If These Walls Could Talk [Frerard]

4: Passing Notes is Harder Than It Looks.

   The building didn't seem as big as we walked back into the noisy cafeteria. I walked around the edge of the room, avoiding all other people, as I made my way back to the table that Ray and Bob were currently seated at. It seemed that Mikey had joined them, and that made me smile a little bit. Mikey rarely joined us for lunch, usually disappearing during the freetime. Frank followed me, his lunch bag occasionally hitting my leg as he swung it in his hands.

We slid into the bench next to each other, the table mostly even, except for Mikey making it an odd number of people. This meant that we weren't evenly lined to talk to each to each other, which sort of bugged me. I liked to be able to speak to people without having to lean over something to get their eye contact. Still, I didn't mind that Mikey was there. It was nice having around when he was. After all, he always locked himself in his room down the hall when we got home. Neither of us really wanted to be outside of them, anyway. Too much effort to walk down the hall and risk being spotted by strange family members.

Lunch only lasted a few more minutes, and we all knew that. Except for Frank, of course, who had only joined the school yesterday so he wasn't expected to be totally enlightened on the time that the bell rang was. In those last few minutes, Ray grinned and stood to take his tray of empty food to the kitchen. In fact, he did that to everyone sitting at the table, except the ones who bought school lunch. Just as he came back, one of the teachers yelled out, "Lunch is over!" And everyone began to stand up in a wave of noise. I thought this was something that really made school seem even more like a prison of some sorts.

It was hard to keep track of Frank whilst trying to keep up with Bob and Ray. Being that Frank was so small and it was like a river full of people, you couldn't really expect to keep a grip on him as people swerved in and out of others to get to the front. I would occasionally hear the small squeak from Frank to get my attention. I would have to slow down, allowing other students to yell at me. I'm pretty sure I heard that Wentz kid yell at me in a pretty upset tone. Mikey seemed to like him, even if I didn't understand the full reason why.

Once we managed to get to our next class, things began to settle down a little bit. Just as we sat down, two kids flew into our field of vision, the one kid's red hair being the thing that my eyes were drawn to first. His pal was next to him, slamming into his side and throwing him off slightly, but not quite knocking off his smile.

"Hey, Gerard, right?" The red-haired boy asked, his face beaming.

I huffed, "Yea, why?"

"Well, I'm Josh and this is—"

"I'm Tyler." Josh's friend said, my eyes looking down at Tyler's arm and wondering why he had band-looking tattoos, as in lines, on his arm.

"What do you guys want?" I asked, leaning back in my chair as Frank minded his own business next to me.

"We just wanted to meet the new guy," Josh said, my arm swinging to hit Frank's leg to get his attention. I obviously startled him because his pencil, the one I'd given him earlier, jerked for a moment across the page and left a gray line across the page. Frank looked between me and the two strangers in front of him, both of them giving expecting looks.

"I..uhm.." Frank stuttered, trying to figure out what to say. I nudged his elbow, encouraging him to speak up, "I'm Frank."

Tyler and Josh were now just about to turn into living rays of sunshine because of that. I smiled kindly to Frank, whose shoulders raised up to his ears. I laughed softly at his puppy-ish look as a hand suddenly flew past my face.

"Well, hello Frank!" Tyler said, his arm extended and waiting to shake his hand, "I'm Tyler. This is Josh."

Frank's hand extended hesitantly, my eyes staring at his expression. He looked almost shy, which I'd never known from him by merely looking at the two days we'd spent together. He still took Tyler's hand however, then shaking Josh's with an awkward smile on his face. Afterwards, the two boys retreated to their own desks across the room. I watched them leave until I heard a large exhale from behind me. I turned to see Frank, looking down at his hands, his shoulders back in their relaxed position that they always remained in.