Delinquent [16/24]
Delinquent [16/24] by all_tattooed
Frank/Gerard [NC-17 - language, violence, crime, mentions of drugs & alcohol, sex ...etc.]
RPS. Don't know. Don't own. No harm intended.
~4560 words.
Summary: When Frank goes to Juvy, his counselor reforms him in a questionable manner.
Thanks to skelterellax for beta'ing. xo
Dedications: notyourshot, revii & saint_sorrows
Con-Crit welcome. Comments are nice.
Chapter 15
***
Chapter 16
Stopping only once for coffee, Gerard and Frank made it back to the center with about fifteen minutes to spare. Gerard parked the car and they both got out, unloading the only bag Frank had brought along with him and the older man trying his best not to grab the boy’s face and kiss him behind the open trunk before he had to leave again.
Frank slung his bag over his shoulder, flashing his counselor a grin that he was going to have to pay dearly for the next day. They made their way inside together and Gerard signed Frank back in, minimal words being exchanged between them before Frank nodded meekly at Gerard and gave him a little “Thanks” as a guard approached to escort him back to his room.
Gerard stood there for a moment and watched as he walked away. For some reason it sucked more than he thought it would.
***
“Oh, someone I don’t know has just walked into my room. Can I help you?”
Frank smiled at his sarcastic roommate as he stepped through the door, tossing his bag to the floor and falling onto his bed silently.
“Dude!” Jeph exclaimed, jumping down from the top bunk and looking expectantly at Frank. “I had to put up with Pete for way too fucking long for you to be smiling right now. Where have you been?”
Frank’s smile dissolved instantly and he replaced it with a rather disbelieving disgruntled expression. “Had a seminar kinda thing…” He shrugged, stalling to come up with a convincing enough elaboration. “…where I had to, talk. To people, I mean. Yeah it was shit.”
Jeph squinted at him curiously, his head tilting to the side a little. “How come I didn’t have to go?”
Frank mirrored his puzzled expression, his hands waving slightly in confusion. “How the hell would I know? Mr. Way told me last week about it and said I had to go, didn’t think I had much of a choice.” He wanted to laugh out-loud at his neat pack of lies.
Jeph scoffed and took a seat on the floor then proceeded to perform quite useless leg stretches as he continued to talk. “So, he said you had to go? That’s really weird, we’re both here for the same thing. I would’ve thought I’d have to go too.”
“I don’t know dude…” Frank rolled over, his arm and leg hanging off the bed as he watched Jeph grip his hands at the end of his foot. “…maybe you’ll have to go this weekend or something?”
“God I hope not. I’ll shoot that motherfucker.”
“Who?”
“Way. A whole day with him? Fuck, I’d rather sleep inside a cow.”
Frank smiled at his friend’s preference. “Oh…Jeph, why the hell are you stretching? You pull a muscle or some shit?”
Jeph looked up quickly, a disturbing glint in his wide eyes as he let out a deep breath and shook his head slowly. “I’m preparing.”
Frank rolled his eyes and huffed. “Don’t worry, I don’t think Gee’s gonna make you dance as well.”
“What?”
Frank swallowed, only just realizing what he had referred to his counselor as. “You’re preparing yourself for when you have to dance like Pete did.”
Jeph released his foot and slumped back against the wall, a knowing smile tugging the corners of his lips. “You slut.”
Frank’s eyebrows stitched together, he maybe even stopped breathing, but he still questioned his friend slowly. “Oh, why am I a slut?”
“Frank.” He said plainly, his head tilting to one side before tilting back to the other. “Frank.”
“What?”
“Oh come on. Do I seriously have to ask? You really want me to say it?”
Frank’s stomached flipped a couple of times, the smirk of Jeph’s face telling him that there was not going to be any way out of this. He tried to play it off though, giving his friend his best confused face.
“Dude, I actually don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever man. I ain’t gonna push it, you’ll tell me when you’re ready.” He laughed softly, but mostly to himself. He stood up, making a complete idiot of himself as he began to pirouette across the room, tapping the door with a lovely sweep of the hand before prancing back to the middle of the room and facing Frank. “I’m stretching for…” He cleared his throat to add an indistinct accent, “…this afternoon, we shall be annihilating the infamous Nick, via Pete’s plan…” He dropped the voice, “…which is glorious, may I add.”
“Well thanks for the heads up Jepha. What if I wanted to stretch too?” Frank quickly got up from his bed, attempting a hopeless round of star jumps.
Jeph watched on for a moment, joining in on one or two before laughing as he muttered, though loud enough for Frank to hear. “I’m sure you done plenty of stretching over the weekend.”
Frank stopped jumping and he glared at his friend a little coldly. He knew Jeph knew something other than a ‘seminar’ went on, they’d known each other far too long to not be able to instantly pick up on one another’s lies. Really, Frank would have been more surprised if his friend hadn’t picked up on it. Still, he wasn’t about to just lay his weekend out on the table. Whether they had promised it to one another or not, if Frank wanted to continue his sexual charades with his counselor he had to keep it quiet, which meant that no one was to know.
“It’s embarrassing how unfunny you are.” He spat, retreating back to his bed.
Jepha smiled as he made intimate and rather animalistic actions into the air in front of himself before stopping abruptly. “Don’t worry man, I won’t say anything.”
Frank closed his eyes, wishing he had rehearsed something to defend himself with before coming back into the room. “Whatever. Tell me what’s going on with Nick and Pete then. You know I’m there, right?”
