Shadows You Left Behind.

Waking up was casual, relaxing, even. Well, it was, until I remembered what I had to do today. I swung my feet out of bed. My head felt heavy and my eyelids groggy.
"Ah, shit." I complained, as reality hit me properly. I turned on the shower like normal, and brushed my teeth. I was going to try and make today a good day. However, today was not going to be a good day, I could tell, it just wasn't.
I ruffled my hair with shampoo, washed, and put on some zit cream on my face. - Ugh, teenager.
I grabbed the towel, wrapped it around myself and headed out of the shower, it was freezing; the cold hit me like a tonne of bricks. The lack of heating in this house was getting ridiculous.
I threw on some clothes, pausing once to apply my smudgy red eyeliner before thumping down the stairs. “Morning.” I nodded to my Mom, brushing past her through into the kitchen. She smiled “Good morning.” I strolled about the kitchen, making myself a flask of coffee and some toast. The flask was always a good idea, I can drink it at the bus stop, on the bus, at school, whenever- constant coffee. Warmth.
Fuck.
My stupid brain remembered five stupid things at once; Holly, the kiss and the coffee shop, the tree and Gerard walking away.
I ate the toast silently whilst packing my bag, welcome to Friday, Frank.
Slinging it over my shoulder, I left the house, locking the door with my key, the bedraggled keyring of some kind of animal toy from my childhood that I'd abandoned with my age dangled over the letterbox and made a scrabbling noise.
“Hi!” Gerard shouted, I looked at him “What are you doing?” I asked him, unaware as to why he was here, as opposed to the bus stop. “Just wanted to say hi and stuff.”
“Hi?” I replied, “Hi and stuff.” he said back, I giggled.
“Why did you disappear yesterday?” I asked him.
He stiffened, before trying to nonchalantly shrug it off.
“Oh, I had to go.”
“No shit, Sherlock Holmes.” I giggled at him.
“Personal stuff.” He shivered.
“Oh.” was all I said back. I walked up to him, untangling my headphones.
“Let's go. You're early for once Frankie!” He exclaimed, sounding enthusiastic, but looking as if he said it half heartedly. I still hadn't decided if I liked him calling me Frankie or not.
Weird. I agreed in my mind was what it was.

“Oi! Where were you then? Snogging in the woods?” Josh yelled from across the bus stop.
I flinched when he mentioned my hideout.
(Also, for future reference, snogging is, was and always will be a gross word. I picked up that it meant making out, but it wasn't a very attractive word for it at all.)
“Hit a nerve did we fag? Seems like you and your boyfriend had a nice time.” Josh sneered.
“He's not my boyfriend. And I don't have time for your shit, Josh.” Gerard snarled back.
“Easy tiger.” Josh purred, “you can't have me too, fag.”
Gerard lunged forward, I tried to grab him before he did something stupid. “Gerard, no.”
I soothed. “Awh!How cute, protecting the weak little boyfriend...Rot in hell, freaks.”
“Right that is it...” Gerard muttered under his breath. But it seemed he was too late as Josh had already ran at him. The entire bus stop full of kids from school stared at them, mouths agape, watching them fight like wild animals, edging closer to the scene in front of them. “Stop it!” I shouted, trying to grab Gerard's arms, but I got he pushed backwards. He was gonna get seriously hurt. I mean, he was up against Josh, the guy with the most muscles on the rugby team. And Gerard? Well let's just say he's more of a 'the only exercise I'm involved in is comic book violence' kind of person.
Limbs were everywhere, and I'm pretty sure I saw some blood. Shit.
I rushed over, the fight seemed to have ended, it was hard to tell since I'd been pushed to the back of the crowd that had gathered to watch them injure eachother.
Gerard was stood up. Josh was on the floor.
“What the hell Gerard!?” I exclaimed. Examining Josh on the floor with my eyes, he had a bloody nose, and what looked like the start of a black eye. “Um.” Was all he said.
“Come on, get out of here.” I pulled him away from the noisy crowd and into a part of the street that wasn't occupied by some trigger happy, sleep deprived teens.
I noticed that Josh was now stood up, looking like the most confused person I’ve ever seen.
“How did you do that?” I asked in a frantic whisper.
Gerard chuckled, “Think I can't beat him? I'm a muscle man dude.”
“Oh shut up, Gerard.” I laughed at him. “But seriously?”
He glanced around for a moment.
“You know, pressure points...Drops people straight to the floor. Then I punched him in the face.” I nodded, I wasn't convinced, but it sounded plausible.

The bus pulled in and everyone filed on. Josh got on first, I avoided him like the plague.
Throughout the journey he shot Gerard death glares. I don't think he'll be physically attacking him again though, he still looked pretty wounded, and now he knew Gerard wasn't so weak after all. I tried to strike up casual conversation with him a few times, but it always fizzled out. He looked so distracted and unfocussed, I ended up putting headphones on and ignoring his pained face, I had nothing I could say to cheer him up, so I didn't attempt it.

Then I saw Holly. She turned round and looked at me, a beaming smile on her face. She did have a very nice face, I couldn't help but smile genuinely back.
I did not think about how I do not love her.
“Hey!” She called out, jogging over to me, her body looking unaware as to whether to hug me or not. “Hey Holly..” I said awkwardly, waiting for Gerard to get off the bus.
“Oh my god, you'll never guess what Gerard just did!” I told her. She raised her eyes to look at me in a questioning manner. “He beat up Josh!” Holly's eyes widened. “No way!”
“Seriously, look at him, he's got a black eye and a nose bleed!” I enthused.
“Bloody hell...” She said, laughing a little bit at the thought.
Gerard got off the bus, and we all headed to registration, Holly linked my arm, I flinched at first, but decided against protesting. I saw Gerard's eyebrow raise a little, looking a little disappointed at me, but he said nothing. “Do you think Josh is going to tell the school about you beating him up?” Holly asked him, he shrugged. “I don't think so, he'd have to say that he lost, I don't think his ego will allow that.” She laughed. “So he just got back up and went to school?” She asked. “Looks like it, he'll probably bunk off though, he's barely ever in.” Gerard answered. I kept pretty quiet until we reached the form room, I said bye to Holly at the door, and me and Gerard sat down inside. “Frank, you're an asshole!” Gerard hissed. “What?!” I harshly whispered back. “You're stringing Holly along, it's not fair!”
“I'm doing nothing of the sort!”
“You linked arms with her?” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Yeah, I guess I did.”

Notes