~fourteen~

gerard walked in at a steady pace, eyeing down everyone. they were all staring in fear which amused gerard.

he made his way to his locker and heard everyone let out a sigh of relief before beginning to talk again. gerard gathered up his books and made sure to have his notebook on him.

a thought occurred in his mind which he stopped in his tracks to. he slammed his locker shut and walked around for a while. he finally came upon his brother, talking to other kids that were deemed "popular" by everyone else.

all of them shifted their attention to gerard who was just standing there calmly. they all slowly departed from mikey and gerard stepped closer.

"hey, bud, let's go have a talk, alright?"

mikey didn't budge, just standing there. gerard sighed and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him into an empty workroom.

"gerard, i'm sorry, i-"

"how did frank find out about... b-b-bert ?"

mikey stood there awkwardly without a word. his eyes paced around nervously with his feet shifting and shifting.

"mikey, how did he find out." he growled through his teeth, backing him up against the counter.

"someone previously told him who bert was. then he-he came to me... and i-i.. i'm sorry gerard, i didn't-"

"mikey, you don't understand how much fucking havoc this has caused!" gerard backed away, sighing in anger.

"it happened f-five years ago... is it still that big of a deal?"

"yes! and i never wanted that little shit to know about it. but look here, my dumbass brother has to mess up everything."

"why can't you just like... talk to him?"

"mikey- i swear to god, you're fucking dumb as shit sometimes. frank's just terrified of me now."

"isn't that what you wanted in the first place?"

"yea yea, whatever. but you screwed this up." he said, punching his chest lightly.

"gerard, i-i-"

gerard's focus was shifted towards the doorway, where stood awsten. he was furious, his whole face turning a red-pink color. his arms were folded across his chest and his posture was straight up. he looked like a mad kindergartener who didn't get their way.

"look, the psycho's at it again." awsten teased, chuckling.

"what the fuck do you need, awsten." gerard groaned.

"nothing. just thought it would be necessary to tell the school you were verbally abusing your brother for the fun of it." awsten said, cocking his head to the side.

"you don't even know what fucking happened." gerard sneered.

"mikey, get outta here." awsten commanded in a somewhat new york accent. mikey did as so, fleeting out as fast as he could.

"you're just like him." gerard smirked, shaking his head.

"like who?" awsten questioned.

"overprotective as shit. you just want to keep frank all to yourself and not let him see anyone else. you know i'm right." gerard stepped closer to him.

"i'm only keeping him away from you, dipshit." awsten sneered.

"anyways, where is he?" gerard asked calmly.

"i'm not telling you." awsten said sternly.

"oh, well... i guess we don't want to get into the same situation like last time." gerard chuckled.

"i'm not letting you hurt him again." awsten said.

"you really think i can't control myself."

"no, you can't. you're fucking crazy, gerard."

"you don't know shit."

"i'm not letting him near you because you're just gonna manipulate him or something."

gerard tilted his head to the side, cracking his knuckles. the bell rang which interrupted the two. awsten sighed and ran off while gerard just stood there.

"are you gonna come to class or not?"

gerard snapped his head around to see frank standing there, alone. just the opposite of what awsten was going on about.

"probably not." gerard sighed.

"whatever." frank said with wry, reaching to the door handle.

"um, frank?" gerard said hesitantly.

"yea?" frank stopped, turning his head to face gerard.

"let's talk for a moment, ok?" gerard asked, grabbing frank's arm. frank nodded and sat down next to gerard on the counter.

"who told you about- uh... bert ?" gerard asked, folding his hands in his lap.

"i made a promise, gerard." frank responded calmly, toying with something in his pocket.

"what's that?" he asked, referring to whatever was in frank's pocket. the younger boy sighed and pulled it out, unfolding a few papers. he then handed them to gerard, hands shaking rapidly.

gerard went through the papers only to find that they were clear documents of bert. he was very precise about it, too.

"frank, where did you get all of this information?" gerard asked, fingernails gnawing into the thin paper.

"i cant," frank sighed, snatching the papers back.

"what did you know about bert before you came to mikey?" gerard rephrased, catching frank off guard.

"fine- ty-tyler told me. but only because i asked him. don't hurt him, please." frank said, backing away slowly. gerard looked closer in. it was all coming back to him.

on frank's first day. he was so awkward and hesitant. wearing his black sweatshirt and his skinny jeans. he was still wearing his skeleton gloves. gerard was sure he never took them off, since he had never seen his entire hand.

gerard observed more closely, so many memories coming back. to when him and frank first made eye contact, or when frank finally approached him. yet, there was something that had stayed the same. his eyes still filled with fear, his lips still filled with melancholy.

even after all this time, he wasn't used to it. but gerard understood. frank had came from somewhere else which seemed to be just as bad. yet gerard couldn't imagine a place worse than st. joseph high. this place used to be a meth lab, explaining all the boarded up materials in science labs and lack of security. the teachers couldn't care less for the students, letting them practically leave the school whenever. but, who knows, that's frank's secret of his own.

gerard always was finding new things about frank. at one point he thought he knew the pure maximum. then the next he was awaiting the next lick of information he could possibly get. basic things stayed the same, while others that nobody ever expected would just come up. gerard kept track of all of these things, of course.

"gerard?"

he snapped out of trance, realizing how close he had gotten to frank in these moments. he was so lost in his thoughts he just forgot all of reality.

"sorry." he clenched his teeth and looked down.

"you're fine." frank blew it off, sitting back up.

"you still think i'm crazy because of bert, don't you?" gerard asked, looking up.

"i don't even know your side, so i really shouldn't be one to assume that it's all your fault." frank shrugged.

"but, like-"

"hey, stop being a softie." frank chuckled, lightly hitting gerard's forearm playfully.

"well, if you really wanna know my side, i'm gonna have to be "soft."" gerard smiled off to the side.

"fine." frank smiled back.

gerard went on for a while it seemed like. but frank didn't care. he was intrigued, staring and listening to gerard intently.

"but, it really was my fault. he was a good kid and i fucked that up." gerard sighed, looking off to the side.

"no, i understand what you're trying to get at." frank said, head dropping down.

"so you don't think i'm a crazed psychopath?" gerard asked.

"not as much as i used to." frank joked, the two breaking into laughter. gerard then stopped abruptly, turning to face frank.

"what's wrong?" frank asked innocently.

gerard looked around for a few seconds, making sure nobody was around. he then grabbed the collar of frank's shirt, pulling him close enough to gerard. he then kissed him, getting heated quickly.

frank then broke it off when the dismissal bell rang. he looked down silently, licking his lips. he looked back up at gerard and tried his best to hold back a smile. gerard chuckled off to the side in an odd manner, not the kind that you would expect.

"bye, frankie." he smiled vehemently, walking out the door.