Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Chapter one: I’m not okay, I Promise!
Gerard held on tightly. He never wanted to let go. Never wanted to break their embrace or wanted the feelings…the moment itself to come to an end. He looked down to the face that was looking up so affectionately at him,” I love you, Gee.” No one had ever called him ‘Gee’ before, but Gerard liked the way it sounded on his tongue. Even though the voice was foreign it was extremely comforting.
Gerard held on tighter. “I love you, too.”
He closed his eyes and breathed,” I don’t want this to end. I never want this to end.” Gerard said.
He felt soft lips on his own. After a moment he heard,” You need to wake up.”
He shook his head,” What?”
“Wake up, Gerard. Wake up”
Gerard furrowed his brow and opened his eyes. He saw nothing but black shadows and flecks of red.
“Gerard, dude, you have to wake up!”
He felt his embrace slipping and the absence of his partner’s body left him feeling chilled to the core, the only constant was his voice, it distinct voice, Telling him to wake up.
“No. “He shook his head and waved out his arms as if trying to shoo an annoying bug. “No. “He said again.
“Don’t leave me.” He said, his voice straining in the shadows to be heard and still only barely a whisper” please!”
“Wake up!”
“I don’t wanna.” He shook his head again.
The voice changed. It was different and Gerard recognized it immediately. Familiar. Younger, more frantic. Ugh Mikey.
“Gerard, wake up!” Mikey was shaking Gerard so hard he felt sick. Not to mention he needed a cigarette.
Gerard sat upright in his bed...or at least, as close to upright as he could get in his out-of-it- tired state “What the hell, dude? I was sleeping… Do you get that? Sleeping!” He glared through half closed eyes at his younger brother.
“Come on! Dude wake up, it’s Monday! We have school in like, 29 minutes. You remember school? That thing you can’t stand but they force us to attend otherwise we’ll never succeed in life?”
Gerard looked at Mikey dead in the eye, a morbid Poker face hiding any hint of interest (if there was any to begin with). He yawned, scratched the right side of his neck and stretched like a rudely awakened cat. Then he glared at Mikey again before throwing his covers over his head.
“Does it look like I give a fuck?” He hissed under his fortress of sleep-a-tude.
Mikey grabbed Gerard’s covers and threw them to the floor. Gerard, in response, shivered and reached for his covers instinctively, only to be disappointed and upset when his attempts at covering himself again failed.
Mikey rolled his eyes and Gerard seethed,” You invaded my Fortress of Sleep-a-Tude, Mikey. I told you not to do that.”
Mikey looked at him pointedly,” Get up, Gerard!”
He curled into beetle position,” Go away, Mikey.” Gerard heard a sigh and expected that to be his brother’s only response. But Mikey, without warning stood up and threw Gerard’s uniform on his uncovered pale face. Mikey looked around the room briefly and found Gerard’s deodorant and toothbrush, which he threw at Gerard’s face, as well. A groan of disapproval and annoyance erupted from Gerard. He sat up,” Okay! Whatever. I’m up!” Mikey threw Gerard’s socks in his face,” I said I’m up, okay. Now get out so I can get dressed. “
Mikey smirked and left the room.
Gerard noticed how quite Mikey was as they walked to school. I mean he’s always quite, Gerard guessed, but he seems to have something on his mind today.
“You okay?” Gerard asked. Sparing a sideways glance at his little brother as they both continued up the hill to school.
“Just school dude, I mean… I know we already took orientation and stuff last Wednesday…but this is High School. After this it’s all over. Mikey took an overly theatrical breath….Which meant he was lying. He always used exaggeration in some way when he lied. In fact, if you didn’t know him well enough, you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell at all.
Gerard shook his head. He didn’t believe Mikey for a second, he was smarter than that and if Mikey thought he was gonna get off this easy he had another thing coming.
He looked at Mikey pointedly,” I’m not buying it… maybe that’s part of it.” Gerard shook his head.” Dude, seriously. What’s up?”
Mikey sighed, a real truthful sigh. “It happened again.”
Gerard furrowed his brow,” What do you mean?” But even as those words escaped his lips, he knew what his brother was talking about. It had been happening constantly for the entire summer non-stop.
