Paperclips and Cigarettes

Chapter 1 - Red Hair

I fumble with my shaking fingers as I sit on my bed nervously. I've tried to distract myself from the swirling thoughts in my head by putting away my clothes and unpacking, but my new roommate is late and I have nothing to do. I turn around to the wall next to my small bed and straighten out the posters on the wall, the dimly lit room making it hard to do so. The first day of a new year always stresses me out, I hate new people. Well, that's not true - I do like people. I'm just scared. I'm always scared - in good reason too. Well at least it's my last year in this hell hole. And it is Friday.

My entire body starts to shake and I walk over to the tiny counter to make some coffee and grab a cigarette. The water boils away as I walk over to the window and open it as I light my cigarette. I put the rolled suicide to my lips and take a long drag, the familiar feeling running through my veins like gold. A billow of steam has started to collect in the corner so I dump some ready made coffee mix into a mug and pour in the water, not really caring about the measurements at the moment. I fill my body with my two addictions and it calms me down a bit, but black thoughts still run through my mind like a drop of ink in water. What if I get a jock in my room? What if they hate me? What if they hate everything I love? What if...

I take another drag and blow out the smoke in a long, exasperated fashion. Why is my roommate taking so long to show up? I take one last puff before there's nothing but ashes in the small tray. I put it out and dump it out the window, might as well make the dorm look, smell and feel a bit better while I'm at it. I spray some cologne and open the curtains a bit. I take a look at the clock and see that my roommate is nearly 2 hours late and I feel pang of anger run through me, but it's quickly over powered by anxiety. My fingers start tapping nervously as I wait until I hear a crash outside the door.

I get up and slowly open the door, only to have my eyes assaulted by a bright mop of red hair. The boy gets off his knees and smiles at me sheepishly whilst offering an oddly formal handshake.
"Hi, I'm uh, Gerard. Gerard Way." He says in a flustered voice.
"Frank, um Iero" I reply so quietly it's barely a whisper as I accept his handshake. I step aside to let him in and his eyes light up at the sight of Pansy leaning up against my bed frame.
"You play?" He asks, sliding his long fingers over her frets.
"Yeah, I'm not the best though." I mumble.
"I'd love to hear you play." He muses, mostly to himself though. "I'm more of an art person myself" he laughs quietly. I shuffle around my spot in the room as I watch his eyes scan over my band posters. "Nice taste in music" he compliments. He walks over to his bed, dumps his bag there, sits down and gestures to my one.

I slouch down and fiddle with my fingers, waiting for him to pick up conversation again. "So, do you wanna play 20 questions? You know, we might as well get to know each other since we'll be living together for the next year and shit." I give a small smile and shrug my shoulders whilst muttering an okay.
"So..." He pauses after dragging out the 'o' "Do you play any other instruments? Or just the guitar?"
"No, just the guitar. Well I uh used to play the um drums, but I stopped. You?" I answer.
"I can play the piano, but I mostly sing." He replies nonchalantly. I nod and he goes silent for a while, obviously thinking about something. I use this time to take a good look at him. The most striking thing about him was obviously his bright red hair, which needed to be dyed as his dark brown roots are starting to show - but it still look good. His hazel eyes were rimmed with a light line of eyeliner and his skin was even paler than mine. His petite features suited him perfectly and left me feeling inferior next to him. He snaps out of his daydream and asks "Do you know any good coffee shops round here? I really want some coffee and we could finish the game there." Well we hadn't really started the game but I agree to it anyway and grab my keys. I slip on a pair of vans and step out the door with Gerard by my side. I think we could be friends, but I don't want to get hurt. Something inside me is telling me Gerard is different than the others, but I ignore it and push it back to where it came from. Push it down like I always do.

~~~~~A/N~~~~~                                                                                                                                                      How do you like the first chapter? Tbh I don't think it's that bad, but I swear it will get better. As for updates I don't work around a schedule as I feel they don't really work for me, but I will try to update more frequently than monthly. Anyway, feel free to let me know how you like it ;)