Porcelain ♡ Frerard

Chapter 6

"And all my armor falling down in a pile at my feet. And my winter giving way to warm, as I'm singing him to sleep."
Pale September, Fiona Apple.
—

The following day, the second Frank stepped past the school's gates, he found himself being attacked in a suffocating hug by two people awaiting him at the gate. He staggered, groaning at the tightness of their arms wrapped around him, and quickly realized the givers were Frances and Adam.

"I can't breathe." Frank wheezed out when the air was squeezed from his lungs.

Both drew away, and coming up behind them was Ray with an amused smile on his face, as faint as it might've been. Frank fixed his rumpled clothes, bewildered by the sudden swarm of affection.

"I'm sorry in advance." Adam said, befuddling Frank, before punching Frank in the arm without allowing the warning to absorb first.

"Ow! What the fuck?" Frank rubbed at the area where he received the blow. He could tell Adam held back on the intensity, which was impressive considering the ache. He shot Adam a look questioning his sanity.

"That's for not filling anyone in on how you were doing except for Frances."

"And I called him first!" Frances pointed out, flipping her braid over her shoulder.

"You guys knew I wasn't dead, shouldn't that be enough?" Frank arched a high eyebrow and his hand fell away from the sore spot on his arm.

"It is. They're just idiots." Ray rolled his eyes fondly.

"Toro, I will beat your ass at Guitar Hero later and laugh in your face for it." Adam whirled around, his voice bellowing out loudly enough for Frank's eyes to flicker around the campus in faint embarrassment. He wasn't ashamed of his entertaining friend group, he only didn't wish for attention to be directed towards them for the topic of Frank's incident to float back up into the air once people spotted him. 

"Boys are too fucking loud." Frances grumbled and stuck her elbow into the side of Adam's ribcage. "I should stick around with Kayleigh."

"You'd be winded by following her around while she runs her business." Adam waggled a finger in front of her face and Frances recoiled in mock disgust, batting it away from her.

"You're so annoying." Frances suppressed a giggle. "Run while you can, Frank."

Frank snorted internally, and began following in their stride and they slowly began making their way further onto the campus. The drizzle from earlier slowed into a subtle sprinkle dribbling across Frank's hood protectively drawn over the top of his head. He shoved his hands in his pockets and carefully maneuvered around the puddles resting on the ground while Adam carelessly stomped through them, splattering water across everything within close radius of him, so Frank favored standing near Ray to prevent getting his jeans soaked.

"Now that Frank's alive and here, we can tell him about my epic failure yesterday." Adam walked backwards to face Frank, his sunglasses he didn't have a need for speckled in raindrops.

"Your epic failure?" Frank echoed the words back in a curious way silently accepting the story behind it.

"I asked Kayleigh to the dance yesterday." Adam sighed melodramatically, slowing his pace. "Her fascination with college boys lives on. She rejected me."

"Really? I had a feeling she was a little into you." Frank was normally correct about his assumptions because of the gift adding a sense of deeper intuition most couldn't grasp. He was puzzled to hear about Kayleigh's refusal after studying her behavior near him in the cafeteria on the day they met.