Mickey frowned as though it hurt him when he said,” You were screaming in your sleep….again. But then you got quite and you started mumbling something about shadows and love and then you started shooing me away when I tried waking you up.”
Gerard was silent. There was no indication that he’d even heard his brother except for his slightly faltered pace as he continued walking. He’d thought it was over; the nightmares had pretty much stopped about two or three weeks earlier. They were so upsetting. Not even the dream themselves, just the fact that Mikey kept stressing over him.
“Dude, come on,” Gerard began,” It’s nothing. Just a few bad dreams. Actually…,” He looked over at Mikey,” You said I stopped screaming right?”
When Mikey nodded hesitantly, Gerard said,” See? Everything’s gonna be fine. Even if it started out as another nightmare, it must’ve gotten better since I stopped screaming, right?”
Mikey nodded again” Do you--” He cleared his throat,” Do you remember what it was about?”
“What, the dream?” Gerard asked.
“Yeah”
Gerard shook his head,” Nah, I never remember them. For me… it’s just a blur of black smoke. And then I wake up and I feel really anxious and jumpy….” He shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Come to think of it, Gerard thought, He hadn’t woken up all jittery and nervous that morning. He was just tired and sleepy… kinda blissed out. Weird…
Gerard could tell his brother wanted to talk about it more, but he tried to shrug it off.
He sighed as he made his way around the corner and crossed the street. By some miracle, they’d made it to school with 15 minutes to spare, But Gerard guessed it was only because the school itself wasn’t very far away, and it was just the colossal hill that stretched 3 blocks making it appear further than it actually was. Regardless, he and Mikey were reasonably fast.
Mikey had already walked ahead of Gerard with an eager spring to his step and disappeared within the crowd of adolescents. Gerard looked up at his new school. It was big and regal looking, as if they took an old mid-evil castle or church or whatever and randomly decided to transform it into a prep school.
Gerard could seriously imagine how that would’ve sounded,” Come hither, Brethren! Let’s stop using this building for awesome or violent stuff and turn it into a torture chamber…wait no, a school! Yeah, that’s better. Basically, it’s the same thing.” He laughed to himself, and looked around, taking in the scenery at a closer angle.
The school itself was completely Victorian-era brick and wood. The wood was obviously remodeled with like, mahogany or something else dark and pretty looking. Complete with cobblestone pathways everything kind of contrasted with the bricks and the old look but it ended up absolutely stunning, Gerard casually thought to himself as he began making his way through the crowd.
Gerard counted to ten in his head and then started over again. He always did this on first days. If he succeeded to count to ten eleven times, the school year would be awesome. If he reached ten times or less, the school year would probably suck. He walked along a deserted cobblestone pathway free of most of the masses in hopes he’d be able to scope out the rest of the school before the first bell rang. Counting the entire time he was walking, he made it up to exactly ten and a half before someone behind him yelled.” Hey faggot!”
Dammit.
He was really hoping to make it to eleven. Despite the obvious shout out directed at him, he continued walking. This time the voice that shouted obscurities at him was closer. He glance to his side and walked slightly faster. Maybe if he ignored whoever was attempting to get under his skin, they’d go—
Gerard felt a harsh shove forward. He didn’t have time to register what had happened before he’d tripped over the laces of his Converses and he fell down on the jagged pavement. “Hey what’s wrong with you?” He heard a voice from behind him,” Didn’t hear my calling you? Huh?”
Gerard grunted roughly as he started to turn around and get himself off the ground. He stood up as straight as possible and dusted himself off. He looked the guy in bright eyes and glared. “Dude, what the hell is your problem!?”
The bully laughed. What’s weird, thought Gerard, is that it was a sad, miserable laugh. Gerard had heard tons of those and his was no different than the other depressed kids or bullies of his last school.
” First off, my names not ‘dude’, its Bob. Bob Bryar”, he retorted. Gerard glared at the big blond jerk.” Second off,” said the jerk,” My problem is you. We don’t like fags at this school. “He gave Gerard the once over,” Or losers, or nerds or creepy little black haired freaks like yourself. So just to let you know,” He continued while moving in close to Gerard,” If I see you in my way in the hallway, or outside of school. I’m going. To hurt you. “He snarled, his upper lip rose in an aggressive manner.
