I wouldn't even recognize him.

Gerard's alarm went off at precisely 7am waking him violently from a horrible night's sleep. He was sure, that it couldn't have been more than an hour since he last woke up from an incomprehensible nightmare and in total he probably hadn't slept more than three hours that night. Groaning he sat up on his bed checking the calendar, that his mom had made him put there at the beginning of the year because he always forgot important events, due to never knowing which date it was. Usually, he was grateful for it but right now he wanted to burn that damn thing.

In big, bold letters it told Gerard what day it was, almost mocking him.
September 3rd

He stared at the calender for a while longer willing the date to be a different one. Regretfully his extrasensory powers were close to non-existent and the date stayed the same. Yes, only close to, you can never know when you get bitten by a radioactive spider or something likewise.

He buried his face in his hands for a second before sighing loudly and getting up. Gerard knew, that he couldn't change anything about today, so he might as well get dressed. He opened his closet, figuring it wouldn't be too hard to choose something to wear. The black jeans he put on were standard with him and attempting to calm himself down he grabbed his favorite shirt and put that on as well.
With his room being so small Gerard could reach his desk from where he was standing and took the dreadful piece of paper, that had been laying there for the last week. His schedule. He scanned through his classes for the day, math, US-history, science and finally art. The latter one couldn't be too bad he hoped as his gaze shifted to the headline of the sheet. Gerard Way, grade 9, Belleville High School

High School.

He felt the paper tremble under the slight shake of his right hand but steadied himself as soon as he noticed. This was ridiculous, he was being ridiculous. Yes, high school was scary. Yes, he had heard it all about people changing in high school, abandoning their friends and becoming completely different human beings but those were stories the older students told to scare off the freshmen, he repeated to himself for the millionth time this summer, that was now over.
This wouldn't happen to him, he had Frank and Frank wouldn't abandon him. Frank had been his best friend, maybe even more than that for almost his entire life, he wouldn't change.

Speaking of Frank, that was the only thing Gerard was looking forward to. He hadn't seen his best friend in almost a month now and he was excited about what the smaller guy had to tell him about his vacation. The Iero family, or rather the adults, had decided that, this year before Frank started high school they should go on family holiday, leaving Gerard alone in Belleville. He hadn't had the time of his life but it hadn't been as bad as Gerard had predicted it to be. Most of the days were spent either at his grandma's with Mikey or enjoying the solitude of his room in the basement of the house they lived in.
He had drawn a lot over the past weeks, a lot of stuff he was thrilled to show to Frank, hopefully this afternoon, when they celebrated surviving the first day as freshmen.
Frank had called last night, just after the family arrived back in Jersey but their conversation had been brief. He'd checked in to tell Gerard, that he was home again but then cut his best friend off, saying that he needed to get his stuff ready for tomorrow and then go to sleep. It wasn't like Frank to do that. Normally he would have asked Gerard to come over, no matter what the time or at least talked to him over the phone for hours, explaining in great detail every little thing he'd done on vacation. There had been so may nights, when one of them or sometimes even both fell asleep with the phone still clutched between hand and ear. Yesterday hadn't been one of those nights but Gerard had brushed it off as Frank being nervous and not wanting to infect Gerard with his anxiousness.

He checked the clock on one of his his blue walls and jumped. 7:30. If he still wanted breakfast he needed to hurry up. Being late on your first day of school certainly wasn't a thing you wanted to achieve. Gerard rushed into the bathroom, quickly splashed water into his face and brushed his teeth before running back to his room, grabbing his backpack and then upstairs again, settling into one of the kitchen chairs.
Just as he sat down Mikey emptied his bowl of cereal and got up. “Good luck, Gee. Have fun.” He gave his big brother a comforting hug before leaving the house, to catch a bus earlier than Gerard had to. Only thing better about high school, Gerard thought, it's closer than middle school.

