The Story of a Man, A Woman, and the Corpses of 1000 Evil Students

“I know you’re busy, honey, but I just wanted to call and let you know that I’m going to be able to make it to your graduation! I’m so excited for you. Give me a call back when you get this messages. Love you lots, babes.” My mom’s voicemail ended with a beep. I sighed, slipping my cellphone into my back pocket again. While I was looking forward to graduating, I was not looking forward with having to spend time with her. I had narrowly avoided getting lunch together during winter break...I feigned a busy schedule every time she tried to call me.

Jessica and I were eating lunch at the marketplace. She’d been oddly quiet the whole day, and I was trying to figure out why. I decided to drop a bomb on her. “So...Gerard and I are dating.” I half expected her to spit out her mouthful of salad or knock down her drink, but she just nodded.

“Yeah, you guys are a pretty hot topic around here,” she said, poking at a slice of chicken.

“What do you mean with that?” I didn’t know other people actually knew and the thought of it made me stomach churn.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Jessica pouted.

“I didn’t know when to, we haven’t been talking as much lately and I’ve been really busy.”

“Sure. He wouldn’t shut up about you last year when we had his class together. He always tried to figure out if you liked him or not. Drove me crazy,” she said as she sipped on her soda.

“What?! You never told me that!” I couldn’t believe that Gerard had actually sought out Jessica to ask her about me.

“Now you know how it feels,” she smirked, waving a fork full of salad at me. I rolled my eyes and we continued our lunch with minimal conversation before she ran off to her next class. I fished out my phone again to text Gerard.

To Gerard, 12:20 PM
So you used to ask Jessica about me?

My phone buzzed almost immediately after I locked it.

From Gerard, 12:20 PM
Oh shit.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his reply.

From FRANK IERO, 12:22 PM
Is Gerard in trouble? He just made the saddest noise after he said you texted him xD

To FRANK IERO, 12:23 PM
You bet your ass he is.

From FRANK IERO, 12:24 PM
My ass or his ass?!

To FRANK IERO, 12:25 PM
Both your asses.

From FRANK IERO, 12:26 PM
Hm you better make sure he’s okay with a threesome, he’s always shot me down.

From Gerard, 12:26 PM
WHY AREN’T YOU REPLYING TO ME

I felt like an idiot sitting there at a picnic table laughing at my phone alone, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t have a chance to reply before Gerard called me.

“Oh, hello,” I said quietly, pretending to be mad.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte! Please don’t be mad at me-”

“BE SO MAD AT HIM!” I heard Frank shout in the background.

“I’m just kidding, Gerard! I think it’s funny. And a little cute,” I admitted, giggling. I heard Frank ‘awwww’ in the background.

“Damn, don’t freak me out like that then. What’re you doing right now? I miss you,” he whined.

“Aw, poor baby. It’s been like four hours since you’ve seen me, how terrible!”

“I miss you too, Charlie-” Frank said into the phone, muffled from Gerard wrestling the phone back from him, I assumed.

“Oh Frank, if only my boyfriend missed you as much as you missed me-”

“Charlie, I love you!” Gerard said, giggling. “Where are you?”

“I’m on the market patio. Where are you?” I asked. I felt hands over my eyes and nearly threw
my phone onto the tile ground.

“RIGHT BEHIND YOU, BITCH!” Frank yelled in my ear. I swung my arm around at him, almost clocking him in the face. He slid onto the bench next to me, clutching his sides.

“How old are you?” I asked him, looking up at Gerard, who was coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my neck.

“Hey, hot stuff,” he muttered into my ear.

“Get a room,” Frank said, shooting a look at the two of us.

“Again, how old are you?” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Twenty-five,” he said as he helped himself to the rest of my fries.

“Nobody likes you when you’re twenty five,” I said.

“I don’t think that’s the way the song goes, dork,” Frank said.

“But nobody likes you Frank,” Gerard quipped in.

Frank eventually wandered away to see if his students ever showed up to his class, leaving me and Gerard holding hands. On campus. With people looking. I had heartburn from the anxiety it was causing me, but secretly I was loving it.

“You’re weirded out, aren’t you?” He asked, seeming to sense my discomfort.

“A little. Trying not to be.” I leaned over and pecked him on the lips, watching as he blushed bright red. “You weirded out?”

He shook his head. “I’m just tired. I slept so horribly last night. I just kept thinking about how this is your last semester and, I don’t know, I guess I’m worried about what’s going to happen when you graduate. If that makes sense,” he added on quickly at the end. I continued stroking his hand. I hadn’t really given much thought to it. At all, actually.

“Wow. I haven’t considered that really.” I frowned.

“Well, we don’t have to worry about it right now. But that’s easier said than done, huh?” He gave me a small sideways smile. “Do you want to go smoke on the drainage pipe before my next class?”

“I wouldn’t want anything more,” I grinned and took his outstretched hand, following him across campus with my hand in his. I got a few glares from some girls I recognized from past art classes, which just made me squeeze Gerard’s hand tighter. He helped me up onto the top of the pipe and pulled me into his lap as we lit up our cigarettes. “I’ve been looking at some jobs with some photography companies.”

“That’d be super cool! Which companies around here?” Gerard blew the smoke out of the side of his mouth.

