Requested on Wattpad
Warnings: bullying
Word count: 2 295
A/N: I've got a cold (nothing major, just feeling shitty af), and my day was (due to a lack of lectures today) spent altering between sleeping, watching Season 1 Supernatural (they were so tiny), and eating/walking the dog. Useless info, but I need to whine a little :P Also that's the reason why today's update is earlier (I want to go to sleep again) and I didn't properly prove read this one shot, so excuse the more than usual mistakes please.
Quickly you lowered your head, making sure the hood of your jacket was covering your face in shadow as you slipped past a group of your classmates. Your heart was hammering in your chest, as you squeezed past them, while you hoped and prayed that they did not notice you, or at least would leave you alone. Luckily the plan seemed to have worked, because no hand grabbed your arm, and no dirty words got thrown after you, nor did any crumpled up papers or lunch left overs. So once you had made it past them, you walked around the next corner and quickly pulled off the hood again, knowing that the teachers did not like it. And it would have been really useless if you had gotten past your bullies only to get into trouble with some teacher.
But just as you had relaxed, and decided that you were out of danger, you ran into somebody with full force. While you were still stumbling backwards the tension immediately returned to your muscles, and not just to keep your equilibrium, but to be ready to bold should it be necessary. Instead a pair of hands securely took hold of your upper arms and steadied you on your feet, while a familiar chuckle made you look into the person's face.
"Careful," your friend Gerard laughed quietly, patting your shoulder once you stood safely on both feet, "are you okay?"
It was one of Gerard's talents to recognise when you were in distress, and that had also been the reason he had befriended you. Unlike pretty much the rest of the school, he did not seem to consider you a weird nerd. Instead he had shown interest in you from the first week on, always asking to sit next to you in the classes you had together, and going for lunch. Soon he had confessed that the reason why he had made it his mission to befriend you was the Lord of the Rings badge you had pinned to your jacket, and after you had started talking about the different masterpieces by Tolkien, you had found more and more books and movies you both enjoyed.
Now, three years later, you were still the social outcast, and much to both Gerard's and your discontent, your classmates had started to make it a sport to bully you. The main goal, as far as you could tell, was to embarrass you as much as possible, with as little physical contact as possible. A few years ago it had been comparatively harmless stuff like "(y/n) is in love with this and that boy". But over last summer it had shifted into obscenities and insults worse than you had been able to imagine. You did not want to admit it, especially not in front of Gerard, because he would go and try to protect you while getting himself into their line of fire, but it was hard. Really hard. You had started sleeping less, the fear of nightmares keeping you awake, and sometimes, especially at lunch, you felt so sick that you barely ate anything.
Slowly you remembered Gerard's question, whether you were okay, and you nodded.
"Haven't slept so much tonight," you shrugged, telling him only half of the truth, but since he did not know, he just hugged you quickly.
"Maybe you should go to bed earlier, instead of skyping with me all night long," he laughed and started wandering into the direction of the classroom in which your first lesson of the day would take place.
"Let's be honest though, what's more important: Star Wars or sleep," you asked with a giggle.
"If you put it like this..." Gerard grinned and turned so he was walking backwards, in order to be able to look into your face. He always managed to cheer you up so quickly.
Your good mood was unluckily only short-lived, because as soon as you had settled behind your desk, the feared group of bullies came walking in. Gerard immediately noticed you tensing up, but he did not mention it. On the one hand, because he did not want to seem like he was watching your every movement, and on the other because he was convinced if he tried to make you talk about it, you would shut him out.
And so the lessons started, a continuous flow of degrading and insulting comments washing over you. At one point, Gerard had turned around to tell the students behind you to be quiet, but that was about it. You were not sure if Gerard understood that the comments were directed towards you, or thought they were about someone else, maybe he did not even hear them properly, and you only did because you were waiting for them, but by the end of the second lesson your mood was at an all-time low, and you were close to tears.
So when the bell rang you immediately got up, your things already thrown into your bag, and stormed out of the classroom, before Gerard had even manged to ask if you wanted to spend lunchbreak together again. For a moment he wondered what had happened, why you had run away so quickly, but when the students behind him made a snickering comment about how you had left, he decided that enough was enough. Glaring at them for a quick moment he packed his things and followed you out of the classroom. He was not sure which class was your next, since you did not share it with him, but he was pretty certain that you had not gone into that direction anyway. Instead he turned into the other direction towards the back of the school. He even ignored his teacher for the next class, who asked him where he was heading when he walked past him.
You liked this part of the school. It was quiet here, and nobody except for you and a few other outcasts ever came here. The football field was far enough away, so none of the cool, sporty kids ever got lost here, and the stoners hung out on the parking lot, while the rest of the students spent their breaks hanging around in the corridors or on the playground that was surrounded by the school buildings.
But out here, other than a few trees, and some grass, hardly anybody ever came. Especially not outside of breaks. You took a deep breath of the cold autumn air, triyng to bite back some burining tears, and made your way over to the big maple tree. Its leaves had turned red, and most had already fallen to the ground, creating a soft, but wet pillow for you to sit on.