“Fuck yeah dude. Pete has shit all set up, you included, even though we didn’t know where the hell you were, I told them we couldn’t leave you out.”
“Nice. So, what do I have to do?”
***
A few hours passed, during which Frank and Jepha had geared themselves up for another confrontation with Nick. Frank hadn’t forgotten that Pete was planning on a sweet payback, but as he and Jeph we’re playfully boxing with each other, Jeph had explained that Pete decided he was just going to let it go, that was until yesterday when Nick had lodged a piece of watermelon at Pete’s head while they were in the cafeteria. Apparently, Pete was relatively calm about it, knowing he already had a way to get back at the smartass, but Bob on the other hand was furious at his down-right immature action and had stormed right over to him, saying nothing, instead punching him right out of his chair. This had given Pete more than enough reason to finish what he had started.
Outside, like an alliance, Frank, Jeph, Bob and Pete were casually making their way across the yard. Malice sparkled in Pete’s eyes as they approached the basketball courts, Bob and him whispering between themselves, guessing the kind of reaction Nick and his friends would have.
“He will cry.”
“Maybe whimper?”
The four made their way into the courts, Frank gently pulling the small rusted gate closed behind them and kicking the piece of wood that held it open behind it, - Bob’s suggestion to stall the guards from getting in too quickly. Nick and his friends stopped in the middle of their game, the ball left to roll along the cement and they all looked at each other, waiting for someone to make some kind of a move.
“Boys.” Nick greeted, spite lacing his tone as he smiled cockily to his two friends. “Hope you’re not planning on doing anything too stupid.”
Frank raised his eyebrows and Jeph scoffed softly into his hand as Pete spoke. “Actually Nick, I came to call a truce.”
Nick laughed overly-loudly, nudging his friends as encouragement for them to laugh along with him, and so, they did. His face straightened. “Yeah, fuck off.”
Pete sighed, his hands raised defensively as he took a step forward. “Seriously man, we’re all in here for fuck knows how long and there’s really no reason for this shit anymore.”
“I don’t give a shit about reasons. Now get the fuck off my court.” He jutted his chin forward as he turned his back to the four of them, muttering “asshole” as he did so.
Within that split second, Bob and Jepha ran to Nick’s friends, tightening their hands around their arms and slamming them into the wire fence that surrounded the court. Nick quickly turned back just as Pete’s fist collided with his jaw and Frank grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to the ground.
With Jepha and Bob distracted in their own effort of keeping Nick’s friends as far away from the other three as possible, Frank positioned himself on Nick’s back, keeping him pressed firmly against the concrete as Pete gave him a nice boot mark across his ribcage. Nick let out a groan and Frank just pushed his face harder into the ground, struggling to stay balanced on the boy’s back as he reached down to grab his arms and lay them out flat in front of him.
Pete quickly made his way over to where Frank was holding Nick’s arms out, pulling items out of his back pockets and throwing them haphazardly onto the floor. Nick instantly grew considerably more horrified, screaming as loud as he possible could for his friends to ‘get the fuck over here’, it was no use though, they were each having a difficult time getting away from Bob and Jeph, fists flying into their faces and/or stomachs as they attempted to return the hits themselves.
So as Nick’s pleas fell on deaf ears, Pete crouched down on the ground, Frank almost laying across Nick’s back as he gripped the boy’s wrists to hold him in place and he watched as Pete began to pour lighter fluid all over his hands.
Nick panicked completely, his body jerking underneath Frank’s, who for a moment there thought he was going to go flying off him.
“FUCK! Frank, hold him fucking still-”
“-I’M TRYING! Fucking, just hurry up.”
Nick’s screams and curses littered the entire yard as Pete dropped a lit match in each of his palms, fire spreading across his skin instantly. Pete laughed as he stood back up, racing to climb onto Nick’s back to help Frank hold him down a little longer.
Frank winced, able to feel the heat of the flames on his fingers and so, slowly, he dragged his hands a little further up Nick’s forearms.
“Now play basketball you filthy piece of fucking shit.” Pete spat, digging his elbow into the back of Nick’s thigh.
“GET THE FUCK OFF ME! FUCK!” Nick’s body shook uncontrollably and Frank and Pete quickly flew up from the boy’s body, just as about six guards came racing into the courts.
Bob and Jepha let Nick’s friends go, all four of them stumbling away from each other, not one of them free of blood. Like springs retracted from under him, Nick bounced up from the ground, still screaming like crazy and he darted outside the courts, throwing his hands into the dirt of the yard and slowly but surely putting the searing flames out.
By then, both Pete and Frank were being restrained by guards; the vicious men taking a firm hold of them by anywhere they could get their hands on. Pete hadn’t stopped laughing though, nor had he taken his eyes off a completely petrified Nick and despite the pressure around his throat, -due to the guard holding him by the back of his hoodie- Frank couldn’t help but burst into his own fit of laughter, at both Nick and Pete’s reaction.
The guards spat threats and curses at them, their grips becoming tighter as they attempted to drag them out of the courts and back into the center. Pete probably couldn’t care any less though, he knew he would be suffering a new bout of consequences when he had begun to conjure up his sick little plan and to see Nick squirm and hopelessly battle his way through it, had proven more than worth it all.
He didn’t feel bad that he had gotten his friends into probably just as much trouble as he was going to get into. He had never once forced them to go along with it, in fact, he had questioned Bob and Jepha on countless occasions yesterday if they were seriously up for it or not. Of course, Frank couldn’t be asked, his lack of presence had made that a little difficult, though Jeph had made it perfectly clear that Frank would definitely not have a problem with it and that if anything, he would have been rather encouraging.
