Chapter nine - Layers of gay, like a gay parfait

i am very proud of this chapter title

(sorry for not updating, i have the memory of a concussed goldfish)

— — — —

"Love me or hate me, both are in my favour. If you love me, I'll always be in your heart. If you hate me, I'll always be in your mind."

— — — —

The Cove really was a haven. With the coins I had in my pocket for no particular reason (absolutely not for a prostitute), I purchased some britches that did not suffocate my crotch, along with a whole bag of lemons and oranges, which apparently were extremely important on the ship. After Dewees explained to me what scurvy was and how citrus could prevent it, I made it my mission to eat about eight lemons a day. And when James said proudly reminded me that he'd recently discovered that you could ferment lemon juice to make a completely disgusting but close to effective rum substitute, we bought another entire bag.

When we got back to the ship, almost everyone had gone. James and I had been among the first to realise that the ship had actually reached port; everybody else had left a while after us so were still out in the town.

We went down to the cargo hold and restocked the food store, and I went to my room to change into my new pants. Once our new stuff was dealt with and put away, James and I sat at the table with a lemon and a non-maggot-infested biscuit each, nibbling eagerly away at the first food we'd got a hold of in about twenty four hours.

"So," Dewees mumbled through a mouthful of biscuit (which was actually not stale for once). "Have you slept with Gerard yet?"

I choked on my food and spluttered until I could breathe again. "What?" I rasped, my throat dry with biscuit crumbs. "Why would you say that?"

He nodded at the dark purple mark on my neck.

"Wh- how do you know it wasn't Ryan?"

James shook his head. "You had money today, it couldn't have been." He took a bite of his lemon and gagged a little bit. "Plus I heard you two last night."

I squeaked embarrassedly and tried to cover it up with a violent cough. "We didn't sleep together," I said in the most composed voice I could manage.

James laughed roughly. "I know, I'm just messing with ya. Gerard would never forgive himself if he let that happen. Sullying his only chance."

I froze. "What?"

"It doesn't matter," James said dismissively, examining his lemon.

"Yes, it does!" I said insistently. "This is that thing I heard you talking to him about last week, isn't it? About the scorpion or something. I'm a key, right?"

"Look. That's just what Gerard thinks, okay? If he says anything to you about it again, just ignore him. He's delusional. He thinks you're some sort of key to a 'Parade Island' or something. It's a load of bull, trust me."

"How do you know that? Have you actually seen my birthmark?"

James looked a little taken aback. "Um. No? Am I supposed to have seen it?" he asked in confusion. Then the penny dropped. "Oh, you mean the scorpion!"

"Yes? It's a birthmark. And it does look a whole lot like a scorpion." I pulled my collar out of the way, uncomfortably trying to cover up the bruise on my neck with my arm.

James whistled. "That's one nice birthmark."

"Yes, and it just happens to look exactly like a scorpion?"

"Maybe," he shrugged. "Gerard went through like eight kids before you that had pretty similar marks, and none of them turned out to be the key or whatever. They were all like you. They thought they could be special, and so did Gerard. Turns out that wasn't the case."

I laughed uneasily. "What happened to them?"

"Lost their minds. That's what happens when you try to unlock the gates at Parade Island with the wrong kid, apparently."

"That's a little... scary."

"Yeah. Gerard is."

"What, did he make them do it?"

James shook his head. "We shouldn't be talking about this. Just forget it. Ignore Gerard if he brings it up, and try not to think about it too much."

"But-"

"Trust me, Frank. You don't wanna get mixed up in this shit. Gerard's completely mental. Please don't forget that."

I moaned. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I opened my mouth to plead with James but he interrupted me before I could even say anything.

"I'm not telling you, Frank."

"Thank you very much," I grumbled.

——

An hour later, everyone was back on the ship except for Ryan and Gerard. I'd been sat on the railings at the front of the ship, swinging my legs, waiting for them to get back the whole time.

Dewees had been no help; he just kept telling me to forget it. But how was I supposed to forget something like this? What if Gerard tried to use me or whatever and I ended up getting my brain scrambled like the other kids? Surely it would be easier to prevent it happening if I actually knew what the fuck it was.

I was just going to straight out ask Gerard what was going on, but he had been out with Ryan even longer than I had been traipsing round looking for lemons and breeches with Dewees- and we were out a long while. I found that now I needed extra loose pants to compensate for the damage done to my crotch by Gerard's idiotic tight britches.

