A Brutal Romance.

After a little while of looking around for Ray, Frank finally found him, wearing his favorite Iron - Maiden t - shirt in the cafetaria by the vending machine which had been out of order for two years, now. Frank wondered why they left it there if they weren't willing to fix it. As Frank made his way towards Ray, he saw him look up, make eye - contact, and he smiled for a moment. His smile faded when he saw Frank's condition and he rushed over to him with a concerned look on his face. ''Woah, hey dude! What the fuck happened to your face!?'' Ray demanded. ''Trouble happened. Glad I found you. So, how was your summer?'' The raven - haired boy asked. Ray only looked at the other in question. How was his summer? This dude obviously had something bad happen to him, and he was asking about how Ray's summer went? ''Er... Frank, you can't just be brushing this, what ever this is,'' Ray remarked, gesturing to Frank's swollen jaw, ''off and just ask me how my summer went. We can discuss that later, but seriously, what happened?'' Ray asserted. Frank just sighed and retorted with, ''I ran into the same trouble I always run into in this school.'' The boy with the fro just shook his head. ''When are they going to leave you alone? Here, I'll get you something to put on that. Did you go to the nurse? Well, obviously you did, you have bandages, but did you give you an icepack or something?'' He interrogated. ''Dude, slow down. She offered but I declined. I'm fine, it's not that bad, seriously. Chill. Don't get me anything, I don't need anything.'' The other stated. Ray sighed once more. ''Well, fine. Do you know what your next class is?'' Right after the question was asked, the bell rang for next period. ''Math, if I remember correctly. Well, see you later.'' ''Alright, later.'' Ray replied, and Frank gave him a small wave as he trudged to his math class. It was located in the same class as last year's, so he knew where it was.

When he entered the classroom already filled with noisy teenagers, he was disappointed to see that Bob was attending the class. ''Great,'' Frank thought, ''as if math class couldn't get any worse.'' Bob and Frank made eye - contact, and Bob smiled smugly, as if he was laughing in his head at Frank's condition. A balled up piece of paper in his hands, Bob threw it in Frank's direction, the paper bouncing onto his chest and falling to the floor. The raven - haired boy sighed, kneeled down, and picked it up, unfolding it. Scribbled onto the paper was a badly drawn sketch of a penis ejaculating. ''Nice... Real nice.'' Frank mumbled sarcastically, ripping it up and dropping it into the garbage bin. He then scanned the room to see where he could sit, frustration bubbling inside of him when he realized that the only seat available to him was in front of Bob. Frank knew that this would be a long ninety minutes. He took his seat as the final bell for class rang, getting hit in the back of the head by another ball of paper not even a second after. He let out a loud sigh of exasperation, not wanting to deal with this. The swelling in his jaw was worse and he felt it pulsing, which caused him to be in more pain. Frank was just glad that Bob was the only one to harass him, and no one else.

Thirty minutes dragged by as the teacher kept talking, and talking, and talking. Frank wasn't listening, though - he hardly ever did, and it was a lot worse since Bob wouldn't stop kicking the back of Frank's chair, throwing things at him, occasionally standing up and shoving pieces of balled up paper in the hood of Frank's hoodie, and whispering things to him when the teacher would leave the classroom. Frank was fed up, he stood up so fast that his chair fell to the ground. He picked it up and was about to make his way to the teacher's desk to ask permission to go to the bathroom when Bob kicked the chair towards Frank, his foot tangling in one of the chair's legs, and he tripped and fell. Some people laughed, some people rolled their eyes. Frank got to his feet clumsily, putting the chair back in his place as he trudged toward the teacher's desk. ''Can I go to the bathroom?'' Frank asked impatiently. The teacher, a rather young guy in his late twenty's, sighed and said, ''yeah, sure.'' Without another word, Frank practically ran out of the classroom, getting tripped by Bob in the process.

Frank didn't even have to go, he just needed a few minutes of peace, and he couldn't wait any longer. Frank absolutely hated the bathroom at school. It was disgusting and dirty and it smelled. So if he was willing to go to the bathroom to escape being harrassed by asshat Bob or buttfuck Bert, it meant that he would rather do really anything than get stuck with them. He didn't fear them, he just hated them and was tired of getting his ass kicked by them.
As he walked through the twisting corridors, through the cafeteria, he glanced out the large windows of the double - doors that lead outdoors and spotted Bert smoking a cigarette, back facing Frank. Skipping class as always. Frank let out a sigh of relief when Bert didn't see him and he ran to the bathroom. Bursting into the bathroom, the door closing behind him, he sighed once again and went to the nearest sink to splash his face with water. He then looked at himself in the mirror in front of him and shook his head at his busted jaw. It hurt like Hell, but he wasn't going to admit that. He carefully took the bandages off, wincing at the pain. Suddnely there was a gasp that seemed to come out of nowhere, startling him. He looked in the reflection behind him, and there stood Gerard.

