Hidden From Reality

8

Gerard

I stared down at my jeans, wondering what Frank had done to them. He had made a rainbow out of sequins and glued it to the fabric with bright pink glitter glue. I held back a laugh as Frank smiled proudly.

"So, what do you think?"

"It's... amazing."

"Wait, you actually like it?"

"Hell yeah. This is cool." Mikey stared at the jeans in concern as I dug Frank's sweatpants out of my bag. I handed them to him, giggling slightly. He stared at the designs that I had Sharpied on.

"Dude, this is epic." I laughed as he stuffed the pants into his bag. Suddenly, the bell rang, startling me. We all joined the mob that was entering the school. For the first time since I started coming to this school, I made it to first hour on time. We walked into class with the other students, which caused Mr.Quinn to look twice. He greeted us, still obviously very surprised. We sat down as he started role call. Not surprisingly, he called my name last. A bunch of kids turned around, seemingly shocked to hear my last name was Way, though I couldn't figure out why they would be surprised. Like, I knew it was an uncommon last name, but it was a pretty basic one. Unlike Frank's, which was Iero. Mr.Quinn started the lecture just as his phone rang. He answered it, then turned around.

"Mr.Iero, Mr.Way. The office wants you two to go up." We both nodded before standing up, leaving the classroom. We eventually got to the front office. The receptionist, Mr.Urie, directed us to the health office. We entered the health office. Mr.Stump wasn't there, but instead the principle was. Mr.Howell sighed.

"So, you two are dating, yes?" We both nodded.

"Alright, just keep it on the downlow. I think you two are adorable together, but others may not agree." We both nodded and went back to class, shocked at the fact that Mr.Howell had to call us to the office for that. We re-entered Mr.Quinn's class just as he was passing out classwork. He didn't say anything as we sat back down and just kept passing out the papers. After first hour, Frank and I walked over to music. Mikey had gone home sick earlier, so he wasn't at school. We entered the music room as the teacher, Mr.Ross, was tuning someone's guitar. Frank got his guitar, Pansy, out of the corner. I dragged Mikey's bass out and got it out of its case.

"You can play bass?"

"Yeah. Mikey taught me. He said that if he ever misses school I have to play his bass for him." I pulled the tuner out of the bottom of the case and tuned the bass. Frank sat next to me and tuned Pansy. We went through music without much problems, except that Mr.Ross kept smiling at us. He congratulated us as we left the classroom. The day eventually ended and Frank walked me home. He followed me inside and went back to my room. Mikey was passed out on the couch. I got a bag of chips out of the kitchen and went back to my room. Frank was sitting on my bed and looked up from his phone when he heard the chip bag russell. I threw the bag at him as I closed my door. He smiled and popped the bag open, digging in for a chip. We sat on my bed and ate, and we eventually heard the front door open. My mom walked back and peaked in.

"Oh! You're Gerard's friend right? I never did catch your name."

"It's Frank."

"Frank..." She gestured for Frank to say his last name.

"Iero." Mom nodded as she left the room. She came back a few minutes later saying that Frank had to leave. I said goodbye as he stood to leave.