FicWad

Chapter One

I saw her on the second day of high school. It was the second day of my last year of high school and she walked down the hall like she owned the place. She had dark brown hair and bright green eyes, outlined with black make-up. She had pale skin, her nose was pierced and I looked her up and down I saw that he belly button was also pierced and her tummy was flat.

She saw me gawking at her, smiled and came over to me.

"Hi, I'm Andie." She said.
"I'm Roxy." I replied.
"I'm new here, could you show me the way to the office?" She asked. But before I could say "sure no problem" My best friend Frank, butted in.
"Yes! We can show you to the office!" He said. He turned her in the direction of the office, jumped to her side and led the way. I sighed and hit my head off my locker and closed my eyes.

"Hasn't he learned his lesson?" I heard my other best friend, Gerard say. I jumped. I didn't know he was there.
"Oh Gerard." I said.
"It'll bite him in the ass." He said. I nodded in agreement.
"Why does he always go for girls that are so out of his league?" I complained. "When I've been here for nearly three years-"
"I don't know what you see in him, Roxy. I mean he treats you like dirt." I gave him a stern look. "Ok, maybe not like dirt, but you remember he missed your 17th birthday party because he had to "fix" his relationship and instead he ended up getting dumped?"
"I remember that. I remember telling him that if he had come to my party he wouldn't have gotten dumped." I laughed. "You know, sometimes I could really hate him." Then it hit me. "What are you doing here anyway Gerard, don't you have work?"
"Its my day off, Mikey forgot his lunch." He replied.
"Oh right," I replied. The bell rang for home room. "Well I'll see you later."
"Right, do you want me to pick you up? We can go out for dinner." Oh Gerard. Always trying to cheer me up.
"Thats sounds great, maybe Mikey could come too." Gerard gave me a big smile and hugged me before he left the school building. I turned, made sure my locker was locked up tight and headed to home room.

When I got to the class, Mikey was sitting with an empty spot next to him. He smiled at me when I came into the room. I took the seat next to him, put my notebook on the desk. I turned in the seat to face Mikey.

"Gerard and I are going out to dinner tonight, wanna join us?" I asked him.
"Yeah that sounds good." He repled. "Frank coming with us?"
"I don't know. There's a new girl in the school and she's really pretty." I replied.
"Say no more." Mikey said. "Hasn't he learned his lesson yet?"
"Gerard asked the same thing." I told him with a chuckle. "I'll see what Frank's up to later."
"Ok, Maybe he'll bring his new girlfriend along."
"God, I hope not. She has trouble written all over her." Mikey nodded. "I hope she's in our year, so Frank doesn't see much of her."
"By the way, what are we doing for my birthday?" Mikey asked. I actually had no idea. His birthday was next week but it was school night so we couldn't have a party.
"Maybe we could go to a movie, of your choice of course." I suggested. "But its your 18th, do you want to do something special?"
"I'll think about it." Mikey said with a sly grin. "What do you want to do for your 18th?"
"Thats months away." I said with a shrug. "And I don't think I want to do much."
"Don't let Frank put you off. We can have a party but we won't invite him unless he promises he'll be there. Deal?" Mikey held out his hand. I took his hand and he squeezed my hand.
"Thanks Mikey." I whispered. "I don't know what I'd do without you Ways."
"I'd think you'd be crazy. Or in jail for life, having murdered Frank."

I think I laughed for the first time in a long time.

**

I found Frank and Mikey at our regular table in the lunch hall. I don't really get how we're such good friends. Frank is in the year below me and Mikey. I'm the same age as Frank but I was bumped up a year and thats where I met Mikey when I was 13. I first met Frank when I moved to Newark when I was nine years old. Mikey introduced me to Gerard and from there on, we've all be attached at the hip.

"Hey guys." I said as I took a seat at our table.
"Hey," Frank said. "I got you a slice of pie." He slid over a plate that had a slice of cherry pie on it.
"Thanks." I took out my brown paper bag and took out a tuna salad sandwich.
"Ew. Tuna. I don't know how you can stand that stuff." Frank said. He was a vegetarian and often made it clear.
"I don't understand how you can stand to be around complete sluts and get your heart broken!" I snapped back. Mikey looked at me with wide eyes.

I don't know what came over me. I just said it.

"I'm sorry Frank, I didn't mean it. I've just been having a bad day." I was actually lying. I've had a pretty good day so far, having spent most of it with Mikey, mocking the cheerleaders. Mikey opened his mouth to say something but I gave him a look. Frank just stared at me with blank eyes.
"I'm gonna go." He said.
"No Frank, don't! Please. I'm sorry." He got up and left the table. "Frank!" I called after him. I got up and ran after him. And by ran, I mean, I jogged slightly to catch up with him.

When I did catch up with him, he didn't turn around to talk to me. But I talked to him. We often did this routine.