At this point he was in Gerard’s personal space. Gerard hated when people were in his personal space. After all, he thought, it was called personal space for a reason. And that reason wasn’t so he could share it with the likes of Bob Bryar, douche bag extraordinaire. He really, hated it when people called him fag though. Not that he had a problem with what the uncivilized term implied(he honestly didn’t, he just thought it was ignorant and offensive) it just really pissed him off. He absolutely loathed the likes of Bob. And he could tell right away, they were going to have a lot of problems during the year.
Who did this guy think he was, anyway? To just go up to a person like that and start trash talking their entire existence. Bob didn’t even know him, not that Gerard wanted him to, but still. What the actual fuck was wrong with him. He was nothing but an offensive asshole that caused other people misery to cope with whatever bullshit he had to put up with at home. People like him should at least feel remorse.
Gerard sighed and turned around on his heel. Fuck, he needed a cigarette! He straightened his tie and nodded absently in response to Bob’s rant. He started walking off again in the same direction as he had started before. He figured he shouldn’t waste so much of his time with someone whose path of thinking was along the lines of homophobia, coming up with offensive terms, using offensive terms, thinking about his shitty life and beating anyone with an original thought into the ground. Wow, Gerard thought, sad life. He smirked but quickly frowned afterwards. He kind of felt bad for bob. It wasn’t his fault he had a terrible life. Or that he didn’t know how to act in a school…. Or that he—
He felt a sharp shove forward and stumbled. Insert eye roll here, Gerard thought to himself. He hadn’t believed Bob would let him off that easily and was prepared for the second push. This time he landed in a more feline-like pose, resting only on his hands and feet. Well my new converses are fucked half way to heaven, pondered Gerard, but at least I didn’t mess up my uniform again.
He looked up at Bob and sighed. Just when he was starting to pity the jerk. Oh well. He turned around and got up, speaking cautiously to the Neanderthal before him.
“Can I assist you with something?” He said calmly while shaking his hands free of dirt. He was good at speaking calmly and keeping his cool. He had to be; especially at home and at his old school. He hated doing it though. More specifically… he hated doing it at times like this, for example, when his patience and tolerance for ignorant dicks like Bob was evaporating and growing more non-existent with every breath Bob took in his presence.
Bob snarled,” Where do you think you’re going, fag?” He really fucking needed a fucking cigarette.
Gerard couldn’t help but roll his eyes and though he would regret doing it, the sarcasm in his voice dripped off his tongue like milk and honey,” Narnia.” He commented with a smirk,” Would you like to come with me? I know a centaur who knows a guy you might be rather …interested in. He’s about your age and as much of a jerk as you are. “Gerard arched an eyebrow,” Maybe you guys could get married! And have a jerk wedding! And raise repulsive little adopted jerky little children.” He rolled his eyes again but the sarcasm was gone from his voice when he said:
“Seriously. Leave me alone. The last people who fucked with me accidently ended up in coffins.”
Bob raised his eyebrows defiantly,” What? Is that like a threat or something?”
Gerard shook his head vehemently,” Oh, No! Mr. Bryar, it’s a confession. I wouldn’t dare threaten you”
“You sure?” Bob said grabbing a fistful of Gerard’s blazer and vehemently pinning him up against the closest wall, “Because that sounded like a threat.” He pulled Gerard off the wall only to slams him harshly against it. There was a certain piece of brick that kept stabbing Gerard’s back. Bob growled,” I don’t like being threatened.” He slammed Gerard back into the wall about 3 more times,” Maybe I should beat some sense into you.” By this time Gerard’s eyes were closed and he was trying to stay as still as possible. HE needed a motherfucking CIGARETTE in five fucking seconds or he was gonna flip the fuck out.
“Maybe you shouldn't,” said an unfamiliar voice. Only what’s strange is: Gerard could swear he knew that voice from somewhere.
Whatever, he thought, he was just glad some kid had come over and tried to disperse the scene. He opened his eyes in order to look at his peer hero and kind of gasped.