“Morning, darling.”, his mother placed a bowl of cornflakes in front of him and sat down across the table. Gerard looked at her, cocking an eyebrow, this wasn't something usual for her.
“How are you feeling?”, she asked.
“Alright, I guess.”, Gerard mumbled, shoving a spoonful into his mouth.
“You don't have to be scared, you know that, don't you?”
“Yeah.”, he lied and broke eye contact to eat more.
“Gerard, I know you're afraid, I can tell, you have been uneasy these last couple of days but you really don't have to. You're not alone, you've got Frank.”
“I know, mom.”, the boy agreed just as he finished his breakfast and got up to walk to the bus.
“Have fun!”, his mother called from the kitchen and Gerard gave back a somewhat positive response

The bus stop was crowded, when he arrived and Gerard scanned the kids to find his friend but Frank was nowhere to be found. He sighed but leaned against a tree behind the group of teenagers. Frank was probably just running a little late and would arrive any second.
When the bus pulled up though Frank still hadn't shown up and Gerard was slightly worried. He was pushed and squeezed by the sheer mess of others, when he climbed into the bus finding an empty seat in the middle. He sat down, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, when he realized that Frank's mother most likely drove him to school this morning. Although it hurt Gerard, that Frank hadn't told him he was relieved, when he came up with a proper solution, that didn't involve Frank being sick or dead.

The drive to school was short and hadn't he been a little too late today Gerard figured he could actually just walk there any other days, when he felt like it. He'd pass Frank's house on the way so he could pick him up and they'd walk to school together.
From the short conversation they had had yesterday Gerard knew that Frank was in a lot of the same classes as him which had been an immediate relief. They had their first high school lesson ever together, so when Gerard left the bus and stood in front of the big, gray building his eyes darted around to find his best friend.
There were too many people standing around him and Gerard couldn't see anything. It seemed like the entirety of the students had purposely gathered to block his view and Gerard groaned silently in exasperation. Right now all he wanted was to find Frank, give him a huge hug and catch up with him until the bell rang.

Gerard pushed his way through the teenagers around him, to get to the room his lesson was gonna be in, perhaps Frank was already there. On his way there though Gerard spotted the boy standing in the hallway, talking to some guy, Gerard recognized from middle school, who was about two years older than them, casually leaning against a locker. Compared to him Frank seemed like a dwarf. Fidgeting, playing with the hem of his shirt. He looked nice today, Gerard found and mentally slapped himself for that but then happiness took over and he approached the two guys and smiled widely at Frank before hugging him. He felt the other boy squeeze tightly and Gerard didn't want to let go but the guy Frank had been talking to loudly cleared his throat.
“Who's that?”, he looked at Frank sternly.
“My um...friend, Gerard.”, Frank answered obviously intimidated.
The older guy cast Gerard a condescending look and raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”, he said simply, “you better get to class one does not fuck with Mr. Hornen on their first day.”
“Yes, okay.”, Frank nodded and looked at Gerard before taking a step away from the guy.
“Who was that?”, Gerard asked when they were out of earshot.
“David. He lives just down the street from me, he offered to show me around, help me a bit with the new school and stuff, you know?”
The taller one made an acknowledging noise and then added, “I don't like him.”
“Come on, Gee, you don't even know him!”
“Yeah, I know, right. But anyways, how was the holiday?”
Gerard could see the grin spreading on Frank's face and they entered the classroom they where gonna have math in. There were two empty seats in the second to last row and Gerard gestured to them. Frank nodded and they passed through the other chairs, while Frank wanted to start telling his friend about the past weeks.

