bell rings, which makes him finally let him go. Gerard is crying from embarrassment, his face pressed into the wall.
Frank leans in close, whispering, “See how easy I got you crying? This will be fucking easy.”
Frank heads outside, and Gerard holds his breath until he’s sure Frank’s out the door.

Notes

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