Chapter Text
This year was not going as planned. Gerard wanted his senior year to be fun! Exciting! Not...this. You see, school had started three weeks ago, and in that time he had:
• gotten his first note from his soulmate (it said “english - room 114b”, followed by a small “sorry”),
• came out to Mikey (his younger brother) as gay,
• dyed his hair bright red,
• gotten locked in a supply closet three times,
• gotten his sketchbook stolen and made fun of,
• called the f-slur,
• and cried in the bathroom five times.
Through all of it, though, he had met a really cute boy in art class. He was a sophomore, but he’d only come to Belleville High School that year. His name was Frank Iero and he was stunning. Absolutely stunning. Bright green eyes, dark hair. He was tan, but not too tan, and he had a lip piercing and a nose piercing. It was pretty hot. Anyway, Mikey found out that Gerard thought Frank was cute (sneaky bastard) and became friends with him because they had math together. Of course.
Frank Iero was at the Way household every other weekday and it was too much for poor old Gerard’s heart to handle, so he did the logical thing to do in his situation: locked himself in his room and doodled on himself. Nothing major, as to not annoy his soulmate, but enough to distract him from the fact that Frank was upstairs playing video games with Mikey. Probably. Maybe they were outside doing God knows what. Gerard wouldn’t know. He just wanted to draw. Frank usually left around five in the evening for dinner at his own house (he was a vegetarian and the Ways were hardcore carnivores. Not a good mix.) and Gerard wouldn’t see him again until art class the next day. Gerard usually slept with a mind full of pretty boys and lost time.
~-~
“Hey, do you have a pencil or a pen?” It was a Tuesday morning in art class when the kid next to him, Brandon something, had decided it was a good time to disturb Gerard’s peace.
“Uh.. yeah. Here you go,” he passed the pencil to the guy, who was drawing someone that looked suspiciously like the person next to Frank.
“Thanks. I’m Brendon, by the way.” Brendon was his name.
“Oh. I’m Gerard. Way. Gerard Way,” Brendon nodded politely then went back to drawing.
“Are you drawing that guy?” The former tried to subtly point to the person who was enthusiastically talking to Frank about The Beatles (he was loud, okay?) making Brendon tilt his head in confusion.
“Yeah. His name’s Ryan. Why?”
Gerard blinked.
“I was just, uh, noticing how you kept looking at him. Are you guys, y’know, friends?” Which, translated into gay as: “are you gay too please be gay I need gay friends”
“Dude, him and I fuck like, every other Wednesday. No need to try and be subtle about gayness or something.”
The girl across the table from Brendon perked up at the word gayness.
“You guys are gay too?”
Gerard’s face turned pink and he stammered a bit while Brendon laughed loudly, drawing attention to their table.
“Hell yeah. Why do you think I dress so fashionably?” The latter pointed to his shirt - an unreadable band logo was on the front - and he was wearing skinny jeans.
“Cool, cool. I’m Hayley Kiyoko and I like girls. Nice to meet you guys!” She held out her hand for the two to shake, which both gladly did. The girl next to her just rolled her eyes at the three and went back to sketching.
Gerard was too caught up in Gay Glee to notice Frank staring at him, studying every visible part of him.
-~-
“Mikey! Where’s my damn controller?”
“I don’t know, look for it yourself!”
“I have, moron! It’s not here!”
“Well I dunno, Gee, look harder!”
Gerard sighed irritably. All he wanted was to play some Mario Kart with Ray. One simple game. Was that too much to ask?? He groaned angrily.
“Mikey, you have to know where it is! You were playing yesterday with Frank!”
“Well I don’t! Maybe ask your wittle Frankie where it is?”
The older Way rubbed his temples as Ray shot him a sympathetic look.
“Dude, it’s okay, we can just listen to music or something. We’ll play next time.”
Gerard sighed once again.
“That’s not the problem, Ray, it’s that Mikey lost my extra controller with his friend and won’t even bother coming to help me look. It’s the immorality of the situation.”
Ray just laughed and stood up, going to get something from the kitchen.
“Let’s just watch a movie then. I’m cool with anything.” Making Gerard roll his eyes. Of course Ray was chill. Shaking his head, he got up and went to pick a movie.
“Okay, uh, Beetlejuice or Star Wars?”
His friend popped his head into the living room.
“Which Star Wars?”
Gerard grinned.
“You know it’s gotta be Empire. C’mon dude, hurry with the popcorn, I’m hungry.”
Ray nodded in satisfaction and brought the popcorn in, along with drinks.
~-~
They were about to the part where Darth Vader revealed he was Luke’s dad when there was a knock at the door. The boys exchanged confused glances but paused the movie anyway.
“I’ll get it,” Ray offered, but Gerard shook his head and got up.
He opened the door to reveal none other than Frank Iero.
“Um. Is Mikey home.” The younger boy said awkwardly, avoiding Gerard’s shocked gaze.
“Yeah. Come on in?” He did just that, both of them standing awkwardly in the entrance.
“Gee? Who was- oh. Hi.” Ray emerged from the living room. The short boy standing next to Gerard looked scared out of his mind, making Gerard nudge Ray, before he yelled Mikey’s name.
The younger Way bolted down the stairs, scooped up his friend, then bolted right back up, giving his brother no time to process what had happened.
“O...kay?” And the two seniors went back to Star Wars.
-~-
Gerard was crying in the bathroom. Again. He had tried to follow Mikey’s advice of “ignore them, they’re stupid bitches anyway” but the words and all the gossip got to him more than he’d usually admit. He was just so done with it all. School had barely been in session for a month and he was already getting bullied more than last year. He was a senior for God’s sake, he should be the one bullying others. He wasn’t, though, so he cried. Sobbed his heart out. He was too busy crying to notice that someone had came into the bathroom until they knocked on the door.
“You okay in there?” The person asked. Gerard didn’t really recognize the boy’s voice, but he croaked out a “no” anyway. The other boy cleared his throat. “Um... if you need to talk about it, you can.”
Gerard threw another no, and the boy sighed, but seemed to understand that he wanted space. The former tried to calm himself down, listening to the boys breath right outside the stall he sat in. He wondered why he was staying there, but then realized he didn’t care because he had skipped his meals the past few days and felt faint from crying. He passed out a minute later.