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Description
A sharp wind blew across my face, cutting me like a knife. My messy black hair flew backwards as I walked into the wind. I would have much preferred to be walking with the wind, but it was Friday and I just wanted to get home. Besides, it gave me the feeling of doing something different. I was going against the wind, and I was going against everyone else's instincts. My little brother Mikey had chosen to take the bus home to save himself the windy commute. He was probably sick of losing his hats. He was down to his last gray hat and he wanted to keep it for his remaining four years of high school. This however was my last year. All the more reason I wanted to get home.

"So take the bus Gerard, it'll be quicker," Mikey had said to me during lunch that day when I told him how I planned to get home. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and I stood up to get away from my brother's skepticism.

"I just, I feel like I should walk home."

"You'll blow away in this weather."

"No, Mikey. You will blow away in this weather," I countered.

Mikey rebutted, "No, he would blow away," Mikey gestured to a short little kid, shorter than me, shorter than Mikey, getting shoved around in the now crowded hallway. He was the new kid. He was a freshman like Mikey. I couldn't understand how Mikey was able to make a joke about him like that. This kid was getting shoved into a locker, and Mikey and I just stood and watched. What could I have possibly done to save this kid?

The locker door slammed shut on him and it snapped me out of my trance. I sighed in disgust at the behavior of my fellow classmates and repeated to my brother, "I just think I should walk home today." Maybe it'd clear my head up.

Stumbling across a quarter-sized stone on the sidewalk, I had begun kicking it on my journey home. The wind whipped at my face and I pulled my gray and black striped scarf tighter, letting it cover my face so that I surely looked like a robber. I continued to kick the small stone a foot, two feet, three feet, forward, on and on and on.

I ambled past the Iero house. That's where the new kid lived. Iero. I wasn't sure of his first name. I'd heard Mikey talk about him, but I only ever picked up on the last name. I only remembered it because my mother had dragged me over to their house when they moved into the neighborhood six weeks ago. I lifted my gaze from the stone on the ground to eye the house. This house wasn't in the best shape. It was one of the worst in the neighborhood and I instantly felt a feeling of guilt and sorrow for the poor kid. He didn't choose to be this bad off, and because of that he got fucked up in school each day.

In feeling so low for the Iero kid, my gaze fell again. I stared at my feet and noticed something just under the left toe of my worn Converse. I moved my foot and bent down to see what lay on the sidewalk. It happened to be a guitar pick. I picked it up and examined it. The point was a little dull showing it had been used numerous times before. Was it the Iero kid's? I took another look at the house beside me and noticed that something was different. I couldn't quite pinpoint what was different. I'd looked at that house so many times from going to and from school. It looked, the same, from the paint-chipped shutters and the mossy bricks to the weeds in the garden and the old decaying ladder... the ladder. It no longer lay on the ground against the side of the house.

Sheer curiosity drove me to look for the ladder. I don't know why I did, but... sometimes things are just...

I took a step off the sidewalk and started a new path onto the uncut grass. I walked up to where the ladder had been previously. It was clear that it had only recently been moved from it's old home from the sunken grass where it used to be. Had I not been so intrigued, I wouldn't have noticed that the grass was so soft it had left footprints. Not just mine, but another set. They led from the ghostly ladder shape and winded around the back of the building. I couldn't help but follow them. I followed them as if they were leading me to a hidden treasure when they suddenly stopped. In the corner of my eye, I saw the ladder. It was against the back of the house, but not on the ground like it had been for so long, but leading up. A strong gust of wind blew, and maybe that was what caused my head to look up to see exactly where the ladder ended. Either the ladder was longer than I thought, or the house was not as tall as I thought because the ladder reached the roof of the decaying building. I took a few steps back peered towards the roof. Then I remembered the pick in my hand.

I took a second look at the small chip of plastic when I heard a small voice from above. "What do you want?" My head snapped up to see who broke the silence I was getting used to. The Iero kid was perched on his roof, hugging his legs, chin set firmly upon his knees. His sudden comment caught me off guard and I struggled to find an appropriate response.

"I f-found... uh... this, is, is this y-yours?" I was never the best at speaking to others. Most of my logical sentences were used up on Mikey.

"What is it?" the kid asked, moving only his head to get a better view of the object in my hand. I didn't answer. It didn't even occur to me to answer. Instead I made a move towards the ladder and began to climb. "What are you doing? Stay down there!" He sounded more fearful than angry, scared of not just me, but of the words he spoke, but there was clearly aggravation in his voice. Rung by rung I climbed cautiously to the roof. The kid gave no other comment as I rose to where he was rooted. I crawled shakily to him, being so high was not an experience I was used to. I crawled up next to the small boy and sat beside him.

