I Drew You Once in Art Class

Fifty-Eight

"Grounded."
Frank slammed his tray down on the lunch table in front of Gerard. "Can you believe it?"

The two had texted that morning and planned out a place for them to sit in the bustling lunch room, a quiet table in the back where no one ever sat.

"I mean, yeah, you did sort of put a hole in your face with- like- a safety pin... and without perm-"

Frank threw a noodle at him.

"Gross, cut it out! These things are probably poisonous!"

(Irrelevant, but the school Mac & Cheese was in fact not poisonous, but the lunch lady did happen to have a large collection of poisons in her basement for other people, not the kids.)

Gerard threw the noodle right back at him. They were both laughing when suddenly Gerard sobered.

"Are we gonna talk about what happened?"

The grin quickly fell away from Frank's face. "Um..." he started. "I don't know."

"Well... why'd you do it?" Gerard poked at the mac and cheese with his fork.

"Should I not have?"

"No, I didn't say that. I was just wondering what it was about, is all."

"Well, you kind of had just told me that you liked me."

Gerard blushed. "I wasn't planning on telling you that, honestly. I wasn't lying or anything, but it sorta just slipped."

Frank's hands twiddled. "Well, I mean. It's... It's..." he started over. "I like you too. If you didn't pick that up."

Gerard smiled at the table. "You're a nerd."

"Hey, you started it." Frank pushed a piece of hair out of Gerard's eye.

He pulled away. "Hey, not here."

"Why not?"

"Just don't, Frank."

Okay.

He felt his stomach twist and brought his fingers to his mouth, making him bite at his nails. It was a habit he'd had since he was little, but now it only came out when he was nervous. Gerard seemed to take notice and his face softened.

"Hey, I didn't mean to be harsh, I just-"

The bell cut him off.

Frank didn't wait to find out what he was just, because he wanted to leave. He was just about dying of embarrassment.

"I have to get to English," he said, looking at the floor. It wasn't that he was angry, exactly, because Gerard had had every right to say that and that was fair, but doing something stupid was never fun and Frank had never handled embarrassment well.

So he turned on his heel and went to English.