𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ✹ 𝐠. 𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱𝐱𝐢𝐢 - 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥

Haven

It was the first day back from summer break and to say I was less than excited was a total understatement. I was exhausted and got way too little sleep last night and I was planning on recovering those lost hours at any literature period I had today. If you're wondering, gerard was the one to blame for my sleepless night. We stayed up on the phone just talking until past 3 in the morning. Sometimes I'm thankful that Tommen has a uniform, it saves me the stress of choosing what to wear each day. It was decent, the skirt made my legs look longer than they were (i think because it sat three fingers above my knee, or rather three fingers above dress code) and the jumper we were made to wear was actually comfortable. I debated whether to leave my hair down or pick it up. It was at that annoying middle ground where it was clean but not like clean clean. I was in the middle of reaching out for my straightener to straighten it when Johnny knocked on my bedroom door.

"Haven hurry up we're going to be late and it's literally the first day back" Johnny called out from outside my room.

"One second!" I replied putting the straightener down and reaching for a hair tie, updo it is. I took my schoolbag from off my chair and hurried outside, not forgetting to rub Atlas between his ears before I took off. "Jesus finally" Johnny muttered, leaning off the car hood and hopping inside the driver's seat.

It took him about 3 minutes into the drive to break the silence and ask. "What's up with you, you're acting weird"

I turn to look at him with my head tilted to the side "i'm not acting weird, johnny. what on earth are you on about?"

He took his eyes off the road momentarily and gave me a look which made me internally squirm. "You are acting weird, being all dodgy and shit since the party a couple days ago. What's up? You can talk to me." then his brows knitted and he kicked into full big brother mode (or bulldozer mode, choose your adjective) "did someone do something to you there? Did anyone say something mean?"

I pulled my hair to the side as he went on and on and began to just braid a loose braid while trying to reassure I was fine and that I did nothing at the party that would make me act dodgy now.

Well I did do something but I couldn't tell him that, never ever ever.

"Nothing happened I promise" I lied tying the end of my braid with my hair tie. Johnny parked his car and turned off the ignition, staring at me long and hard as if trying to decide whether I was lying or not. I just stared back until I assumed he got bored and let out a long sigh that reminded me a lot of the ones my father gave my mother whenever he guessed he was losing the argument. Johnny grumbled something unintelligible and got out of the car, an action that I followed.

We walked up to the Tommen's entrance and I fought off the urges to audibly gag when I saw Neal and his dumb friends posted up on a bench. Tommen College's building was old and I loved the architecture of the exterior. The inside was remodeled ages ago but it still kept that Hogwarts vibe I loved so much.

Johnny parted ways with me, or rather I left him, when Shannon came giggling and jumped into his arms. That was my cue to leave because I always third wheeled with them and as much as I loved my brother I wasn't going to put myself into that position, it was excruciatingly awkward plus I always felt weird when that happened. I made my way to my locker to do a little book switch. I then caught a whiff of a specific scent that lingered around a very specific someone. Closing up my locker, I turned around to find a grinning Gerard leaning against the lockers with his tie undone. "Hi" he said and I swore I saw a glimmer in his grey eyes.

"Hi" I replied whilst locking up my locker.

"Walk you to class?" He asked before following up "you have biology right? I have chemistry in the same building so"

I never told him I had biology as my first period, but my class schedule was hanging up on my bedroom bulletin board and on my kitchen's fridge so I guessed he saw it, nevertheless, I didn't ask how he knew.

"Sure" I replied, beginning to walk down the halls over to the school wing where our classes were. I had my books clutched to my chest with one hand while his were under his arm opposite of me, which left our hands closest to each other free. My fingers itched to take his in mine but we couldn't, it was a very public setting.

Whatever we had started those nights ago when we kissed was wonderful of course, but we had settled sort of an unspoken set of rules. The one that was first and highlighted in neon pink was probably that no one should know. No one could know. Especially not people at school because people talk and if word got to Johnny, Gerard would be six feet under and I would get the silent treatment for life.

It hurt that we couldn't act like we were into each other publicly, but being able to do it behind closed doors made it a bit more bearable. "So did you sleep well?" Gerard teased, giving me his trademark cheeky grin while ignoring the group of girls who gave me death glares. I didn't ignore them though, I never could. It was as if any time I was around my brother or his friends I would get said glares, just as if they wanted to stab my eyes out for even being near them.

"No, actually" I replied, looking away from the girls and appreciating the cover Gerard's body gave me "thanks yo you I didn't"
He let out a playful scoff which made me smile "Oh shut up, you also didn't want to hang up last night so the fault is also yours"
It was true, I liked the sound of his voice too much to just close the call and get sleep. I knew I would regret it the next day but that was a risk I was willing to take.

"Is um, Johnny out this afternoon?" Gerard asked, casually changing topics as we went around a corner. I furrowed my brows on instinct while I tried to think of my brother's schedule. What does he have monday evening? 
"I think so, yeah" I replied with a nod "Why, what's up? Do you want to come over?"

He looked down at me and ran a hand through his hair as we stopped a few feet away from the biology class where I was supposed to be headed to "Do you want me to?"

I gave him a tentative nod that then turned to an assured one. I did want him to come over, I really did.

"Okay, I'll be there at 4, that work for you?" He replied, almost trying to hide his smile.

The sound of the bell rang through my ears and I cursed school periods. "See you later Haven" He murmured, walking backwards facing me.

"Bye Gerard" I replied before my eyes widened "Careful with the wall behind-!" I called out and then my hand went straight to my mouth as I tried my best to muffle a laugh. Gerard collided straight into the wall and he let out a grunt, but didn't fall down.

✹✹✹

author's note;
hi loves! so sorry for the long wait but here is chapter 21. school's back in session sooo we're gonna get some cute little scenes over at Tommen. lmk what you thought of this chapter and thanks so so much for 13.1k reads, it means the word that you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.

don't forget to comment and vote and see you on the next chapter!

word count; 1509