Almost inside, Frank had calmed down enough that the guard who had a hold on him had loosened his grasp a little. He knew how this worked, he knew they were all going to get a ‘talking to’, he didn’t need to be transported by force to Mr. McKay’s office; it wasn’t as if he has anywhere he could run to. He felt no remorse for what he and his friends had just done, the spite in his personality allowed him to not give a fuck if Nick’s hands and turned to ash. He was fully aware that he and Nick had no direct hostility to one another. All his hatred for the boy was fueled by situations that revolved around Pete, but to him, that was hardly the point; Pete was his friend and he had encompassed the values of loyalty long before he learnt of decent morality.
Disgusting as it should have felt, it didn’t, and Frank walked into Mr. McKay’s office with a wicked sense of pride under his skin, knowing that now, Nick was more than likely wishing he could take back all the things he had ever said and done to the four of them. Along with his three friends, Frank was shoved into one of the seats in Mr. McKay’s office, the old and worn out man scolding them with his eyes as he waited for them to get settled in. Jeph cleared his throat, a weak attempt at covering up the scoff he couldn’t help but let escape him.
“YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, JEPHREE?” The man wasted no time with simple evaluation of what was going on in each boy’s head. He was absolutely livid.
“No, Sir.”
“YOU THINK SETTING SOMEONE ON FIRE IS FUN AND FUCKING GAMES?”
Jeph didn’t answer, only tried not to laugh again at the mere thought.
“You four sicken me. Never have I had the displeasure of having a lot as heartless and volatile, placed in my center. That poor boy will not even be able to eat!” He stopped to look expectantly at each of them as if they had some sort of power to take back what they had just done.
“I’m sure his friends won’t mind spoon feeding him, Sir.”
Frank sucked his cheeks as far into his mouth as he could at Pete’s suggestion. His stomach was pumping under his shirt as he tried what was probably the hardest in his life not to laugh. He couldn’t believe that his friend had just come out and said that so bluntly, but more so, he couldn’t believe the smug expression plastered across his face.
Mr. McKay’s eyes widened to an immeasurable size and much like the other three boys, Frank was seriously waiting for them to roll straight out of their sockets, either that or he’d blow a blood vessel.
“Mr. Wentz, I don’t think you have even the slightest clue on just how miserable your life will be for the rest of the time you are in here. All four of you for that matter. Not a day will go by in which you do not wish to take back what you have just done. You thought this place was hell before? As of tomorrow I’d like to see you just try an come up with another word to describe it. And you, Frank…” He stalled, looking directly at said boy. Frank looked up boringly, waiting for the man to continue. He had nothing to say, what could he say? “…I would have thought that after tapping into prison life on Saturday would have taught you some sort of a lesson. You only just got back what, four hours ago? And already you have participated in one of the most heinous acts I’ve even seen during my time here. I’d really love to hear what you have to say for yourself.”
Frank shifted in his seat. He was starting to feel a little bad, though it wasn’t for himself, nor was it for Pete, Jeph, Bob, or Mr. McKay, it was for Gerard, he felt like he was letting his counselor down completely. He didn’t even know what to think about the kind of reaction Gerard would have when he heard about what they had done. He knew his counselor hated Nick, or at least thought he was a ‘cock of a kid’ so he had put it, but that didn’t mean he’d be fine with the fact that Frank had helped caused the boy some severe permanent damage. Gerard was trying to steer him away from dealing with things the wrong way, or at least he was supposed to be, besides taking him to visit Mikey his manner wasn’t necessarily one Frank could use as a guide. Still, regardless of counselor’s twisted logic, Frank knew Gerard was most certainly not going to be impressed by this at all.
Frank pushed the sleeves of his hoodie further up his arms, rubbed his face and let out a short cough as he took a quick glance at Jeph, who at that moment, seemed rather distracted by the photograph of Mr. McKay and his cats that was hung up on the wall.
“I don’t really have too much to say. I mean, prison was a little scary, but the inmates were actually pretty cool.” He only half lied. Prison was a little scary and the inmates, at least the one he met, were pretty cool.
He didn’t know what Mr. McKay was expecting him to say, if he wanted an apology he was definitely not going to get one, it wasn’t as if it was going to get him anywhere anyway and other than what he had just said, he honestly didn’t have anything else to say at all.
Mr. McKay’s glare turned into something that seemed somewhat more like presumption as he leaned back in his chair. If Frank had to guess, he would have predicted that the old man was already well on his way to giving up with the four of them. They were ignorant adolescents with not a care in the world other than the date they were getting out of here, probably so they could go fuck shit up again.
Frank may have matured at heart because, -and as corny as it sounded- that was something Gerard had a hold on, but in his mind he was still seventeen. Still that same old kid that insisted on rebelling in any possible way, just so his actions would be noticed and although he hadn’t even thought about it yet, that was just what he was doing with Gerard. Fucking shit up.
“Frank…” The chubby man started again, “…assuming by your attitude that you simply don’t care too much about where this kind of conduct is going to get you, I’ll say this in front of your friends, you, myself and Mr. Way will be having a painfully long chat about this. I hired Mr. Way for a reason. Like the rest of the kids in here know he’s hard to deal with, I can only guess you do too, my instructions to him are going to be for him to come down on you like a ton of bricks.”