"What?" he asked harshly. I saw that he too was shaking, but something told me it was from my presence, and not from the height.

"Is... is this, y-yours?" I asked holding out the small chip of plastic. His expression automatically lightened to a more complacent look as he eyed what lay in my hand.

"Where did you find that?"

"It was on the sidewalk, down..." I gulped looking down to where I mentioned, "down there. I- you play guitar?"

"Yeah," his eyes fell as he grabbed the pick from me. "A little."

"That's really cool, my uh... my brother plays bass."

"Oh?" he responded, not really as interested as his reply implied.

"Yeah, you know... he could use someone to play with. I'm, not very good. I can barely hold a guitar and be taken seriously," I chuckled, trying to get this glum boy to smile. No such luck. He had already resumed his previous position from before I had climbed the ladder.

"Why did you come up here?" he asked so quietly it was barely a whisper.

"I... I don't really know." Another fierce gust of wind blew and I feared I would be blown off the roof. I tensed up as this thought crossed my mind. "Why did you?"

He didn't respond at first and I almost thought he didn't hear me. I was about to ask again, he spoke just as I began opening my mouth. "I'm not really sure why either. It's peaceful up here, I guess. No one, can get me up here. Well... I guess except for you." He smirked, not removing his gaze from the ground. "I-I'm Frank by the way." He lifted his head and looked at me, I suppose in expecting that I would give him my name.

"Gerard." I smiled for him as I gave him my name.

"You're a senior, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"So what are you doing talking to a freshman?"

"I have no idea, considering... I hardly talk to anyone. Except for Mikey... uh... he's my brother."

"Oh, I've seen him. He's always sitting in the corner, keeping to himself."

"That's Mikey for you. The two of us, we're not really people persons." Persons?

"Same here." Frank's head fell to his knees again.

"Are you okay?" I looked at him hard and noticed that his face was discolored with bruises and swelling. There was a small cut on his chin.

"Why?" he asked a little curtly.

"You said, you like how no one can get you here. And, I see what happens at school. It's... it's wrong, that they would do that shit to you."

"I'm just, such a fucking pansy... I guess, I'm an easy target. Just a fucking peace of shit to kick around."

"Don't think of yourself that way," I said taking on a more serious tone. I noticed Frank shaking a little bit at some bad memories. I gazed at his face. I had never noticed before how... how perfect it was. His face was strong, but looked soft and I wondered why anyone would want to hurt such a beautiful face.

"Why not? It's true." He sounded broken. He sounded like he was afraid to admit anything different.

"I don't think so." His head snapped up to look at me so quickly I was afraid he had given himself whiplash. His eyes fixed upon mine. I couldn't help but get caught by his. They were so bright and green, they sparkled and showed that there was someone special living behind them. Someone caught behind them, dying to get out.

"You don't even know me."

"I don't have to know you. You... you're not anything like that. I can... I can just tell."

"Gerard," he spoke my name hesitantly. "Why are you up here?" I found myself being caught up by his presence.

"Maybe I like being away from the world too. I usually hide in the basement, but, it's nice up here too." I surveyed the land below me. "Don't you... get scared?"

"Of what?"

"Of falling. Especially on such a windy day like this. It's strong enough to knock anyone over."

"It doesn't matter." I was about to ask him what he meant when he asked me something else. "Why do you think they do it?"

"Do what? Who?"

"You know... those assholes, the ones that do this to me," he said gesturing to his bruises. "I never do anything to them. I guess I just... get in the way." Seeing him look so pitiful was tearing me up inside. I was seeing him like a lost puppy that I would do anything to make feel better. He was making me feel so different. In a good way. But in a way I'd never felt before.

"You're right Frank. You're right that they're assholes. I can't understand why anyone would want to do this shit to you. To anyone, but especially you. You haven't done anything wrong." He looked at me and I knew I had said the right thing.

"Still doesn't mean they're gonna stop. They'll do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day..."

"Ah, but you're forgetting. Tomorrow is Saturday. You'll be safe from them tomorrow, and the next day."

"And the day after that?"

"I'll make sure they don't go near you."

"Gerard..."

"I'll kick all their asses if I have to."

"They'll just hurt you too."

