FicWad

Chapter Eight - Going Under


One by one they started to fall. The bar and fresh supplies from the other rooms were quickly consumed and they all started to drift off to their own rooms.

"You want to crash in my room Frank?" Chris asked.

"That sounds good," Frank replied, "Not that I sleep much anyway."

"That'll be all the girls in your room then." Nat added.

"Actually no, "Frank replied smiling at her,"I just don't or can't sleep, too much shit on my mind."

"I know that feeling," Nat replied, "Well you guys I need my beauty sleep so you'll both have to go but thanks for trashing my room.

"No problem honey," Chris responded laughing, "But you'll need about a whole week to get some beauty on that face."

"Fuck you," Nat responded giving him the finger,

"She's such a lady Frank."

"Don't listen to him Nat," Frank added.

Nat flicked up the cover on her bed and let all the empty bottles fall to the floor, "You lot better come back later and tidy this shit up."

"Of course," Chris replied before turning to Frank and shaking his head.

Nat kicked off her boots and once under the covers removed her jeans and snuggled up.

"Hey Frank, do you want something to help you sleep?" Nat asked opening her eyes.

"No Nat, he's not going to sleep with you." Chris quickly quipped.

"What the fuck you pervert?" Nat responded immediately sitting up, "I mean't do you want a sleeping tablet, they really work."

"Are they legit?" Frank asked, "Not some mashed up shit with all sorts in them."

"They are prescribed," Nat confirmed reaching over and picking up her bag.

"Take two and you'll be out all day." Chris added.

"No, one will be fine," Nat scolded, "Only take it if you need it."

Frank accepted the pill and popped it in his mouth.

"Frank," Nat quickly said, "They're strong."

Frank followed Chris to his room and slopped down onto the couch in his room.

"I'll get you a blanket," Chris added.

Removing a blanket from the cupboard he walked back to Frank to find the guitarist already fast asleep.

"Night Frank, " Chris laughed as he placed the blanket over him, "You look like you needed that."

x------x

Gerard slowly opened his eyes and rubbed them hard. He yawned and stretched out on the bed. Surprised to find himself dressed, it didn't take him long to adjust to his surroundings.

"Frank?" he asked bringing his head up and glancing around the room.

He quickly jumped out of the bed and looked onto the balcony, throwing open the door he hated himself for doing it but he checked the ground below. Gerard knew he was being irrational but he felt so scared. Throwing the bathroom door open, he saw it was empty.

"Damn it Frank," Gerard said realising that his friend had slipped away from him once more.

He quickly grabbed his jacket and his phone and made his way out the room.

Gerard banged on all the doors until one opened.

"What is it?" a very tired slightly annoyed Ray asked.

"Frank's not in his room," Gerard blurted out.

"Eh?, I thought you were staying with him." Ray asked confused and trying to fully awaken himself.

"What's going on?" Bob asked.

"Gerard's lost Frank," Ray said.

"It's not my fault, he sneaked out." Gerard replied.

Bob watched as Mikey looking half dead opened his door, "What the fuck guys?"

"Gerard lost Frank," Bob immediately told him.

"Gerard!" Mikey said looking disappointingly at his brother.

"Hey guys, it's not my fault."

"You've lost him haven't you?" a voice behind them said.

"Em, Gerard lost him, " Ray said unable to help himself smirking.

Worm was losing all patience, "Right you guys stay in your rooms and I'll find him. We're leaving in an hour so we'll come back and get you to the buses".

Worm spread the word amongst his staff to look out for Frank and to begin leaving to get on the bus to move out.

A loud bang on the door woke Chris up with a fright and he begrudgingly walked towards it when he realised Frank hadn't even moved. He opened the door carefully as his head was feeling like somebody was drilling on it.

"Hey Chris, have you seen Frank?" Worm asked.

Chris didn't even say anything as he stepped back to reveal a sleeping Frank on the couch.

"Has he been drinking?" Worm asked.
"Don't know, he just crashed here last night," Chris replied feeling the need to protect Frank.

Worm scooped Frank up, "He's totally out of it, do you know what he was doing last night?"

"We were just talking for a bit," Chris replied.

Frank groaned as Worm carried him out of the room.

"It's just going to get a whole load worse for you my friend." Worm said cradling the guitarist as they entered the lift to the ground floor.

"Is he alright?" Gerard immediately asked as Worm eventually walked onto the bus.

"He was in Chris's room?" Worm said almost like a question but then continued to walk when noone ansewered.

The rest of the band just all looked at each other when Worm left the bus.

"He's totally out of it," Mikey said rejoining them after checking on Frank.

"We need to talk to him later," Gerard added.

"Much later though, let him get some sleep," Bob added.

Frank was still sleeping when they pulled in to their next stop and Gerard was starting to get worried.

"Should we wake him, that's been four hours now?"

"Nah Gee, just leave him, he needs it." Mikey replied as he grabbed his bag and made for the door.

"You think?" Gerard asked.

"Yeah, maybe he's finally getting the sleep he needs," Ray added.

"Should someone not stay with him?" Gerard asked again.

"He'll be fine, the driver will be here and we'll just get Worm to have someone watch him," Ray said, "I think we have press anyway."