Frank tried hard not to create any kinds of images in his head. If only the old, saggy-chinned man knew just how much the center’s counselor liked to come on him he’d be taking back what he said so fast that Frank wouldn’t even be sure if he had even said it in the first place. As much as Mr. McKay would have liked to think Frank was hanging by a thread, he couldn’t have been anymore mistaken. The man’s warning only allowed Frank that bit more insight on just how well-respected Gerard was as a counselor, it also made him snicker in silence, knowing that Gerard was a great deal further on his side of the law than the fuming man in front of him could even imagine.
He didn’t feel the need to say anything in response to that though, instead, Frank simply nodded, eyebrows raised and tried not to think about it anymore.
Mr. McKay continued, informing them all that starting tomorrow they will not at anytime be allowed outside of their rooms other than to go to classes, counsel sessions, work, eat and shower, during all of which they will be under strict supervision until Mr. Way can inform him of significant changes in attitude. Frank wasn’t too worried that he wasn’t going to be freed from the confines of his room for a while, he was however, really starting to agonize over what Gerard was going to say to him. Not only for just what they all did, but the fact that in doing so it’s only made his job a hell of a lot harder.
***
After cleaning themselves up, all four boys were escorted back to their rooms and, -just to be a complete prick- Mr. McKay had even denied them any dinner for that night. The guard let Frank and Jeph back into their room, telling them he’d be back in a couple of hours to take them to the bathroom and showers before he left, closing the door and locking it from the outside.
Frank and Jeph stood silently for a moment in the middle of their room, just staring blankly at one another before they both closed their eyes and let their heads drop.
“Dude, my nose hurts so bad.” Jeph complained; their moment of regret quickly over. “I think Dean has a metal plate in his palm.”
Frank looked up, remembering Dean was the one he had fought with last time conflict had ensued between them all and he also remembered that he packed quite a nice hit. “Let me see.” He said, lifting his friend’s head and beginning to inspect.
Frank squinted as he moved his face closer to Jeph’s, noting the already forming bruises and quite nasty swelling. There was no reason for him to see it, he just wanted to, it was human reaction; someone gets hurt, you want to see, as if maybe your viewing would fix the problem.
“Oh yeah…” Frank mused, the hand on his friend’s chin tilting his head from one side to the other, “…it says, right here on your cheek, ‘I’m a pussy.’” He let Jeph’s face go.
Jeph squinted at him, kicking his shoes off and undoing his jacket. “I like that I’m the pussy, yet all you had to do was sit on Nick’s back.”
Frank looked at him incredulously, “Dude, are you kidding? That guy was like riding a high-speed electric bull…that screamed.”
“Well at least you’re not bleeding, asshole.” He nudged Frank with his shoulder as he walked to the steps of the bunk, attempting climb up them, but failing miserably. “Ah, fuck. I think I dislocated my everything.” He winced, stepping back from the bed.
Frank took off his own shoes and hoodie, turning to look at his roommate. “Are you okay? If you want, I can bang on the door ‘till someone comes and you can go see the nurse.”
“Nah, man. It’s cool.” He hobbled around for a moment, not really sure of what to do with himself.
“Lay on my bed, I’ll lay on yours.” Frank grabbed Jeph’s arm and helped him onto his bed, petting his head like you would a child once he was settled.
Jeph slowly turned to his side, hissing at the pain in stomach when something caught his eye. “Frank, what the fuck it that?” He asked, more than confused as he pointed at the wall.
Frank dipped his head down to find what Jeph was referring to and laughed when he realized it was the picture of Lego Porn Gerard had so kindly drawn for him.
“Mr. Way done it.”
If it were possible, Jeph would have turned around to face Frank so he could note the perplexity on his face, but he simply couldn’t, instead he just questioned it further. “Oh yeah, ‘cause that’s not like completely fucking creepy or anything.”
“It’s not. It’s just like some stupid joke we had going or something.”
The pair were silent again and Frank took the break in conversation to climb on the Jeph’s bed and simply relaxed. He honestly felt like he hadn’t slept in days.
“God, I feel so drained.”
Jeph ignored Frank’s statement. “Dude, is there like something going on between you and Way?”
Frank knew this was coming. He wasn’t sure how long it was going to take Jeph to just come out and ask. Judging from earlier this afternoon though he didn’t think it would have been so soon, seeing as he had said that he was going to leave it, but Frank figured his friend couldn’t wait and it wasn’t as if they had more pressing matters to discuss.
“No, why? What do you mean anyway?” He queried, a level of airiness in his voice that he wasn’t quite sure his friend was going to be able to read through or not.
Jeph sighed, which Frank took as a good sign. Either he was really too tired to bother, really did not care or actually believed Frank was being sincere. “I don’t know. You just seem to like him is all, well, maybe not like him, but …you just don’t seem to hate him.”
Frank smiled to himself. “Nah, I don’t hate him. He is a little eccentric, hence that picture, but to be honest, for the most part we get along.”
Jeph laughed softly, mixed up somewhere in a yawn. “Well I’m glad someone does…” He mumbled, sounding sleepy, “…doesn’t surprise me though; you’re just as weird as he his sometimes. Hey, can you wake me when Mark gets back to let us out, I need to piss pretty fucking bad.”
Frank smiled, nuzzling into Jeph’s pillow. “Yeah, I’ll wake ya.” He assured before closing his eyes.
“Frank?” Jeph questioned, he voice barely there.
“Mmm.”
“Do you ever wish we hadn’t done it? Like all the cars and shit I mean.”
Frank smiled again as he thought about it, feeling sleep taking over him a little more. “Not at all, dude.”
