The Kids From Yesterday

Boy Division

Day in and day out, my thoughts become harder to control and my need for self mutilation becomes stronger. I'd hold in though, I'd keep living for Frank. I promised him I would even though I might never see him again, part of me felt like if I tried to kill myself again, Frank would know, he would know I had broken his promise.

I looked over at my phone that had been playing "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin for the past few minutes signalling that I had to get up. I didn't want to get up today or any other day. It had been a week since the day I met Frank and each day I don't see him a shred of hope fly's away. I try and contain that hope but somedays it's no use. 

I had been laying awake in bed for half an hour when I realized that I was going to be late for school, I decided not to rush the process of getting there and made breakfast. It was 9:30 and school started at 8:25 it was the third time this week I had been late and it was only Thursday. I walked down my  hallway  to the front door where I put on my scuffed up black doc martins and headed out the door. I was about halfway to school when I thought I heard someone calling my name.

"Hey... HEY YOU" I looked around but didn't see anyone. I swear I'm going crazy, maybe that would be a good thing because then I could get admitted into a mental hospital and get pulled out of school.

"Dude, guy from last week!" I heard more shouting but still didn't see anyone. Yep I'm defiantly going crazy, I continued walking until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped in surprise thinking it might have been one of those ass holes from school who had come to use me as a live punching bag, until I turned around and saw Frank. I couldn't believe it, it was actually him. I didn't think i'd ever see him again but here he was standing in front of me. It seemed sorta unreal, almost to good to be true so I reached out and touched his face.

"Umm what are you doing?" The significantly shorter boy asked.

"S-Sorry" I stuttered "Thought I was hallucinating"

"It's fine I guess" He chuckled "So looks like you're still standing?"

"What do you mean?" I asked

"I mean you've managed to stay alive another week. I'm proud of you" I don't know how this guy could possibly be proud of me considering I've only met him once and I was probably at the lowest point of my life around that time, but it felt nice to have someone that actually cared.

"Yeah I haven't , I guess it's because of you"

"Because of me?" Frank asked.

"Yeah" I blushed slightly and shifted my feet. "I guess you just have that effect on people"

"You're the first to say that" He did a small laugh and put his hands in his back pockets.

"You're kidding" I said, or more so asked.

"Yeah I'm invisible to most people, no one really wants to hear what I have to say"

I was surprised, the way Frank conducted himself last week I would have a assumed he was a guy that had a way with his words, a guy who had his whole life together, but I guess I thought wrong. I knew exactly how he felt though.

"I know how you feel" I replied.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" He asked changing the subject.

"Just because I should be doesn't mean I want to be."

"Touché"

I wonder where this conversation was heading, I'd only talked to Frank once in my entire life before this, I barely even saw his face the night he saved my life when the night cast shadows upon his pale face. I really did want to spend more time getting to know him but I was scared to ask.

"Well since you're not going to school today any way.. You want to hang out?" Guess I didn't need to ask.

"Yeah that would be nice" I replied.

~&&&&&&&~

After around half an hour of trying to decide what to do Frank and I ended up going to the park by my house that I'd been going to for years. We were sitting on the swings when I realized had just skipped school for a boy who I didn't really even know.

"So Frank?" I asked " How old are you anyways?"

"Sixteen" He replied "But I'll be seventeen in October." Frank was so young I may only be a year and a half older than him but sixteen was such a young age, an age where you could actually be doing something with your life. It was an age when you could have the most freedom a teenager could ask for, but here was Frank, probably skipping school, all for some strange suicidal high school senior he just met.

"So why aren't you in school then?" I asked

"School just wasn't really my thing" was all he said. But I understood him. High school was a shitty place where everyone hated you if you weren't one of the popular kids. Where you were judged by the teachers if you weren't an A plus student, where they over loaded you with homework that caused you even more stress than it needed to if you left it at home, Which always seemed to happen to me. Also high school, probably the leading cause of suicide and depression in teens. If that doesn't sound like a horrific place to be than I don't know what is. I'd rather go to the underworld and spend some quality time with Hades then go to school. But that wasn't exactly an option.

"I get that" was the only thing I could manage to say without going into a full on rant about the horrors of high school.

Frank and I just sat there and talked for hours until I had to go home, I learned that he played guitar and sang, I also learned that when he was in school he was the shortest guy in all his classes. I learned that he once went to the hairdressers three times in two weeks because he liked it when they washed his hair and gave him a head massage. Now Frank Iero was no longer a stranger to me, we were friends and I wanted to keep it that way.