"Maybe they will. In fact, they probably will. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to help me?" I started trembling. I was no longer afraid of the height I was at. I had forgotten all about that.

"Because..." I moved closer to Frank. "God, I... I don't even know really." I took in a deep breath. "You make me feel... different. Er.. you're making me feel different."

"How?" Frank looked back up at me, in the eye. A shiver went up through my spine even though I felt myself heating up. "Like... like how I'm feeling right now?"

"That depends... how are you feeling right now?"

"Like everything is... good. I haven't felt this way... in a long time. And then you came up here, and..."

The two of us were moving closer, ever so slowly. "You just feel like nothing..."

"...could be wrong."

"It's just..."

"...us." And before either of us realized what was happening, our lips touched. It started as something innocent; just a small peck, and then we pulled away from each other. I stared into his eyes, I was hypnotized by his gaze. Those alluring green eyes. They pulled me closer to him again and our lips met again, but they didn't pull away so suddenly that time. His warm breath meeting me, his lips upon mine... I couldn't imagine anything bad had ever happened. His lips were soft and subtle in what they did. There are no words to accurately explain how it felt, to kiss him.

"Like everything is..."

"...perfect." I held on to Frank afraid of letting go, afraid that if I did, it would destroy this moment. Maybe afraid it would destroy him, and me.

"Frankie... can I call you that?"

"You wouldn't be the first." His cheeks flushed. "I like the way you say it though." I felt my own cheeks warm up then. And there was that invisible force, pulling us together again to join in another kiss.

"I can't tell you how you're making me feel right now."

"You don't need to. I feel the same way."

"That's good to know." I let a moment of silence pass. "I've never felt this way before. Especially about a guy."

"Same here. Is that bad?"

"If it is... I don't care."

And then time passed on in kind of a blur. I'm not sure of what happened, but I can tell you everything Frank told me was engrained in my skull. The poor kid, had divorced parents, his mom didn't make much money and they struggled to make ends meet. He had offered to sell his guitar, but his mother wouldn't let him. She said he'd need it one day. She said it would help him. His birthday... Halloween of all days. This kid had me speechless.

Finally we dismounted the roof. Frank went down the ladder first, refusing to be left alone on the roof even for a minute. When I asked why, he told me he'd tell me when we reached the bottom, safe on the ground. I lowered myself on the old wooden ladder. For some reason, going down was more nerve-wracking than going up. The next rung, then the next, then the next. I kept lowering down, down, down, a few more rungs of the ladder when, snap! The fifth rung, (or maybe the fourth, I'm not sure,) from the bottom snapped beneath my foot and broke off of the ladder. I fell through the air and fell on... something. I heard a groan or a grunt and it took me a moment to realize it hadn't come from me. I realized I had fallen on top of Frank. His hands were wrapped around my torso. As much as I loved the feeling of him holding onto me, I quickly picked myself up to make sure he was okay. He remain on the ground, smiling, eyes wide.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

"I think the better question is are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Thank you for catching me."

"Any time. I owe you."

"What do you mean?"

Frank sat up. "You saved me, Gerard." I cocked my head in confusion at his remark. "The real reason I was on the roof... it wasn't just so I could be alone."

"What was the real reason?" I asked, sitting down on the ground next to him.

"I was going to jump." I thought my heart had stopped, but when I felt the familiar beating I began to breathe again.

"You, were going to... jump?" I gasped.

"I was going to kill myself. I just saw the ladder there each day, each day I came home in pain from school. Each day seemingly worse than the next. Today, I just... picked the ladder up and brought it 'round back, so no one would see it up against the house. And I climbed up to the roof and I was going to... I was going to let myself fly, even if it meant it was going to kill me. And, honestly, I was hoping it would." I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I all but threw myself at him as I wrapped my arms around him. Anything to make him feel better. "And then you came up. And everything changed."

"In a good way?"

"You made me feel like I was flying, and I didn't even have to jump." And our lips collided in another kiss. This kid... he was perfect. "You saved me Gerard."

I stood up, and before Frank's face could fall, I pulled him up with me. "I'll save you anytime." I glanced at the broken ladder that still lay against the house. A broken rung in the middle, a hole, making the ladder essentially useless.

"It was old," Frank said as if he had read my thoughts. "I didn't, expect to use it more than once."

"Guess you'll never be able to use it again."

"I wouldn't want to." Frank took hold of my hand and held on tightly. He looked up at me with wide eyes and a smile across his face. "Like I said... you make me fly."

