Gerard sat next to Bert for a week before he worked up the courage to talk to him. Before Bert transfered to their school, Gerard sat behind Pete and Patrick in Biology class, and no one sat next to him. He would put his head down on his desk most of the time, and Pete would turn around and poke him if something important happened, like a quiz. Patrick would sit next to Pete, his head hunched down so that the only part of him visible was his trucker's hat, and dutifully take notes. It was only because of Patrick sharing his notes that Gerard passed most of the quizzes. So Gerard sat in the very back of his ninth-grade Biology class, ignoring most people around him, until Bert moved to town.

Bert was short, and almost-sickly thin, with a mass of tangly dirty-blond hair and a giggle like a girl. When Gerard got bored in Biology, he would take a nap or draw pictures of dragons in his notebook. But when Bert got bored, he would take his shirt off, kiss the back of Patrick's neck, do a drum solo on his desktop, or start a small fire.

Gerard fell in love pretty much immediately.

One Tuesday, a week after Bert had come to their school, when Bert was sitting in his chair with his feet up on his desk, untying his shoelace with his teeth, Gerard just couldn't take it anymore. With a quick glance to make sure Mr. Murphy was too busy discussing plants to notice him, Gerard leaned across the aisle and whispered, "Do you have a pencil?"

Bert looked up with the end of his shoelace between his teeth, then noisily spit it out. "Is there a quiz?"

Gerard shook his head. "I, um.." He held up his notebook. "I draw stuff. I mean, when I have a pencil." He looked down at the floor. "And now I, um...don't."

"Awesome," Bert said, loud enough that half the class turned to look at him. He snatched the notebook out of Gerard's hands. "Are those dragons? Fucking bad-ass."

"Robert!" Mr. Murphy called out.

"Sorry, man," Bert said, the notebook still in front of his face. "I just got really excited about biology for a second."

Mr. Murphy returned to his lecture about the genetics of plants, and Bert handed the notebook back to Gerard, along with a pencil. "This is a good pencil," he whispered. "For real, my dad buys fancy shit."

Gerard looked at the pencil, which did look sturdier than your average number 2. "Thanks," he said.

Bert leaned so far over the side of his desk that Gerard was sure it was going to flip him onto the floor. "Hey, will you draw me a lizard?"

Gerard nodded, and turned to a fresh sheet of paper.

By the end of the class, Gerard had drawn three lizards for Bert and a few more for his dragon series. As they were walking out of the class, Gerard handed Bert the lizards, along with his pencil.

"Dude, these are awesome!" Bert squealed. Then without warning, he hopped up and kissed Gerard's cheek.

Gerard had to stop at the doorway and try to get his heart to slow down. Bert had kissed him. Oh my God, Bert had kissed him, and now he was gonna have a heart attack and die. He backed out of the doorway, still dazed, and a passing student hit his backpack, which wasn't completely closed. It flipped upside-down and fell to the ground, spilling pencils everywhere.

Gerard could feel his internal organs all turn into liquid. He looked up at Bert, who had an odd smile on his face.

"So do you play Halo?" Bert asked.

Gerard knelt down and began gathering up his pencils, his heart so loud in his ears that he could barely hear Bert's question. "Yeah," he replied. "I'm not good with rockets, but I like machine guns."

Bert leaned against the doorway, still with his weird smile. "Cause if we skip the rest of the day, we can play Halo for like three hours before my sisters get home."

Gerard froze with his hand on the zipper of his backpack. Bert was inviting him to his house, where they'd be alone in a room. He would probably die. He would just fall over in the middle of a Halo shoot-out and drop dead, except not in the game, in like, reality.

"Okay," Gerard said.

Bert's house was an ordinary suburban house, though cluttered, making it obvious that six kids lived there. Bert's bedroom was messy and decorated sparsely. "They don't let me put up band posters," he explained. "But I have tons of shit here if you wanna borrow anything." He opened the bottom drawer of his dresser to reveal CDs, music magazines, and sheet music.

Gerard poked through the contents of the drawer and took out a The Bled CD. "Can I copy this? I'll give it right back."

Bert leaned against the edge of the dresser, seeming much more reserved than he was in school. "Yeah, no problem."

Gerard took out one of the books of sheet music. "You play guitar?"

"Piano," Bert said. "They won't let me have a guitar, but there's one at the school, so I'm learning it now."

Gerard stood up to face Bert. "Do you know Ray? He plays guitar. I wanna start a band with him, but he's really busy with working at the mall."

Bert smiled, looking almost shy. "Can I play keyboards in your band?" he asked. "I can sing too."

"Yeah, definitely," Gerard said.

Bert grinned and gestured to the TV. "Ready to have your ass handed to you?"

"Yeah," Gerard said. "I mean, your ass." He blushed. "I mean..." He sighed. "I'm so bad at talking smack."

Bert giggled. "You're cute."

Before Gerard could completely die over Bert calling him cute, Bert sat down on the floor in front of his bed and booted up his X-box. Gerard sat next to him, close enough that he could smell Bert's hair but not so close that Bert could hear his heart pounding. Bert won the first round, and Gerard won the second, though it was because of a fluke where he respawned right behind Bert.

During the third game, Bert put down his controlled, slid over, and kissed Gerard on the mouth.

At first Gerard was too shocked to respond, but then instinct took over and he tangled his hand in Bert's surprisingly-soft hair and kissed back. Bert tasted like cigarettes, and kissed like he was starving, and Gerard was painfully hard in under five seconds.

Bert held onto Gerard's shoulder with one hand, as if he was afraid Gerard might run away. With his other hand he held onto the side of Gerard's face gently, sending chills through Gerard's body.

"Can I touch you?" Bert whispered against Gerard's lips.

"Yeah," Gerard gasped, and it wasn't until he felt Bert's hand on the top button of his jeans that he realized Bert hadn't meant touching his face.

Bert's hand was soft and slow, but Gerard still felt like he was being turned inside-out. Bert rubbed the head of his dick with his thumb, and Gerard bucked forward and came.

"Sorry," Gerard gasped out, but when he opened his eyes Bert was undoing his belt, and he brought himself off in a matter of seconds. Bert wiped his hand on his pants leg and pulled Gerard into a hug.

"Will your mom let you stay over?" he whispered.

Gerard put his hand on Bert's back and pulled him closer. "Yeah."

He could feel Bert's smile against the side of his face. "Awesome."

The next day in Biology, before Mr. Murphy arrived, Gerard tapped the back of Pete's head and whispered, "I'm gay."

Pete turned around. "Cool. I'm gonna be gay too."

"You're not gay," Patrick said without looking up from his notebook.

"I'm gonna be gay with Patrick," Pete said.

Bert leaned forward over his desk to join the conversation. "If you're gay, you have to like dick."

Pete made a face. "Fine, I'm not gay. But I'm still going to marry Patrick."

Mr. Murphy walked into the classroom, set his example plant on the desk, and said, "Today we're going to continue talking about reproductive systems."

"Awesome," Bert said.

"Robert!" Mr. Murphy said.

"Sorry," Bert replied. He looked over at Gerard and smiled. "I just got really excited about life for a second."