A Brutal Romance.

I lay on the floor for what seemed like forever, trying to shake the dancing stars away from my vision. Once the pain faded away a little bit, I rose to my feet and strode out of the hallway I was in. No one really walked through this hallway as it was a dead - end to the janitor's supply closet, and there weren't any lockers or classrooms in this area, luckily for me because I would've gotten trampled. I hadn't been walking for long when the pain returned to my chest and ribs. I walked quickly to a wall and leaned there for a moment, waiting for the pain to subside as I tried recall which class I had next. I always made a point of trying to memorize my first three classes and then I'd go back to my schedule at lunch. That's when I remembered - I had art. I really didn't mind art, I wasn't neseccarily good at it, but it was a lot less stressful than math or any other class, really.

I sighed, relieved when the pain finally faded and trudged to my art class. Luckily, it, too, remained in a class I've been in before, so I knew my way. As I made my way around the school, I silently prayed not to run into any one of those fucking shitheads. I had had enough, they fucked up my jaw, my ribs, my chest, Bert Mcfucker had fucking SPAT ON ME, I smelled like shitty coffee which I'd hoped would rub off in the rain I got stuck in with Mikey earlier this morning, but no. No, I just absolutely fuckin' had to smell like shit beans. What in the everliving fuck did they put in that coffee? I hoped Gerard hadn't smelt it when we spoke in the bathroom. I smiled to myself, remembering our ''meeting'' if you can call it that. Sure, it was awkward, but at least we got to talk. We've never actually spoken before. Like, really spoken. I mean, yeah, we spoke like once before, that was like three months into our first year of highschool. I went up to him, introduced myself, he introduced himself, Bob saw told Bert, and since then, well, yeah. It was still nice to talk to him today. But, back to the subject, I had had enough of those fucktwats. It was the FIRST FUCKING DAY, and I ALREADY WAS FED UP. You'd think that maybe they'd go easy on you the first few days, just toss you around a bit, and then go ff, but no, no, nooooo, they absolutely had to beat me to shit on the first. fuckin' day. A real motivation for the year, fellas. Not that this was the first time, though. I'd tried so many times to get help or stop them these past years, and they'd stop for like, a week, two weeks if I was lucky, but then they'd be back with a vengeance. Of course. I didn't get what the fuck Gerard saw in Bert, but then again maybe there was more to it than that. I just hoped it wasn't what I feared it was. It was none of my buisness, though.

I finally arrived at my destination and knocked on the door. The teacher, who'd been sitting at his desk at the time, looked at me with annoyance and stood up, walking to the door to let me in. ''Frank Iero?'' He demanded. The mention of my name caused someone in the class whose head was resting on their desk to jolt up, and I wondered who it may be. I nodded. ''You're ten minutes late. I'll let it slide today because it's the first day and you look like you have good reason to be so late,'' he said, his eyes darting from my jaw and then to meet my own eyes, ''but don't think you'll be getting free passes like this for the whole year. Do I make myself perfectly clear, young man?'' I almost snorted at his two last words, and nodded once again, ''yessir.'' I'd never seen this teacher before, and he both resembled and sounded like Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series. The teacher, ''severus'', went back to his desk and I stood there, scanning the room to find a spot. The only available spot left was next to the kid who seemed surprised to hear my name. There were four rows of desks, and five from the front to the back of the class. The desk available was in the last row, last desk. I walked to the desk and took a seat, turning to face the person. It was Gerard.

Gerard turned to me and smiled, giving me a small, hesitant wave. He then turned back to his desk, a blank sheet of paper and a closed, bulging pencil case in front of him. Now, I didn't know Gerard that well, but he was well - known for his art. At art exhibitions at school, he'd have the best works. I knew they were his because his name was written on the bottom of each paper, and crowds of people would go see Gerard and compliment him. Well, try, then most of them would get pummeled by Bert and/or Bob. Eventually, everyone stopped going to see Gerard. His drawings would stop being presented, and I had the suspicious feeling that maybe Bert had something behind it. They stopped being presented around two years ago. I guessed my suspicions were right, because sitting right beside me, Gerard wasn't moving a muscle. Only staring at his sheet, a sad expression on his face. I was probably wrong, though, he might've just hadn't had any inspiration to draw, maybe he just lost interest. Still, it didn't seem right for him to just stop. I was leaning over to him, about to say something on the matter, when I glanced at ''severus'' who was giving me a threatening look. ''If you need a work sheet, Mr. Iero, there are some at my desk. I suggest you come take one instead of disturbing your classmates.'' I sighed and got up, knocking on Gerard's desk as I approached the teacher's, which was in front of the class.

