They Don't Believe In Us (frerard)

14- The Candy Incident that Scared the Shit out of Frank Iero

Frank's POV

I'm stuck grading tests from all the senior classes on a Sunday. Which is supposed to be a day of rest. Well, no, that's not what I'm fucking getting. My brain is fried. Checking work drags me back to my days as an actual student, and it's miserable. Why on earth did I get a job as a teacher? Oh yeah, because I had no clue what I wanted to do with my lame-ass life. "Be a rockstar" was considered unrealistic by my family, even though they saw my ability to play guitar the way I can. So, what did I do? Choose one of the easiest things for me to get a degree for, which of course, was teaching. Three cheers for me. My head is about to explode to the moon when my phone goes off.

A text from Gerard.

Oh thank God, he's just saved my head.

Gee: forgot to tell you my grandma really wants to meet you, too :)

Me: really??! When?!

Gee: as soon as we're all able, is what she said

Me: I'm about to piss myself I'm that excited

Gee: oh god please don't

Me: shut it hah. Well so far I'm free the next two weekends for sure. Let me know?

Gee: definitely

That's the end of our convo until about a minute later I receive another text from Gerard, one I'm least expecting

Gee: I love you

My heart leapt. Damn feeling like a high schooler again with this gooey lovestruck crap that I surprisingly missed so much.

Me: I know

After maybe 30 seconds I send 'I love you too, beautiful' to him, then continue on with my work, I newfound energy kick in my system.

-

The week passed uneventfully, albeit Thursday, which my parents wanted to treat me to dinner for my birthday. Yay. It was nice, except they asked a fuck ton of questions about a fuck ton of random stuff. Including if I "have found myself a nice young lady" yet. You guessed it, my parents are homophobic. Well, not to a full-out extent like the psychos at Westboro Baptist Church, they usually don't have a problem with gays, as long as they keep to themselves, and my parents keep to theirselves. It's just me they're upset about. They wanted a perfect little family, complete with a son who has a loving wife, two kids, a dog, and a nice white picket fence house with a well-paying job, like a doctor. Did I mention to them that in fact there is somebody in my life? No. Solely because they know I teach and if they found out about Gerard and his age they'd immediately be suspicious, let alone not like him from the start. I just wish there was a different way Gerard and I could have met sometimes. We like the same things, shop at the same stores, we'd be bound to run into one another, right? Our whole situation is a mess, and I admit, it sometimes stresses me to no end. This usually leads me to writing out my feelings in my songs. It helps a hell of a lot.

Finally, though, it's Friday the 31st. Of October. Also known as Halloween. Also known as my birthday. Fuck yeah! At school today I just played Nightmare Before Christmas for all my classes. Gerard was obviously happy about that, I noticed him kick his feet excitedly when I told his bell and smile widely at me then toward his friend Andy, who shared his enthusiasm. He was so adorable in that instant, I couldn't help but give him a happy kind of smirk. After his bell had ended, Gerard had stayed behind like he usually does. As soon as the last student leaves he throws himself at me, shouting happy birthday at me and me, in turn, nearly shitting my pants on the spot in shock. I wrap in the tightest hug I could muster.