Iero Fiasco

“Fucking Christ!” Molly exclaims as she gets home from doing groceries, the smell that filled her apartment was nearly intoxicating. She put down the grocery bag and ran over to the air conditioner in the window from which the smell came and turned it off. She then proceeded to open every window in her apartment.

Just as she put away the groceries the phone rang and she picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Hey Molly, its Sierra.” Her cousin’s voice rang clear.
“Oh hey, what’s up?”
“Well, I need someone to watch Bella for about an hour, I called your sister but she isn’t home.”
“Yeah, no problem, so what time do you want me to be at your place?”
“Actually, I don’t have time to wait for you, so can I just drop her off at your place?”
“Yeah, see you in a bit then.”

Frank sits nervously in his chair as he waited for a taxi, apparently there was a bit of a shortage that evening. He wasn’t even sure if he was dreaming or if he was awake anymore, how could one girl drive him so madly insane.

Back at the Montreal apartment Molly went to check on the food she had cooking, that is until she noticed Bella about to knock over her bass.
“Bella no!” she yelled as she scooped up the toddler.
“I just wanted to touch it.” She protests, “I wasn’t going to break it.”
“I know.” Molly says a bit out of breath from her sprint across the apartment, “But if it fell over it could hurt you.”

RING! RING!

“Phone!” Bella points at the coffee table where the cordless phone sat. Molly picked up the phone and put to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Molly.”
“Frank!” she practically screeched in excitement.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” Molly sighs.
“What would you say if I just skipped over to your place?”
“That would be great.” just then the phone line went dead.

“Shit.” She curses as she tosses down the phone.
“You said!” the toddler in her arms exclaims.
“No, no, no, I didn’t.”
“Yes you did!”
“Okay, I’m sorry.” Molly sighs, “I didn’t mean to say a bad word.”
“You should wash your mouth out with soap!”

DING DONG!

“That’s probably your mom.” Molly says heading over to the door with Bella still in her arms. She pulls open the door to find that it’s not Sierra at all, but Frank with a suitcase at his feet.
“Oh my god!” she shrieks, “You weren’t kidding.” Frank on the other hand is sort of freaked out by the child in his girlfriend’s arms.
“Who’s he?” Bella demands.
“Bella, this is my boyfriend Frank.”
“Hi Fwank.” She says waving innocently.
“Frank, this is my cousin’s daughter, Bella.”

Frank is shaken from his trance in relief.
“Nice to meet you.” he says shaking her little hand. Molly puts down the toddler then wraps her arms around Frank. Frank kisses Molly’s lips happily.
“Ew! Gross!” Bella cries out. Molly and Frank laugh.

The little girl crawls back up onto the sofa to watch her cartoons.
“So you’re babysitting.” Frank clarifies.
“Yeah.” Molly laughs, “Did you think she was mine?”
“Sorta.” He says embarrassed, “You scared me there for a minute.”
“Well my cousin is coming to pick her up any minute, then it’ll be just the two of us.” Molly says in a low whisper causing chills down Frank’s spine, “So what prompted you to just show up?”
“Well I heard your band practices were shitty.”
“What?”
“Jess left me a message on my answering machine saying-“
“Oh my god! I didn’t know she actually called!” Molly shrieks, Frank laughs.
“Yeah so anyway I called her back and she said you guys didn’t leave for tour just yet and that-“
“Remind me royally thank Jess.” Molly says wrapping her arms around him once more.

DING DONG!

“Is it Mommy this time?” Bella asks with big eyes. Molly opens the door to reveal her cousin, “Mommy!”
“Was she any trouble?” Sierra asks as she scoops up her daughter, “Oh god why’s your apartment so hot?”
“Air conditioner broke today.” Molly mumbles, “She was no trouble.” Sierra fumbles to get something out of her pocket, “Keep your money Sierra.”
“No, no, you babysat it’s the least I can do.”
“I don’t need money just-“ Molly protests as a twenty dollar bill gets shoved in her hand.
“You always need new guitar strings or something, or buy yourself a new strap.” She stops when she catches a glimpse of Frank.

“Hello.” She calls to him, “I’m Sierra.” He swivels in his spot and turns to the door.
“I’m Frank.” He walks over to the door and shakes Sierra’s hand.
“Your face looks familiar, have we met before?” she asks casually.
“Well I’m in a band.” He says shrugging.
“Which one?”
“My Chemical Romance.”
“But that band’s been around for- how old are you?” she exclaims, she looks over at Molly, “He’s too old for you.”
“No he isn’t,” she groans, “May I remind you Peter is eleven years older than you?”
“How old is he?”
“Twenty-seven and I’ll talk to you later.” Molly says quickly as she starts to close the door.
“Okay, see ya.” Sierra says calmly.