"Look Frank, I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry. Its not your fault! Its just how you are. We all make mistakes!"
"Oh right, we all make mistakes. But I seem to do it all the time. I go around going after complete sluts and get my heart broken, do you think that I'm so stupid that, I didn't know that already?" He half yelled. I guess he didn't want all the attention from on lookers.
"I'm sorry Frank!" I said for the millionth time. "I'm sorry alright. I only said it because I'm a moody bitch today alright. And we don't think you're stupid. We all love you Frank and we care about what happens to you. Thats why we're always so concerned." He stopped walking. I noticed that no one was around but I could hear some students outside. I was panting a bit from walking so much.
"Yeah but you're more concerned than Mikey or Gerard, right?" Frank asked. I looked up at him. He was short, but I was short too. Which is maybe why I look so young around my 3 best friends.
"I um..." I stuttered for a moment.
"You care about me more than Mikey or Gerard."
"Frank, don't be-"
"You love me more than Mikey or Gerard."

We were silent for a long moment. It seemed like years before I spoke. And I wish I hadn't of said what I said.

"No... I don't Frank. I love you the same amount as Mikey and Gerard. We all care the same amount about you." Frank shook his head.
"Thats not true and you and I both know it." Frank said, with a perfectly serious face. "Stop lying to me." He walked away from me and I didn't see him for a few weeks after that day.

Even at Mikey's birthday he only came round for a second to drop of a gift and then he left again. I didn't know what do to anymore.

"I don't know what to do guys!" I whined and paced back and forth as Gerard lay on his bed and read a comic book. Mikey sat in the corner of the room on the game chair. They called it the game chair because Gerard always played his video games in that chair. Even though it was no where near his little television set.
"I don't know Roxy." Mikey said.
"You still see him don't you Mikes? Does he talk about me?"
"Nope. Whenever we hang out we always talk about his new band or-" I gave him the "I know you're lying look" so he stopped talking, cleared his throat and started again. "He's pretty annoyed at you. He seems to be angsting it out with his new band. He's written three songs about you."
"Really?" I asked. "What are they like?"
"They're pretty deep. Some of it, I don't get, but the other stuff is like really deep." Mikey replied. "I actually have some of the lyrics up stairs in my room. He asked me to look over them and see if I could improve them in any way, but I think he hoped you would find them. Its probably a way of expressing his feelings for you."
"Go get them!" I shooed him away. "Please, Mikey I need to know how he feels. I want to make things better!" Mikey sighed.
"I hate interfering like this." He muttered.
"No you don't! You love helping me out with my problems." I said sarcastically.

I sighed and muttered something incoherent. Gerard looked away from his comic. He put his comic on his beside table and invited me over. I sat on the edge of the bed with my back to him. I folded my arms but then I felt Gerard's hands on my waist pulling me down so I was lying in his arms. I snuggled into his chest and fought back the tears.

"Oh Cara Mia..." Gerard muttered in italian. Gerard rarely spoke italian and it made me special when he spoke to me in italian. "What are we going to do with you?"
"Well, you could help me get over my feelings for Frank so things could go back to normal and I could possibly develop one of those things called a life." I replied. "No wait, I think thats impossible for me to do because I'm so socially retarded that I'll be forever doomed to live as a hermit."
"No don't say that. You're confident in your own way. Like, you remember that time, Mikey had milkshake poured all over him, and you went up to those guys, poured a slushie all over them, and when one of them tried to man-handle you, you punched him in the face?"
"Yeah, so?" I muttered.
"That took a lot of guts." Gerard said. "I mean, yeah sure we all got banned from that diner, but I would never have had the guts to do that, neither would Frank or Mikey. You've got balls dude!"
"Thanks..." I replied. "I guess." I smiled. He kissed the top of my head.
"You're gonna be alright kiddo." He whispered to me. He kissed me again and squeezed me tight.

Mikey came back down the stairs carrying some paper. Gerard and I sat up to read them. Mikey handed me the paper that had be scrunched up, I imagined Frank wrote them in class and had to stuff them in his bag really fast. The edges were torn slightly and his hand writing was scruffy. I scanned the lyrics. Of course they were about me. Even if he wouldn't admit it.

"It must kill you to know that we can't be friends..." I muttered to myself. "End of summer you cut me off, I cut you out of the pictures I have..." I passed that piece of paper to Gerard and started to read the second one. "The truth is not what scares me, its why you have lie, all the time." Tears pierced my eyes. I looked at the last one. "You were so perfect but not everlasting...I'm almost convinced that we never happened..." I sighed as tears rolled down my cheeks. "Oh Frankie....I'm so sorry."

"Go and tell him that." Mikey whispered. I passed the last two songs to Gerard and let him read them.
"Yeah, I agree. Tell him that you're sorry."
"But I already have." I sobbed. "I said I was sorry about everything. I've left him messages, I told his mom to pass on notes, I even spoke to his dad!"
"I have an idea." Mikey said. "My bedroom locks from the outside and the outside only."
"Oh yeah, I remember I used to lock you in when you annoyed me." Gerard said smiling at the memories. "But then mom took away the key."
"Yeah but I know where she hid it." Mikey said. "We could lock the two of you in the same room and you'll be forced to talk."
"What about the window?" I asked. "He could climb out of the window."
"We'll nail it shut!" Gerard exclaimed.
"Alright! Lets do it!. I want to do it now!" I said. "Gerard go get some nails and a hammer, Mikey you find that key and call Frank." Mikey left to do as he was told. Gerard got up slowly and slumped his way upstairs.
"I'm getting too old for these schemes." He muttered.
"No you're not!" I replied. "You love it really."