With another deep breath you walked around the trunk, so if anyone came following you, they would not see you from the door, and sunk down to the floor, pulling your knees up to your chest.
You really wanted Gerard to be here now. He always knew how to comfort you, and you liked him, really liked him. He was so creative and funny and caring, and one of the only people who always understood you. And you felt like you understood him too. He was your best friend, and that only made everything so much more difficult. You were not supposed to be in love with your best friend. He was supposed to be a friend, nothing more. Not the guy who made your heart beat faster every time you merely thought about him.
All of a sudden you felt really lonely, even lonelier than before, and the tears that had been burning in your eyes finally spilled over, running down your cheeks and got caught by the trousers stretching over your knees, which you had buried your face between.
You barely heard the door opening and closing, but suddenly someone stood next to you. It did not matter who it was. Maybe one of your bullies, who had come to taunt you even more? Maybe a teacher who was going to be mad at you for not being in class? Maybe a student you did not know, asking why you were out here all alone.
The person sat down next to you, so close that your arms were brushing against each other, and that was when you knew it was Gerard. Comfortingly he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into him, encouraging you wordlessly to hug him back, which you did.
"You need to talk to someone about them," he whispered, gently stroking over your hair, "it can't go on like this."
You registered his words, and you knew he was right, but you did not respond.
"(y/n), do you hear me? You need to talk to a teacher," he told you again.
"What if that makes it only worse," you asked, looking up at him.
The expression on his face pained you, as if he was just as hurt about what had happened to you as you were.
"Then you talk to the teachers again, and again, and again," he explained patiently, as if talking to a little kid.
"And if they don't believe me?"
"They will, we'll make sure of that," he promised.
Carefully he reached a hand up to your face and brushed your tears away with his thumb.
"Can you come with me?"
You had not even really planned on asking, all you knew was that without him you would never have the courage to talk to one of the teachers.
"Of course, sugar, of course I will," Gerard assured you, still brushing his fingers over your cheek.
His touch was warm and comforting, and you leant into him without giving it much thought, causing him to smile gently.
For a while you just sat like this, staring at each other, your face resting in his hand, while you got lost in each other's eyes.
"Can I kiss you?"
You nodded at his question, not completely understanding what it meant. Of course you knew it would mean he had the permission to kiss you, but only when his lips met yours carefully, almost hesitantly, you realised that it was more than just friendship, which cause you to pull away, making him flinch away from you immediately.
"Sorry, I- sorry, that wasn't- I didn't mean to-," he stammered, his cheeks turning red as he stared at you wide eyed.
"Why do you want to kiss me," you wondered, cringing internally at how naïve the words sounded. But you could think of no better way to either confirm or deny that he like you more than friends.
He stared at you for a moment, his blush intensifying.
"I like you, (y/n), a lot. And I know this is a terrible moment, but it felt like maybe you wanted this too, and when you said yes, I thought it was okay, after all you did nod. I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable, or overstep any boundaries. I just was lost in my fantasy of you liking me back-"
You smiled gently at him, now it being your turn to carefully take his face in your hands.
"And I do, I do like you back," you assured him, temporarily having forgotten how you even ended up out here, underneath the tree, "I just wanted to know if it was out of pity that you wanted to kiss me, or if it was more."
Gerard blinked at you in surprise, but when you slowly leant in, making sure to give him time and space to back away, he did not. When your lips met his, he sucked in a breath, which almost made you giggle a little, but when he kissed you back, you had no air left for anything else. Softly he wrapped his arms around you, and pulled you closer, allowing you to feel his heartbeat against your chest, while you wrapped your fingers in his black hair. For the first time in ages you felt safe and happy, and even though your heart was beating hard against your ribcage, you were calm.
When you eventually pulled away, lips red from kissing, and nose red from the cold air, Gerard was grinning fondly, making you smile even brighter than you already were.
You kept sitting under the tree for a while, until the school bells reminded you of the classes you were missing. You were about to get up, but Gerard grabbed your wrist and tucked you back down to his side.
"They can live without us for a couple of hours," he assured you, burying his nose in your neck.
"What if we get into trouble?"
"We won't, and even if we do, that way we get to go to the director's office and then we can tell him exactly what happened with the other students," Gerard shrugged.
You liked this side of him, the one that sometimes just did not care about what others thought. But he also reminded you of the talk you would eventually have to have with the teachers. So you made a decision, and got up again.
"Let's do it now," you told Gerard, who looked surprised, "Let's talk to the teachers now, then it's over, or at least the first step is done."
For a moment he sat on the ground and looked up at you, admiration in his eyes, then he nodded and got up as well.
"You're right," he agreed, "let's do this."
You both grabbed your bags, and walked back to the school building. When you reached the door, Gerard held it open for you to slip in, before he grabbed your hand and intertwined his fingers with yours. With him at your side, anything seemed possible.