Teenagers

Frank walked into his last period of the day: Debate class. He really wasn’t looking forward to it, since he’d always had a fear of public speaking. Why it was a required class was beyond him. With a heavy sigh, the boy plopped into a chair at the back of the class, hoping the teacher wouldn’t see him. The sooner this class was over, the better.

Seconds before the tardy bell rang, one last student rushed into the room. Between his teeth was a piece of toast from the cafeteria, and a messenger back was slung across his shoulder. Taking the toast out of his mouth and chewing the bite he'd taken out of it, he quickly walked back to his seat in the back of the room. Moments later, the teacher had walked in.

A dark eyebrow arched at the sight of the final student entering the room, and it stayed that way until the other male sat next to him. Well then.. looks like he had a new desk buddy..
“Good afternoon, class!” The teacher announced, placing her things on the large desk at the front of the room. “As all of you should know, this is Speech and Debate. To start class, we’ll be doing a get-to-know-you game, so you can get used to speaking in front of others! With that, turn to your desk partner and have them guess two truths and a lie!”
Frank swallowed hard, not wanting even to look at the other boy. They didn’t know each other and that was enough to make him wish that he could just disappear into his chair.

Swinging his messenger bag from his shoulder and placing it on the floor, Gerard looked up at the teacher. After announcing what the first thing on the agenda was for the class, the raven-haired teen glanced over to the only desk beside him. His 'partner' seemed to be sliding further down in his desk with each second.

/Maybe if I keep quiet, he won’t notice me../ Frank thought to himself, at least until he was cut off by the teacher talking.
“And remember, you will be introducing the person sitting next to you to the entire class!”
/Damn it../ With another thick swallow, his green eyes flicked over to the boy next to him. “H-hi..”

Clearing his throat, Gerard picked up a hand and offered a small wave. "Hello." Shit, why was he being so awkward suddenly? Normally he could strike up a conversation with a wall for fuck's sake. "I'm Gerard."

He chewed at his lip ring for a moment, contemplating how to introduce himself. “I’m Frankie.. and.. I guess we’re supposed to do this stupid fucking game..?”

Gerard nodded, noticing the glint of silver on the other's lip. Hm. He didn't think the school allowed piercings. "Yeah, I guess we do."

It was a bit odd that he hadn’t been reprimanded for his choice in jewelry, but Frank wasn’t going to complain if the staff didn’t give a damn. Scratching at the back of his neck self-consciously, he tried to come up with a lie about himself that the other wouldn’t know. “So uh.. my three things are.. I’m a vegetarian, I like playing guitar, and I absolutely love school.”

"Alright, I can already tell which one is the lie." Gerard half chuckled. "Mine are that I love art, I've got a sibling, and pink is my favourite colour."

“I’m gonna go with.. you don’t have a sibling?” Frank asked, genuinely unsure of which one could be the lie.

Smiling a bit, he shook his head. "No, I've got a younger brother. His name is Mikey." Why was he telling this strange kid that? "I don't like the colour pink very much. Doesn't look good on me."

With the other’s levity, he couldn’t help the lopsided smile that tugged up on his lips. “I could see that. The school uniform suits you though.” He commented, pushing a hand through his side-swept hair.

"T-thanks." Admittedly, Gerard was not expecting a compliment to come from the other, let alone something in regards to his choice- or lack of in this case- in clothing. "Looks good on you, too."

A hint of pink had started to dye the boy’s cheeks as the conversation carried on. This was all just so nerve-racking /and/ he’d received a compliment. Thankfully, the teacher called time on the game and made the class sit down.
“Alright class, who will go first?”

Gerard looked to Frankie, asking without speaking whether or not they should volunteer.

Frank shook his head vigorously and continued to blush deeper at the idea of presenting. When a pair of students stood, he exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

Understanding just how awkward the situation would be for the younger boy, Gerard smiled softly. He really didn't like the idea of presenting first, or second, but he wanted to get it out of the way as soon as he could.

About five pairs went ahead of them before Frank finally decided to let Gerard volunteer them. The freshman stood awkwardly next to the other boy, rubbing his arm from nerves and chewing at his lip ring again. Maybe the teacher wouldn’t make him speak loudly..

Gerard decided that he would speak first to give Frank some time to prepare. He cleared his throat, looking over the class then turning for Frank. "So, this is my partner, Frank. Out of the three things he told me, which were that he liked playing guitar, he was a vegetarian, and that he loved school, I easily figured out the lie. As you can tell by Frank's demeanor, the last of the three was the lie."

A ruby hue jumped into Frank’s cheeks as Gerard spoke the last sentence. Way to point out his nervousness.. “U-uh.. This is Gerard..” Frank muttered, looking at the floor. “He likes art, has a brother, and doesn’t like pink..”
The teacher looked at the blushing, obviously nervous boy and asked: “But what was the lie?”
Frank had to swallow and clear his throat before speaking again. “H-he told me his favourite colour was pink at first.. but that was the lie..” He replied, plopping back into his chair.