“Well, there aren’t really a lot around here. Since it’s such a small town,” I said quietly, my heart hammering in my chest.

“Oh. So. Where are you looking?” Gerard seemed to realize what I was saying.

“There are a lot of jobs in San Francisco. I really love San Francisco, Gerard,” I said, trying to explain myself.

“San Francisco is pretty cool,” Gerard muttered, pulling me closer to his chest and grumbling into my hair. “You smell good.”

“I smell like cigarettes.”

“But you smell good.”

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you. And if you want to go to San Francisco, that’s okay with me. Whatever you want to
do, baby.” He kissed me on my cheek again.

“Would you come with me?” I blurted out suddenly. I was still semi-new to this whole “healthy relationship full of communication” idea. I felt his lips form a smile against the skin on the back of my neck.

“Of course I would, if you wanted me to. Anywhere.” He flicked his cigarette, accidentally coating me with ash. “I’ll even dump my cigarette ash on you, doesn’t that prove my love?” I chuckled. I loved him so much.

“I guess it does. Don’t you have a class to teach?” We had already burned through our cigarettes. He shrugged.

“I missed you.”

“We live together! We see each other all the time!”

“Oh, so that means I can’t miss you then?” He nuzzled my neck. “I always miss you.”

“Just because you wrangled this former student doesn’t mean you can neglect your current ones,” I elbowed him playfully.

“You’re no fun,” he gave me a quick bite on my earlobe, whisking us both down from the pipe and onto the soft dirt beneath. “I’ll see you in a few hours at home?”

“Yes you will,” I gave him a kiss before walking the opposite direction across campus. If I would have looked around, I would have seen him typing me a text message.

From Gerard, 12:58 PM
I love you

I was already across campus and fixing my makeup in the girls’ bathroom when I saw it, smiling at my phone despite trying not to. I couldn’t believe how perfect he was. And he would move wherever I wanted with me. If I wanted him to. Did that mean he didn’t want to? My head took these worries and began to run with them so fast that I didn’t notice a girl standing at the sink next to me blatantly staring at me.

“Hi?” I asked timidly. What the fuck.

“So you’re the one fucking Way, then?” She asked rudely, ripping a paper towel off the dispenser. Ouch.

“Well, we’re dating. So yeah, I guess,” I said. Who the fuck was this?

“Don’t think you’re special.” She wiped her hands and marched out of the background. Immediately I began to wonder if she was Gerard’s ex, or if Gerard had made a habit of hooking up with former students of his. Suddenly, the high I had gotten from Gerard’s text a few minutes prior was deflated and I was left feeling like a steel wool ball of anxiety.

To Gerard, 1:01 PM
Some girl in the bathroom just called me out for thinking I’m ‘special’ for dating you. What’s up with that?

From Gerard, 1:03 PM
Short with blonde hair?

How did he know that?! That had to have been his ex then.

To Gerard, 1:04 PM
Great, is she an ex?

From Gerard, 1:05 PM
No, she’s in my current class and won’t leave me alone. Don’t worry. <3

That calmed my anxiety a bit. I put my phone away without texting him back and went to my last class of the day, one of my final photography labs that I needed for graduation. Soon, I’d have my degree in photojournalism and I was beyond happy about that.

I made it back to the apartment before Gerard did that evening. I was working on some photography layout sketches when I got a text from an unknown number.

From (805) 555 - 9207
So you’re fucking your art professor now?

This was great. I absolutely loved getting menacing sounding texts from numbers I didn’t recognize.

To (805) 555 - 9207
Who is this?

I didn’t get a response all night. I showed it to Gerard when he got home, and he just buried his face in his hands. “Agh, this is why I was so worried about dating you. You have no idea who this is?”

“I don’t. I went the whole previous semester without anyone saying anything to me,” I said, staring at the text conversation again. “Maybe it’s that girl.”

“But how would she have gotten your number? And why would she care? This is stupid. College kids are just fucking high schoolers that never grew up. Besides you, baby,” he pulled me up from the dining room table to kiss me when I looked crestfallen.

“I’m just happy I’ll be out of here in four months. May twenty-fifth can’t come fast enough,” I mumbled into his chest, sighing deeply.

“Man, we need to start planning a party for you! Is your family coming?” He held me at arm’s length, a smile across his lips.

“I know Dad and Jordin are. I haven’t really talked to my mom about it,” I admitted, looking down. Someday, I’d have a normal family that wasn’t a complete mess like we were now.

“It’ll be fun,” he sang down to me. I bit my lip, worry on the tip of my tongue.

“But you won’t go as hard as you did on New Year’s, right?” I instantly regretted bringing it up. For a split second he looked as if I’d slapped him, but it was nothing more than a ghost of an expression the next second.

“I’ll be fine, Charlie.”

He gave me a kiss before wandering over to his studio to do some work, and I just stayed at the table staring at my phone. I needed some xanax, which reminded me of the therapy appointment I had missed on the third of January because of Gerard’s incident. I had been far too worried about him to be away from him. I needed to reschedule that. I opened my computer and did just that before Gerard popped out of his study, asking if I wanted to shower with him.

What kind of person would I be to say no to that?

Notes