guys like us // frerard

my cellmate's a killer

Lee yanks me towards a cell where I see the shadowy figure of another man in the corner of the room where the tattered cloth-covered bed is.

"This is your cell. You stay in here at all times, do you hear me? Do not disobey me, cunt." Lee whispers harshly as he throws me onto a bed in the cell. I feel the slight glance from the other bed in the corner of the room. It was my apparent cellmate. He stares for a bit, but doesn't say a word. Well, until Lee exits. With Lee gone, I flip him off.

"Shit," the mystery figure says. "What'd ya do to earn that level of hatred? Kill a man?"

"No," I reply. "Done a lot of underage drinking, smoking and a bit of drugs though. Not many, but enough. He's known me long term. This time I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Looked like I shot someone when I didn't. I swear it was a setup."

"Don't get me wrong, Eyeliner. That's pretty bad shit. But I've seen worse."

"Well what're you in for?" I ask.

"Ah the cliche question. Not much to it, actually. I killed this guy." I give him a slightly shocked look, then he continues. "He fucked with my friend, okay? I knew her for too long, then a guy she meets at a bar comes along and fucking–" he sighs. "It ruined her life. You know what, never mind. I told you enough. I'm Frank."

"Gerard. And well, since you had a reason, it's not that bad, at least in my opinion." I say back.

He looks at me thoughtfully for a second.

"Thanks," he says. But he quickly turns his head back to the "I don't give a shit" expression he had just a moment ago.

Lee walks in again, with a taller man this time.

"You pansies plannin' a make out session?"

I roll my eyes as Frank shuffles in the corner.

"Alright, well, if you ain't gonna talk, you better get used to expecting a beating. Real soon. Especially you, Way."

I give him the well-known "fuck you" expression. He notices and walks firmly over to where I sat, then giving me a strong slap across my face with the belt he was holding. It stung like hell, it's leather exterior and metal buckle aiming to bruise me for sure, but I didn't show it. I kept a straight face as I looked up at him and glared. Lee's back is facing me and I turn back at Frank, when I caught a split-second look of pity. Not the proud pity, but a truly sympathetic pity. He immediately goes back to his monotone expression and stares down at his tattered bedsheets.

The taller man grabs my shirt, shocking me with the force he used to pull me up to my feet. He then drags me over to where Frank is hiding, pulling him off the bed and to his feet as well. "Hey, what's the big idea-" Frank says before the mad grabs his head and slams it into the cell wall. I naturally get defensive, I don't know why.

"Hey, the kid just asked a fucking question? What the hell was that for?" I scold the man. He turns and glares at me while I catch Frank's thankful look on his younger bleeding face. The man lets go of my shirt and grabs my wrist, squeezing his hand as hard as he could, making my bones more audible than I ever thought they could be.

this was gonna be a long night.