Chapter 17
Frank/Gerard [NC-17 - language, violence, crime, mentions of drugs & alcohol, sex ...etc.]
RPS. Don't know. Don't own. No harm intended.
~4560 words.
Summary: When Frank goes to Juvy, his counselor reforms him in a questionable manner.
Thanks to skelterellax for beta'ing. xo
Dedications: notyourshot, revii & saint_sorrows
Con-Crit welcome. Comments are nice.
Chapter 15
***
Chapter 16
Stopping only once for coffee, Gerard and Frank made it back to the center with about fifteen minutes to spare. Gerard parked the car and they both got out, unloading the only bag Frank had brought along with him and the older man trying his best not to grab the boy’s face and kiss him behind the open trunk before he had to leave again.
Frank slung his bag over his shoulder, flashing his counselor a grin that he was going to have to pay dearly for the next day. They made their way inside together and Gerard signed Frank back in, minimal words being exchanged between them before Frank nodded meekly at Gerard and gave him a little “Thanks” as a guard approached to escort him back to his room.
Gerard stood there for a moment and watched as he walked away. For some reason it sucked more than he thought it would.
***
“Oh, someone I don’t know has just walked into my room. Can I help you?”
Frank smiled at his sarcastic roommate as he stepped through the door, tossing his bag to the floor and falling onto his bed silently.
“Dude!” Jeph exclaimed, jumping down from the top bunk and looking expectantly at Frank. “I had to put up with Pete for way too fucking long for you to be smiling right now. Where have you been?”
Frank’s smile dissolved instantly and he replaced it with a rather disbelieving disgruntled expression. “Had a seminar kinda thing…” He shrugged, stalling to come up with a convincing enough elaboration. “…where I had to, talk. To people, I mean. Yeah it was shit.”
Jeph squinted at him curiously, his head tilting to the side a little. “How come I didn’t have to go?”
Frank mirrored his puzzled expression, his hands waving slightly in confusion. “How the hell would I know? Mr. Way told me last week about it and said I had to go, didn’t think I had much of a choice.” He wanted to laugh out-loud at his neat pack of lies.
Jeph scoffed and took a seat on the floor then proceeded to perform quite useless leg stretches as he continued to talk. “So, he said you had to go? That’s really weird, we’re both here for the same thing. I would’ve thought I’d have to go too.”
“I don’t know dude…” Frank rolled over, his arm and leg hanging off the bed as he watched Jeph grip his hands at the end of his foot. “…maybe you’ll have to go this weekend or something?”
“God I hope not. I’ll shoot that motherfucker.”
“Who?”
“Way. A whole day with him? Fuck, I’d rather sleep inside a cow.”
Frank smiled at his friend’s preference. “Oh…Jeph, why the hell are you stretching? You pull a muscle or some shit?”
Jeph looked up quickly, a disturbing glint in his wide eyes as he let out a deep breath and shook his head slowly. “I’m preparing.”
Frank rolled his eyes and huffed. “Don’t worry, I don’t think Gee’s gonna make you dance as well.”
“What?”
Frank swallowed, only just realizing what he had referred to his counselor as. “You’re preparing yourself for when you have to dance like Pete did.”
Jeph released his foot and slumped back against the wall, a knowing smile tugging the corners of his lips. “You slut.”
Frank’s eyebrows stitched together, he maybe even stopped breathing, but he still questioned his friend slowly. “Oh, why am I a slut?”
“Frank.” He said plainly, his head tilting to one side before tilting back to the other. “Frank.”
“What?”
“Oh come on. Do I seriously have to ask? You really want me to say it?”
Frank’s stomached flipped a couple of times, the smirk of Jeph’s face telling him that there was not going to be any way out of this. He tried to play it off though, giving his friend his best confused face.
“Dude, I actually don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever man. I ain’t gonna push it, you’ll tell me when you’re ready.” He laughed softly, but mostly to himself. He stood up, making a complete idiot of himself as he began to pirouette across the room, tapping the door with a lovely sweep of the hand before prancing back to the middle of the room and facing Frank. “I’m stretching for…” He cleared his throat to add an indistinct accent, “…this afternoon, we shall be annihilating the infamous Nick, via Pete’s plan…” He dropped the voice, “…which is glorious, may I add.”
“Well thanks for the heads up Jepha. What if I wanted to stretch too?” Frank quickly got up from his bed, attempting a hopeless round of star jumps.
Jeph watched on for a moment, joining in on one or two before laughing as he muttered, though loud enough for Frank to hear. “I’m sure you done plenty of stretching over the weekend.”
Frank stopped jumping and he glared at his friend a little coldly. He knew Jeph knew something other than a ‘seminar’ went on, they’d known each other far too long to not be able to instantly pick up on one another’s lies. Really, Frank would have been more surprised if his friend hadn’t picked up on it. Still, he wasn’t about to just lay his weekend out on the table. Whether they had promised it to one another or not, if Frank wanted to continue his sexual charades with his counselor he had to keep it quiet, which meant that no one was to know.
“It’s embarrassing how unfunny you are.” He spat, retreating back to his bed.
Jepha smiled as he made intimate and rather animalistic actions into the air in front of himself before stopping abruptly. “Don’t worry man, I won’t say anything.”
Frank closed his eyes, wishing he had rehearsed something to defend himself with before coming back into the room. “Whatever. Tell me what’s going on with Nick and Pete then. You know I’m there, right?”
