Break the Law For Me [completed]

t w e n t y

Rolling his eyes, Gerard took a seat beside him. "You're not bad. You just need practice. You're used to working with pencils, that's all."

Messing with his hair to hide his face, Frank smiled. "Well, could please tell my hands that, because they're useless with a brush."

"It's okay, I'll teach you," He smiled. "Want to start now, or after school?"

"What would I do now if I didn't do painting?"

"Good question." Gerard drummed his fingers on the desk, subconsciously to the beat of Father of All by Green Day. "Uhm, do you have anything to finish on your other assignment?"

"Yeah, only my compositions, but I don't think they'll last two lessons. Plus, one of them needs to be done with paint. . ."

"Can you start now, then?"

"There's-" Swallowing the lump in his throat, Frank glanced down. It would call attention to him if he entered the classroom. He had so much anxiety, he was surprised he wasn't on medication. Though a fear of disappointing Gerard frightened him a smidge more. Finally, he nodded. "Yeah, I'll get some stuff from Mr Wright's room." No one was in there.

"Okay, I'll try to help you when I can." He slouched. "I'm not sure leaving them unsupervised is a good idea."

"No. . ." Frank drifted off, shaking his head. "Maybe stay with them and I'll come through at the end -I'll bring my rad as hell art skills that don't exist."

"That's the spirit." He said sarcastically.

-

By the time Gerard had set everything up for Frank, attempted to lighten the mood with humour that he had to giggle at because it was an adorable effort, it had already gone past four o'clock. Yet, Mr Wright was lingering next door, so they were kind of in a freeze, waiting for him to leave to really start to finish something.

"Hey, Gee." Frank called and Gerard looked over from the computer screen. He ducked his head, seething in a low tone. "How the fuck do you paint?"

Raising his eyebrows, Gerard scoffed, "Language, Frankie, you're still in school."

"I know," He sighed, "Don't remind me." Sometimes, he was so relaxed around Gerard that he forgot where he was.

"Here," He moved to stand behind Frank, gently taking the pencil from his fingers. "Can I sketch a little on this?"

"Uhm, yeah." Frank nodded, glancing up at him.

With no objections from Frank, Gerard practically leaned on top of him, one hand on his shoulder, one hand free to draw. His chest was pressed against Frank's back, and he could feel each breath he took.

Paying no attention, his eyes travelled to Gerard. He could see the knots and dye in his hair. He smiled slightly at how Gerard he was. There was no other word he could think of. Gerard was just perfectly Gerard. However the smile dropped when he spotted a small cut at Gerard's temple, a purple bruise clouding around it, badly covered up with makeup. This was the third time he'd been unexplainably bruised.

"Hey," Gerard suddenly turned his head to narrow his eyes at him, "Are you listening, Iero?"

Frank blinked, nodding once.

"I don't think you are." He raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Oh, what?" He just blinked again. "Nothing."

Sighing, Gerard straightened up, then hopped up on to the table, crossing one leg over the other as he rested his feet on the chair beside him. He softly nudged Frank's elbow with his foot. He didn't need to say anything to get Frank to start talking.

"It's just-" Last time he'd asked it was a mistake, and this one probably wasn't going to be any different. He gestured to the other room, referring to Mr Wright. "Can I tell you after he's gone?"

"Of course."

-

As said, when the teacher left, Frank flicked his gaze to Gerard, who was sat cross legged at his desk, staring absentmindedly at the computer screen. (Honestly, Frank was a bit disappointed that he hadn't put any music on.)

"Gee?" Frank mumbled hesitantly, sitting on his hands so he didn't fidget.

Gerard looked at him, head resting on his hand.

"What happened to your. . ." He trailed off, tapping his own temple to get across the rest of the sentence.

"Oh," He was caught off guard. "You could see it? Do you-do you know if anyone else noticed?"

"Never mind that for now, how'd you get it?"

"I. . . I think I banged my head in my sleep." Translated: Bert had been mad at his lack of explanation as to where he'd been all night.

Bullshit, is what Frank originally wanted to say, but he caught the word in his throat, and it morphed in to a strangled cough. After a dragged out silence, he attempted to keep a flat tone. "Well, for as accident prone as you are, you're gonna have to get better at makeup."

"Hey," Gerard whined, lips pressed in to a pout. "Are you any better?"

"As a matter of fact, I am."

"Really?" He smiled, clearly amused.

"My cousin used to beg me to help her with her makeup, and I became a pro."

"Is this you offering lessons?"

"Maybe."

"I'd be better at it if I used it more often because it's like art on your face, but I don't like putting things on my face -apart from eyeliner." He added. "That's the exception."

"Is that why you dye your hair? To make up for the lack of colour elsewhere?" Frank chuckled, tucking his hair behind his ears before leaning his arms on the desk.

Gerard gave him a deadpan glare, rolling his eyes. "Don't dis my hair, or. . ." He searched for an answer. "I'll make you look bad on parents evening."

Instantly, Frank's jaw dropped to look like the scream. "There's a parent's evening?" He ran his hands down his face, annoyed.

"Yeah. Well, next year. . . In. . . March?"

"Oh, thank God." It wasn't too close, then. Anyway, it's not like his parents would be likely to attend. "I hate parent's evenings." With a burning passion. "They're always so. . . Uncomfortable."

"They're not my favourite, either." Gerard sighed, shrugging his shoulders half-heartedly. "If a student's behaving badly and I have to tell their parents, it feels like I'm grassing them up."

"Well, there are only two years between us. I'm sure it'll be different when you're older."

"Maybe." He scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes to the computer screen. "I don't know if I want to do this when I'm older, though. Sure, for a few years from now, but I want to live, too. I don't want to have to deal with whiny kids my whole life." Frank felt directly attacked -he could whine for hours about any one subject. "I want to have an impact on the world, you know?"

Frank hummed, gazing at Gerard, shamelessly. "What do you wanna do?"

"I have no idea." He sighed quietly, staring at his hands. "What would you want to do?"

"I've always wanted to be in a band." His eyes lit up with excitement. "That's the dream."

"If you achieve that dream, contact me in the future and maybe I'll be able to come to one of your shows."

Smiling widely, Frank could imagine anything better. "I will."

They made brief eye contact, then Gerard made a point of checking his watch. "Shall we call it a day?"

"Definitely." Frank replied eagerly. It was only past half four, but both of them were already tired and desperate to collapse in to a bed.

[Published 29 October 2019]
[Last edited 4 June 2020]