Begin Again

Chapter Two

After school, I met up with Lacey in the quad. We had a few minutes until the daily sermon in the school's church. One of the nun's walked up to us and asked us if we were excited for the service today, which was about the book of Leviticus. You know the one that says being gay is an abomination and you're going to hell if you eat shrimp. "Now I know this isn't everyone's favorite book of the Bible, but it's important to learn why they thought these commandments were needed" she said.

Lacey and I exchanged a look. In addition to sermons being as long as a regular class period and being boring as hell, they were also going to make us learn about this terrible book of the Bible. I was the gayest thing to ever walk into this school and Lacey is so empathetic if a dog stubbed his toe, she'd start crying. She's a little bit like Hermione Granger. Remember how Hermione started that movement for the ethical treatment of house elves? That's Lacey. If those two had a child, injustice wouldn't stand a chance.

Before Lacey could start spouting off about burning the book of Leviticus because it's the work of a homophobic douchecanoe, I said we would be looking forward to dissecting scripture. The nun seemed satisfied and walked back to the church to do whatever it is nun's do in their spare time.

I looked at Lacey and saw her just about fuming.
"So I guess we're skipping this service?" I said.
"Definitely skipping" she replied through her teeth.

We went around to the gardens behind the church and sat underneath some trees. We lit up cigarettes and started smoking our way to lung cancer. Lacey still looked pissed. "I don't understand how they can endorse such.. such trash! And then they say that we have to live by that trash or burn for all eternity! That's the kind of propaganda you would find in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany!" As you might have noticed, Lacey and the Catholic Church are not on the best terms.

"You have zero tolerance for intolerance", I said, "I know, it sucks that these people won't open up their eyes and realize that what applied a thousand years ago doesn't apply today. It's a different world every day"
"That was pretty deep, man" she said, "We should spray paint zero tolerance for intolerance on the doors of the church "
"Okay, Martin Luther, let's go get some spray paint" I replied.

We laughed and walked a few blocks to Home Depot and found a can of red spray paint. We dug around in our pockets and between us came up with nine dollars and seventy cents. Just barely enough to finance our venture. We went up to the counter and the guy rung it up. We put our money on counter and the guy looked at us suspiciously. We must have been interesting, two teenagers in Catholic school uniforms, lit cigarettes in our hands and the smell of dirt and leaves clinging to us.

Lacey smiled innocently up at him. He looked from us to the money and the can of paint. He rolled his eyes and gave us our change and the can. Lacey and I walked out of the store, blowing smoke over our heads and walking towards the church.

We walked up to the doors. Lacey said,"Frank, boost me up on your shoulders". I crouched down and she sat on my shoulders. I grabbed her legs and stood up. She shook the can and started doing the thing. "Hold still, Frank! We're wobbling all over the place!" she said as she tried to balance on top of me. "Lacey, I am a weak New Jersey child. What did you expect?" I said. Just as she finished the last letter, my legs gave out and we came crashing down.

After untangling ourselves, we stood up to look at the church doors. The message looked great, even though it was a little wobbly. We heard people coming, so we ran to the garden, ditched the can of paint and stomped on our cigarettes. We walked back around to the front of the church just in time to see a nun cross herself. We giggled and melted into the crowd.

One of the priests came out and gave us a speech about how the world doesn't respect the Catholic church anymore and whoever did this will burn. Blah blah blah.
Shut up please. He eventually stormed off and one of the nuns dismissed us. Lacey and I laughed and chatted about our adventure all the way home. She was bouncing with joy and achievement. We turned onto our street and were halfway to her house when we heard tires screeching and the sound of someone hitting the ground.

We turned around and saw that about 50 feet away from us, an SUV had hit a man walked across the street. He was lying across the street looking like a puppet with it's strings cut. Lacey screamed and we ran over to him. A woman in heels and a suit got out of the car and called 911. Adults from around the neighborhood had gathered around the fallen man.

Lacey and I felt for a pulse and after finding one tried to wake him up. We did CPR, mouth to mouth, pounded his chest and slapped him a couple of times, doing anything to try to save him. It wasn't until someone made us lay him on his back that I got a good look at his face.

The world stopped moving. My mouth dropped open and I felt the blood drain away from my face. It was him. He was back. I scrambled to grab his wallet out of his pocket. I fumbled and looked at his driver's license. Definitely him. Gerard Way. Born April 9, 1977. He took a piece of me with him when he left two years ago. He brought it back and now the man I loved is unconscious in my arms.

.............................................................................................
Yo if anyone actually reads this, that last part ended up kind of cliche. Sorry. Also this pretty short. Hopefully, I'll get better at this. I'll probably do the writing thing every day, maybe every week depending on school.