Description
A sharp wind blew across my face, cutting me like a knife. My messy black hair flew backwards as I walked into the wind. I would have much preferred to be walking with the wind, but it was Friday and I just wanted to get home. Besides, it gave me the feeling of doing something different. I was going against the wind, and I was going against everyone else's instincts. My little brother Mikey had chosen to take the bus home to save himself the windy commute. He was probably sick of losing his hats. He was down to his last gray hat and he wanted to keep it for his remaining four years of high school. This however was my last year. All the more reason I wanted to get home.

"So take the bus Gerard, it'll be quicker," Mikey had said to me during lunch that day when I told him how I planned to get home. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and I stood up to get away from my brother's skepticism.

"I just, I feel like I should walk home."

"You'll blow away in this weather."

"No, Mikey. You will blow away in this weather," I countered.

Mikey rebutted, "No, he would blow away," Mikey gestured to a short little kid, shorter than me, shorter than Mikey, getting shoved around in the now crowded hallway. He was the new kid. He was a freshman like Mikey. I couldn't understand how Mikey was able to make a joke about him like that. This kid was getting shoved into a locker, and Mikey and I just stood and watched. What could I have possibly done to save this kid?

The locker door slammed shut on him and it snapped me out of my trance. I sighed in disgust at the behavior of my fellow classmates and repeated to my brother, "I just think I should walk home today." Maybe it'd clear my head up.

Stumbling across a quarter-sized stone on the sidewalk, I had begun kicking it on my journey home. The wind whipped at my face and I pulled my gray and black striped scarf tighter, letting it cover my face so that I surely looked like a robber. I continued to kick the small stone a foot, two feet, three feet, forward, on and on and on.

I ambled past the Iero house. That's where the new kid lived. Iero. I wasn't sure of his first name. I'd heard Mikey talk about him, but I only ever picked up on the last name. I only remembered it because my mother had dragged me over to their house when they moved into the neighborhood six weeks ago. I lifted my gaze from the stone on the ground to eye the house. This house wasn't in the best shape. It was one of the worst in the neighborhood and I instantly felt a feeling of guilt and sorrow for the poor kid. He didn't choose to be this bad off, and because of that he got fucked up in school each day.

In feeling so low for the Iero kid, my gaze fell again. I stared at my feet and noticed something just under the left toe of my worn Converse. I moved my foot and bent down to see what lay on the sidewalk. It happened to be a guitar pick. I picked it up and examined it. The point was a little dull showing it had been used numerous times before. Was it the Iero kid's? I took another look at the house beside me and noticed that something was different. I couldn't quite pinpoint what was different. I'd looked at that house so many times from going to and from school. It looked, the same, from the paint-chipped shutters and the mossy bricks to the weeds in the garden and the old decaying ladder... the ladder. It no longer lay on the ground against the side of the house.

Sheer curiosity drove me to look for the ladder. I don't know why I did, but... sometimes things are just...

I took a step off the sidewalk and started a new path onto the uncut grass. I walked up to where the ladder had been previously. It was clear that it had only recently been moved from it's old home from the sunken grass where it used to be. Had I not been so intrigued, I wouldn't have noticed that the grass was so soft it had left footprints. Not just mine, but another set. They led from the ghostly ladder shape and winded around the back of the building. I couldn't help but follow them. I followed them as if they were leading me to a hidden treasure when they suddenly stopped. In the corner of my eye, I saw the ladder. It was against the back of the house, but not on the ground like it had been for so long, but leading up. A strong gust of wind blew, and maybe that was what caused my head to look up to see exactly where the ladder ended. Either the ladder was longer than I thought, or the house was not as tall as I thought because the ladder reached the roof of the decaying building. I took a few steps back peered towards the roof. Then I remembered the pick in my hand.

I took a second look at the small chip of plastic when I heard a small voice from above. "What do you want?" My head snapped up to see who broke the silence I was getting used to. The Iero kid was perched on his roof, hugging his legs, chin set firmly upon his knees. His sudden comment caught me off guard and I struggled to find an appropriate response.

"I f-found... uh... this, is, is this y-yours?" I was never the best at speaking to others. Most of my logical sentences were used up on Mikey.

"What is it?" the kid asked, moving only his head to get a better view of the object in my hand. I didn't answer. It didn't even occur to me to answer. Instead I made a move towards the ladder and began to climb. "What are you doing? Stay down there!" He sounded more fearful than angry, scared of not just me, but of the words he spoke, but there was clearly aggravation in his voice. Rung by rung I climbed cautiously to the roof. The kid gave no other comment as I rose to where he was rooted. I crawled shakily to him, being so high was not an experience I was used to. I crawled up next to the small boy and sat beside him.