He didn't get the chance to though as he was cut of by someone calling his name, “Hey, Frank!” A guy sitting in the far corner of the room stood up to make himself noticeable. He looked like one of those guys, that would go try out for the football team as soon as possible or even earlier than that. “Come sit with us!”, by us he obviously meant the other boys around him, some of them Gerard knew from last year, none of them ever close to being his or Frank's friends. Frank shifted uncomfortably looking at the guy, that had called out for him. “Come on, man, we saved you a seat!”
Gerard had no clue as to what was going on. Neither him nor Frank had ever spoken to the guy before, he was sure, but that turned out to be a false assumption. “We had such an awesome time at the beach, bro, don't you wanna come here?” Even a person with Asperger's could have figured that that wasn't a question but a threat.
“At the beach?”, Gerard asked quietly.
Frank turned back around him but ignored his question. “Sorry, Gee, I gotta...” He made a small motion with his hand signaling Gerard that he was going to sit with the other guy before he walked away to take the only empty seat in the back row, leaving his best friend standing there like a lost puppy. Gerard was dumbfounded by what had just happened but quickly realized that he was still standing in the middle of the room so he fast looked around and sat down on a random unoccupied chair.
Behind him he could here the guy whisper, “You weren't really gonna sit with that freak, right?”.

Frank didn't answer and Gerard just stared at the blank wall in front of him until the lesson started, trying to keep himself from freaking out.

Naturally math wasn't exactly one of Gerard's favorite subjects and up to date he had always had Frank to accompany him through it. Today though, he was sitting alone, trying to follow whatever it was the teacher upfront was saying. In the beginning of the lesson he had explained the syllabuses for the class, then continuing with some random shit about his teaching, rules in his class, how they were gonna be tested etc. As time moved on Mr. Hornen decided to get started right away with the first theme they were covering this year and Gerard honestly tried to concentrate. That might have been a lot easier though if not every thirty seconds someone in the row behind him had started giggling or generally talking about complete nonsense. At first it had only been the guys he barely knew but now, Frank had joined in as well.
It was driving Gerard crazy.

If Frank had had an awesome time at the beach with those guys, fine, he wasn't gonna say anything about that but Frank had just left him alone! They had promised each other over summer, that whatever happened they would be there for their best friend, when high school started. Frank had been just as terrified as him. What had changed?

Gerard spent the rest of the lesson thinking about that. No, not thinking. Aching. He couldn't fathom what it was but deep down he hoped, that Frank didn't believe what the guy had said. That he was a freak. And he hoped, that after school was over today, Frank would come to his place or vice versa and he'd tell him all about his holiday and laugh like the past hour never happened and they'd just go on as they always did.
He wasn't just hoping, he knew it was going to happen. Frank was his best friend. They had even kissed once. That guy was just a random new friend he had made, that was totally normal. People had more than just one friend. Just because neither of them really had before didn't mean they couldn't go and make new friends as well. Maybe Gerard should do that, too. Frank would still be his best friend, he would always be but another friend wouldn't hurt, right?

When math class was finally over, as soon as the bell rang the jock that had called Frank at the beginning was out of the door, together with his friends, heading God knew where.
Gerard packed his stuff and when he got up Frank was standing right in front of him.
“Hey”, he said, smiling half-heartedly.
In that moment Gerard desperately wanted to be like one of those guys, that could call you out for nothing in front of the whole school just so he could ask Frank what the fuck he'd just done but instead all he ended up doing was smile back saying, “That was boring as hell.”
Frank snorted, “You bet!”
Together they headed for their next class. Tuesdays they were in all the same classes except for science, where they had different teachers and when Gerard had art Frank took music.

Finding their way around the building wasn't as difficult as either of them had expected it to be, mostly because history lessons took place just a corridor down from English. They entered their room and thankfully none of Frank's new friends were in that class so they sat down next to each other and Frank didn't stop talking about all the great things he'd done the past month until the bell rang. Even after that they spoke to each other in hushed voiced, their teacher not seeming to care the least and slowly Gerard's hope began to rise again. Maybe these four years wouldn't be too bad after all.

