Catholic School Brat

Cigarette Smiles

Gerard stubbed out his cigarette on the pavement in front of school, flicking the ash with his fingers to create a smiley face. Satisfied with his work, Gerard stood up and quickly jogged past the front doors of St. Andrew's and to the back of the school. He had forgotten to do his art homework, again, totally not because he was gee, I dunno, rewatching The Crow three times in a row. I mean, he had forgotten to do his other subject's homework to, but art homework was the only subject he really cared about. He'd get to his other homework if he could, but, if he didn't get to it, well, he really didn't give a shit about who the fuck Charlemagne was.

Gerard sighed as he walked a few feet into the woods, and he swore, there was something about the looming pines that cleared his head. Something about feeling small next to something that naturally was grander than you, that naturally would outlive you, or, he just really enjoyed the quiet absence of Pete Wentz's annoying voice, booming through the halls from Mikey's room.

He found his usual tree, an 'X' carved into the base of the trunk of his favourite evergreen. It wasn't too sappy, it had an abundance of close tree branches, it was one of the tallest, and, evidently, the best place to complete shitty ass perspective drawings.

If anyone found out about how surprisingly quick he could climb trees, swinging himself up through the branches easier than breathing to him, his weird, only "slightly" homosexual, art freak esque aura would be completely shattered. As Gerard leaned back against the tree, enjoying being closer to the seemingly constant nebulous sky, Frank Iero was finishing putting on his eyeliner in his mother's car and quickly exiting the vehicle before she could yell at him more for making her drive him to school so early.

Frank stared at the plethora of stomped over and dirtied gum on the walkway into school and was pretty surprised when he saw cigarette ash in the form of a smiley face. He grinned, mirroring the ashy smile on the ground and silently blessed the person who had also expressed their passive aggressive hatred for St. Andrew's Catholic School.

He resisted the urge to take a picture of the ash because it fit well with his tumblr aesthetic, but he was already late to his 'date' behind school. Upon reaching his destination-the desolate area behind the school gym, facing the woods-he thought about the cigarette smile again and was suddenly really craving nicotine. He attempted to control his shakes as a jock, wearing the school uniform clad with Sperries and nike socks, walked up to him and leant on the wall beside him.

"Hey, Brendon," Frank said kindly, turning to face the boy in front of him with a knowing smile.

Gerard watched all of this from above, wondering what on earth was going on. Brendon Urie genuinely was too concerned about his quiff and social status to be hanging out with someone like Frank, because while Frank was hotter to Gerard than Brendon Urie and far more interesting, the rest of the school did not seem to think so-and certainly not Brendon Urie.

And I swear, Gerard nearly fell out of the fucking tree when Frank leant in and started kissing Brendon Urie and oh fuck did his heart drop, but oh fuck Frank Iero was another homosexual and Gerard Way had never felt more alive in his life.

He watched with curious eyes as Frank skillfully made out with the number one star of the football team, the fucking quarterback that was going to take the team to states, and fuck, Gerard was hoping to god they would stop before anything serious and his worries were soon put to rest as the school bell rung, and Brendon pulled away, saying something to Frank, both of them laughing and Gerard's heart ached a little at the sound of Frank's giggle echoing up through the trees to meet his ears.

Even though Brendon seemed satisfied, Frank remained in the same spot, standing up and looking confident until Brendon left, and then he sunk to the ground. Gerard watched Frank carefully as he started to shake-not from tears from what he could see-as he pulled something out from his school bag. A box of what looked to be empty Marlboros. Now this really broke Gerard's heart because Frank was out of cigarettes, and he knew what it was like to go through a whole school day with no reprieve.

'Hey, Geraaaaaard, guess who just bought a fresh pack this morning??' the voice in his head asked him annoyingly. And Gerard sighed, because any excuse of talking to Frank Iero was good enough for him. He packed up his mostly finished perspective drawing and pencil, shoving the items into his backpack and swiftly climbing down, skipping the last few branches and jumping to the forest floor, a soft landing thanks to the pine needles.

And damn, Frank Iero nearly shit himself because like a fucking angel Gerard had descended from the heavens and was walking over to him, looking directly at him.

"Dude, where the fuck did you come from? And also, fuck you, I nearly pissed myself," Frank said to Gerard in a light tone, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Gerard walked over to him and sat down next to him before pulling out his pack of cigarettes and tossing them to Frank, "You looked like you needed a cigarette."

"You were watching me?" Frank asked, kind of weirded out because Gerard fucking Way had seen him makeout with Brendon Urie and he didn't really know if he was ready for that.

"Yeah, I go up there," and Frank was genuinely like, for a few seconds like holy fuck Gerard Way is an actual angel, until- "in the trees to make art for class, which I almost always am doing every morning because I'm a lazy shit who enjoys watching The Crow three times in a row," Gerard replied, sighing at his own incompetence as a human being while Frank was really trying not to push him to the fucking ground and fucking kiss him right there because holy hell.

"The Crow is a fucking masterpiece, totally worth it," Frank said, lighting a cigarette and inhaling deeply because fuck you he had a lot of problems and yes, fucking up his lungs was one of them, but he didn't really care at this point because smoking felt good.

"You and Brendon make an.. interesting couple," Gerard said, grinning at his shoes as he pulled at a lose piece of thread from his school issued khaki pants, which were too tight on him but he wasn't about to do anything about it because his ass looked great.

"Me and Brendon are not a couple," he said with a laugh, "we just have an arrangement... So do Pete and I, Patrick, Ryan..." Frank trailed off not really wanting to list off half of the boys in their school.

"Wait, wait," Gerard turned to Frank, "you kiss-obviously sexually confused-boys, for free-they just have to ask?"

Frank nodded, unsure of where this was going, "well fuck, if I'd have known it was that easy I'd have stopped coming up with movie related pick up lines months ago!" Gerard exclaimed with a laugh as he stood up and brushed off his pants.

"Wait, w-what?" Frank asked, confused and grinning up at Gerard who just shook his head, smiling, "nothing, forget I said anything, I'd rather work for it. I'm a romance slut," he declared as he waved goodbye at Frank and started walking to his class.

"Hey!" Frank called at him, and Gerard turned around, still smiling, "Are you going to forget to do art homework tonight?"

"Oh, for sure," Gerard threw back at Frank, "and will you be joining me?" he asked, not as subtle as Frank as he bit his lip.

"Abso-fucking-lutely!" Frank called back, ending the statement with a giggle as he pushed his emo fringe away from his face, and then Gerard turned around, walking into the hell hole called school with an actual smile on his face.