Razor to the Rosary (Frank Iero) ::5:: There's A Fine Line pt. 2

"You two are so cute, I just wanna barf."

"You're just jealous, Vera."

"Oh yes, I'm so jealous. Honestly, Katie-baby, I'm fine with being single; I might even become a nun and pledge myself to God for eternity in holy matrimony."

"Kate blinked, glaring at the dripping sarcasm in Vera's voice. I wasn't sure if anything would have been said, especially since Travis interrupted their discussion by choosing that moment to start macking with his girlfriend. Just what I needed to see first thing in the morning: tonsil hockey.

The first bell rand, and our posse migrated down the hall, chatting about who did what and with whom. I faked it pretty well as far as covering my real excursion was concerned. Everyone - save Vera - believed that I was suffering from a twenty-four hour fever.

While we were walking, I spotted Frank out of the corner of my eye. I felt my heartbeat start to accelerate, panic setting in. Just as he glanced my way, I turned to face Julia, who was going on about some dress she saw at the mall. I exhaled a silent sigh of relief as we passed him, at least until we had stopped walking. Julia and Kate were watching as Travis, Ben, and their friends started to give Frank a hard time. I got nervous, partly because I had never liked seeing the boys act like this towards anyone. The other part was my fear of him spoiling everything.

Ben grabbed Frank by the front of his shirt, and I felt my heart leap into my throat. On instinct, I almost took a step forward to get them to stop. Almost. I was about to, but Frank looked at me; just how he did it made me stop what I was doing. It was like he was trying to protect me from screwing up what I had worked so hard for or something.

Ben must've seen the look, and who Frank was looking at, because he slammed Frank against the lockers.

"Do you think that Tasha's pretty, freak? I expect an answer when I'm talking to you!"

Frank kept and even face, which surprised me, though not half as much as what he said.

"No, I don't."

"What?"

"I think she's one of the most attractive people I've ever seen, and too good to be hanging around with your whore of a girlfriend."

Wham!

Ben let go of Frank and punched him in the face. Well, at least it showed he cared about Julia, if there was any doubt before. However, that wasn't anywhere near the reason for what I did. Ben was a bug guy - all muscle, I mean, and lots of it. Frank, on the other hand, was far from being bulked out, and I knew he'd had health problems in the past, so I was less-than-inclined to let this go anywhere. I grabbed Ben's shoulder, trying to pull him off.

"Ben, stop, it's not worth this! Travis, please." I was probably getting looks from some of my friends for trying to intervene. "If you get caught, you'll be expelled, and then none of you will be able to wrestle!"

Travis pulled Benn off of Frank immediately, knowing the team wouldn't make it without him. Ben was a rabid dog, fighting against Travis to get to Frank, who was a crumpled up bloody mess on the floor. Of course, Sister Jessica chose to come by once the fight was over.

"What's going on over here?"

"Nothing, Sister."

She looked down at Frank, who was wiping some of the blood off of his face. "This doesn't look like nothing."

"Ben and Travis were just trying to help him up, Sister." I chose to aid my jock friends for the peace. "He tripped and hit an open locker."

The nun looked at me, but she knew I wouldn't lie; well, except for the part where I just did. "Well, I'm glad to hear that you're willing to help others now. Will someone please escort Mr. Iero down to the infirmary?"

"I will."

"Thank you, Miss Chamberlain. The rest of you, get to class!"

Seeing that there would be no more bloodshed, the halls became a sea of uniforms once again. I bent down next to Frank to help him to his feet.

"It's Frank, right? Here, let's get you down to the infirmary."

Pulling his up, I examined the damage to his face, which I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, could have been a lot worse. His mouth was pretty bloody, and I'm sure his eyes looked like they were bruising. I couldn't tell what - if anything - else was damaged, so I led him down the now nearly empty hall. There were only a few stragglers left, but they disappeared quickly, allowing Frank and I to slow our walk.

"How could you say that?" I hissed.

"Which part?"

"Ben would have killed you for that comment on Julia if we let him!"

"Well it's true and you know it; I mean, I saw her at a party the other week doing some very friendly things with a friend of mine."

"And Julia and Ben are my friends, and if you could control what you say to them, it'd be nice so that you don't end up dead or worse."

I let out and infuriated sigh, turning down the hall that was a more direct route to the infirmary. I was upset, though I wasn't sure with whom anymore.

"You don't care about the other part, then?"

"What part?"

"When Benny boy asked what I thought of you."

"I thank you for being kind, but it's things like that that'll get you into trouble, you know."

"Yeah, I know; sorry."

We turned into the empty infirmary where Frank and I were about to take seats and wait when the nurse stepped out of her office.

"Oh goodness, look at you! What happened? You know, it doesn't matter, let's just get you cleaned up. Is the damage just to your face?"

"Um, I got hit in the side a couple of times?"

"Oh dear; well, your girlfriend can wait here while I get you fixed up."

"Oh, I'm not his-"

She shushed me, getting Frank to sit on one chair while she pulled out her first-aid kit. The nurse gave him a bag of ice to hold on his eye while she placed something on his lip.

"Off with your shirt," she ordered, causing both of us to nearly choke.

"For what?" Frank sputtered.

"You said your sides felt bruised, and I need to see how bad the damage was. So, remove your shirt before I remove it for you."

