You're only mine!...(edited)

As Frank sat with his friends at lunch, Pete, Joe and Andy...cause Patrick wasn't in today, and he wasn't even answering his damn phone...Frank kept zoning out on what the others were talking about, even when Pete was practically screaming the place down on the subject of Pat's apparent inability to so much as text his highly strung boyfriend to let him know he was ok. Frank barely even flinched when Pete's wildly gesticulating right hand smacked him squarely in the eye.

"Oh God. Dude, I'm sorry..."

Pete panicked, grabbing Frank's face and turning him to examine any damage.

"Frankie...you ok?..."

No reply. Pete held up one finger.

"How many fingers, man?"

Frank blinked slowly and stared at his friend.

"One, dumbass...and don't give me the finger."

Pete giggled with relief.

"Good..."

Then he went straight back to moaning about Pat's absence.

"I mean he hasn't even called the fuckin' school."

He ranted. Frank had had enough.

"I'll see you guys later."

He said, pushing his chair back with a squeak of metal on linoleum, and left the table...ignoring the concerned calls of his friends. With a further three hours of class still ahead of him, Frank decided that the only way he'd get through them, was stoned.

Slipping around to the back of the buildings formally used for workshop classes, Frank flopped down onto the ground, leant his back against the cold brick wall,and dug a spliff from the inside pocket of his Batman hoodie.

Lighting up and taking his first drag, Frank glanced to his left, into the small dark space under the stilted portakabin that was mostly kept for storage (old gym equipment and rotten text books)...and screamed long and loud, and not even the tiniest bit manly.

The spliff dropped and forgotten on the ground, Frank was on his feet in a second and running as far and as fast as he could. What he'd just seen, he would remember for the rest of his life.

As Frank ran, skidding round corners and crashing into lockers, he could feel his chest tightening with each panted breath. Tears streamed from wide eyes as he stumbled into the cafeteria, everyone turning to stare at the shaking, clearly panic-stricken boy. Grabbing hold of the nearest table, Frank's knees gave way and he slumped to the floor as his friends rushed to his side.

"Frankie?...Frankie, what happened?..."

Pete demanded urgently, turning Frank's face to look at him, then checking him over for any sign of injury.

"Are you hurt?"

Frank couldn't catch his breath. His heart was racing and his vision kept blurring out. He knew Pete was still talking to him, but everything just sounded kind of fuzzy right now. He shook his head to try and clear it, but ended up feeling sick as the room seemed to pitch and sway around him...and then, it all fell away into blackness, and blissful silence.

"Frankie?...Come on dude, wake up."

That sounded like Pete. What had happened? Where was he?...Why did his mouth taste like something died in there?

Slowly Frank opened his eyes, groaning and instantly snapping them shut at the bright overhead light.

"Urgh. Wha-what happened?"

He mumbled, lifting a hand and rubbing it over his face. Pete chuckled slightly in relief at his side.

"We were hopin' you could tell us dude..."

Frank tried to open his eyes again, this time succeeding and turning to look at his best friend.

"You like...ran in the lunch room then collapsed and passed out. What happened to you man?...you look like you seen a ghost."

Frank tried to recall this, but things were a little hazy. Frowning, he attempted to sit himself up as he realised that he was still on the cafeteria floor, and was attracting quite a bit of amused attention from all the students there to eat their disgusting school dinners or paper bag lunches. Pete put his arm around his friend's waist and helped him upright.

"Dude, take it easy."

Frank could feel himself shivering, like all the heat had been drained from the room and tears started to roll down his cheeks as his lip quivered.

"Pete I..."

He tried to steady his breathing as Pete pulled him into his chest.

"I..."

Pete hushed him and held him close.

"It's ok...you're ok...just breathe, ok?"

"Should we take him to the nurse?"

Andy said from nearby, concern dripping from his voice. Frank shook his head against Pete's shoulder and took a deep breath before looking around at his friends.

"No..."

He murmured, swallowing deeply.

"I think I'm ok now."

But he remained in his friend's warm embrace, soaking in the comfort it supplied.

"Frankie?..."

Pete asked, tentatively.

"What happened?"

Frank closed his eyes and thought back. He remembered leaving the cafeteria to go for a "smoke", and he remembered lighting up behind the old workshops then...oh...SHIT!!

"I...I found..."

Frank turned a funny shade of green, then puked all over the floor earning him several "Eww's" from the cheerleaders at a table nearby. Wiping his mouth with the back of his trembling left hand, Frank looked glassy-eyed up at Pete and the others. Swallowing back another wave of nausea, he croaked out his discovery.

"I found a d-dead body."

Pete laughed like Frank just told a joke, but stopped abruptly when he saw the serious look on his friend's pale face.

"Shit. Dude."

Joe leaned down to look in Frank's eyes.

"Who was it?"

Frank shuddered at the memory.

"It was..."