Doing the same, Gerard sat back down and gave Frank an apologetic look. Knowing that if he were to speak, he'd likely get reprimanded by the teacher.

The teacher’s attention directed back to the rest of the class once the two were done presenting, much to Frank’s joy. But, the boy couldn’t seem to relax after that, chewing his lower lip to the point he could taste his own blood. Taking out a piece of notebook paper and a pen, he wrote out in a shaky print: “I fucking hate talking in front of people.” Frank folded the paper up into a neat rectangle before nonchalantly tossing onto Gerard’s desk, never taking his eyes off his own desk table.

Picking the folded piece of paper up off the desk, he opened it and read the barely legible words. Taking a pen from his pocket, he wrote back: "Could've guessed that. I don't really mind it, but I don't care for it that much. Sorry."

He hadn’t done something like this since middle school, but it felt much more comfortable than just stewing over this boiling worry in his stomach. Now that he was a bit calmer, his handwriting showed more legibility as he wrote the next note: “Am I that readable? You seem to be able to guess a lot about me.”

"A bit, but I'm a people watcher. I also don't really speak unless spoken to, or unless directed to by a teacher lol." After he finished writing, Gerard re-folded the paper and handed it to Frank.

“I just try to blend in with the walls, but that’s kinda hard when they’re white and we have to wear black.” He replied, unable to help the small smirk that traced his lips. This felt so silly, but at least he was calming down.

Reading over the note, the older boy chuckled. "True. But, like I said earlier, it looks good on you."

When Frank also chuckled, the teacher’s eyes snapped back to them. “Way! Iero! Do I need to separate you two already?” She said, her arms folded over her chest.
The younger boy muttered a quiet “Fuck..” before answering a bit louder. “N-no ma’am..”

Gerard shook his head no, then immediately shot his eyes down to his desk. Once the teacher went back to talking to the rest of the class, Gerard looked over to Frank, his eyes wide and smiling.

Frank kept his eyes glued to his desk table until he felt the other’s eyes on him, to which he answered with biting his lip to hide the grin that played at his lips. He sneakily wrote back to Gerard this time, making sure the teacher didn’t see: “You know, you’re the older one here, so you’d probably get in trouble first for distracting me.”

After reading the note, Gerard covered his mouth to keep from laughing. "Be that as it may, you're the young trouble maker with the lip ring here."

“You like my lip ring? Or do you just like staring at my lips?” Frank wrote back, adding a teasing winky face at the end of the line. It was only when he realized that he didn’t mind the other boy staring that he blushed again.

He glanced over at Frank's blushing face, feeling his own pale cheeks start to heat up. "I'm not staring! Like I said, I'm just a people watcher..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Frank caught Gerard starting to blush, too, which was a bit of a comfort. Luckily enough, it was at that point that the school bell rang, signaling the end of school for the day. The freshman heaved a sigh of relief before grabbing up his book bag.

Within seconds, Gerard's messenger bag was slung across his shoulder. He stood, and began to walk toward the door. Just before he passed through the exit, he looked back at Frank. Maybe he could walk home with him?

The younger boy was already fishing through his book bag to find his pack of cigarettes as he walked forward, not paying any attention to whom he was about to collide with. He looked up from his bag just in time to ram face first into Gerard’s shoulder. “FUCK! Sorry man..” He stammered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"It's alright, Frank," Gerard held up a hand, dismissing the other's apology. "I shouldn't've stopped in my tracks." Offering a crooked smile, he then asked the question that was on his mind. "So, er, where do you live?" He spoke as the two passed through the door of the classroom.

Frank walked through the halls with Gerard, taking his usual route to get home and pulling out a smoke for the trip. “I.. I live about a mile away.. one of those subdivisions on the main road.” He muttered, not wanting to admit that his house was one of the worse looking homes in his entire neighborhood.

"Really? I do too." Gerard chuckled. "Mind if I walk you home?" He asked, looking over at the other as he fiddled with his jacket.

His eyebrows raised and he blushed all the way to ears with that comment. “Uh.. sure, if you like.” Frank replied as they both made it to the outside doors. “Want a smoke for the road?” He offered, holding up his pack of menthols and rattling it.

He didn't think the freshman would be a smoker, but with an appreciative nod, Gerard agreed to a cigarette. "I'll be following you though, for the most part." He smiled, referring to the walk ahead. "Good thing that my mom picked up my little brother for a doctor's appointment so he wouldn't see that I smoke."

“It’s not a difficult walk, just gotta take a few back roads.. Hope you’re not afraid of dogs.” Frank chuckled as he lit up his cigarette, then offered his lighter to Gerard. “I’ve been chased a few times.”