"What?" he asked harshly. I saw that he too was shaking, but something told me it was from my presence, and not from the height.

"Is... is this, y-yours?" I asked holding out the small chip of plastic. His expression automatically lightened to a more complacent look as he eyed what lay in my hand.

"Where did you find that?"

"It was on the sidewalk, down..." I gulped looking down to where I mentioned, "down there. I- you play guitar?"

"Yeah," his eyes fell as he grabbed the pick from me. "A little."

"That's really cool, my uh... my brother plays bass."

"Oh?" he responded, not really as interested as his reply implied.

"Yeah, you know... he could use someone to play with. I'm, not very good. I can barely hold a guitar and be taken seriously," I chuckled, trying to get this glum boy to smile. No such luck. He had already resumed his previous position from before I had climbed the ladder.

"Why did you come up here?" he asked so quietly it was barely a whisper.

"I... I don't really know." Another fierce gust of wind blew and I feared I would be blown off the roof. I tensed up as this thought crossed my mind. "Why did you?"

He didn't respond at first and I almost thought he didn't hear me. I was about to ask again, he spoke just as I began opening my mouth. "I'm not really sure why either. It's peaceful up here, I guess. No one, can get me up here. Well... I guess except for you." He smirked, not removing his gaze from the ground. "I-I'm Frank by the way." He lifted his head and looked at me, I suppose in expecting that I would give him my name.

"Gerard." I smiled for him as I gave him my name.

"You're a senior, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"So what are you doing talking to a freshman?"

"I have no idea, considering... I hardly talk to anyone. Except for Mikey... uh... he's my brother."

"Oh, I've seen him. He's always sitting in the corner, keeping to himself."

"That's Mikey for you. The two of us, we're not really people persons." Persons?

"Same here." Frank's head fell to his knees again.

"Are you okay?" I looked at him hard and noticed that his face was discolored with bruises and swelling. There was a small cut on his chin.

"Why?" he asked a little curtly.

"You said, you like how no one can get you here. And, I see what happens at school. It's... it's wrong, that they would do that shit to you."

"I'm just, such a fucking pansy... I guess, I'm an easy target. Just a fucking peace of shit to kick around."

"Don't think of yourself that way," I said taking on a more serious tone. I noticed Frank shaking a little bit at some bad memories. I gazed at his face. I had never noticed before how... how perfect it was. His face was strong, but looked soft and I wondered why anyone would want to hurt such a beautiful face.

"Why not? It's true." He sounded broken. He sounded like he was afraid to admit anything different.

"I don't think so." His head snapped up to look at me so quickly I was afraid he had given himself whiplash. His eyes fixed upon mine. I couldn't help but get caught by his. They were so bright and green, they sparkled and showed that there was someone special living behind them. Someone caught behind them, dying to get out.

"You don't even know me."

"I don't have to know you. You... you're not anything like that. I can... I can just tell."

"Gerard," he spoke my name hesitantly. "Why are you up here?" I found myself being caught up by his presence.

"Maybe I like being away from the world too. I usually hide in the basement, but, it's nice up here too." I surveyed the land below me. "Don't you... get scared?"

"Of what?"

"Of falling. Especially on such a windy day like this. It's strong enough to knock anyone over."

"It doesn't matter." I was about to ask him what he meant when he asked me something else. "Why do you think they do it?"

"Do what? Who?"

"You know... those assholes, the ones that do this to me," he said gesturing to his bruises. "I never do anything to them. I guess I just... get in the way." Seeing him look so pitiful was tearing me up inside. I was seeing him like a lost puppy that I would do anything to make feel better. He was making me feel so different. In a good way. But in a way I'd never felt before.

"You're right Frank. You're right that they're assholes. I can't understand why anyone would want to do this shit to you. To anyone, but especially you. You haven't done anything wrong." He looked at me and I knew I had said the right thing.

"Still doesn't mean they're gonna stop. They'll do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day..."

"Ah, but you're forgetting. Tomorrow is Saturday. You'll be safe from them tomorrow, and the next day."

"And the day after that?"

"I'll make sure they don't go near you."

"Gerard..."

"I'll kick all their asses if I have to."

"They'll just hurt you too."

