FicWad

Frank walked into the bar, mercifully alone. They had finally finished the tour and were home. Well, close enough to home. Well, New York, but only to tie up some loose ends, they had been assured. He felt as though he hadn’t been alone in months, in years. He smirked as he thought back to how much he had hated being alone in the past, in the bad days, how isolated he’d felt in his own company. Now it was blissful just to be able to sit down alone, in the quiet, with a few beers.

The bar was empty, although that wasn’t surprising, the evening was particularly young. The only other patron was a girl, sitting at a table with piles of books in front of her. His glance towards her was swift, perfunctory, although he did notice that amongst the technical books was “Darkness Visible” by William Golding and smiled in appreciation of good taste.

Since the…break up, he hadn’t found himself looking at other women. He had thought he would, that was what had happened in the past. But then, in the past the break ups hadn’t meant so much, the girls hadn’t meant so much. He frowned and took a seat at the bar, glancing around him.

It had been recommended to him by one of the entourage that travelled with him. It had recently reopened apparently, with a new name and a kitschy roaring 20s theme. He was beginning to wonder where the staff were when a tall redhead appeared. She was intimidatingly tall and her hair was that type of red that wasn’t actually red, more of a golden colour. She smiled warmly at him but he saw the smile falter as she got closer and realized that he had been recognized. She managed to maintain her professionality though thank God.

“What can I get you?” She asked.

“What beers do you have?” He asked quietly.

The girl indicated a shelf of beer bottles behind her

“I’ll have an Yebisu “

He watched, amused, as the redhead searched through the beer fridges.

“It’s ok, I’ll take a Kirin” He called out helpfully.

She shook her head determinedly.

“It’s ok, we should have some out the back”

“On the left in the first fridge out the back” Came another voice, soft this time, and from the brunette who had been sitting in the booth previously.

Frank turned and took a moment to scan her. She was smaller than the redhead, though that wasn’t saying much. And her baggy, ripped up denim jeans and a tight long-sleeved black top probably made her appear even smaller.


She pulled on her long brown hair that had been tugged back into a messy pony tail and tucked her pen behind her ear as she watched the girl disappear out the back.

“Sorry about that, it’s our slow period for the day and we haven't gotten around to re-stocking the fridges”

“No problems”

She looked up and caught his eyes, her own grey ones narrowing slightly beneath her furrowed brows.

“Well, well, Frank ieIero. Twenty-one letters ending in T...” She breathed.
Frank cocked his eyebrow.

“Who,” She began, as she took the beer offered by the redhead, “would have guessed it?” With a small flourish she took the top off the beer and passed it to him.

“Excuse me?” Frank asked, quite rudely, but pissed at being interrupted in his solitude.

The brunette laughed.

“Come on Frankie, it’ll hurt my feelings if you don’t recognize me”


He hated it when fans asked if he remembered them. Poor, excited young kids who’d met him once for three seconds, years before. And it had meant so much to them. Yet despite himself, he gave the brunette a second glance and found surprise swell up in him as some sort of recognition registered within him.

“Subtract oh...seven years and add a catholic uniform” She said with a smirk and he paled, remembering limpid eyes across the crowded halls, remembering names scribbled on messy notepaper, remembering the sound of a lone metal locker door slamming closed.

“Escher Green” He whispered in shock and Escher grinned.
Beside her, the red head seemed just as shocked.

“Why have you never told me you know Frank Iero?” She hissed to Escher.


Frank frowned, the memories turning to bitterness he could almost taste.

“We weren’t exactly friends” He said between clenched teeth. “Were we Esch?”

The smile on Escher’s face faltered, but only for a moment before she placed her hands on her hips.


“Come on Frank, there were a couple of times we had lunch together”

He frowned, remembering one day they had shared lunch. When he met her eyes he saw she was remembering that too.

“Not really,” he said, “highschool was one crazy whirligig of fun, fun, fun”

“Oh yeah,” She agreed sarcastically, “but you’re…”

“Didn’t you go away to an ivy league school or something?” He asked vaguely but carelessly.

“I got a scholarship to Colombia, yeah”

“And now you’re working in a bar” He concluded with a smug smirk.

Her smile faltered again but she kept it firmly in place.

“Yeah, guess so”


Escher abruptly turned to the redhead.

“I have a thing tonight, are you sure you’ll be fine here?”

“Relax,” Sarah said, swatting at Escher with a tea towel, “just go”

Escher grinned and handed Sarah the pen from behind her air. She turned back to Frank.

“It was nice to see you again Frank, I’m usually not far from here if you ever wanted to catch up"

Frank resisted the urge to snort.

“Yeach, it was nice to see you too, Esch”

He drew out her abbreviated name between his teeth, as though the sound of it disgusted him and made the point of staring into her cool grey eyes. He didn't know whether to be glad or irritated that they seemed to show no emotion to his obvious hostility.

"Well, I'd best head off, wouldn't do to keep he whom awaits, waiting, now would it?"

She smiled again at Frank before shuffling off to collect her books.

"I might see you around Frank"

"I doubt it" He replied coolly.

Escher smiled wanly and with a nod to Sarah, left the bar, stepping into a biting New York wind.