"Okay," Gerard reluctantly agreed as he followed his bandmates.

x------x

It was starting to get dark by the time Frank finally awoke and even then he struggled to push himself off the bunk.

"You alright Frank," Worm asked looking up as the slightly bedraggled gutarist walked into the living area.

"Yeah, i think," Frank replied, "Are they all in the arena?"

"You want to go over?" Worm asked studying Frank closely, "You wanna change first?"

"Nah I'm fine, let's go," Frank replied.

Worm continued to watch Frank as they walked towards the hall, he noted the slightly zombie like walk and the total ignoring of the fans. The tour manager, Pete had asked him to keep a special eye on Frank as Brian wanted to discuss this with him later that night.
"The guys are doing press, you want to join them?" Worm asked.

"Nah, I'll just wait in the dressing room," Frank responded.

"Okay, you want something to eat?"

Frank thought for a moment, "Okay, but can you bring me a sandwich or something because I'm totally beat," Frank asked knowing he was pushing it.

"I suppose since you look like crap but stay in that room."

Frank walked into the room and lay on the couch. As soon as Worm was out of sight, he grabbed one of the merch hoodies and made his way out.

"Frank, you finally escaped?" Chris laughed as they saw him at their door.

"Something like that, you guys want to get away from this shit for a while?" he said to Chris and Nat.

"Sure Frank," Nat replied.

"That sleeping pill totally fucked me up, I'm like a zombie, I have no idea how the hell I'm going to play tonight," Frank said hanging on to the door frame, "Nat, I was wondering, well since you said earlier, if you em, have anything to wake me up."

"I've got exactly what you need," Chris said excitedly pulling them both out of the room.

"Where to?" Nat asked anxiously watching.

"I know a place," Frank grinned as they ran after him.

"Guys, this is a bit mental," Nat said starting to worry as she watched Chris pull out a tiny bag from the back of his jeans, "And you shouldn't be encouraging him."

"Hey Nat, I'm old enough to make these bad decisions," Frank smirked. His mind screaming at him to walk away but his craving keeping him there.

"Frank, please don't," Nat said pleading with him.

"Rich girl, since you practically knocked him out for most of the day, he needs a pick me up to get through tonight." Chris replied opening the bag and passing Frank a pill.

"I can't watch this," Nat said as she turned to walk away.

"It's never stopped you before," Chris said as both he and Frank swallowed the pills.

"It's different this time." She quietly responded as she walked away.

Chris and Frank slumped to the ground and listened to all the movement on the stage above them.

"Should be a good show tonight," Chris said lying back beside Frank.

"I guess," Frank replied.

"You losing interest?" Chris asked surprised at Frank's lack of enthusiasm.

"You mean in the band or life in general," Frank responded.

"Don't say that dude," Chris said hitting Frank with his arm.

"I'm joking," Frank said laughing out loud,"I don't know what's going on with the band, I just don't feel part of it anymore, like that part of my life with all the history is over."

Chris turned his head to look at him, "Do you really mean that?"

"I don't know, it's just getting so fucking hard and things are difficult with me and the guys." Frank explained.

"That's not so good, you guys are ace."

"We were," Frank replied, "Hey I thought I was supposed to feel better with there things."

"Give it some time and you'll be feeling it, usually half an hour," Chris explained laughing.

As the time ticked by, he did begin to feel different as if a sudden rush of adrenalin was flooding his system. Frank couldn't stop laughing as they got to their feet, he felt like he had just experienced a shot of energy.

"Shit, I'm on in 10 minutes," Chris said starting to run and crashing straight into a metal beem from the stage above, "Aw fuck."

Frank could hardly stand for laughing as he helped his friend back up. They both started to run, each pushing and shoving at each other, forcing people to quickly move out of their way. Frank felt like he could just keep running and he wanted to get on the stage.

"See you later Frank," Chris shouted as he followed his band mates towards the stage, "You better get back to your band."

"Do I have to?" Frank asked.

"Yeah you do," Nat added as she slapped Chris on the back hard.

"It's not MY band anyway, it's Gerard's." Frank responded as he walked away from them.

"You're a stupid fuck," Nat said as she picked up her guitar.

"Yeah and you're just jealous that he would rather spend time with me," he quipped before kissing the side of her face.

"Not everything is about sex you know," she shouted exasperated at his constant yibes.

"If Gerard or that found out you were giving him stuff we could get kicked off this tour," Nat explained, "Frank doesn't need this, he's messed up."

"Don't go playing the innocent now Nat, you're the one that told him we had this stuff." Chris said running his hands through his hair as he prepared to go on.

"I know but I didn't realise he had problems, fuck." Nat replied.

"Come on you guys," Steve, the drummer said.

x------x

"Where the hell is he?" Gerard asked as he walked back in the dressing room to find nobody had located Frank.

"I've left messages on his phone and Worm swears he saw him come back into the arena," Ray responded.

"We're on in like 30 minutes," Gerard replied starting to panic.

"He'll be here," Bob added trying to calm everyone down.

"He better be or we're all screwed." Gerard said finally sitting down.



Thanks so much for reviewing and rating my last chapter. I think I'm writing from my dark side with this one. I've already done the next two chapters which is amazing for me because I'm usually so slow. Let me know what you think of this one by reviewing/rating.