''Professor Snape'' was eyeing me the whole time. Now, I would ask for the teacher's real name, but ''professor snape'' just sounded better, and it was fun to call him that. If ever I had to call him by his real name, I'd just call him ''sir''. I took a paper and trudged back to my desk, letting myself fall into my seat freely. Next, I did just as what Gerard was doing: absolutely nothing. I didn't have a fucking pencil, so what was I to do? Even if I did have a pencil, I wasn't good in art, and hadn't many ideas. I glanced at the chalkboard in the front of the class and sighed, frustrated. The dude had written his name and the instructions on the board, but his handwriting was absolute shit. How in fuck's name was I supposed to read that? Then I got an idea. I rose to my feet, walked back to Snape's (let's just fuckin' call him snape because the author of this story isn't too fuckin' good at coming up with names and that is why ''Snape's handwriting is conveniently shitty) desk and snatched another sheet, and was about to turn around when the teacher gave me a questioning stare. I simply explained that I may need a spare paper in case I mess up, turned around and went back to my desk. This was going to be fun.

Before I did what I planned to do, I tapped the shoulder of the girl in front of me, who turned and asked what I wanted. I proceeded to ask her for a pen or pencil. She lifted a finger at me as if to tell me to wait, and grabbed an unsharpened pencil from her case and handed it to me, turning back to her work without another word. The fuck? I didn't want to bother her more than I had, so I stood up again, (which was honestly fucking killing me, my ribs hurt like hell) and wandered over to the shitty ''wall-pencil - sharpener''. I don't know what it's really called so let's just call it that. It's a shitty pencil sharpener thing shaped like an oval or some shit and it's screwed to the wall. Anyway, I then placed the pencil into the sharpener and started to spin the lever thing that made the sharpener do it's job. It made a lot of noise, which caused people to turn and scowl at me for a few seconds, then turning and continuing their work. Gerard had turned, too, and only gave a small smile before turning back and laying his head on his desk. ''Don't worry, man, I'll be right there.'' I thought to myself, removing the pencil from the sharpener and walking back to my desk.

I stared at the paper for a while, trying to figure out what to write. I took a glance around me when my eyes fell on Gerard's overfilled pencil case, then I got it. It was stupid as fuck, but whatever. I scribbled the words, ''are those crayons in your pencil case or is it just happy to see me?'' nto the paper with a little smiley face at the end at the top left corner of the page. It was dumb, but I thought he'd appreciate something in that nature. He seemed pretty bummed out, and honestly it bugged me to see him that way. Before I slipped it to him, I circled what I wrote, and folded the paper. I wanted to avoid ripping it so that it wasn't obvious, and I didn't want to get caught. I quickly directed my gaze towards the teacher's desk to see if he was looking in my direction. He was busy reading some book to spare me a second glance. Booyah! I slipped the folded paper to Gerard, tapped him on the shoulder and pretended as if I hadn't done anything.