First off he gasped because the kid who’d saved him was probably the single most beautiful person Gerard had ever seen. He was short but still really fit; he had black hair which was really short on one side and on the other side, long enough to cover one of his eyes. He had tattoos snaking all across his skin, but the one that caught Gerard’s attention was the scorpion on his neck. He was a tad bit pale, but somehow it just made the tattoos stand out more. His knees would've probably given out if not for the fact that he was still being held slightly off the ground by Bob.
Or, at least I was, being held off the ground about five seconds ago, thought Gerard, what the hell why’d he stop torturing me just cause of some kid? I mean I’m grateful and all but—
Bob was wide eyed and looked like he was on the verge of running. “Shit.” He mumbled after he’s let Gerard go and was being looked upon by this kid for some kid of explanation.
The mysterious stranger arched one perfect eyebrow,” I beg your pardon?” He said.
“Sorry Mr. Iero, I uhm, I know how you feel about cursing. It… uhm, it won’t h-happen again.” Bob stuttered.
Wait what? This kid’s…this guy is a fucking teacher?!?! He’s so young and un-teacher like. So beauty—
“Of course, it won’t Robert. Would you care to explain why you just had a peer of yours backed up against a wall? Threatening him? Bullying him?” Mr. Iero queried.
When Bob flinched at the word ‘bullying’ Gerard couldn’t help but feel happy that something had actually made him uneasy.
Good, Gerard thought, he deserves it.
Bob looked as though he was about to throw up. Gerard only hoped he wouldn’t aim for his Chucks. Dirty was one thing, But having someone else barf on his new Converses was the equivalent of dying violently 4 times, which is to say, not very pleasant and not on Gerard’s To DO list… actually, come to think of it, Gerard didn’t have a To Do List. He figured he should probably make one; it might help him organize better. He looked over at Mr. Iero. He would definitely make one… and a certain teacher was going to be at the very top of that list. Gerard laughed internally at that. But even so, even being looked at by someone like Mr. Iero was a blessing. He was absolutely stunning and his eyes were so haunting. And that voice, that voice was so familiar; he could’ve sworn he knew it from--
“Uhm bullying… that’s a pretty strong word, Mr. Iero… We were just… uhm playing a game.” He lied, “Right, dude?” Bob said looking to Gerard for conformation.
Gerard gave a distracted nod at Bob’s feeble attempt to get himself out of trouble. He was too busy gazing at Mr. Iero’s eyes to be bothered with Bob at that moment.
Mr. Iero turned his gaze unto Gerard, eyebrows raised expectantly. Gerard’s gaze immediately shot towards the cobble pathway they were standing on.
He glanced guiltily up at Mr. Iero, and he swore he saw the hint of a smirk in the teacher’s expectant gaze but he could have just been imagining things.
Mr. Iero directed his gaze back to Bob and shrugged,” Didn’t look like a game to me… and that threat to beat some sense into him seemed pretty damn sincere.”
Bob was silent.
“If I catch you messing with this student, or any other student again. You’ll be transferred to a school more fit to handle youth such as yourself. Do I make myself clear?” His voice carried a no-bullshit alpha male dominant tone that sent shivers down Gerard’s spine. But they were weird shivers, good shivers. Gerard couldn’t help but smile impulsively.
“Yes, sir.” Bob said looking around frantically.
“You may leave now, Robert.” Mr. Iero said sounding slightly agitated that Bob hadn’t taken the hint that he’d been dismissed already.
“Thank you, sir” Bob muttered and walked off quickly.
Mr. Iero turned his full attention to Gerard,” You okay?”
Gerard nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He was pretty sure he was blushing from just being near Mr. Iero, he figured he didn’t want to stutter and make a complete ass of himself.
“You sure, dude? Your cheeks are completely flushed. “Gerard nodded again. Mr. Iero’s voice had switched to a completely casual and kind of gentle tone. It relaxed Gerard enough to actually speak up.
“No, yeah, I’m—I’ll be fine. I mean, it was no big deal. I’m used to it.” He looked Mr. Iero in the eyes.
“Sorry to hear that. You shouldn’t let dicks like Bob mess with you. You should fight back, though or he’ll never leave you alone” Mr. Iero said and started walking with Gerard towards the school’s entrance.
Gerard chuckled and shook his head,” I was actually trying not to.”
