FicWad

Abbey exhaustedly dropped her bags onto the floor of her and Frank’s apartment two hours after their phone conversation. Aleisha placed Abbey’s guitar case against the wall in the hall. The smell of air sanitizer lingered in the air, and Abbey smiled to herself. The hallway looked relatively unscathed, and Abbey wondered to herself whether Frank had managed to finish cleaning up in time. Quite abruptly, Hairy McLairy came bounding down the hallway and Abbey bent down to pick him up and bury her face in his soft, white fur.

‘Honey, I’m home!’ Aleisha called out jokingly. Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps became apparent, and the tiny monster himself appeared, grinning from ear to ear. Abbey could feel an involuntary smile identical to his stretching across her face. He always had that effect on her.

‘Get over here!’ He said cheekily. Abbey screamed excitedly and jumped into Frank’s arms while Aleisha looked on, smiling. She had never understood Abbey and Frank’s odd relationship; she could only liken their closeness to that of herself and her twin, Darcey. All she knew was that Frank had always been by Abbey’s side since they were in elementary school, and it had meant that Abbey had always had a good support system, despite their mother being an alcoholic and their father being out of the picture. Abbey had always been able to escape to Frank’s house, and because of that, they had basically become family.
‘I’ll just er, go then. Don’t wanna ruin the moment. See you, lovebirds.’ And with that, Aleisha slipped from the apartment unnoticed by the two best friends, who were still tangled in an embrace.

‘I’ve fucking missed you,’ Abbey whispered into Frank’s shoulder. She hadn’t realised how homesick she’d been until she had walked through the front door. Hairy McLairy ran around the flatmates, licking their feet and jumping all over them. The family was back together again.

~

Frank sat upon Abbey’s bed, rifling through her handbag. She entered the room from being in the bathroom and gave him a stern look. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Oh, I just need some tampons.’ He casually replied. Upon finding her supplies of sanitary items, he opened the pack, ripped away the plastic, and proceeded to shove as many tampons as possible up his nose. ‘Let’s see how big we can get my nostrils!’ He spoke in the kind of voice that one does when they possess a serious head cold.
‘You idiot! You do realise, I actually need them?’ Abbey questioned exasperatedly.
‘Really?’ Frank feigned surprise. ‘I figured you were just trying to convince everyone you do, in fact, have a vagina. You shouldn’t lie to people Abigail; you won’t go to heaven you know. I went to Catholic school, and there are these things called the Ten Commandments – ’
‘We went to the same school, dumbass.’ Abbey tackled Frank and wrestled with him for the pack.

Once Frank had removed the tampons from his nose, proceeded to attempt to flush them down the toilet and realised they expanded in water, laughed for twenty minutes about it and had finally settled down on the bed again, Abbey began unpacking her things.
‘So how was it?’ Frank asked of the tour.
‘Incredible.’ Abbey replied simply. ‘I still can’t believe people even know the words, let alone want to pay money to watch us play.’
‘Surreal, isn’t it?’ Frank mused. ‘I know exactly how you feel. I’m so proud of you Abs.’ He leaned over to her from the bed and kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘You’ve come so far.’
‘Thanks Frankie.’ Abbey glowed with pride at his comment.

‘So, what did I miss while I was away?’Abbey began sorting out her washing into respective clean and dirty piles. Frank made a non-committal noise to indicate not much had happened recently.
‘We’re in the middle of recording at the moment,’ he began. ‘I’m so happy with it. It’s so big, and special, and out of this world.’
‘Decided on a title?’ Abbey asked.
‘Now, why would I tell you?..’ Frank replied slyly.
‘Because you love me!’
‘Nice try, kid, but no chance.’
‘Fine, what else you got?’ Abbey probed him for more answers.
‘Um...’ Frank chewed on his lip as he struggled for interesting news to tell. ‘Oh! Gerard dyed his hair!’
Abbey cocked her eyebrow at Frank. ‘That’s all you’ve got? Seriously? Gee dyed his hair, how groundbreaking!’
‘It’s really blond...’ Frank said earnestly, looking crestfallen at her lack of enthusiasm for My Chemical Romance’s lead singer’s hairstyle. ‘And Ray got a haircut...’ He trailed off.
‘Uh huh.’ Abbey responded. ‘Any other major changes in hair styling I should know about? I see you’ve gone back to black yourself. Classic, Iero.’
Frank poked his tongue out in response to this statement.
‘Did I mention I missed you?’ Abbey grinned.
‘Just for your smart-assery, I’m going to tell you about everybody’s hair now.’
‘Oh, Frank...’
‘Bob is growing his hair out, he looks positively dashing. Mikey on the other hand has cropped all his shit off and dyed it darker. Oh! And he got Lasik eye surgery! I told him the laser was gonna burn through his brain and he should be worried because there wasn’t that much there to begin with but he punched me in the head and told me then we’d match and called me dumb so I stopped because he hurt my feelings.’
Abbey openly rolled her eyes at Frank.

‘Let’s do something tonight.’
‘Well the guys were gonna go to some bar tonight for a few drinks. Wanna meet them there?’ Frank enquired.
‘Sure,’ Abbey replied. ‘I’ve missed the dudes. Plus,’ she continued as she picked up one of her t shirts from the floor. ‘I have to kick Bob’s ass for the smell he left in the toilet. I had to hold my breath in there, it can’t be normal for a smell to linger that long. We should probably recommend he see a doctor, really.’