the bastards of belleville

chapter two

Gerard clapped a hand over his mouth. "Oh my god."

"G-Gee, we gotta go. Right now." Frank stammered. 

"Frank," Gerard mumbled. "Frank, t-that's Bert. Bert's supposed to be alive. Bert's supposed to be with us, and n-not laying in the middle of the woods with a bullet through his skull. Frank, it's not supposed to be like this. Frank, this isn't supposed to happen!"

Gerard brought his shaking hands to his head, running his hands through his black waves. "No, no, no, no, Frank. It's not supposed to be like this."

"Gerard! Get it together, okay?" Frank whispered, guiding the boy away from the body. "We gotta call someone."

"Frank, that means you'll be in trouble for sneaking out," Gerard said quietly. 

"I-I don't care about that, okay? We'll get the others, we'll leave, and then we'll say we heard something and decided to investigate. It'll be fine." Frank clumsily stumbled down the hill. towards the other boys.

"Hey, were you guys making out ag-?" Pete started to ask, but then he saw the look on their faces.  "You look like you've just seen a dead body."

"We have."

"Wait, what?" Ray spoke up quickly, his frizzy afro falling into his face. 

"B-Bert..." Gerard started to say, and then he broke down. Frank quickly pulled him close, rubbing his back. 

"It's okay, Gee. It's alright. You're okay."

"What happened, Frank?" Brendon said, clutching Ryan's hand. 

"Bert's up in this clearing with a bullet through his head."

"What?" Ray rasped out, clapping a hand over his mouth. 

Frank just nodded, hugging Gerard tighter as he choked out a sob. 

"Gee, we gotta go, okay?" 

"Frank, we can't go. It'll look like we did it. We gotta call someone and stay."

"Does anyone have their cell phone with them?" Pete announced, trying to stay remotely calm. Pete always stayed calm, or at least tried to, while Ray was freaking out. 

"Gerard and I do," Frank said quickly, whipping his iPhone out of his pocket.

"Okay, I'll call 911 because everyone else is freaking out, okay?"

Gerard fell back into Frank's arms, trembling. 

"Gee, hey, you're okay."

"I can't even fathom it, you know?" Gerard mumbled into Frank's hair. "Like, Bert's dead. We'll never see him alive. Ever. It just doesn't seem real. It can't be real."

"Gee, it'll be alright. I promise."

"Frank, who did it? Who would murder him? Like, he's a pain in the fucking ass all the time, but I don't think anyone could do that. Not to him."

Frank gulped, hugging Gerard tighter.  "I don't know. There are a lot of fucked up people out there."

The ambulance eventually arrived at the scene. Gerard, Frank, Ray, Pete, Brendon and Ryan were all brought in separately for questioning.

Frank denied that he knew anything.

"No," he had said. "I heard the gunshot, and Gerard and I went to investigate. That's where we found Bert"

The worst part? They believed him. Frank knew that he would be screwed if his dad found out that he knew. He wasn't even sure if Gerard would understand if he told him that he knew. He'd be so pissed. They all would. 

The car ride back to Frank's house was silent. His parents confistcated his car keys so he couldn't sneak out anymore. They were just as angry at Gerard.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Frank's dad screamed, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. "Sneaking to the river like that? We live in a small town in New Jersey. New Jersey! God, you could've been killed. That could've been one of you boys. You are juniors in high school. Act like it." 

"Frank?" Gerard said into the empty darkness from his air matress on the floor. They had gotten home around midnight. "You awake?"

"Yeah. I can't sleep."

"Same."

"Gerard?"

"Yeah?"

"W-Will you come sleep with me? Like, I know that's a stupid thing to ask. But I don't know, I just really need you right now." 

Gerard didn't say anything. He just stood up silently and crawled into the younger boy's bed, wrapping his arms around him. Frank pressed his face to Gerard's warm chest, clutching at his old gray t-shirt, the one that he loved so much. 

"Are you okay, Frankie?"

"No, not really."

"I can't believe he's gone." Gerard pulled Frank tighter, burying his face in his dark hair. 

"Neither can I. It doesn't seem real, you know?"

"It seems like," Gerard sighed. "It seems like I'm going to wake up tomorrow, and it's not gonna be real. I'm gonna wake up, and I'm gonna have twelve messages from him waiting on my phone. I just wanna kill whoever did it."

Frank closed his eyes. "What if one of your friends did it?"

"You didn't do it, did you?" 

"God, no! Of course not, Gerard. I'm nearly incapable of getting away with sneaking out. I don't think I could commit a murder."

"Good. Because then I would have to kill you."

"You would like to murder my ass. With your dick."

"Yeah, I would."

Frank softly giggled into Gerard's shirt. "Thank you. For being here." He smelled good. Like cigarette smoke and deodorant.

"Don't worry about it, okay? Shit happens. And you're my best friend. I fucking love you, man," Gerard murmured into Frank's hair. 

"I love you too, Gee."