“Fuck yeah dude. Pete has shit all set up, you included, even though we didn’t know where the hell you were, I told them we couldn’t leave you out.”
“Nice. So, what do I have to do?”
***
A few hours passed, during which Frank and Jepha had geared themselves up for another confrontation with Nick. Frank hadn’t forgotten that Pete was planning on a sweet payback, but as he and Jeph we’re playfully boxing with each other, Jeph had explained that Pete decided he was just going to let it go, that was until yesterday when Nick had lodged a piece of watermelon at Pete’s head while they were in the cafeteria. Apparently, Pete was relatively calm about it, knowing he already had a way to get back at the smartass, but Bob on the other hand was furious at his down-right immature action and had stormed right over to him, saying nothing, instead punching him right out of his chair. This had given Pete more than enough reason to finish what he had started.
Outside, like an alliance, Frank, Jeph, Bob and Pete were casually making their way across the yard. Malice sparkled in Pete’s eyes as they approached the basketball courts, Bob and him whispering between themselves, guessing the kind of reaction Nick and his friends would have.
“He will cry.”
“Maybe whimper?”
The four made their way into the courts, Frank gently pulling the small rusted gate closed behind them and kicking the piece of wood that held it open behind it, - Bob’s suggestion to stall the guards from getting in too quickly. Nick and his friends stopped in the middle of their game, the ball left to roll along the cement and they all looked at each other, waiting for someone to make some kind of a move.
“Boys.” Nick greeted, spite lacing his tone as he smiled cockily to his two friends. “Hope you’re not planning on doing anything too stupid.”
Frank raised his eyebrows and Jeph scoffed softly into his hand as Pete spoke. “Actually Nick, I came to call a truce.”
Nick laughed overly-loudly, nudging his friends as encouragement for them to laugh along with him, and so, they did. His face straightened. “Yeah, fuck off.”
Pete sighed, his hands raised defensively as he took a step forward. “Seriously man, we’re all in here for fuck knows how long and there’s really no reason for this shit anymore.”
“I don’t give a shit about reasons. Now get the fuck off my court.” He jutted his chin forward as he turned his back to the four of them, muttering “asshole” as he did so.
Within that split second, Bob and Jepha ran to Nick’s friends, tightening their hands around their arms and slamming them into the wire fence that surrounded the court. Nick quickly turned back just as Pete’s fist collided with his jaw and Frank grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to the ground.
With Jepha and Bob distracted in their own effort of keeping Nick’s friends as far away from the other three as possible, Frank positioned himself on Nick’s back, keeping him pressed firmly against the concrete as Pete gave him a nice boot mark across his ribcage. Nick let out a groan and Frank just pushed his face harder into the ground, struggling to stay balanced on the boy’s back as he reached down to grab his arms and lay them out flat in front of him.
Pete quickly made his way over to where Frank was holding Nick’s arms out, pulling items out of his back pockets and throwing them haphazardly onto the floor. Nick instantly grew considerably more horrified, screaming as loud as he possible could for his friends to ‘get the fuck over here’, it was no use though, they were each having a difficult time getting away from Bob and Jeph, fists flying into their faces and/or stomachs as they attempted to return the hits themselves.
So as Nick’s pleas fell on deaf ears, Pete crouched down on the ground, Frank almost laying across Nick’s back as he gripped the boy’s wrists to hold him in place and he watched as Pete began to pour lighter fluid all over his hands.
Nick panicked completely, his body jerking underneath Frank’s, who for a moment there thought he was going to go flying off him.
“FUCK! Frank, hold him fucking still-”
“-I’M TRYING! Fucking, just hurry up.”
Nick’s screams and curses littered the entire yard as Pete dropped a lit match in each of his palms, fire spreading across his skin instantly. Pete laughed as he stood back up, racing to climb onto Nick’s back to help Frank hold him down a little longer.
Frank winced, able to feel the heat of the flames on his fingers and so, slowly, he dragged his hands a little further up Nick’s forearms.
“Now play basketball you filthy piece of fucking shit.” Pete spat, digging his elbow into the back of Nick’s thigh.
“GET THE FUCK OFF ME! FUCK!” Nick’s body shook uncontrollably and Frank and Pete quickly flew up from the boy’s body, just as about six guards came racing into the courts.
Bob and Jepha let Nick’s friends go, all four of them stumbling away from each other, not one of them free of blood. Like springs retracted from under him, Nick bounced up from the ground, still screaming like crazy and he darted outside the courts, throwing his hands into the dirt of the yard and slowly but surely putting the searing flames out.
By then, both Pete and Frank were being restrained by guards; the vicious men taking a firm hold of them by anywhere they could get their hands on. Pete hadn’t stopped laughing though, nor had he taken his eyes off a completely petrified Nick and despite the pressure around his throat, -due to the guard holding him by the back of his hoodie- Frank couldn’t help but burst into his own fit of laughter, at both Nick and Pete’s reaction.
The guards spat threats and curses at them, their grips becoming tighter as they attempted to drag them out of the courts and back into the center. Pete probably couldn’t care any less though, he knew he would be suffering a new bout of consequences when he had begun to conjure up his sick little plan and to see Nick squirm and hopelessly battle his way through it, had proven more than worth it all.
He didn’t feel bad that he had gotten his friends into probably just as much trouble as he was going to get into. He had never once forced them to go along with it, in fact, he had questioned Bob and Jepha on countless occasions yesterday if they were seriously up for it or not. Of course, Frank couldn’t be asked, his lack of presence had made that a little difficult, though Jeph had made it perfectly clear that Frank would definitely not have a problem with it and that if anything, he would have been rather encouraging.
