Trapped

Friday is a tough day to get through, initially. When Gerard was younger, he used to get through the day by reminding himself that the weekend was near. But now, that optimism is gone, and every day at school just sort of blends together with an indistinguishable blandness, a plain existence that somehow manages to leave a bad taste.
For instance, today is a Friday, and Gerard can barely get out of bed in the morning. Mikey ends up having to drag him out; and of course Gerard yells at him, even though he knows he may have been late had it not been for Mikey waking him.
By the end of study hall, Gerard’s glad he made it to school that day.
The period starts out with everyone taking their seats in the auditorium, and Gerard totally sits next to Frank (who has no one within ten feet of him), and that is routine, but what’s surprising is that Patrick comes over and willingly sits down on the other side of Frank. Gerard has to keep his jaw from dropping; he didn’t think he’d be seeing a lot of the freshman. But here he is, choosing to sit next to him and his friend.
“Hey,” Patrick greets.
Gerard opens his mouth to answer, only to have Frank talk over him. “Hey, Patrick. What’s up?”
“Not a lot. By the way, I looked it up, and in Fight Club, Tyler definitely dies in the book,” Patrick informs.
“Shit,” Frank mumbles, digging a crumpled bill out of his pocket, which Patrick takes.
Gerard is extremely confused. What had happened between the two that they’re now talking so easily, not to mention, having bets? He sits quietly for most of the period, chirping in when he can, but Patrick and Frank are apparently the best of pals and he can hardly get a word in without being interrupted.
At the end of the class when Patrick leaves, Gerard thumps Frank on the back of the head, making Frank yelp. “What was that for, asshat?”
“Fucking you, you little prick!” Gerard retorts. “What the fuck was that, you and Patrick?”
Frank looks genuinely confused. “What do you mean?”
“Why the fuck are you all buddy buddy with him?” Gerard demands. “You’re fucking everything up.”
“Ouch,” Frank spits. “I’ll have you know that we were Snapchatting until the a.m. last night. I have an angle, and that angle ends with you and Patrick being together.”
“Well your angle fucking sucks,” Gerard growls.
There’s a pause, and then Gerard asks, “Wait, so you have his Snapchat?”
“Of course,” Frank replies.
“What… what is it?”
Frank rolls his eyes, digging his phone out of his pocket and opening the app. He scrolls through the accounts, then telling, “It’s pstump98.”
Gerard adds him quickly, then bolting to his feet, muttering, “I gotta go to class.”
“You’re welcome,” Frank scoffs, heading off his own way.
Gerard shoots Patrick a quick Snapchat after school, first thing he gets home. It’s just a picture of his bed with the caption ‘I see its been waiting for me’.
Patrick responds with a selfie, one that’s literally so cute that Gerard makes a small noise upon seeing it. The text reads ‘omfg you nerd’.
Gerard responds with a pouty face, the caption being ‘I thought you were the one’.
Patrick sends one back almost instantly, another selfie, this time reading ‘on a scale of 1-10 yes I am’.
Gerard grins, lying down in bed. The two Snapchat for a while, and eventually, Patrick reveals that he’s going to the football game tonight. Gerard takes this as a hint to go, and so he tells Patrick coyly that he may run into him there.
Now, if there’s anything Gerard hates, anything he would protect his children from, anything he would avoid at all costs, anything he would completely destroy and pull off the face of the earth leaving behind no traces, it’s football. But given the opportunity of seeing Patrick, he would do just about anything.
So he texts Frank, saying ‘I’m going to the game tonight, wanna come?’
Frank replies with ‘what the fuck are you feeling okay’.
‘Haha very funny. No Patrick will be there and I’ll probably sit by him or something.’
Gerard can almost see the eye roll in Frank’s response, an exaggerated ‘…fine… I’ll have to put some stuff off…. I’m very busy’.
Gerard laughs, putting his phone away. He hangs out until it’s time to leave for the game, and when that time comes, he wears cologne, brushes his teeth, and puts actual gel in his goddamn hair. He knows that this is a sign that he really wants to impress Patrick, but he doesn’t really care at the moment.
Gerard drives there, and Mikey being Mikey tags along with him. On the ride to the game, Gerard orders, “Now Mikey, as soon as we get there-”
Mikey sighs, rehearsing, “You’re going to ditch me because you have better things to do.”
“Good, I don’t have to waste my breath,” Gerard chirps, rolling the car into a parking spot.
Gerard delves into the bleachers, immediately finding Frank, as he is sitting about ten feet away from the rest of the crowd in literally any direction.
It’s not long after sitting with Frank that Gerard realizes something’s wrong. He’ll hardly even look at Gerard, let alone speak, and although he has a bag of popcorn, he barely touches it.
“Frank?” Gerard begins. He tries to meet the younger boy’s eyes without any success. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Frank shakes his head slowly, toeing the metal bleachers tentatively.
Gerard frowns, demanding, “Later I get the whole story.”
Frank doesn’t say a word, just stares at the ground with a blank expression.
Patrick shows up not much after this exchange. He greets Gerard with a “Hey” and a soft hit to the shoulder before plopping down in between Gerard and Frank. Frank scoots even further away, now thoroughly invested in picking at his fingernails.
Patrick sighs then turns to Gerard, asking, “How’s it going?”
“Okay,” Gerard decides. He reaches around Patrick to nudge Frank’s thigh. “Do you know what his deal is?”
Patrick’s smile drops immediately, startling Gerard. “He didn’t tell you?”
Gerard shakes his head. “The little shit won’t say.”
“That’s funny, he told me,” Patrick replies.
Gerard suppresses both an eye roll and the urge to smack Frank upside the head. “Told you what?”
Patrick lowers his voice answering, “He um…. Do you know Cody Matthews?”
Gerard nods, prompting Patrick to continue, which the boy does. “He apparently got into a shoving match with Frank in the halls after calling him a name. And so after school, he followed Frank on his walk home and beat him up in his own yard.”
Gerard peers over at Frank, now noticing the subtle split in Frank’s lip, as well as the black eye that had been carefully masked with makeup. Frank’s hazel eyes remained cast on anything but those around him.
Gerard is taken aback. “Frank, I’m so-”
“Can it,” Frank snaps. He stands, muttering, “I’m going to go take a piss.” He heads off, making Patrick ask,
“Wait, aren’t the restrooms in the other direction?”
Gerard grins faintly, explaining, “Frank hates waiting, so he just goes over behind the old bus barn to pee.”
Patrick frowns, reasonably confused. “Isn’t that all the way across the street?” After Gerard nods, he proceeds, “It’d be so much easier to just wait in line for two minutes.”
This sparks an intense debate between the two in regards to Frank’s excretory habits, and it’s during this conversation that both are completely oblivious to Cody Matthews and his gang leaving in the same direction Frank had gone.

Notes

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