When Gerard and Ryan weren't back after three hours, everyone was starting to get impatient. Captain Bryar threatened to leave if they didn't come back within ten minutes, and he sent Ray out to go look for them. It wasn't necessary though, because the moment Ray set out, Ryan came bounding onto the ship, a totally intoxicated Gerard in tow. Neither of them seemed able to stop giggling, and they were each clutching a bottle in their hands.

The captain sighed. "In your rooms. Now."

Ryan and Gerard looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Next time you take that long we'll just leave without you."

The two nodded solemnly, but they still looked like they were holding back laughter. They stumbled down the stairs, and I heard the distinct sound of someone headbutting a wall and someone else giggling hysterically.

The captain sighed again, shaking his head. "Back to work, everyone," he yelled, startling everyone into action.

I dithered, not sure if anyone would reprimand me for staying up on deck when other people were working.

"God, I need a drink," the captain muttered. "You got any rum on you, Iero?"

"Um, no," I said. "Dewees bought a few whole barrels, though, they're in the cargo hold if you want them."

"Right," Captain Bryar said roughly, immediately heading for the hatch to the cargo hold. I followed at a little distance. Once the captain had a bottle of rum in his hand and half a bottle in his stomach, he sat down with me at the table. "I was going to ask Gerard to start training you today," he said gruffly, "but I suppose that's out of the question now."

"Yes," I murmured. "Maybe Dewees could teach me some stuff?"

"He doesn't have the experience. Sure, Gerard isn't exactly stable, but you've got to admit, he has skills. He would've made captain if it wasn't for his impulsiveness. Tell you what, though, he's a damn good first mate."

I frowned. "Gerard is first mate?"

"Mm," Captain Bryar nodded, taking another swig of rum. "His father was captain, back in the day. He'd wanted Gerard to follow in his footsteps, but we all knew he wasn't quite reliable enough for that. He's a brilliant fighter, mind you."

"Oh," I said, a little surprised. I hadn't really seen Gerard in action before. I never would have thought that he was skilled enough to be first mate.

"Don't judge Gerard, Iero. He's got more layers than you've seen."

——

Gerard certainly had got more layers than I'd seen before, and apparently, one of them was very homosexual.

The day after we left the Cove, Captain Bryar told me to go and find Gerard (in the hope that he would be sober by then) and ask him about training me in sword fighting. It was just a little bit of a shock when I found him in the pantry, half naked and fervently kissing Ryan Ross.

Gerard's shirt was on the floor, and Ryan's britches were tangled around his knees. Ryan was pressing Gerard up against a shelf of lemons, and I was suddenly put off eating them ever again. Fuck it, I could deal with scurvy.

Ryan mumbled something into Gerard's mouth and tugged at the waistband of his pants, and I gagged a little and backed away immediately, slamming the door with a shudder before I could see any more.

I was shaking on my way back to my room, and nausea was crawling and flooding through my blood like a deluge. I felt ill. I think it was because I could already sense the catastrophes that were going to arise from this. Ryan was a total idiot for sleeping with someone as unstable as him.

Well, to be honest, I knew the results of this weren't going to be that terrible. Ryan was just a hooker, and Gerard was just a one off customer. It wasn't like Ryan and Gerard were courting. But despite my rationalising, there was still a twisting in my gut that I could only think to label as dread, and the only explanation I could find for it was that some Gerard-related catastrophe was going to happen very soon.

——

I had been right. The Gerard-related catastrophe hit me later that day. I was getting really bothered by the increasingly vivid memories of Gerard kissing my neck and I was willing to do practically anything to get rid of them. Just the image of Gerard doing nothing at all was enough to disgust me, and the image of him touching me with his mouth was almost bad enough to make me physically sick. Lord, I really did hate him.

With my last couple of pieces of silver in my pocket, I trudged awkwardly to Ryan's room.

I paid him. There wasn't much talking. He just kind of dove into it. We kissed for a little while, and it was all right. It wasn't until he pushed me up against the wall that the wave of sickness passed over me again. This was just the way Ryan had held Gerard, just the way Ryan had kissed Gerard. I squirmed and pulled back.

"I can't," I said uneasily. "It's too much like- I can't."

Ryan frowned in confusion and backed off a little. "That's all right, I guess?"

"Keep the money," I muttered, trudging out. Gerard was stuck in my head, and there was nothing that could get rid of him. Damn it. This was going to drive me to madness.

Hell, I hated Gerard.

—— —— —— ——

sorry for crappy chapter, i'll be updating early next time to make up for the bad quality

mama skittles loves u xoxo