Almost inside, Frank had calmed down enough that the guard who had a hold on him had loosened his grasp a little. He knew how this worked, he knew they were all going to get a ‘talking to’, he didn’t need to be transported by force to Mr. McKay’s office; it wasn’t as if he has anywhere he could run to. He felt no remorse for what he and his friends had just done, the spite in his personality allowed him to not give a fuck if Nick’s hands and turned to ash. He was fully aware that he and Nick had no direct hostility to one another. All his hatred for the boy was fueled by situations that revolved around Pete, but to him, that was hardly the point; Pete was his friend and he had encompassed the values of loyalty long before he learnt of decent morality.
Disgusting as it should have felt, it didn’t, and Frank walked into Mr. McKay’s office with a wicked sense of pride under his skin, knowing that now, Nick was more than likely wishing he could take back all the things he had ever said and done to the four of them. Along with his three friends, Frank was shoved into one of the seats in Mr. McKay’s office, the old and worn out man scolding them with his eyes as he waited for them to get settled in. Jeph cleared his throat, a weak attempt at covering up the scoff he couldn’t help but let escape him.
“YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, JEPHREE?” The man wasted no time with simple evaluation of what was going on in each boy’s head. He was absolutely livid.
“No, Sir.”
“YOU THINK SETTING SOMEONE ON FIRE IS FUN AND FUCKING GAMES?”
Jeph didn’t answer, only tried not to laugh again at the mere thought.
“You four sicken me. Never have I had the displeasure of having a lot as heartless and volatile, placed in my center. That poor boy will not even be able to eat!” He stopped to look expectantly at each of them as if they had some sort of power to take back what they had just done.
“I’m sure his friends won’t mind spoon feeding him, Sir.”
Frank sucked his cheeks as far into his mouth as he could at Pete’s suggestion. His stomach was pumping under his shirt as he tried what was probably the hardest in his life not to laugh. He couldn’t believe that his friend had just come out and said that so bluntly, but more so, he couldn’t believe the smug expression plastered across his face.
Mr. McKay’s eyes widened to an immeasurable size and much like the other three boys, Frank was seriously waiting for them to roll straight out of their sockets, either that or he’d blow a blood vessel.
“Mr. Wentz, I don’t think you have even the slightest clue on just how miserable your life will be for the rest of the time you are in here. All four of you for that matter. Not a day will go by in which you do not wish to take back what you have just done. You thought this place was hell before? As of tomorrow I’d like to see you just try an come up with another word to describe it. And you, Frank…” He stalled, looking directly at said boy. Frank looked up boringly, waiting for the man to continue. He had nothing to say, what could he say? “…I would have thought that after tapping into prison life on Saturday would have taught you some sort of a lesson. You only just got back what, four hours ago? And already you have participated in one of the most heinous acts I’ve even seen during my time here. I’d really love to hear what you have to say for yourself.”
Frank shifted in his seat. He was starting to feel a little bad, though it wasn’t for himself, nor was it for Pete, Jeph, Bob, or Mr. McKay, it was for Gerard, he felt like he was letting his counselor down completely. He didn’t even know what to think about the kind of reaction Gerard would have when he heard about what they had done. He knew his counselor hated Nick, or at least thought he was a ‘cock of a kid’ so he had put it, but that didn’t mean he’d be fine with the fact that Frank had helped caused the boy some severe permanent damage. Gerard was trying to steer him away from dealing with things the wrong way, or at least he was supposed to be, besides taking him to visit Mikey his manner wasn’t necessarily one Frank could use as a guide. Still, regardless of counselor’s twisted logic, Frank knew Gerard was most certainly not going to be impressed by this at all.
Frank pushed the sleeves of his hoodie further up his arms, rubbed his face and let out a short cough as he took a quick glance at Jeph, who at that moment, seemed rather distracted by the photograph of Mr. McKay and his cats that was hung up on the wall.
“I don’t really have too much to say. I mean, prison was a little scary, but the inmates were actually pretty cool.” He only half lied. Prison was a little scary and the inmates, at least the one he met, were pretty cool.
He didn’t know what Mr. McKay was expecting him to say, if he wanted an apology he was definitely not going to get one, it wasn’t as if it was going to get him anywhere anyway and other than what he had just said, he honestly didn’t have anything else to say at all.
Mr. McKay’s glare turned into something that seemed somewhat more like presumption as he leaned back in his chair. If Frank had to guess, he would have predicted that the old man was already well on his way to giving up with the four of them. They were ignorant adolescents with not a care in the world other than the date they were getting out of here, probably so they could go fuck shit up again.
Frank may have matured at heart because, -and as corny as it sounded- that was something Gerard had a hold on, but in his mind he was still seventeen. Still that same old kid that insisted on rebelling in any possible way, just so his actions would be noticed and although he hadn’t even thought about it yet, that was just what he was doing with Gerard. Fucking shit up.
“Frank…” The chubby man started again, “…assuming by your attitude that you simply don’t care too much about where this kind of conduct is going to get you, I’ll say this in front of your friends, you, myself and Mr. Way will be having a painfully long chat about this. I hired Mr. Way for a reason. Like the rest of the kids in here know he’s hard to deal with, I can only guess you do too, my instructions to him are going to be for him to come down on you like a ton of bricks.”
