Break the Law For Me [completed]

t h i r t y f o u r

All day, every day for the past three weeks, Frank had been stressed to the point of achieving false calmness, and had altogether stopped completely caring about his exams. Sort of.

It wasn't like they were going to contribute to future careers, universities and colleges, right? Because final exams aren't that important. Nope. Definitely not.

Either way, Frank was kidding himself in to thinking they weren't really important in an attempt to settle his nerves. It hadn't worked.

What had worked was having Gerard be there to coax him in to concentrating. Honestly, if Gerard wasn't there supervising and helping him, he wouldn't have bothered revising at all.

But because he had no one else to unload his insecurities on, it had to be Gerard.

"I've got loads to do and there's only a couple of days left!" He panicked, practically yanking his hair out as he paced the length of the two art rooms, darting in and out of each one. To be fair, at least he was getting some exercise.

Gerard was stood by the double doors, seemingly as stressed as Frank was, resisting the urge to bite his nails as his hand hovered over his mouth.

"I can help you?" He offered a weak smile, shrugging his shoulders. "I could do an outline of your self-evaluation, and all you'd have to do is put it in to your own words."

"No, no, that's not what I meant." He waved his hands around like a maniac. "You don't have to help me, I'm not asking for it. I'm just. . . I don't know. I appreciate the offer. . ." He rambled, stopping momentarily to glance at Gerard, who had an unreadable expression on.

"You may not be asking, but I am." He cocked his head to the side. "Would you like some help?"

"Uhm," Frank took a deep breath, deciding to pace one more time around 169b before halting in front of Gerard. "Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"As long as it's no bother to you." He replied quietly, fiddling with the zip on his hoodie. "I mean," he bit his lip, "Don't go out of your way for me, really."

"It's fine." Gerard waved a hand dismissively.

"Are you really, really, super sure?"

"What's with the third degree?" Gerard chuckled, wrinkling his pointy nose. "I'm offering to do a little of your work for you to help you. I thought you'd jump at the idea."

"Well. . ." He shrugged, staring at the doors behind Gerard. "I guess I could do with some help for my evaluation."

"Great." He straightened up, adjusting his tie and Frank only just realised how close they were standing. "I'll send you an email when it's done."

-

Later that day, it occurred to him that he'd been caught up in his own little world that he hadn't even acknowledged the question that had been swimming around his brain in the shadows for the past few days.

"Oh my God." He muttered quietly, only just catching Gerard's attention as he glanced up.

"Everything okay?" He furrowed his brows.

"I forgot to ask." He internally face palmed. "How was New York?"

Immedietly, Gerard perked up, the sparkle in his eyes that had begun to fade returned. "Wonderful." He beamed, resting his chin on his hand.

Frank got up and moved his chair closer to Gerard's, leaning forwards a little so he could listen -and admire. He raised his eyebrows, urging him on.

Taking a deep breath, he began, "We all went to Central Park by my request, which Mikey objected to because he isn't really a. . . Nature-y type person. Anyway, he got what he wanted too, which was to see Times Square. It's so busy in New York, you would not believe. The lights are, like, the brightest things ever. Way brighter than Jersey. I swear, I'd've gone blind if I'd looked at them any longer-" He suddenly stopped, a blush creeping up his neck and he shifted. "Am I talking too much? Sorry." Gerard caved in on himself and bit his lip, peering sheepishly through his hair at Frank, who only smiled.

"No, it's totally fine." He shook his head, slouching back in his seat. "It sounds like you had fun." That was more than he could say for himself. Having substitute teachers last Thursday and Friday had sucked. He'd had no one to talk to and had barely said ten words in four days.

"How were your two days here without me?" He teased. "I bet it was torture."

"It was." Frank agreed, letting out a huge sigh, then admitted hesitantly, "It was proper boring when you weren't around."

Frowning, Gerard reached over and squeezed Frank's hand briefly reassuringly. "I'm sure it wasn't too bad?"

"The substitute teachers didn't make the class work the least bit exciting like you do."

"Who did you have?"

"Mrs Stacey." Folding his arms over his chest, he huffed. "She's a drag."

"Let's hope she can't hear you."

"Let's."

-

Thankfully because exams were so close, Frank's year didn't have to attend school. They were all on study leave, meaning they only went in to school if they wanted to. Now, Frank's year was the biggest year in the whole school, so if felt quite empty whenever Frank got to art because there were only ever two or three other people there.

Fortunately, because of study leave, it gave Frank the chance to have a proper lie in and attend school later, or not at all if he didn't feel like getting out of bed -which was more often than not. Thank God for pizza delivery services.

However he couldn't relax for much longer because he had exams very soon. Music: 26th April. Maths: 2nd May. English: 8th May. Photography: 9th May. Art: 24th May.

It was a lot for him to handle with all the different information to remember and actually store in his brain. Luckily, he didn't have an exam for Game Development or Religious Studies because you were graded on your work throughout the year instead of at the end.

Everyone had a lot to complete, meaning he didn't see much of Gerard unless they were discussing work. Basically, their days together were spent with Gerard sat on a table, tugging on his hair, chewing on the end of a pencil as he glared at papers. And Frank was mainly hunched over in a corner, scanning pages of notes and mentally screaming for it to be over.

This is short and mainly a filler, I guess. I didn't think you'd want to hear about Frank's exams. And anyway I have better things planned in later chapters.
[Published 6 January 2020]