Frank looked at his hands, they were shaking.

"I don't know..."

He whispered.

"There was a bag or something over his face."

"His?"

Pete questioned, a tiny quiver entering his voice. Frank looked up, saw his friend's worried face and nodded slightly.

"Yeah, it was definitely a dude."

He looked back down. Pete tried to push the thought from his mind that it could be Patrick, but with Pat still being MIA, and not answering his damn phone, it was hard not to feel a little panicked.

"Show us?"

Andy muttered, chewing his thumbnail absently. Frank seemed to pale even more,and looked like he was going to chuck his guts up again. But after Pete laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, Frank slowly nodded and allowed himself to be lifted onto his feet.

On shaky legs with Pete to one side, Andy to the other and Joe trailing behind them, Frank headed toward the old workshops. The closer they got, the more he wanted to puke and run...but he didn't.

As the buildings came into view, Frank could feel his heart starting to race, his entire body tremble and his guts churn with as yet unspilled vomit. Breathing heavily, now physically leaning on his friends for support, Frank pressed on around the corner toward the place he would never be able to relax in again.

A few feet away from his smoking spot, Frank stopped and pointed with a shaky hand toward the dark space under the storage shed. He couldn't go closer, and he couldn't look.

"Under th-there."

He stuttered, turning green again before puking against the wall. The others all looked at each other, then took the few steps it would take to reach the portakabin. With an apparently unspoken agreement amongst the group, Andy stepped forward and bent down to look. After a moment he straightened up, his face ashen and his eyes wide.

"Well?..."

Pete asked quietly.

"Who is it?"

Please don't say Pat, they all thought.

Andy staggered slightly as he moved away from the gruesome sight and leaned against the back wall of the workshop, breathing heavily. Pete and Joe went to stand in front of him, Frank remaining on the floor a few feet away where he'd slid down the wall after puking, sat with his knees to his chest and his face buried in his hands.

It took several long minutes for Andy to calm down enough to talk, then, quietly he told them what he'd seen.

"It's not Pat..."

Were the first words he uttered, cause he knew that they were all thinking it was.

"It's..."

He swallowed deeply, staring at his shoes.

It's Ray Toro."

Frank's head shot up.

"The sophomore with the fro?"

Andy nodded.

"Yeah I...I think he was beat."

"Fuck."

Pete and Joe breathed Just then, Pete's phone rang, BVB's "Smoke And Mirrors" making them all jump in the creepy silence. Pete pulled his phone out of his pocket and stifled a laugh, as it really wouldn't be appropriate right now. Pressing the answer key, he put it to his ear.

"And where the fuck have you been all day, Pat?"

After Patrick had explained his absence, a trip to see a shrink in New York cause of something he'd said to his father at the dinner table the previous week...Pete preceded to tell him about Frank's gruesome discovery.

"It was Ray fuckin' Toro, dude."

"Who?"

Patrick asked, still freaked out that this had happened at his school.

"You know..."

Pete almost shouted, making an already nervous Frank jump about a foot in the air and nearly burst into tears from the shock. Pete didn't notice and continued his loud conversation.

"He's that sophomore with the wicked fro...you know the one."

Patrick considered this, he though he knew who Pete was talking about.

"Wait...you don't mean the guy who played the tree in that weird play last semester, do ya?"

Pete's jaw dropped...that's what stuck in Patrick's memory?

"Err....yes?"

"Shiiit!..."

Patrick drew out the word.

"That's fucked up. You called the cops?"

Pete nodded, then remembered that Patrick couldn't see him.

"Yeah, Joe's callin' 'em now..."

He glanced at his curly-haired friend, who appeared to be just hanging up his cell.

"I better go, I'll call ya later...ok?"

Patrick replied in the affirmative, then they said their goodbyes.

"Pat's ok?"

Andy asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Hmm?..."

Pete hummed, absently.

"Oh, err...yeah. His dad took him to see a shrink...something to do with that colour thing..."

He trailed off, turning to face Joe.

"What the cops say?"

Joe tucked his phone back in his pocket and looked at each of his friends in turn.

"They're on their way. Someone needs to meet them at the front gates."

"I'll go..."

Frank said quickly, before anyone else could.

"I need to not be...here."

He pushed himself shakily to his feet and walked away.

Frank headed around toward the front of the school. He had to pass through the back edge of the teachers carpark to get to the gate, and this wouldn't normally cause him any worries, but he was already jumpy and what he saw as he stepped onto the concrete expanse, between a black Ford Sedan and a red VW Beetle with a badly dented fender, was enough to tip him right over the edge.

Frank suddenly found himself completely unable to breathe.

Across the carpark, Frank could see the principal at the trunk of his car. The trunk was open and Mr. Bennington was leaning over it, pushing something inside. Something human sized and wrapped up in a blanket.

Frank froze...this could not be happening! There had to be another explanation...that couldn't be another body...could it?

