The Hardest Part Is Letting Go of Your Dreams

* Still Gee's POV *
We walked across the street to the iHop. This really was deja vu, except I had Jayda walking next to me instead of just air. God, we even did the pancake thing.
"PANCAKES!" Jayda screamed as if she did this every day.

"PANCAKES!" everyone chorused. We got the same looks from people passing by and getting out of their cars in the parking lot.

We were walking through the parking lot when...

"WAFFLES!" Bob yelled. He was in a good mood, you could tell. This is Bob we're talking about here, remember that. He was screaming random things about pancakes and waffles when he barely even talks for God's sake! I'm sure everyone inside could hear us. We were ten feet from the door when Bob yelled 'WAFFLES!'

"It's 'PANCAKES!' dumbass not, 'WAFFLES!'" Tay said, smacking Bob on the arm as Ray opened the door.

"But I like both..." Bob whined.

"Aw, but lucky for you they have both," Zanda said, coming up behind Bob and giving a small peck on the cheek of reassurance. He pretended to be grossed out and roughly wiped his cheek and we all laughed as we sat down.

We were probably freaking a lot of people out. Mostly black, black eyelinger (heavy in some cases), black nailpolis on most of us. We probably looked like the Devil's children to some of these old people. Actually most of the people were with ther kids and grandchildren. This was really funny to me, seeing old women turn to their husbands and whispering something while looking at us, thinking we didn't notice. Well, the others didn't but I did. They were all laughing at Ray for something.

You know how I said I thought this funny? Well I started laughing long after the other Chemical-FX people were finished laughing at Ray.

"Hey man, it wasn't that funny," Ray said. He knew I was laughing at something else though. I could tell by the way he said it.

"Gee? Are you okay?" Mikey asked with concern on his face and laughter in his eyes. He was holding my hand, making he laugh a little more. I was trying to calm down and not let my way-to-loud-laugh out. But Mikey was loving it and he knew what I'd laugh at. Jayda was giggling at me and the others were having a hard time not joining her.

Mikey didn't help much when he took out his cellphone and said:

"That's it. I'm calling Mom and telling her to up your meds." Everyone who was holding their laughter, let it out. We knew what a racket we were making with our laughter so we escaped to the Men's Room. ALL of us, but we didn't care and neither did the girls. We just needed a place to let go of our laughter, though they'd probably still hear us even if we were in Gwam.

I swear, you can be with your friends and hear anything-- it doesn't even have to be that funny-- and you'll crack up and make everyone around question your sanity.

After a long calm-down session, we walked out like we owned the place and nothing ever happened and sat down at our table. The waitor came and we all got our food. The same orders we got last time. Ray got his strawberry pancakes and I got my chocolate chip ones. We all ate off of eachother's plates before the rest of the food got there. We had so many people, they needed to make a second trip. They brought out Jayda's order, the last one, and we all dove for it. It was an ENTIRE tray of blueberry muffins! She grabbed her tray and held it above her head, almost whacking the waitor in the head.

"Mine!" she snapped.

Ray managed to take one, being taller than Jayda and everyone else.

"Hey! Put that back!" Jayda commanded, still holding the tray up out of our reach. Poor Frank was still trying to get one.

"Nope!" Ray popped the muffin in his mouth all in one and managed to get it down without choking. They were big-ass muffins!

"Meany! I'd hit you if they wouldn't take my muffins," Jayda said in this cute little voice that made her sound like a kindergardener.

Ray snatched another one, but Jazz kissed him before the muffin could get to his mouth first. He forgot all about the muffin-- probably the rest of the world with it-- and I grabbed it before anyone else could.

Jazz pulled away from Ray and turned to me.

"You owe me for that one."

"What? Kissing me wasn't reward enough?" Ray asked her. Everyone else was devouring the muffins Jayda finally put down.

"Apparently not," Zanda said when she swallowed a bite of blueberry muffin goodness.

"It was a reward from you, but I want all I can get! I came up with a wonderful, sneaky plan in less than a second! C'mon Gee, you got a mufin, what do I get?" She loved teasing me like this. I don't know why, but she really loved it.

"Well, I'd give you kiss if Ray wouldn't kill me tonight in my sleep," I offered.

"Damn straight," Ray said with a laugh.

((Time Lapse))

Jayda and Zanda know we're gonna tell the others tonight and tonight came faster than I explected. We played the second to last show and were relaxing as always back on the bus. I went back to my bunk and stared at the ceiling.

All us guys made a promise to each other not to keep big secrets to ourselves. Frank and I are dating without them knowing! I doubt they even knew we were bi. But there was something-- someone else on my mind as well. Jayda

* Frank's POV *
iHop was fun, but it's after the show now and Gerard and I are going to tell the others tonight. I'm nervous as hell becaue of this promise the My Chem guys made to eachother a few months after Matt left and Bob joined.

"Don't keep big secrets, okay? We're a family, you know that. Families help each other with their problems, but if you keep the problems as secrets, we can't help you. Birthday surprises are fine of course, but no getting someone pregnant or something without telling this family. Promise. Okay?"

Mikey was having on of his "delicate moments" when he said that. It was another one of his bipolar moodswings, but we'd all promised and we've all kept it except Gerard and I. That made me feel guitly.

I walked back to the bunks where Gerard was.

"Hey, Geetard," I teased.

"Hey, Frank," he said, not looking away from the ceiling and apparently not picking up on his least favorite nickname. I was on my tip toes to look at him. Damn this shortness of mine! I climbed up and sat next to him.

He sat up, turned and put his feet over the side of the bunk. At first I thought he was going to hop down and sulk away, but he stayed where he was. I turned sideways and dangled my feet next to his.

Then he looked at me.

That was it . That's all I needed. That look. I'd been wondering for a long time and here's he answer.

I'd thought about her a lot, in the middle of the night, in the morning, even during shows. Gerard had been thinking of his girl a lot too. He'd probably been thinking of her when I walked back here. We both realised something right then and there.

I sighed. It was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

I held out my hand to Gerard and he shook it and pulled me into athe most brotherly hug I've ever had.

We hopped down (well, in my case, leaped) and walked into the living room. I sat down next to Zanda and put my arm around her shoulders and Gerard sat next to Jayda and put his arm around hers.