"The only thing I'm really afraid of are needles." The older of the two said, lighting his own smoke. "But if a dog comes after us I'm likely to kick it in the head."

Frank looked aghast at Gerard, nearly mortified that he would resort to hurting an animal. “Jesus.. kicking sounds a bit harsh, don’t you think?”

Pulling the cigarette from his lips he glanced over to Frank. "Not if it's going to try to bite he hell out of my legs or something. I mean, I've got a dog, and she's super sweet, but I don't normally trust other people's unless I know them."

“I guess I can see that..” He wasn’t entirely telling the truth there, but he didn’t want to cause an argument over something so seemingly small. They walked on for a little while before he spoke again, taking a long drag from his smoke. “So.. What’s your home life like..?”

Now this was something Gerard would have to think over for a second. "My home life..? Well," He started, scratching the back of his head. "My parents are divorced, and my mom has custody of Mikey. I'm 18, so I can choose to go where I want, but I don't want to leave my brother. My dad is an okay guy, but I don't really know him too well. My mom's a nice lady, and is really supportive of what Mikey and I do, but she's always trying to steer us in the direction /she/ sees as best. Doesn't really help me since I've got some chemicals messed up in my head. I've got bad depression because of it, not to mention I don't much care for what I look like. Jeez, saying that out loud I sound like some bulimic teenage girl.."

The new information took a minute to process for the freshman, comparing it to his own life and situation. “Nah, you don’t sound like a bulimic teenage girl. You sound like any person that has body issues. I mean, I don’t have them, but I’m sure it’s pretty awful..” After that he wasn’t sure what to say. Should he go into his own life story?

"It is, and I guess so." He shrugged, taking another drag from his cigarette. "So what about you?"

Frank shuffled awkwardly for a moment, taking comfort in the taste of the smoke passing his lips. Even speaking in front of the class today wasn’t as scary as telling the older boy about his life. “My parents are divorced, too. I don’t know where my dad ran off to and I live with my mom and her asshole boyfriend. He’s a total prick to me, but she loves him so I just grin and bear it.. Really I just stay cooped up in my room, playing music, writing, or something -anything- to keep me away from them. My mom knows I smoke, but she doesn’t really care..” With his story finished, he sighed and shrugged, tapping some of the ash from his cigarette.

"Sounds like you and I aren't too different, then." Gerard sighed as the pair turned onto another road.

A half-smile built on the younger boy’s lips at that fact, finally looking back toward the other male. “I guess so.. Funny how that works, huh?” The longer he thought on it, the bigger he grinned, blushing a bit as well.

Gerard smiled as well, tossing his spent cigarette onto the ground as they walked. Dropping his hand to his side, he felt it brush against the skin of the other boy's hand. He jerked his arm back, a bit of a blush forming on his cheeks. "Sorry.."

Though his cigarette wasn’t quite done, the shock of skin brushing against his hand made him drop the smoke with a silent gasp. “I-It’s okay..” He stammered, his face flushing rather deeply now. There was no way he could be crushing this badly already; they’d just met.. But Gerard understood him and his life, and he actually made an effort to realize he existed.. Mentally shaking his head, he swallowed back his heart that had risen into his throat.

Though Gerard was a few years older than Frank, and though they had just met, he had already started to feel a bond between them. He offered the other boy a bit of a smile, then looked away. Noticing the street they were passing by, Gerard's eyes widened slightly. "We're passing my street!" He chuckled. "I didn't know you lived so close to me."

Frank’s eyes widened as he looked to the street they were walking past. “Oh dude, really? Awesome!” He exclaimed with a bit more enthusiasm than he probably needed to. “My place is on the next street over.” He grinned largely and almost jumped up and down, for a moment forgetting how much he hated his house.

"Yeah! second to last house on the first block." He smiled, running a hand through his raven hair. "If, uh, if you want I can let you go now?"

A slight twinge of sadness pulled at Frank’s house, but in the spirit of staying friends, he nodded and kept his smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

"Alright, Frank. I'll see you in the morning probably." Gerard said as he turned to walk down his street.

“See you, man.” Frank called back to Gerard, continuing his walk to his own home. A small part of him wanted to hug his new-found friend before they left, but he shrugged it off and let the feelings evaporate.. or so he thought he did. That night, he lay in his bed unable to think of anything but Gerard. It felt ridiculous, but not unnatural at the same time. He just hoped it wouldn’t affect how he acted around the other boy the next morning.

Once Gerard had made it home, he immediately walked down the stairs to his basement room. He tossed his messenger bag onto the floor, then flopped face-first onto his bed. "Ugh.." He muttered into his bedcovers. "Why can't I stop thinking about him??"

Notes

First chapter of my new story :D