Anatomy Of A Fall |Frerard

Chapter 8

"Uh," Gerard said, swallowing a lump of panic, fiddling with his hoodie. How had this afternoon gone so stupidly, terribly wrong all of a sudden? "No, I just... I like hiking, I guess?"

"You like hiking," Ted laughed nastily. "Well, ain't that sweet. You're acclimatin'. It's cute, ain't it, guys."

Noltes grunted and Isaac looked at his watch pointedly. Ted glared at him, then turned to Gerard again and stalked forward. Gerard fought the urge to shrink back, but fuck, the dude was tall.

"See, I got worried when you didn't show up after school," Ted said, not touching him, just hovering. A muscle in his jaw jumped. "I had some things to say to you."

"Missed me?" Gerard said, pretty proud his voice didn't break, or waver. Well, much anyway. He hoped Frank wasn't watching this—this would drive Frank nuts, being stuck in the forest while Gerard got menaced by meatheads. "I'm touched."

"Then," Ted mused, ignoring Gerard's babbling. "We saw you sneakin' away to hide in the woods. You're a smart little fucker, aren't you? But you had to come out sometime."

"You took your sweet time, though," Isaac said lazily, with an edge to his voice, like it was somehow Gerard's fault he hadn't scheduled a mugging into his afternoon.

"But this works out real nice anyway," Ted said reasonably to Isaac. "This way we can have a little chat without anybody... interrupting."

Okay, that... that was upsetting. Even more upsetting was that Ted had stalked forward and gotten in Gerard's face, and Gerard wanted to point out he had bad breath, but he was really disconcertingly tall from this close up.

"Now, Ted," Isaac drawled, looking at his watch again. "This little venture has taken longer than you said when you dragged us out here, so if you could stop with the dramatics, that'd be just great."

"No, the dramatics are fine," Gerard assured them, and tried to lean backward on his heels. "I dig them, they're, uh, fascinating. Good monologuing, really, just—"

Fuck, okay. Now his mouth was filling with blood, and Ted was shaking his hand and smiling dreamily. All Gerard could feel for a second was a shocked numbness that quickly flared into all-encompassing, bright pain.

"I've wanted to do that for days," Ted said happily. "You're a squirrelly little fucker, you know that, Way? But you had to realize we'd catch up with you sooner or later."

"Focus, Ted," Isaac said crossly.

Ted huffed but moved back and stood with his arms crossed, a happy, terrifying smile on his face. Dumb violence clearly got his rocks off. Fucking creep.

"Look here, Gerard," Isaac said, sighing and rubbing a hand over his face. He looked utterly reasonable, standing in the field beneath the evening sky. The first stars were coming out, and everything was perfectly still, no wind, no movement from the trees or bushes. Gerard's mouth tasted like blood. "What Ted's trying to say is, you need to work with us, okay? We've got... a reputation in this town. We have to uphold it, and you have to respect it, or there's consequences. It's the way things work around here. Most people figure that out on their first day here, but you seem like you needed a little help. Noltes, could you kindly grab ahold of his shoulders? Gerard's looking a bit tuckered."

Noltes smiled and Gerard took a couple quick steps back, he couldn't help it, but Noltes was faster, startlingly fast for his bulk, and had Gerard's arms pinned behind him, wrenching his shoulders back, before Gerard could even think to move. Not that he had anywhere to go.

"You see," Isaac continued conversationally, motioning Ted forward, and Gerard hung helpless from Noltes' hands while Ted grinned at him and swung his fist into Gerard's stomach. Isaac kept talking, distant and unaffected as Gerard gasped for breath. "My daddy's the mayor. And Ted's daddy? Ted's daddy, he's the sheriff. People can't go around sassin' us, especially not people like you. It looks bad for everybody. You understanding yet? This sinking in? You've gotten the wrong end of the stick since day one, Gerard Way, and we can't have that. Ted. Ted, that's enough."