My Watercooler Romance // Frerard

Chapter 2 - And you're never gonna be cool so stop trying.

Don't you just love driving through the country, all the beautiful views of hills and grassy shit and just having everything be quiet and peaceful around you, whilst you blare some awesome as fuck rock music at full volume and flip off any drivers that look at you through their own car's window?

Yeah, same.

So I drove away from my old prison and towards my freedom, blaring Bullet With Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins as I sped along the motorway.

The four hour drive was damn long. I may have stopped at a fast food joint on the way...

I get hungry, ok?!

Eh, I regret nothing.

But soon enough I was driving along East 23rd Street, and then the drive was finally over. I pulled in through that large open gates that lead to my new school and left my car locked in the parking lot out front.

I climbed out and hauled some bags from the boot, before dragging them along a short pathway to the front of the school.

'Hi!' said a perky woman standing behind a counter just inside. 'Welcome to School of Visual Arts! What's your name?'

'Gerard,' I said, slightly distractedly. This place was pretty huge.

'Gerard what?'

'Way,' I said, 'Gerard Way.'

'What're you studying?' she said, typing something - probably my name - into a computer.

'Cartooning,' I said, still looking around the reception area. This place looked quite intimidating now.

'Great,' said the women. She reached into a box under her desk and pulled out a key. Handing it to me, she said, 'you're in room 138, your roommate hasn't arrived yet, but you're more than welcome to go up there now. It's just up those stairs and to the right,' she finished, indicating a staircase to the right.

I took the key and thanked her politely before hauling my crap upstairs. My roommate was some guy named Ray Toro - that's all I know about him so far. I hope he's not a dick.

Somehow I managed to find the room. I shoved my bags in and took a look around. The room was a decent size, with a window to the left overlooking New York. There were two beds; one against the back wall and one against the wall opposite the window. I chose the bed against the back wall, because it was that darkest. I pulled my bags over and began to shove my clothes into piles on the bed, before beginning to heave them into one of the wardrobes. Then, I stacked shoes into the bottom of the wardrobe and took my toothbrush, toothpaste, shower gel and shampoo into the small bathroom. The door to the bathroom was right next to the door that connected the room to the corridor; I wonder how long it'd take me to be able to tell the difference in one attempt.

I sat on my bed with my sketchbook for a while, sketching out a new character, The Breakfast Monkey. I had to draw him a few times before it looked right but it was worth it.

'Hey, you must be Gerard!' I heard a voice call out after what felt like five minutes. A glance at the clock on the wall, however, told me it had been an hour.

'Yeah, that's me,' I said, eying him up and down. He was wearing ripped up jeans and a plain black shirt. His hair was out of control in a crazy afro. Seems like a decent guy so far, I guess. 'And you must be Ray.'

Ray approached me, his hand outstretched to shake mine. 'Yeah, that's me.' I shook his hand politely, flipping my sketch pad over as I did so, hiding The Breakfast Monkey.

'What' you drawing?' Ray said as he began to drag a suitcase over to his bed and started pulling clothes from it and dumping them in untidy piles across his bed.

'Nothing,' I muttered, tucking the sketch pad under my bed.

'Oh, right,' said Ray, unoffended. 'Yeah, it's cool if you don't wanna show me.'

'Thanks,' I said quietly. I liked this guy already.

'Hey, we should probably go to the orientation,' said Ray after about ten minutes, after he had mostly finished unpacking.

'Uuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh' I whined. I had been stalking tags on Instagram on my phone whilst Ray unpacked, waiting for him to say that. I was fully aware of the fact that we were supposed to be at orientation right now but I honestly couldn't be fucked to actually go.

People.

Socialising.

I mean seriously. Why???

'C'mon, man,' said Ray, making his way to the door, 'just put up with it for ten minutes and we'll leave.'

'Good plan,' I said, smiling slightly as I followed Ray out.