Molly turns to Frank and wraps her arms around him and they break into a fury of kisses and up pressed against the wall.
“Damn I missed you.” Frank says as they start to calm.
“Missed you too.” Molly says then she remembers, “The food!”

Frank sniffs the air and heads into the kitchen, Molly follows and sees him lift the pan lid.
“Bangers and Beans!” he exclaims, “I love this stuff.”
“Good, cause its ready.” Molly says turning off the heat on the stove. She goes to the cupboard and pulls out two bowls and hands one to Frank.

They go into the living room with their bowls of Bangers’n’beans.
“So do you want to watch a movie?” Molly asks. Frank nods as he goes over to the shelf filled with DVDs.
“Oh, Bullet in a Bible, great guys they, they took my band to the movies.” Frank says laughing lightly.
“So umm what’s Green Day like?” Molly asks curiously.
“They’re fucking awesome, they’re more fun than a barrel of monkeys.” He continues to skim through the DVDs, “Stalker!”
“What?” Molly gets up to see what he’s talking about when she sees Life on a Murder Scene, “I uhh, umm.” Frank laughs hysterically, “Stop laughing.”
“This one.” He says plucking a movie off the shelf, “Nightmare Before Christmas, its my favorite.”
“Okay Jack.” Molly jokes as she goes to put it in the DVD player.

Frank wakes up the next morning and literally peels himself off the couch, it was so hot and humid in the apartment his skin stuck to the leather of the sofa and not to mention Molly too. The fact that they spent part of the evening in vigorous movement didn’t help things. He walked over to the air conditioner, he was determined to fix it or die trying. He pulled off the front screen and started looking at the fan inside. Molly woke up and adjusted tank top and boxer shorts which thanks to Frank were more off than on. She looked around the room then spotted him crouched in front of the air conditioner in only his boxers.
“I’ll call the repair guy.” She yawns.
“Not soon enough.” He said as he pulled out the filtration grill, “And I think I solved the problem.”
“Thank god.” Molly exclaims, both of them covered in a layer of glistening sweat.
“You didn’t clean the filter.” He says holding up the dusty piece of air conditioner. Molly goes off to the bathroom to get a towel and she quickly cleans it off before handing it back to Frank for reassembly.

Then to both of their relief the gentle hum of the air conditioner starts up.
“YES! I did it!” Frank cheers as he stands up with his arms raised.
“My hero.” Molly laughs as she goes to close the windows.

DING DONG!

“Can you get that?” Molly calls from her bedroom as she clicks shut another window.
“Hey,” Frank says opening the door to a somewhat familiar face, “Jay right?” Molly trudges out of her room to see her friend standing there.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you two were.” He says awkwardly as he looks over his friend and her boyfriend glistening in sweat and minimally dressed.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, the air conditioner broke.” She says rolling her eyes, Frank laughs lightly, “What’s up perv?”
“Food.” Jay says hopefully.
“Help yourself.” Molly says laughing, “You should seriously buy your own.”
“But it’s just so much easier to come here.” Jay says from the kitchen.

“Does he always do this?” Frank murmurs in my ear.
“About once a week, he eats left overs.”
“BEANS!” Jay exclaims, “Sweet!”
“See, he eats leftovers.” Molly laughs.
“But I want the beans!” Frank says joking, “Those are my beans bitch!”
“Too bad.” Jay says evilly, “Mine now.”
“There’s enough beans for everyone.” Molly sighs.

“Do you wanna shower or-“ Molly starts.
“No, you go ahead.” Frank says casually. Molly heads into the washroom and Frank sits on the kitchen counter as Jay fumbles with the microwave to warm up the beans.

“So you’ve known Molly since high school?” Frank asks casually.
“Yeah, we only really started hanging out in our last year though.”
“Did you two go out or something?”
“Me and her? Nah.” He laughs, “As far as I know she had like one, maybe two boyfriends in the entirety of her high school years.”
“Meaning?”
“Well she was one of those really freaky looking teenagers, you know the ones teachers think are emotionally unstable or something. So yeah, freaky girls in high school don’t exactly get the guy. And like she was a bit of a shut in, you see she’d spent most of high school devoted to playing music so I guess she didn’t care much for having a boyfriend. The one guy I know she went out with was a friend of mine.”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“He was really emotionally dependant and like if she didn’t spend the entire lunch hour with him he’d get a bit pissy. You see the thing about Molly is she’s really independent and proud of it.” Frank nods, “But if you ask me,” the microwave dings and Jay goes to get his beans.
“Ask you what?”
“If you ask me, you don’t seem like the macho controlling type, so yeah you’re a good match for her.” He says with a mouthful of beans, “And hey, its long distance right? So like its kind of hard for you to control her.”