Frank tried hard not to create any kinds of images in his head. If only the old, saggy-chinned man knew just how much the center’s counselor liked to come on him he’d be taking back what he said so fast that Frank wouldn’t even be sure if he had even said it in the first place. As much as Mr. McKay would have liked to think Frank was hanging by a thread, he couldn’t have been anymore mistaken. The man’s warning only allowed Frank that bit more insight on just how well-respected Gerard was as a counselor, it also made him snicker in silence, knowing that Gerard was a great deal further on his side of the law than the fuming man in front of him could even imagine.
He didn’t feel the need to say anything in response to that though, instead, Frank simply nodded, eyebrows raised and tried not to think about it anymore.
Mr. McKay continued, informing them all that starting tomorrow they will not at anytime be allowed outside of their rooms other than to go to classes, counsel sessions, work, eat and shower, during all of which they will be under strict supervision until Mr. Way can inform him of significant changes in attitude. Frank wasn’t too worried that he wasn’t going to be freed from the confines of his room for a while, he was however, really starting to agonize over what Gerard was going to say to him. Not only for just what they all did, but the fact that in doing so it’s only made his job a hell of a lot harder.
***
After cleaning themselves up, all four boys were escorted back to their rooms and, -just to be a complete prick- Mr. McKay had even denied them any dinner for that night. The guard let Frank and Jeph back into their room, telling them he’d be back in a couple of hours to take them to the bathroom and showers before he left, closing the door and locking it from the outside.
Frank and Jeph stood silently for a moment in the middle of their room, just staring blankly at one another before they both closed their eyes and let their heads drop.
“Dude, my nose hurts so bad.” Jeph complained; their moment of regret quickly over. “I think Dean has a metal plate in his palm.”
Frank looked up, remembering Dean was the one he had fought with last time conflict had ensued between them all and he also remembered that he packed quite a nice hit. “Let me see.” He said, lifting his friend’s head and beginning to inspect.
Frank squinted as he moved his face closer to Jeph’s, noting the already forming bruises and quite nasty swelling. There was no reason for him to see it, he just wanted to, it was human reaction; someone gets hurt, you want to see, as if maybe your viewing would fix the problem.
“Oh yeah…” Frank mused, the hand on his friend’s chin tilting his head from one side to the other, “…it says, right here on your cheek, ‘I’m a pussy.’” He let Jeph’s face go.
Jeph squinted at him, kicking his shoes off and undoing his jacket. “I like that I’m the pussy, yet all you had to do was sit on Nick’s back.”
Frank looked at him incredulously, “Dude, are you kidding? That guy was like riding a high-speed electric bull…that screamed.”
“Well at least you’re not bleeding, asshole.” He nudged Frank with his shoulder as he walked to the steps of the bunk, attempting climb up them, but failing miserably. “Ah, fuck. I think I dislocated my everything.” He winced, stepping back from the bed.
Frank took off his own shoes and hoodie, turning to look at his roommate. “Are you okay? If you want, I can bang on the door ‘till someone comes and you can go see the nurse.”
“Nah, man. It’s cool.” He hobbled around for a moment, not really sure of what to do with himself.
“Lay on my bed, I’ll lay on yours.” Frank grabbed Jeph’s arm and helped him onto his bed, petting his head like you would a child once he was settled.
Jeph slowly turned to his side, hissing at the pain in stomach when something caught his eye. “Frank, what the fuck it that?” He asked, more than confused as he pointed at the wall.
Frank dipped his head down to find what Jeph was referring to and laughed when he realized it was the picture of Lego Porn Gerard had so kindly drawn for him.
“Mr. Way done it.”
If it were possible, Jeph would have turned around to face Frank so he could note the perplexity on his face, but he simply couldn’t, instead he just questioned it further. “Oh yeah, ‘cause that’s not like completely fucking creepy or anything.”
“It’s not. It’s just like some stupid joke we had going or something.”
The pair were silent again and Frank took the break in conversation to climb on the Jeph’s bed and simply relaxed. He honestly felt like he hadn’t slept in days.
“God, I feel so drained.”
Jeph ignored Frank’s statement. “Dude, is there like something going on between you and Way?”
Frank knew this was coming. He wasn’t sure how long it was going to take Jeph to just come out and ask. Judging from earlier this afternoon though he didn’t think it would have been so soon, seeing as he had said that he was going to leave it, but Frank figured his friend couldn’t wait and it wasn’t as if they had more pressing matters to discuss.
“No, why? What do you mean anyway?” He queried, a level of airiness in his voice that he wasn’t quite sure his friend was going to be able to read through or not.
Jeph sighed, which Frank took as a good sign. Either he was really too tired to bother, really did not care or actually believed Frank was being sincere. “I don’t know. You just seem to like him is all, well, maybe not like him, but …you just don’t seem to hate him.”
Frank smiled to himself. “Nah, I don’t hate him. He is a little eccentric, hence that picture, but to be honest, for the most part we get along.”
Jeph laughed softly, mixed up somewhere in a yawn. “Well I’m glad someone does…” He mumbled, sounding sleepy, “…doesn’t surprise me though; you’re just as weird as he his sometimes. Hey, can you wake me when Mark gets back to let us out, I need to piss pretty fucking bad.”
Frank smiled, nuzzling into Jeph’s pillow. “Yeah, I’ll wake ya.” He assured before closing his eyes.
“Frank?” Jeph questioned, he voice barely there.
“Mmm.”
“Do you ever wish we hadn’t done it? Like all the cars and shit I mean.”
Frank smiled again as he thought about it, feeling sleep taking over him a little more. “Not at all, dude.”
Chapter 17