“And the hotel we stayed at was fucking awesome, like they had a huge swimming pool although the ocean was like a hundred feet away and it was so hot I burnt my back the first day but mom made me wear a shirt for swimming afterwards, which was totally not so cool but it helped. I met Ryan-”
“Ryan?”, Gerard had to interrupt.
“The guy from math class.”
“Oh, okay.”, he said his mood dropping suddenly at Frank mentioning him but the way his best friend seemed so full of joy made him happy again right away.
“So, I met Ryan at the beach one day, where he was hanging out with a couple of guys and for some reason he actually recognized me and asked me to join them and the stuff we did was so fucking ridiculous but we had so much fun.
Like that one time Ryan forgot his money in his parent's room but he wasn't supposed to be out that late so we had to do a leg-up and they made me crawl through the slightly opened window and get his wallet. I was so freaked, honestly, if his dad had caught me I think he would've made mousse á la Frank out of me but God, it was so fun.”
Gerard started giggling at the thought of Frank pressing himself through a hotel window. If Ryan's parents had woken up that would have been a disaster, Frank didn't exactly look like the most innocent kiddo ever in black band-tees but he could vividly imagine clumsy little Frank trying to not fall or break something while climbing in and out of that room.

“Also, there was this one time, when we were sitting at the beach and this really huge, really really really gross spider just started fucking running right towards me and I think I spilled my drink on like three people on my way fleeing from the damn thing. I swear to God that scared the crap out of me and I ended up running into this macho guy, who cursed at me for getting diet coke on his body but I was too creeped out to even care “
That was it for Gerard and he rested his head on his desk desperately trying to muffle his laughter. “Oh God, Frank, you and your fucking fear of spiders.”
“That's not a fear that's a legitimate phobia!”, the younger one countered.
“Whatever”, Gerard was still laughing but now his head was on Frank's shoulder, where he could feel the vibrations of the other boy giggling as well. It felt so good just having a laugh together and being near the other that Gerard quickly forgot about the pain his friend had caused him just an hour ago and in that moment both of them were just blissfully lighthearted.

Due to their conversation time flew and the lesson was over as soon as it started, neither of them had taken any notes but instead they had something way more valuable. They had huge grins spread across their faces, happy to be reunited after what seemed to have been the longest time they had ever been apart.

When they left history class Frank excused himself to go to the restroom so the two boys parted ways, each one going to his respective class alone but that was fine with Gerard. After that they had lunch, which meant he could spend another hour with Frank and hopefully get some decent food into his stomach.
Science was boring as fuck, which he had expected beforehand. It wasn't that he was terrible at it, actually he did a quite good job but for the love of God, he just didn't care about it at all. After the mandatory basic stuff about the class the teacher started talking about cell organisms or something like that and Gerard figured within a minute, that he would never, never use this stuff again after he graduated. But then again, that applied to nearly everything he learned in school. Gerard tried to focus on the text they were supposed to be reading and managed to answer more than half of the questions on the sheet their teacher had passed out before the bell rang and he rushed out of the room to go to the cafeteria to find Frank.

When he got there he stood at the end of the line to get some food and started looking around to see if Frank was already there. He gave up soon enough, not finding his friend anywhere so when he had his lunch, which looked gross to say the least he sat at an empty table in the back keeping an eye on the door.
He hadn't even been sitting for a minute, when he started to feel like people were watching him. Paranoia crept up his back and Gerard steadied his glance on the door in order to not frantically look around if people were indeed staring at him. Under the table he gripped his leg hard to stop it from shaking. There were too many people around, too many teenagers he didn't know and he was sure at least three quarters of the students gathered here were observing him, while talking to their friends.

Friends. Just as Gerard thought that Frank walked into the cafeteria but he wasn't alone. The crowd he had been sitting with during math was around him. They all got in line and after the lunch ladies thrust their trays into the guys hands they walked through the rows of occupied tables. When they were close to the one Gerard was sitting at his expression brightened and Frank took immediate notice of him. Gee could see him motioning something to the other guys, supposedly telling them, that he was gonna go sit with Gerard but as they approached his table their leader said loudly enough for every one around them to hear, “That guy's a fucking freak, Frank, I told you that.” and pulled him along, past Gerard to the other corner of the huge room.
For a second Frank turned around and Gerard was hopeful, that he would defend his best friend and tell the guy that he wasn't a freak but none of that happened. Frank just looked at him sadly once before turning back around and following the others, leaving Gerard alone. Again.