“What’s up?” Molly asks as she comes out of the washroom, squeaky clean with make up done and everything.
“Nothing really.” Jay says shrugging his shoulders.
“I’ll just go shower.” Frank says heading into the washroom.
“We were talking about you.” Jay whispers before cracking up laughing.
“Oh gosh.” Molly says sarcastically as she goes to pour herself a glass of juice, “Any juicy details I’d want to know?”
“Nah, just told him about Luke.”
“Luke? Why?”
“I dunno, Frank asked what you were like in high school and then I said you didn’t really have any boyfriends except him, and how he was emotionally dependant and shit like that.” He murmurs more amused with the beans, “So like do your parents know he’s boinking you?”
“What?” Molly exclaims at her friend’s randomness.
“I know your parents, well your mom anyway is all old fashioned and stuff and what you’ve been going out with this guy for a month and your doing the dirty.”
“No, they don’t, as far as their concerned we’re in a phone relationship.” Jay stares at her for a moment before laughing out loud.
“If only they knew how dirty you are.”
“What about you!” Molly accuses.
“Fair enough.”
“Damn you can really down a bowl of beans.” Molly speculates.
“I didn’t eat yesterday.” He says tossing the empty bowl in the sink.
“Because?”
“I dunno.” He shrugs spastically.

“So what’s up?” Frank asks coming out of the washroom.
“Right, I’ll leave you two alone.” Jay says hopping off the counter, “Oh yeah! I got a foosball table and like Jess and Sab and everyone are coming over today to break it in, so yeah come if you want.” Jay is fairly twitchy so watching him leave the apartment is just down right amusing.

“Is umm he alright?” Frank asks laughing.
“He was put on Ritalin as kid for a reason.” Molly laughs. He nods.
“I like him.”
“You’re not just saying that so you can play with his foosball table.” Molly jokes as she reaches to the cabinet to get the box of pop tarts out, “Help yourself to anything you want.”

Frank opens a cabinet and the food contents seem fairly similar to what he has at home, all non-perishable food items. He knew why too, with all the touring you can’t exactly have food that rots lying around. He decides on cocoa puffs, he pours some into a bowl and then in a separate glass he pours himself some milk before sitting the counter opposite of Molly.
“You don’t mix them.” She speculates.
“Nope, milk makes the cereal soggy.” He states popping a few puffs in his mouth. Molly nods as she takes a bite of her chocolate pop tart.
“How come all your breakfast food is chocolate?” Frank asks as he takes a sip of milk, obtaining a milk moustache in the process but he licks his lips clean before placing the cup back down on the counter next to him. Molly looks at her pop tarts then at Frank’s cocoa puffs.
“Not true, I have corn flakes too, oh and I think I have waffles in the freezer.” Frank scooches over on the counter and opens the freezer.
“No ya don’t.”
“I did, before I finished em off.” She protests as she takes a bite of her poptart.

They spend the morning lazing about before heading out into the hot summer sun to walk to Jay’s place. They get there to find Tray and Drew playing a vicious foosball game against Jay and his roommate Alex.
“Don’t you guys lock you door?” Frank asks furrowing his eyebrows right after he and Molly let themselves into the apartment.
“At night.” Jay says gruffly as he goes to score a goal, “YEAH! WE WIN!”
“You guys are insane.”
“Its supposedly safer here compared to Jersey.” Molly says casually.
“Yeah Canadians are nicer.” Jay taunts, “Oh by the way this is my roommate Alex.” He points the guy next to him who’s buff as a football player (American football, not soccer).
“Nice to meet you.” Frank says casually.
“And that’s Tray and Drew.” Molly points out.

Casual introductions pushed aside Molly and Frank play a foosball match against the victors known as Alex and Jay and win just as Jess lets herself into the apartment.
“Hey, you’re welcome.” She says to Molly referring to Frank’s presence.
“I owe you big time.” Molly says happily.
“Yes, yes you do.” Jess says laughing.

They spend the day at Jay’s house before heading back to Molly’s apartment for band practice. They go into the apartment itself to get Molly’s bass, Jess’s guitar (she kept her crappy guitar at Molly’s for impromptu band practices).
“Hey can I fiddle with.” Jay says motioning towards Molly’s guitar that sat on a stand in the corner of the living room.
“Yeah, yeah.” She says absently as she goes to the drawer to fetch a couple of instrument cables. Jay plucks the guitar off the stand and picks up the practice amp next to it and they all head up to the roof.

Frank and Jay pass the old guitar back and forth while Alex and Drew talk about the latest soccer game as Warped Battery set up for their practice.
“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” Frank asks as Jess and Molly carry out an amp from the green house.
“Nope.” Molly says shaking her head, “We have a system.” Frank shakes his head laughing.
“Don’t mess with their system.” Jay jokes as he plays a riff from Highway to Hell.