A Guilt Trip to The Graveyard

Chapter 3

The next morning, when I woke up it was still dark. I looked up towards my dresser, where my alarm clock sat. It was 5am, therefore my mom had left for work, and I'd have to get up in a matter of thirty minutes.
Surely, as expected, my bladder was full from all the drinking the previous night. As I tried to push my body up to head for the bathroom, I panicked slightly when I realized a heavy weight laying between my arm and body. Gerard, I thought. 

I slid him off, and walked to my destination. 
I did what I needed and looked in the mirror as I washed my hands. I looked at the dark skin that basically lived under my eyes now from the lack of sleep. I jumped a bit when I noticed the circular and oval shaped bruises on my collarbone, neck and chest. No. "No, no, no," I whispered as I felt the hickies, "Oh my god, no." 

I sighed, and got into the shower. 
 
Gerard was starting to awake when I walked back into the room. "Good morning," he muttered rolling over and smirking. 

He looked taken back when he saw my bare chest, and laughed obliviously "Damn, Frankie. Who went after you?" I smiled awkwardly and continued to go through my shirts to pick out one for the day. 
A couple minutes passed when I finally decided on a plain black shirt with a small pocket on the front. I tossed it on and faced Gerard who was watching me quietly, trying to wake himself up.

"Frank?" He started in a quiet voice, "What happened last night?" 
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders, "You were drunk," I told him in reassurance, "Nothing more happened," I acted as if I remembered it all, and truth be told, I didn't. But I do know that Gerard woke up with boxers on, and if he were to have taken them off, he was too hammered to get them back on. 

 
"Don't lie to me, Frank." He remarked back.
 
 "You lied to me," I said under my breath. Gerard sat up confused, "No, I haven't. You know how I am about that stuff with you," He was right, I did know. We didn't lie to each other, it was a rule. We both had fairly bad trust issues with people, and we both put a lot of trust into each other, so one of us lying would be like a stab to the heart. It was like a stab to the heart.

"You lied about Lindsey," I pouted, looking him in the eye.
 
He breathed a heavy sigh, not even going to question how I knew. "I was going to tell you, just didn't feel like talking about it right then. I'm hurting, Frank. I wanted to leave the subject alone." I thought for a moment, "Don't lie to me anymore, Gerard." I told him, he nodded and proceeded to get ready for school.

 As we arrived at school, we walked to the courtyard and found our other friends; Ray, Bob, & Gerard's brother, Mikey. 
 
"Thanks for leaving mom to be worried sick, she was crying this morning, Gerard," Mikey said in a stern voice as he pushed Gerard, making him fall backwards a bit.

"She should be used to it by now," Gerard snapped back, "It's not like she actually cares, Mikey! She's just upset because she failed as a parent, you know that? She has two fucked up sons, she's just disappointed." 

Mikey's face instantly turned red as Gerard said this, and without a thought, Mikey's knuckles were impacting Gerard's face, turning the heated conversation into a brawl. 

Knowing the drill by now, Ray, Bob & I immediately pulled the brothers off each other before a teacher had time to see. 
They didn't always fight like this, nor were they always at each other's throats. Surprisingly, they were pretty close, but when it came to Gerard's toxic habits, they weren't exactly the best of friends. Mikey couldn't stand Gerard drinking, or staying out late, or doing anything involving his self-destructive behavior. 
Gerard doesn't care about himself, or anyone really besides the few friends he has, and of course his brother. The lack of self love he has, the teenage angst and the poor relationships he has with family have only ever caused more and more self-destruction, hence his poor eating & sleeping habits, the partying, the drinking, and the fights. It all adds up so well, it's surprising nothing has ever been done, it's only left there to worsen because his parents don't want to deal. 
 
As Mikey was pulled off by Ray & Bob, I grabbed Gerard and he latched onto me and almost instinctively pulled me into a side hug. There was a silence as we all faced each other and the brothers caught their breath. 

"You guys need to stop acting like assholes to each other," Ray said, glaring at the two. 
 
I nodded, and looked up to Gerard, watching his eye as if the slight red color of it was going to change into a dark purple in a matter of seconds. He looked down, and we locked eyes for only a second or two, until I looked over to Mikey, who had his hands on his hips, "I better get to class," he stuttered out.