Mr. Iero looked at Gerard quizzically but dropped the subject,” Anyway, what did you mean when you said the last kids who messed with you ended up in coffins… and that you were confessing to something.”
“Oh, you heard that, huh?” Gerard wondered briefly how long he’d been watching the scene unravel before actually stopping. He could’ve been there the entire time, or at least a long time.
Mr. Iero nodded,” Yeah, I heard that.”
Gerard looked to Mr. Iero than straight ahead,” Nothing really. I just wanted to see what would happen. Kind of a half-assed defense mechanism; just a really bad social experiment, I guess.”Gerard said.
Mr. Iero nodded,” Are you new here?”
Gerard smirked,” What gave it away?”
Mr. Iero rolled his eyes,” The hair, your eyeliner…”Gerard blushed uncontrollably,” and the tee-shirt, which I have to say: I definitely approve of.”
Gerard glanced down at his Smashing Pumpkins tee-shirt; he hadn’t even noticed he had it on. He was only half awake when he’d gotten dressed that morning, Mikey must’ve given him the shirt. Bless that young boy’s soul, Gerard thought.
“Oh, you like the Pumpkins? “ Gerard questioned with a smirk. He was comfortable now that they had switched the subject to music. Music had always made him comfortable, not that he would actually tell anyone that, of course.
Mr. Iero smiled. It was a dazzling, beautiful, angelic smile with dimples and everything. Gerard was almost blinded by sheer beauty.
“Of course! They’re amazing!” Mr. Iero commented and started going about the different layers of the band, how long he’d been a fan etc…
Gerard had thought it a mere coincidence and a bit of an achievement that he’d never had a crush on any of his teachers, although looking back on it, his past teachers were either middle aged, unattractive, completely evil, not his type, or extremely boring. So he guessed it wasn’t that much of a coincidence or achievement. He had made a rule not to fall head over heels for a teacher when he started elementary school. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal before but Gerard realized that that was only because his rule had never actually been challenged. Right at that moment, walking with Mr. Iero, looking at his enchanting hazel eyes and listening to the rise and fall of his voice as he talked about The Smashing Pumpkins, Gerard realized two things…
Thing One: His rule was extremely unrealistic and as long as he was in this school, he would probably forget it ever existed.
Thing Two: He was, what society would call, a flaming bisexual.
He realized Thing Two with an inward snort. He’d never really thought about his sexuality before. He wasn’t that into labeling stuff, so he figured, he wasn’t gay or even bisexual for that matter. He just found another guy extremely attractive. Like, Mind blowingly attractive. Gerard pondered this for a second. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he probably wouldn’t have a problem with labels if they didn’t divide people and make everyone wanna fit into one category or rebel from one category or stereo-type people.
Wow, Thought Gerard, labels suck.
Mr. Iero looked at him quizzically,” I guess I agree with you... although I have to say, that comment was a bit irrelevant”
Gerard, tragically torn from his spiraling train of thought, looked up at Mr. Iero startled,” What?”
“You’re comment? I was agreeing with you…” He said eyeing Gerard suspiciously.
Only then had it dawned on Gerard that he must’ve said his thought referring to how much labels sucked, aloud.
“Oh, yeah, of course” Gerard said, putting a lid on his wandering thoughts for the time being. He always got distracted while he was in the middle of a conversation with someone he was interested in (not even interested as in had a crush on but if the conversation was intriguing or the person was just captivating in general , his mind was always 15 steps ahead of the conversation. And it was a real pain in the ass at times, like now, thought Gerard, when he had the full attention of an amazing individual.
“You sure you’re okay? You seem a little out of it,” Mr. Iero remarked.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” Gerard said dismissively,” My thoughts were just wandering a bit.”
Mr. Iero nodded,” Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too.” He chuckled.
The bell sounded in the distance, it was a long and intrusive sound and Gerard was a tad bit upset that it had ended his conversation with Mr. Iero. Sigh, Oh well… I guess I’ll see him around the school sometime.
Mr. Iero looked hesitant for a second and rolled his eyes. Looking over at Gerard he said,” Here, let me walk you to class.”
