Faces of the In-Between (Frerard)

Chapter 1 ~ Lullaby of the Spirit

Well I decided to start on a new story... Each chapter is going to be pretty long, but I'll still update my other stories too :P I'd love to hear what you think of this so far, so feedback is much appriciated :3

Thanks for reading <3

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Happiness.

It seems that some people are fortunate enough to have it, others, not so much. A loving wife and a couple kids, maybe a dog to run around in the backyard of the family's quiet suburb home. That was supposed to be the American dream; the key to happiness. Anything less was just not enough. How could one expect to be happy with no two story model home next to the neighbors that always come over for dinner every Thursday? That's what everyone wanted. The simple life.

Gerard was one of the people who longed for that life. Well, it had taken a lot of convincing to force his mind into thinking like that. He didn't always want that. There was a time when he had aspirations and dreams that reached far out of the familiar suburbs that he had grown up in. Writing was always something that had interested Gerard. Something about the way that a certain arrangement of words could convey such vast amounts of feelings perplexed him to no end. His entire life had been devoted to doing just that.

All throughout college he strove to be an author. He never passed an opportunity to write. Whether it be on the bus as he commuted to his first morning class, or sometimes when he went to the old coffee shop, he wrote. He wrote a lot. Gerard was preparing himself for his future writing career. A revolutionary author that would inspire, entertain, and most of all, express himself for who he truly was.

Not many other jobs allow for someone to really show the inner depths of their true selves. Do you think that the man who lives in the average home, with his average wife and average job gets to express himself? No, because once you graduate from school, and you're thrown into the fast moving 'real world', you come to the realization that society is, to say at the least, harsh. 

That is exactly what had happened to Gerard. After he graduated from college with a major in English literature, he became conscious of the reality of his life. People no longer rewarded him for writing an 'astounding piece', as his professor had exclaimed. The real world wasn't as understanding to his deeply, darkly written stories.

No one was going to hire him the way that he was, so he changed himself to fit the mold. Of course, it hadn't entirely been his choice. As stated before, it took much convincing; the majority of it coming from his longtime girlfriend, Tess. She coveted the suburban dream life, but Gerard wasn't your typical guy. He wasn't afraid to express his thoughts and feelings; that was natural for him. Unfortunately, after countless rejection from printing presses and publication companies, Gerard gave in to Tess's wishes for a cookie cutter life.

He became somewhat of a different person. He still wrote everyday, just with less passion than when he was younger. It was as if he became a cold, hollow shell of himself. Nothing made it past the edge of his brain anymore, leaving him to go throughout his daily schedule mindlessly. The only substantial thoughts that ever crossed his mind and dug a little deeper into his brain, occurred when he was taking his lunch break as a teacher at the high school. A strange time to have profound ideas, but it happened to be the only time of his day in which he was completely alone. He sat at his desk at the front of his empty classroom and quietly ate his sandwich as his mind swarmed with the thoughts that used to rattle his brain constantly. Now adays, he was limited to his thirty minute lunch break. Thirty minutes a day, dedicated to feeling momentarily real again.

You see, Gerard's job opportunites were limited after he realized that his talent wasn't suited for publication. An English teaching job opened up at the highschool a few block from the apartments he was living in at the time. Tess pursuaded him to take the job, for they needed any money they could get to pay for the rent.