"Maybe they will. In fact, they probably will. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to help me?" I started trembling. I was no longer afraid of the height I was at. I had forgotten all about that.

"Because..." I moved closer to Frank. "God, I... I don't even know really." I took in a deep breath. "You make me feel... different. Er.. you're making me feel different."

"How?" Frank looked back up at me, in the eye. A shiver went up through my spine even though I felt myself heating up. "Like... like how I'm feeling right now?"

"That depends... how are you feeling right now?"

"Like everything is... good. I haven't felt this way... in a long time. And then you came up here, and..."

The two of us were moving closer, ever so slowly. "You just feel like nothing..."

"...could be wrong."

"It's just..."

"...us." And before either of us realized what was happening, our lips touched. It started as something innocent; just a small peck, and then we pulled away from each other. I stared into his eyes, I was hypnotized by his gaze. Those alluring green eyes. They pulled me closer to him again and our lips met again, but they didn't pull away so suddenly that time. His warm breath meeting me, his lips upon mine... I couldn't imagine anything bad had ever happened. His lips were soft and subtle in what they did. There are no words to accurately explain how it felt, to kiss him.

"Like everything is..."

"...perfect." I held on to Frank afraid of letting go, afraid that if I did, it would destroy this moment. Maybe afraid it would destroy him, and me.

"Frankie... can I call you that?"

"You wouldn't be the first." His cheeks flushed. "I like the way you say it though." I felt my own cheeks warm up then. And there was that invisible force, pulling us together again to join in another kiss.

"I can't tell you how you're making me feel right now."

"You don't need to. I feel the same way."

"That's good to know." I let a moment of silence pass. "I've never felt this way before. Especially about a guy."

"Same here. Is that bad?"

"If it is... I don't care."

And then time passed on in kind of a blur. I'm not sure of what happened, but I can tell you everything Frank told me was engrained in my skull. The poor kid, had divorced parents, his mom didn't make much money and they struggled to make ends meet. He had offered to sell his guitar, but his mother wouldn't let him. She said he'd need it one day. She said it would help him. His birthday... Halloween of all days. This kid had me speechless.

Finally we dismounted the roof. Frank went down the ladder first, refusing to be left alone on the roof even for a minute. When I asked why, he told me he'd tell me when we reached the bottom, safe on the ground. I lowered myself on the old wooden ladder. For some reason, going down was more nerve-wracking than going up. The next rung, then the next, then the next. I kept lowering down, down, down, a few more rungs of the ladder when, snap! The fifth rung, (or maybe the fourth, I'm not sure,) from the bottom snapped beneath my foot and broke off of the ladder. I fell through the air and fell on... something. I heard a groan or a grunt and it took me a moment to realize it hadn't come from me. I realized I had fallen on top of Frank. His hands were wrapped around my torso. As much as I loved the feeling of him holding onto me, I quickly picked myself up to make sure he was okay. He remain on the ground, smiling, eyes wide.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

"I think the better question is are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Thank you for catching me."

"Any time. I owe you."

"What do you mean?"

Frank sat up. "You saved me, Gerard." I cocked my head in confusion at his remark. "The real reason I was on the roof... it wasn't just so I could be alone."

"What was the real reason?" I asked, sitting down on the ground next to him.

"I was going to jump." I thought my heart had stopped, but when I felt the familiar beating I began to breathe again.

"You, were going to... jump?" I gasped.

"I was going to kill myself. I just saw the ladder there each day, each day I came home in pain from school. Each day seemingly worse than the next. Today, I just... picked the ladder up and brought it 'round back, so no one would see it up against the house. And I climbed up to the roof and I was going to... I was going to let myself fly, even if it meant it was going to kill me. And, honestly, I was hoping it would." I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I all but threw myself at him as I wrapped my arms around him. Anything to make him feel better. "And then you came up. And everything changed."

"In a good way?"

"You made me feel like I was flying, and I didn't even have to jump." And our lips collided in another kiss. This kid... he was perfect. "You saved me Gerard."

I stood up, and before Frank's face could fall, I pulled him up with me. "I'll save you anytime." I glanced at the broken ladder that still lay against the house. A broken rung in the middle, a hole, making the ladder essentially useless.

"It was old," Frank said as if he had read my thoughts. "I didn't, expect to use it more than once."

"Guess you'll never be able to use it again."

"I wouldn't want to." Frank took hold of my hand and held on tightly. He looked up at me with wide eyes and a smile across his face. "Like I said... you make me fly."