The rest of lunch break was bad, really bad. Gerard had no idea what to do. Sitting at his table all the people only stared at him and would occasionally whisper something to the person next to them so he got up and walked around the building for a while until he found a restroom, where he locked himself into one of the stalls and stayed there for the remainder of the break. He felt horrible, this couldn't really be happening. A few times he was very close to sobbing but he could always stop himself before anything happened. His left hand trembled when Gerard pushed his hair out of his face and he bit his lip sharply. Relocating pain, replacing emotional pain with physical hurt. That worked. Partly.
All his life he had never felt this way and even if he was close to, Frank had always been there to comfort him.

The rest of school time passed in a rush and Gerard didn't pay attention to a single thing. All his hopes were placed on finding Frank after school and asking him to come over. If he didn't do that, then Gerard honestly had no fucking clue as to what he should do. If his best friend was abandoning him after just one day, how was he supposed to survive the next four years?

His art class was alright. The teacher was a nice guy called Mr. Sawyer. He was an amazing drawer, Gerard found out and a decent human being as well, seeming to actually care what his students were doing.
Their first assignment was to simply draw anything they wanted. Mr. Sawyer said, that he just wanted to see how everyone's style was, how people were doing their art.
Gerard had settled on drawing a comic book character he came up with as he went along with his assignment and at the end of the lesson when the teacher came around looking at people's works he even complimented Gerard on his. The figure he had drawn was dark, big black wings coming out from behind his back, a raven uniform tight around their torso, protecting him from any and all outer force. Although Mr. Sawyer furrowed his brows he still told him, that Gerard seemed to be very talented before moving on to the other students.

That was the only good thing that had happened to Gerard that day. Well, besides the hour he'd spent talking to Frank but somehow thinking about that only made him feel worse than before. Maybe though, there was still a chance that there had only been some big misunderstanding and things were fine between him and Frank. At least that was what Gerard was telling himself.

As he left the building he scanned the school yard for the small dark haired guy and found him right away, standing alone next to a brick wall, apparently waiting for someone. Gerard's hopes multiplied by a billion.
“Hey, Frankie. You wanna come over to my place? I got a few things I wanna show you.”, he smiled at his best friend and dearly hoped, that he would say yes. It was already weird for them, that Gerard had even felt compelled to ask that question. Normally, Frank would just go with him and maybe go home in the evening though most days he would just stay over. Frank basically lived at the Way's.
Frank shifted uncomfortably, playing with one of the skeleton gloves he was wearing, “Sorry, Gee, I told David I'd come to his house after school today.”
“Oh”, Gerard sighed, “well okay, then. I guess...I guess I'll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.” Frank hugged him good-bye but it felt off somehow.
The taller boy's face fell as soon as he turned away from Frank. He walked past the bus stop, needing the fresh air around and the time it took to walk home for himself. As soon as he was far enough away from school he cracked. A single tear rolled over his cheek and he wiped it away as fast as possible. It's gonna be okay, he told himself, stop being ridiculous. Just cause he has some other friends now, too, doesn't mean your not still his best friend. Gerard knew, that in that moment he was lying to himself but he couldn't bear the thought, that something between them had changed.

It had always been Frank and Gerard. Everywhere they went, they went together. Everything they did, they were never without the other. If you invited Gerard to something you could be sure Frank was gonna be there, too. If there were projects to be done, they were partners. They spent their breaks together and sat next to each other in class.
Where one of them was, the other was too. They were Frank and Gerard. Inseparable.

Had been.

Notes

So, something a little different for this chapter, I hope you guys like it. I think, I'm gonna make a semi-regular thing out of this, just throw in a chapter like this every once in a while but of course the main focus will always rely on the other story line.
Let me know what you think about that.