𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝙸𝚜 𝚄𝚐𝚕𝚢 (Frerard)

Chapter 2: And Then-

[Gerard]

Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee–

I shut off the blaring alarm clock as quickly as I could and went back to sleep. This time, pulling the sheets closer to myself as I grunted.

Beep. Beep. Bee–

A few minutes later, it sounded again. I really hated mornings. I've always been a night owl. As I rolled reluctantly out of bed, I reached for the cup of coffee at the edge of my night table. I always made coffee for myself the night before. Yes, I know I drink it cold but at least it's something. I don't know how I'd be able to stay awake this early without it.

After changing out of the skeleton onesie Frank had gotten me, I pulled on a t-shirt, then zipped up my black hoodie. As I looked over to my left, I saw that my brother, Mikey, was still sleeping. He set his alarm a little later than mine, which was fine because he had no trouble waking up early. Although, ever since the school year started, he'd been waking up earlier than usual, in order to avoid contact with the bullies as much as possible. He knew how bad they were from the numerous times he's seen me all bruised up. Mikey was also a lot more shy than I already was so he stood less of a chance against them. This was his  first year in high school as he was a freshman and I was a junior.

Our house was really small so Mikey and I had to sleep in the same room together. I didn't mind much most of the time, as our room was pretty large. At least, in my opinion. When I left the room, I heard his alarm. A few seconds later, he shut it off and reached for his glasses.

"Hey, Gerard?" Mikey mumbled. I turned around to see him sitting at the edge of his bed. "Did you send the golf ball to Sevian yet?"

Today was Ashley's brother, Sevian's birthday. Sevian was a year younger than Mikey and he loved to play golf. They became pretty good friends throughout the years after Ashley joined our friend group. Last night, Mikey wanted to send him a birthday present, a golf ball signed by a local professional golfer. It was originally a dust-collecter in our dad's office, and because he'd long since lost his interest in it, he let Mikey give it to Sevian for his birthday. "Yeah, It's in the mailbox," I replied.

"Thank you so much. Sorry I made you go out there at night. I know I should've packed it earlier and done it myself. But you didn't get hurt, right?" Mikey asked, concerned. He knew how dangerous it was for me to go out at night. A good portion of our neighbors including some of the bullies from school drank heavily and often did drugs at night. Since they lived fairly close by, Mikey and I weren't allowed to go out past 10 pm. Mikey didn't have a problem with that because he was too scared to go out there anyway. Our father was at work at the time, so I was able to bring the package out that night.

"I'm fine. I care more about your safety you know that," I assured. "I think Sevian will love it. And remember, the party's at 5:30, not 5:00." Sevian had a birthday party every year, but the time was different than last year.

"Right, thanks. I added it to my calendar already," Mikey replied.

"Just making sure," I finished.

After getting ready, we went downstairs and each grabbed a piece of bread from the counter and left. Our father was single and struggled financially, but he was a very hard worker. In other words, we were pretty poor. He worked two jobs: one full-time and one part-time. Every morning including the weekends, he'd be out the door at 6:00 am to cook at a restaurant in the richer part of town. He also worked part-time as a bartender in a local bar. He didn't receive much income, and we were dependent on the money his parents sent us every month. We were lucky to have a house because if it weren't for my grandparents, we'd be living in an apartment. I worked at a local comic store on the weekends mainly to help with the income, but also to buy things for myself and for Mikey, since he didn't have a job yet.

As always, we met Ray who was standing at the bus stop, along with five other kids. Thankfully, none of the bullies were at this bus stop, but some of them were on our bus. When we got there, Ray was talking to a sophomore boy about AC/DC. Mikey and I greeted him and went to go sit down at the curb not too far away from him. We stood up as the bus arrived a couple of minutes later.

When we got to school, Ray and I met with Frank, Ashley, and Steph. Mikey headed straight for his first class. Our meeting place was just inside the library, out of the view of most people.

Frank smiled when he saw me. He always did. It was adorable and it never failed to make me smile as well. As usual, we went to the back where we could, heh, be as gay we wanted. It was fine because most of the bullies never bothered to set foot in the library, so it was usually a safe place for lgbtq+ kids and just victims in general.

As we sat down in our corner, Frank gave me a kiss on my shoulder and I smiled. It was strange and interesting how every kiss with him felt like the first. I think Frank felt the same as well because his face would always brighten up whenever I kissed him too.

We all felt bad that Ray was constantly being fifth-wheeled by us, so we'd always sit unnecessarily close to him to make him feel less alone. Frank was leaning against me while I sat shoulder-to-shoulder, pressed up against Ray. Ashley's legs arched over Ray's, forming a cross, as she leaned against Steph. In some ways I guess, we were sort of trapping him in the dead center as we left him no escape. But, he didn't seem to mind so we just kept showing our sympathy in the most physical way possible. During this time, we didn't do much. We'd just hang out and enjoy ourselves with the short amount of time we had with each other in the morning.

When the bell rang, We all dispersed and left. My first class was advanced drawing which Ashley and I had together. Frank and Steph both had Algebra 2 their first block, but they weren't in the same class together. Ray had Chemistry.

When we walked through the doors, I heard Ms. Rachel typing furiously on her keyboard. Ashley and I were always of the earlier few to arrive in class, so she'd always notice when we entered the room.

"Good morning guys," Ms. Rachel said in a singsong voice.

"Morning' Ms. Rachel," Ashley replied as we sat down in our seats.

For the entirety of the class, I didn't say a word. We were only finishing up a project, so I was zoned out and only focused on my drawing. That doesn't mean I didn't like the class, it was great, but I just refrained from talking during classes, unless someone prompted me. The only people I talked to in this room were Ashley and Ms. Rachel and the occasional random kid. I hated how time went by so fast during this class because it was my favorite. Well, except for Chemistry. I hated everything about my chem class except for the fact that Frank was in it too. He made everything better just by being there.

Just like that, the bell rang indicating our class was over and it was time to get the hell out to go to second block.

"Bye," Ashley called out as we left the classroom.

"See ya," I replied as we parted ways. My next class was Algebra 2 which was absolute hell. I hated the subject already and neither Frank, Ray, Steph, or Ashley were in it. This class sucked the life out of me and made me want to die. But I still go in every day because it's too risky to skip. Everyone knows that. No, not because the admin will catch you, I don't really give a damn about them. It's that most of the bullies skipped their classes and I couldn't even hide in the bathrooms because they'd be there, doing drugs and whatever the hell they did in there. If I walked in there when they were too, God knows what those demons would do to me. So, I was stuck in this hellhole of a class.

But, little did I know that the next few events would be so bizarre.