In My Mind Only

“All right, class, the last bell of the year will ring in about ten minutes and I want to take a little bit of that time to tell you how proud of you I am. To some of you, I’ve taught English for a couple of years and, to others, just this year, but I will forever be proud of the graduating Class of 2005. Go on, do great things. Do the things people told you, you couldn’t do. Do the things you told yourself you couldn’t do, because you can do it all. The “real world” is tough, but it’s okay to be scared and it’s okay to be lost, but what’s not okay is to let that stop you,” I told my last class of the year. They had become really silent, and some even had teary eyes. It was a heavy thing; graduating.

“The world moves fast, guys, so run faster. And never stop running.” With those words, some people wiped their eyes and others gave me a triumphant smile. If one of my teachers had said something like this to me whenever I was that scared little graduate, then I probably would’ve felt a lot better about walking across the stage.

“There’s five minutes left, but I want you all to gather your things and go ahead on out that door. I love you all. Class dismissed.” And with that, they nodded and grabbed their things, quickly heading got the door. I heard a lot of thank you’s and got a few hugs on their way out before my classroom was once again empty. I sighed, taking a seat at my desk and looking around at my packed up classroom. All that was left was to clear out my desk. My contract with the school expires this year, much to my relief. Starting six months after Frankie’s emotional departure from the bus station, I started working on my old comic book The Umbrella Academy and was, until last year, an independent publishing. Now, it was to be published by a fairly enormous company with an amazing following. I was finally happy and doing something that I loved. As I cleared out my desk, I came across the note that Frank had given to Lindsey to give to me almost two years ago, and re-read the messy yet elegant handwriting displaying the words that I’ve held close to my heart for so long. I’d tried dating Ray once again to somehow get back at Frank for leaving me his graduation night without another word, back when I was in a bad place, but it dwindled last year to due to old feelings for Jealousy coming back. He called me to meet him one night and cried when he told me. He said it was unfair to me if he and I were dating and didn’t have all romantic feelings of his toward me. I nodded, accepting his reasoning. He and I remained friends so it wasn’t a bitter break up. Jealousy is very weary of me, but that’s pretty much her problem because my heart has been set on Frank, even without me realizing it, for what feels like an eternity.

I sigh once more, putting the note in my briefcase before picking up my last box and walking outside my old classroom and shutting the lights off. I smiled to myself and headed outside to the parking lot. The bell had long ago rung and there was only the clacking of my shoes in the empty hallway. As I reached the door, the sky had turned cloudy from a sunny afternoon, but it didn’t bother me in the least; I preferred this type of weather. It reminded me about the first time Frank truly let me in during that thunderstorm that seemed like a lifetime ago. Making my way across the parking lot to my car, I rumbled for my keys, not really paying attention to where I was walking until I noticed a pair of very clean, black dress shoes come into my line of my vision. I quickly looked up.

“Fr-Frank…” I breathed out. He looked up at me with a smile. A true smile of happiness. He’d grown a few inches, it looked, but I still towered over him. I reached out to put my hand on his cheek, hoping it wasn’t my imagination. He leaned into my touch, his smile growing wider. He was really here. Without wasting another moment, I dropped the box I was holding and slammed my body into his, holding him as tightly as I could without breaking him. He didn’t seem to mind as he hugged me back just as tight, ignoring the rule: No PDA in an Army Class Uniform.

“I love you so much, Gerard,” he mumbled against my shoulder. I pulled away slightly to look at him.

“I love you so much, Frank,” I replied. I pressed my lips firmly against his, giving him no time to make a smartass comment I knew he was going to make. Finally. Finally. There was nothing stopping us. Not even me. My thoughts went back to the letter he’d left me almost two years ago:

“I’ll come back for you.”

Notes

Well, this is it. The end of the first thing I ever published on here and, to be honest, I'm so disappointed in it. I'm very grateful to the people who liked it and said it was their favorite. It really warmed my heart and kept me motivated to finish this no matter how boring and repetitive it had probably gotten. A lot of this stuff was based off of a crush I had on my own English teacher cx
But thank you so much to everyone who stuck with this and liked it and everything. I love you all.

-OAIF <3