This was some elementary school shit. He raised his head up, alert, and spotted the sheet of paper and unfolded it, a curious expression on his face. He then read my joke and snorted, causing some people to turn and look at him. Even ole severus looked up from his book. He turned back to it after a moment of scowling at Gerard, who was too busy trying to conceal his laughter to notice. His next move was unzipping his pencil case and grabbing a green crayon at random, the pencil - case now overflowing, releasing all its contents onto his desk. He began to write a little something of his own, and folded it back, smacking it off his desk, making it fall on the floor. It seemed very intentional, so I guess that he thought, in case anyone was watching, he wanted to make it seem like an accident and he just dropped the paper, when really he was discreetly passing it to me. Smooth, Gerard. Smooth. He then glanced down at the floor and let out a small, ''oops!'' and I just smiled, going along with it. ''Oh, I'll get that.'' I whispered, leaning dwn and wincing when my ribs screamed in pain. I collected the paper and sat back up, looking at Gerard as he returned the glance as he watched me eagerly as I unfolded the paper, under my desk. I read his words and giggled, covering my mouth when I realized I had done it out loud. ''Oh, baby, my pencil case isn't the only one happy to see you.'' Unbelieveable, this kid. I didn't know what I expected, but it wasn't that. Professor looked up from his book again and scowled at me. ''Is there a problem, Mr. Iero?'' He demanded. The question caught me offguard. I tried to find something to say, stuttering over words. ''Huh? Uh, n-no, no sir. Everything's fine. Apologies.'' He continued to stare at me for a moment, and slowly turned his eyes back onto his book. Gerard smiled cunningly at me. I grabbed my new pencil and thought of a reply. This was kind of tricky, considering I've never really done anything like this before, except maybe when I was a small - or, smaller child. I began to write my response. ''Well, looks like your pencil case busted its load. I guess now it's somebody else's turn.'' I chuckled to myself as I wrote, forgetting that Gerard and I weren't the only ones in the room. I thought I heard Snapey clear his throat as if to get my attention, as if to tell me to quiet down, but I didn't give it a second thought as I repeated the action of folding the paper and passing it back to the boy beside me. He unfolded it, read it, and let out a highpitched giggle. ''Gerard!'' I whispered sharply, giggling now, too. Suddenly a booming voice came front of the class, ''Is something the matter?!'' severus lookalike exclaimed. The both of us looked at the irritated teacher and stuttered with ''no's'' and ''sorry's''. He shook his head and went back to his book. I was afraid that Gerard wasn't going to continue our little conversation, when I turned my glance to him, who had already been folding the paper back, a mischievious look in his eyes. He passed it back, and I did as previous. I had to put the hood of my hoodie over my head to muffle my laughter.

We continued to do this back and fourth for half an hour, earning glares from students and warnings from the teacher. Gerard had just passed the paper back to me, laughing uncontrollably, although trying, and failing, to stop, when I thought that maybe I should ask why he hadn't been drawing. I hadn't noticed, but Gerard's laughter had stopped, and I was right about to write my question when I felt a strong hand grab my shoulder. Uh - oh. ''Hallway. Now!'' shouted the professor, fuming at this point. He lead us both outside the classroom, almost slamming the door on the way out. ''What on Earth is so funny? You're both eighteen years old. Act like it!'' Gerard and I looked at each other, and back to the teahcer. ''Actually, s-sir, we're both seventeen. And we are acting like it.'' I adressed. ''Silence!'' He bellowed. He continued to scold us, but we'd both stopped listening because there was someone walking down the hall, past us. Bob. Fuck. Bob glowered at us, keeping his stare on us until he'd reached and turned the corner of the corridor. This was bad news for the both of us. ''Now, get back into the class and don't say another word. Another sound out of one of you and you'll be sent to the principal's office. Understood?'' Snape hissed, ushering us into the class. We both just nodded. The rest of the period was just Gerard ignoring me, only looking at me once and then not at all. Fuck, this was my fault. I was really going to get it, now.

The lunch bell rang and I was the first one out of the class. I was walking towards the cafeteria when someone grabbed me and I was slammed against a wall. I knew this was coming. Bert's stare bored into the back of my skull. He didn't say a word, just held me there, staring at me menacingly. Finally, he spoke. ''Stay the fuck away.'' Was all he said, his breath reeking of cigarette smoke. He continued to glower at me for a minute, still holding the colar of my hoodie, keeping me pinned to the wall. He then let go slowly and walked away. That was obviously a threat, and I knew what - or, who - he was talking about. I shrugged it off, pulling my hoodie back into its place, walking to the cafeteria to find Ray. At least it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I wasn't hungry, never really ate lunches at school, and besides the lineup was always too long. I found him and sat down next to him, and for the rest of lunch, he was just going on and on about how I should go home and rest, na na na. He really was a good friend, and I appreciated him a lot.
Eventually, the long, dragging schoolday was over, the only good thing about it being the conversations with Gerard, the conversation with Mikey, lunchtime and the dream I had before I woke up to this day. Ah, yes. The dream. My favorite part of the day. When I got home, my mom didn't react well to my fucked up jaw and other injuries, but I just told her I was okay. I wasn't, and it was going to hurt like fuck the next day. After dinner, I spent the rest of the night in my bedroom, playing guitar. Nothing special really happened for the rest of the night, but my mind was stuck on Gerard.

Notes

I'm trash but I hope you enjoyed this, whatever the fuck this is.