They Don't Believe In Us

chapter iv

Chapter 3

They Don’t Believe In Us

P.E was still going on. I managed to get away from the teacher, but now to find Gerard.

“Geerraarrdd” I shouted dragging out his name… I can’t just leave him! Mr Burkett would never let me do anything again! I ran towards the art block the only place I knew Gerard loved to be. Looking into A1 all I saw was little year 7’s. He would not be in there; the teachers would never let him. I walked past the other art classes, but they too had students in.

Scanning the corridors every nook and cranny, I couldn’t find Gerard anywhere. He had to be here, he had to be.

I pondered a little longer… aha! An idea sprang to mind… I’m sure he would be there.

“Geerraarrdd…” I ran towards the end of the Art block corridor… the supply cupboard. The door creaked slightly from disuse as I opened it.

Sure enough there was Gerard… he had made himself pretty comfortable in there.

“Gerard, I’m sorry…” I was not really sure what I had done so badly, I must have shaken up some pretty bad memories of Mikey and his depression.

“Hope, it’s not your fault… I hate talking about it though” I knew what it referred to, Mikey’s depression.

“I’m always here” I said… a second of silence passed. Crap! Why did I say that? He nodded slightly and I got into the cupboard with him. It quite a squeeze but me managed. He continued snivelling. The door creaked shut, I guess we would be skipping the rest of the day.

Minutes passed and Gerard sat there saying and doing nothing, but this silence was not too awkward, for once.

“I, Uhm, I’m truly sorry… do you wanna… you know? Talk?!” As soon as the sentence left my mouth I knew that it made me sound so weird! He slightly relaxed but made no move to talk.

I slowly inched up to him, like approaching an unknown dog. I rapped my arms around his waist, hugging him. His back stiffened and I felt him tense under my outstretched arms, but still I did not let go, a hug like this was a hug I had not felt in a long time. Eventually his muscles relaxed and he sunk into the hug. I slightly rested my head on his shoulder, waiting for him to talk.

“It’s just it was such a hard time for our family…”

He was opening up, to me! A boy I had met today who was shy and had obviously suffered and he was telling me, pouring his feeling out to a girl who blushed too much and had an obsession with music. He had guts, he was brave, fearless, for all he had gone through he can still trust. I will tell you now, it’s very hard to trust again, especially when trust has been broken in the worst of ways.

“I understand” I whispered my head still resting on his shoulder.

“Everything was falling apart, Mikey got worse, the bullying got worse, and my life got worse”

I thought for a minute how hard it would be to have gone through that. I was just an average girl, I had friends, sure, I wasn’t popular but who really wants to be? My grades were normal, I listened to heavy music, wore skinny jeans and band tee’s, but that doesn’t make me anyone but myself.

“Then my mother and father decided the move here when my grandma passed away…” His frown turned down even more, if even humanly possible. I nodded comfortingly… well, hoping I was comforting him.

“Well, you have only been here one day” My ear pressed to one of his shoulders made my voice sound weird to myself when I talked.

“Nobody likes me”