Heart racing in his chest, Frank crept around the edge of the teachers lot, ducking behind cars and trucks as he tried to get a closer look.

The principal seemed to be struggling to fit the...body?...into the small space available. He kept pushing and pulling on it, adjusting the angle then cursing and starting all over again.

As Frank squatted behind a clunky looking European car, no more than ten feet away from the gruesome scene, he was rewarded for his silence by the view of a foot. Sticking out of the end of the rough grey blanket was a bare, pale and very much human foot.

Eyes wide with horror, Frank bit down hard on his own hand to prevent himself from screaming. He shook and squeezed his eyes tight until he heard the sound of the trunk slamming shut. Peeking out from his hiding place, Frank saw Mr. Bennington climb into the drivers seat, start the engine and drive away.

"F-fuck..."

Frank breathed, shakily.

It took him another couple minutes sat on the cold hard concrete before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

"Fuck."

Pulling himself up onto wobbly legs, he started toward the front gates to meet with the police officers who were expecting an escort to the back of the school. To his credit, Frank only puked twice on his way there and the officers had only been waiting a few minutes, but they looked pissed and Frank just wanted to go home and sleep...and maybe hit something.

After leading the two men, who'd introduced themselves as Sergeant McGuire and Officer Roberts around to the rear of the buildings and over to the workshop, Frank sat on the ground, trying to stay calm as his friends, a couple of teachers who had appeared while he was gone and the two cops, all talked loudly about what had been found, and about what happens next.

Frank was barely even aware of what they were all saying as his head pounded and the whistling in his ears just made him bury his head in his arms and cry.

Frank doesn't cry often, and certainly not in front of his friends...but right now...that was the only damn thing he could do.

"Frank?..."

Pete said quietly as he crouched down at his friend's side.

"You ok?..."

Still shaking, tears making a waterfall down his pale cheeks, Frank lifted his head up and met his best friend's gaze. Pete had only ever seen Frank cry once before, when his dad had left, nearly 7 years ago now. He wasn't quite sure what to do.

"Frankie...talk to me."

He encouraged, drawing the smaller boy into his arms. Frank went willingly, encircling Pete's neck with trembling arms and soaking his shoulder with salty tears.

"P-Pete..."

He stuttered out, weakly.

"I saw...I saw..."

Frank collapsed into another flood of tears, unable to steady his panicked breathing and heart rate. Pete just held him, shrugging slightly at the questioning looks from their friends. Stroking Frank's back gently, he tried to calm him down.

"Come on Frank. It's ok. It's gonna be ok."

"NO!..."

Frank barked, pulling back from Pete's embrace.

"It's fuckin not gonna be o-ok..."

He tried not to yell, but what can you do?

"I saw him!..."

He cried, not caring who heard him now.

"Another...he had another..."

He whimpered, falling back into Pete's arms. Pete looked to the others as they stood around staring at the pair with confusion and uncertainty.

"Who Frank? Another what?"

Frank raised his head and looked between all the worried faces, then slowly back to Pete.

"Another body, Pete..."

He breathed.

"Mr. Ben-Bennington, had another...body."

You could cut the silent tension with a knife and the two policemen got really interested at this point, not surprisingly. They demanded that Frank told them everything he'd seen. Between sniffs, sobs and near panic-attacks, Frank explained about the carpark and the principal...and the body. The officers took down everything he said as in the background, the coroner zipped up the body bag with the first body in it.

Frank was a wreck. He could barely speak and if Pete moved from his side, he'd just collapse in a flood of tears again. The teachers had decided that closing the school for the rest of the day was a spiffing idea...whatever the Hell that meant...so an announcement was put out over the schools PA system, Kat's smooth voice telling the teachers that an "incident" meant that everyone should leave the premises, and telling the students that school should resume tomorrow morning, as normal...unless they received an email stating otherwise.

Whoops and cheers went up amongst the student body, while the teachers packed up their things, thanking whatever incident had happened for their unscheduled afternoon off, while still wondering just what had happened, but not being bothered enough to find out.

Frank's mum was called, as he would have to go to the station to give a full statement and even though he was 18 and could legally do it alone, he'd asked for his mum and for Pete to come too. He just couldn't handle this all alone.

Once he'd given his statement, telling them again everything he'd seen that day, with his mum sat on his left and Pete sat on his right, he was finally allowed to go home.

He asked Pete if he'd come and stay at his tonight, as he really needed a distraction from his thoughts. Of course, Pete said yes and Frank's mum, Linda, even suggested having a few other friends around, and she'd treat them to pizzas and DVDs.

An hour later, Frank was sat in his room with Pete, Patrick, Joe and Andy, watching cartoons cause he couldn't face a horror movie right now, and eating popcorn while they waited for the pizzas to arrive.

No one spoke about what had happened that day, but it was obviously on all their minds. And none of them could stop wondering...who was the other body?

Notes