Anatomy Of A Fall |Frerard

Chapter 9

"So," Gerard coughed, fiddling with his scalpel nervously as he gathered his courage. Ray glanced up from his tray of frog and fish bits. They were supposed to be doing comparative anatomy or something, but the organs had gotten a bit... mixed during the dissection process, and he and Ray were basically winging it now. "So, uh. Do you remember that guy you were talking about at lunch? The one who went missing?"

"Yeah," Ray said slowly, abandoning the monstrous frog-salamander-abomination-with-gills he was constructing and peering at Gerard through his goggles. "Frank. Why?" Ray abruptly looked concerned. "Oh, Gerard, are those fuckers giving you a hard time again? I thought they'd backed off."

"Huh?" Gerard asked, leaving off prodding what might be a swim bladder with his pencil. Ted was still doing the 'oh, look, a Gerard-shaped hole in the fabric of reality' schtick and Isaac had stopped staring at him quite so often, probably because midterm exams were coming up and he couldn't afford to miss that much of lectures anymore. "Oh, no, they're still backed off, mostly."

Noltes had gone back to shoving Gerard into walls with his massive shoulders, actually. Gerard couldn't decide if this was because he had the memory of a goldfish, or if he'd decided that Gerard couldn't pull any creepy supernatural shit on the school grounds. Either way, it wasn't a huge deal.

Ray moved like he was going to put a hand on Gerard's shoulder and Gerard reeled away, horrified. Taking his fish-covered hand back, looking slightly abashed, Ray said, "We won't let them disappear you. Don't worry, Gee." He looked ridiculous, big earnest eyes and giant goggles and hair up in two pom pom ponytail holders, and if they weren't both holding sharp implements and covered in dead things, Gerard would have totally hugged him.

"Thanks, man," he said quietly, and then tried to gear himself up for another go at the ghost-talk. "But, uh, that's... not exactly why I brought it up. I just, um. Well. Remember that shit you said, about seeing Frankie's ghost?"

"Oh, that," Ray said, sounding a bit embarrassed. He went back to poking the mass of entrails. "I didn't exactly see his ghost, man. It was just... you know, smoke. Coldness. It was weird. I dunno, maybe I imagined it."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Gerard said in a hushed voice, biting his lip. "I... you didn't. I've been going into the forest, and I'm telling you, you didn't imagine it. It was Frank."

"Look, don't fuck around," Ray said, and Gerard grabbed his hand, ignoring the cough of 'faggot' from the lab table behind them and the really disgusting squelch of formaldehyde and worse things between the latex of their gloves.

"I'm not!" Gerard said, trying to sound as serious as possible. "It's the truth, and I can prove it, I can. Just, trust me. I didn't want to tell you before, because I thought... well, it sounds crazy, right? But I've got to get back to the woods this afternoon. I just... I have to. And I thought, well. Since you guys are so gung-ho on following me everywhere, you could come too. If you want." Gerard cringed and tried to smile hopefully at the same time, and probably just wound up looking demented.

Ray, to his credit, didn't shake Gerard off. He did look at Gerard consideringly, though, like maybe he was about to call a mental health professional and obtain Gerard a nice pretty white straightjacket.

It was probably for the best Gerard hadn't brought up the 'also, I want to date your dead friend' thing yet.

"Look, Gee, I..." Ray started, sounding doubtful, but Gerard cut him off.

"Just come out there with me, just once," Gerard said, with his best smile and biggest, most pleading eyes. "Just, you know, if I'm crazy, I'm crazy. And if I'm not, well... what's the worst that could happen, right?"