Frank, thankfully, opted to remove it himself, but not without looking at me first. He saw that I was paying attention and smirked as he removed his blazer. It all went downhill from there, because every last bit of the way he was undressing was completely and utterly flavored with sexual undertones.

The minute the last button was undone, I hoped that my gulp wasn't visible. I knew that Frank wasn't out of shape or anything, but I just wasn't aware of how toned he was. His abs were well-defined without being too sporty, and oh my goodness did he look good. I averted my eyes when the nurse started poking at him until he said 'ow,' feeling blood rushing to my face.

"Well, there will be some bruising, but nothing you won't recover from within the week. Let's just wrap this up and you'll be good." She pulled out some tape and wrapped his sides, saying he could put his clothes back on, to my relief. Once he was dressed, the nurse wrote us each a pass and we exited the room.

"What, have you never seen a man without his shirt or something?" Frank had that grin on his face, I could tell, even though I refused to look at him.

"I'm going to go with 'or something'; are you that full of yourself?"

"No, I'm just commenting on how red you are."

"We need to stop this, Frank."

"Stop what?"

"All of this."

"Why?"

"Because if someone sees us, it'll ruin everything."

"Whatever; this is my stop anyway." Frank lowered his voice, leaning in. "I'm calling you later, Eria."

~*~

Kate and I pulled into the parking lot of The Center Tuesday night, and I was freaking out.

"You know, Kate, I'm not feeling very well; I need to go home."

"Tasha, you're going to love Jake, I promise. Come on, everyone's waiting for us."

We stepped out of her Porsche and entered The Center, walking over to our usual spot where the rest of our group was waiting. I took my position between Kate and Julia, with their boyfriends on their sides. Kate tapped my shoulder a while later when someone else came through the door, looking a bit lost.

"I'll be right back," she said sweetly. Kate walked over to the new comer and began a conversation. I watched them, mainly the boy. He had somewhat wavy light-brown hair and looked in good shape, though more lean than bulky. His clothes made him look like he had just stepped off the cover of a J. Crew catalog from head to toe. Kate grabbed his forearm and led him to us, where I had resumed my conversation with Ben and Julia.

"Guys, I want you to meet Jake English. Jake, these are my friends."

A chorus of 'hello' came from our group, and I had to blink at him initially. His face was angular and extremely handsome; I partially blamed that on his bright green eyes. He said hello with this great voice that almost gave me goose bumps. Almost.

"And this," Kate continued with the introductions, "is Tasha. Tash, this is Jake.

"Nice to finally meet you," he said with a pleasant smile.

"Likewise."

"Tasha, why don't you show Jake around the back? I think they've started getting Christmas lights out."

I looked at Kate, who gave me a similar look in return. I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes as I stood up, asking Jake to follow me.

"So, how do you know Kate?" I asked as we exited through the back door.

"We actually met at a party at the end of the football season, believe it or not; no I'm not a football player, if you were going to ask."

"Thanks for saving me the trouble," I smiled, glad the tree lights were up so I wouldn't trip.

"So, do you do any sports?"

"I'm a skateboarder; not what you meant by sport, right?"

"No, but that's pretty cool. I run track most of the year, so I've never had time to skate,, actually; I've wanted to learn, though."

"Track's pretty cool; maybe when you get a free day, I'll teach you."

"That'd be fun; maybe in thirty years or so."

"Why thirty?" he asked, confused.

"Because that's probably how long it'll take for me to get a free day; Coach Gephardt is insane."

"Sorry to hear that. Hey, it looks pretty nice back here."

The back of The Center had the beginnings of the Christmas decorations up. The trees had small, twinkling white lights in droves. The manger scene was up, and lacking baby Jesus, since he wasn't to be born for a while. There were garlands strung between lampposts with big red ribbons, connecting most everything.

"Yeah, not bad for November," I smiled. Jake and I sat down on a bench and started talking. I found him to be surprisingly easy to be around, even with my guard being how it was. We had to have been outside for hours because Kate came looking for us.

"As much as I hate to break up this cutefest, I promised Tasha's mom I'd have her home at a reasonable hour. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute." I stood up and Jake followed suit.

"I had a good time tonight."

"Same here; maybe we can do it again soon?"

"I'd like that. Here, let me give you my number." I pulled a pen from my purse and scrawled across his hand.

"Cool; I'll be sure to hit you up sometime." We hugged, and he kissed my cheek once we'd walked to the car. "Night, Tasha."

"Night, Jake! Night, you guys!"

Everyone waved as Kate and I pulled out of the parking lot. She had a huge smile on her face which I knew meant trouble.

"So, you and Jake hit it off pretty well."

"Guess we did."

"Did you talk about anything exciting?"

"Just the usual; he's a pretty nice guy."

"I knew you'd like him," Kate said smugly. The rest of the ride involved her gushing about how cute Jake and I looked together, following up with how we wouldn't be like her and Travis, sadly, because no one else was that perfect together. I politely agreed with everything she was saying, while another part of me couldn't get out of the car fast enough. By the time we pulled into my driveway, that part of me was clawing at the windows, trying to escape the clutches of Kate. My prudent side thanked her for the magnificent time while all of me walked inside the house.

"I'm home!"