Gerard shook his head,” Uhm. No! No, thank you. I’ll be fine; I’m good with directions… and stuff… so I think I can manage…” His voice trailed off uncertainly. Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut? He’s offering to walk with me and help me find where the hell my next class is, and I just fucking denied him?!? Am I mental? What the actual fuc—
Gerard looked guiltily up to Mr. Iero. And he could’ve have sworn if not for just a second, that there was a tinge of disappointment underlying within the hazel depths of Mr. Iero’s pretty eyes. But that’s absurd; He thought quickly taking back and dismissing the notion that Mr. Iero would even be mildly affected by the fact that someone as unimportant as Gerard didn’t want his company.
Not like Gerard didn’t want his company. Of course, Gerard wanted his company; He just didn’t want Mr. Iero wasting his time with Gerard, when he probably had better things in his professional and important life to do. Like, paperwork and saving other awkward kids from getting the snot kicked out of them by kids like Bob.
Mr. Iero gathered his thoughts, “Well, at least let me walk you through the front door? Bob might end up fucking with you again. Trust me; you don’t wanna be that kid’s scapegoat or punching bag. That kid has some baggage and taking his anger out on kids like you doesn’t help. He thinks it does, but it just builds up frustration, and what he did to this kid last year… he ended up in the hospital.”
Gerard was quiet. He knew what Mr. Iero was doing. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let him walk me to class just this once…
Gerard finally agreed to let Mr. Iero walk him. Not because he was actually scared of Bob, if worse came to worse, Gerard knew how to defend himself, he just chose not to for the sake of everyone else in the school and in his family... He couldn’t make Mikey and his mother go through that again. Never again.
Mr. Iero gave him a playful punch on the arm and the contact alone sent weird vibes through every single nerve in Gerard’s body. “What’s the first class on your schedule?”
Gerard took the folded red envelope out of his blazer pocket and removed out the pale paper from inside. He scrutinized the oddly arranged schedule briefly before shrugging and handing it over to Mr. Iero.
“I can’t read it,” He said lamely,” Everything’s uncoordinated and randomly written”
Mr. Iero moves some of the hair out from his eyes,” You, young man, have Chemistry with Mrs. McKenzie, she’s pretty cool, you’ll like her, I guess.” He said after about 5 seconds, “You’ll get used to the way they type out official papers, by the way, like report cards and schedules and memos and shit. It confused the hell out of me when I first got here, too.” They made their way up the steep gray stairs leading to the school’s grand mahogany front entrance.
Gerard retrieved a black marker from his back pocket and scribbled a few words on the red envelope he still had in his hands. He got a thumbtack from his messenger bag and stuck the animated words:
Welcome to Hell!!! >:D
On the school’s front doors as they made their way into the school. Mr. Iero saw it and eventually turned red from laughing so hard.
“That’s vandalism, dude,” Mr. Iero said, half out of breath as he opened the door.
Gerard batted his eyelashes with mock innocence,” Please, don’t tell on me, Mr. Iero.”
Mr. Iero rolled his eyes but looked away,” Oh stop it, let’s get your sorry ass to class.”
The rest of the day went by in an unfocused, tiring haze; full of over exaggerated/over-eager new faces and work he’d missed the first three day of school the previous week. At least he and Mikey had only come a few days later than everyone else.
He couldn’t even focus most of the day. He was too wrapped up in desperately trying to place exactly where he’d heard Mr. Iero’s seemingly extremely familiar voice. Try as he might have, though, Gerard couldn’t remember where Mr. Iero’s voice was from. Which led him to sleep dreamlessly through two of his first three classes of the day.
The only time he actually paid attention and was on full(or half full) alert was the moment he realized, while studying his schedule during lunch, that he had Mr. Iero as a teacher twice every day, which alone was proof that there was some kind of God up there.
Thank fuck, he thought to himself as he entered Mr. Iero’s ‘Gothic Lit 101’ class. The classroom itself was pretty small, despite that, about 28 kids had packed into every desk, chair and available spot on the floor. Must be a pretty popular class. Gerard, having been relatively early to the class got to have his pick of the seats. For once in his life, he chose a spot in the front of the class. Mr. Iero smiled brightly (but briefly) at Gerard as he noticed his choice in seating arrangements, then turned his attention towards the class.