They both made eye - contact, and Gerard looked away quickly. There was a long, dragging silence and Gerard stepped closer to the exit, finally breaking the silence. ''I-I'd better go...'' he stuttered. ''Wait!'' Frank nearly shouted. ''You don't have to go...'' He finished. Gerard looked at him for a brief moment, a quizzical expression playing on his face. He thought for a few seconds, and walked away from the door and beside Frank. There was another long silence, the sound of a leaking faucet being the only noise in the brightly - lit, aqua - green painted room. The light made the walls seem too bright which made Frank's eyes hurt, causing him to squint a little. Frank continued to remove the bandages while Gerard stood there awkwardly. The chubby boy cleared his throat obviously, trying to think of something he could say. When Frank was done with his bandages, he put them in the large garbage bin near the entrance a few feet away from him.He then turned the water on again and splashed his jaw, wincing at the sting. He turned the water off and turned to face Gerard, who was looking down at his shoes. Frank was about to say something when Gerard looked back up at him, and spoke up. ''You've got, er, something in your hood... of uh, your hoodie.'' Frank just looked at Gerard for a moment, a puzzled look on his face. Then he remembered what Bob had done. ''Oh, for fuck's sake!'' He grumbled, reaching into his hood, managing to grab some of the fuckery out of his hood and tossing it into the trash. Gerard, noticing that Frank hadn't gotten all of it, reached into his hoodie and took the rest out, copying Frank's actions. ''Hey, thanks. That's why I'm in here.'' Gerard raised an eyebrow. ''You're here because you needed help taking garbage out of your hood?'' He said, a playful smirk on his lips. Frank snorted. ''Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly why I'm here.'' His sarcasm obvious. Gerard snorted in turn. Frank raised his eyebrows, smiling. ''You like that, hm? You like jokes?'' He smirked, watching Gerard turn bright red. After a minute or so of them throwing sarcasm at each other and laughing, they both calmed down and the silence returned.

Gerard cleared his throat again and asked, ''So, uh... Why are you here?'' Frank just sighed and said, ''I told you. I mean, it's not the whole truth, but it's - I mean, yeah, I came here because of the shit in my hood, and just, I was getting annoyed and needed some peace, y'know?'' Gerard could only respond with, ''oh.'' Niether of them spoke for a while, and Gerard spoke up again. ''I'm really sorry. For what my boyfriend and his friends do to you. You don't deserve it. If there were something I could do to stop them, I would. And I'm sorry. '' Gerard finished, an expression of sorrow on his face. Frank remained silent, not knowing what to say. Before he could come up with something, though, Gerard spoke again. ''I don't blame you if you don't like me. I haven't been much help all these years. I hope you understand why, though. I - '' Gerard was interrupted by Frank's hand on Gerard's shoulder. ''Hey, dude, chill. I get it, and there's nothing to forgive. They're the ones who should be apologizing. No one should be apologizing for them. And you kind of have been helpful, because I saw that you cared, and that helped a bit. It's okay.'' With that, Frank turned away from Gerard and back to the mirror, examining his wound closer. It looked disgusting, and even though Frank would honestly rather go home than stay in this shithole of a school, he felt the need to prove a point to those fucktards. No matter what they did to him, he would always stand strong. His ribs were killing him, but that wasn't going to stop him. ''Oh, and I don't dislike you. You haven't wronged me in any way, and you're a good person. I can tell.'' Frank added. Gerard just nodded at this, grinning.

The two boys continued to speak for the rest of the class time, until Gerard interrupted their conversation. ''So, the bell for recess is going to ring soon, and well, I don't want to sound paranoid, but if we don't want to be seen talking to each other by Bert or Bob or anyone else, we should leave the bathroom seperately, y'know? I mean it's not like we were doing anything wrong, but - '' Frank raised his hand to silence Gerard. ''I got it, don't worry. That's a smart idea.'' He said. ''So, when the time comes, would you like to go first?'' Frank asked. ''Yes. Yeah. I mean, Bert will be looking for me, so, you know, yeah.'' Gerard replied. Frank nodded. ''Okay. It's been a pleasure to actually speak to you, Gerard.'' He said, smiling. The other boy grinned. ''You too, Frank. Well, I'd better get going, now.'' ''Okay, see you around.'' And with that, Gerard disappeared out of the bathroom, the bell ringing right after. Frank waited a while until people started entering the room, and he exited.

He was roaming around the school for whatever time was left of recess when he was grabbed by the shoulder with strong hands, forcing him to turn around. ''Oh, for christ sa - '' he only managed to get a few words in when he was shoved hard, falling to the ground. It was Bert, accompanied by Josh. Tyler, Mikey, Gerard and Bob were nowhere in sight. Well, at least the beatings wouldn't be as bad this time. Bert only kicked Frank every time he tried to get up, damaging his ribs further. The first bell rang but they didn't leave, Bert just kept kicking Frank as Josh just stood there, laughing. The second bell rang, and they finally left him alone. Bert kneeled down to where Frank was laying, and spat, ''You're just lucky we've got shit to do, 'cause otherwise, this,'' he then got up and gave Frank a hard kick in the chest, causing Frank to gasp for air, ''would be a lot fuckin' worse, and I'd be doin' it for a lot longer.'' Bert walked away from Frank with Josh, leaving him alone.

Notes

That didn't take as long as I thought it would. Sorrrrry it suckssss aaaargghhh its really a filler chapter, sorry. I hope it was good to you guys. Fluff to come in the next chapter, please stick around for more.