“Good Morning, Class.” He began,” I’m not gonna start with the ‘this-year-there-will-be-no-nonsense’ speech or the –if you’re- respectful-in-my- class blah blah-blah. There are little to no rules in my class room. If and when you follow these rules, you’ll have an awesome year. If you forgive the term, disobey these rules,” He looked about the room seeming to scan each individual face before coming to a stop at Gerard, an eyebrow cocked and the shadow of a smirk behind his relaxed mouth,” Well, then, tough shit, you’re gonna have to deal with the fucking consequences.”
There were a few scattered giggles at the curse words that came from Mr. Iero. He raised an eyebrow momentarily and in a heartbeat started going over the rules of his class and eventually started getting to the actual Gothic Lit (which he was extremely enthusiastic about). He had five rules. Only five, Gerard thought with a smirk, yup, definitely my favorite teacher.
Gerard liked the architecture of his new school; it was a nice mix of a modern England mansion and a medieval Transylvanian castle. It had the right mixture of mahogany and cobblestone. He was on his way to his last class of the day, his second class with his favorite teacher, the one and only, Mr. Iero. And the great thing was that this class was Art. ART. Art. Art. Art. No matter how many times you said the word or how many ways you said it, it still made Gerard smile like a complete dork and he didn’t even fucking care. He was going to be an art major in college, He was sent to Pestilence Prep (his current school) on an art scholarship. Everything about this one class (and maybe Gothic Lit) made him wanna do back flips and drop-kick the Hulk.
Something else that Gerard figured was pretty awesome was that all the art rooms were in the section of the castle that used to be used as the Dungeon. No one told him that but, he figured it out from the architecture and the way the stairs descended and the way the rooms were isolated from everywhere else in the castle.
When he got to the class room he chose a spot that looked pretty harmless in the back of the class. He would’ve loved to get up in the front of the class again, but this was art, and he took this seriously. So, he figured he couldn’t have an awesome and charming and amazing teacher like Mr. Iero distracting him from his work. And thank god, Mr. Iero seemed to respect that. He didn’t bother Gerard while he was working at all. Not once during the entire first half of the class. HE needed cofffee.. lots of coffee
Eventually, Gerard figured he must’ve fallen asleep though, because he heard that voice again telling him to wake up only this time it seemed… familiar. Not as far away. He figured he was dangling somewhere between consciousness and Sleep-a-tude.
“Wake up, Gerard.” Said the voice again.
“I don’t wanna.” Gerard said, just like before.
“Gerard, you need to wake up!” Said the voice, like last time.
Gerard furrowed his brow and opened his eyes. Unlike last time there were no black shadows and red flecks.
Only hazel mist and scorpion clouds.
And this time was different. The voice didn’t morph into a younger, more hurried tone. It remained the same. A now familiar, still extremely gentle voice.
“Gerard, dude, you have to wake up!” Just like last time…
No. it wasn’t
He felt a cold chill down his spine and--
Gerard’s eyes opened with a wild start and his gaze immediately found the calm hazel eyes he’d been dreaming so fondly of only moments before.
“Gerard, dude, you gotta wake up, the final bell just rang and everyone else left already, come on get up!”
“I know your voice. I know where I’ve heard you before. You’re the...” He tried to catch his breath.
“Gerard, are you okay?” Mr. Iero’s eyes were etching with worry.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Mr. Iero looked at him challengingly,” Why don’t I believe you? Come on tell me the truth, okay? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Gerard said and walked over to the door. He heard Mr. Iero sigh heavily and guilt weighed him down for a second. He didn’t want to leave like this, but Mr. Iero just kept on pushing the subject. He had to say something.
He turned around to face Mr. Iero and shrugged.
Mr. Iero sighed again,” I know we don’t know each other that well, but you can come talk to me about anything, okay? And I know you don’t seem like an open page but-“
Gerard shook his head vehemently and said,” But you really need to listen to me, because I’m telling you the truth. I mean it, I’m okay.” He turned and headed down the hallway, looking over his shoulder and yelling:” Trust me!” at the top of his lungs as he made his way home. He really needed a fucking cigarette.

Notes

Okay, so i already i have this story up on Archiveofourown and what not. this is the first fic i've posted here, so enjoy :D