It's Not the Life It Seems

Honey sighed as she tapped her perfectly manicured fingernails on the underside of the bunk above her. She didn’t understand Gerard’s sudden mood swing and she certainly didn’t understand why she was allowing him to treat her like that. There was just something about him that provoked a different side of Honey and so instead of retaliating like she normally would have, she just walked away. In a strange way she was proud of herself for not letting him get to her, it was his fault if he was in a mood and she wasn’t going to go crawling to him. Honey had decided to wait until Gerard came to her, like she knew he would. Well, was fairly sure he would.

“What are you thinking?” Asked the man on the opposite bunk who was lying on his side facing her.

“Me,” she answered honestly.

“Oh,” Frank replied, silent for a few moments.

“Hey didn’t we have some MTV thing to go to tonight?” He suddenly asked her.

Honey scratched her head trying to remember.

“Yes, we do,” Honey told him, remembering what Clive had mentioned to them in the lobby a few days ago.

“Are we still going to it?”

Honey thought again, this time for a much longer time. Honey actually thought it would be a good idea for her to go. Whenever her self-esteem was low it always made her feel better going to see her fans and admirers. Actually, the more Honey thought about it the better idea she thought it was. That way she would be able to get her revenge on Gerard that night by dressing up and flirting with every boy in the room to make him see what he was missing.

“I am, want to be my date?” Honey asked him in her sweet voice.

Frank looked confused. “Honey, I’m engaged and your sleeping with my best friend,” he explained slowly.

“Slept with,” Honey corrected him, “and not like a date but just a date as in someone I go some place with, in our case, MTV party.”

“Oh,” Frank’s eyes went wide with understanding and he shrugged, “yeah sure, why not.”

Honey flicked though the many dresses that were hanging on the rack in front of her.

“What about this one, darling?” The annoyed stylist that was helping her chose an outfit asked, pulling out a cream dress.

Honey shook her head, “Too Hilary Duff.”

He pulled another dress off, this one with a green pattern.

Honey shook her head again, “Too Nicole Richie.”

Honey was at the hotel getting ready for the party tonight. The bus had pulled up at the flashy hotel hours ago so that the band and Honey could have a team of stylists, hairdressers and make-up artists at their disposal to help them get ready. Although, Honey wasn’t finding this stylist particularly helpful.

Honey’s eyes swept over the dresses hanging on the rack once before they fell upon one that was hiding in between two other dresses. She immediately pushed them aside to reveal a glittering metallic gold dress which she pulled off the hanger. Dropping the jeans she was wearing and pulling her shirt over her head, she slipped it on and admired her self in the mirror. The short dress hugged her body in all the right places and looked fantastic with her golden tan.

Honey twirled around to face the stylist, placing her hands on her hips and giving him a questioning look.

“Perfect,” he sighed, glad that the perfectionist had finally found a dress worthy of her body.

After instructing the hairdressers to give her a tousled look and the make-up artists to give her a beach-y glow, Honey was finally ready, looking even better then usual. She slipped on her YSL heels and out of the room, ignoring the sighs of relief from the people who had been left in the room. Honey knocked on the door she knew Frank would be in and waited for someone to come to the door. Ray answered after some time, looking rather handsome all dressed up in a suit.

“Honey!” he exclaimed when he pulled the door open, “You look amazing!”

Honey flashed him a dazzling smile and leaned forward to put a kiss on his cheek, captured by the cameras who had been following her around for the past hour.

“So do you,” Honey replied and followed him into the room. The boys were all in various stages of being ready. Frank was obviously the slow one, as he was still in the make-up chair and not dressed, to the annoyance of everyone that was ready which consisted of Bob, Ray and Gerard.

Frank turned around in his chair and jumped out upon seeing Honey. Walking over to her, he let out a low whistle and held both of her hands out to look at her properly.

“Very nice,” was his verdict, as he placed a kiss on Honey’s cheek as well. The band was adapting quite well to the Hollywood style greeting of a kiss on the cheek and if Honey didn’t know any better, she would say they actually quite enjoyed that display of affection.

“Mr. Iero, could you please come and sit down again,” Franks irritated make up artist cried, throwing her hands up in the air.

Frank rolled his eyes before obediently returning to his seat where the make up artist resumed very quickly applying his eye shadow.

Gerard was very pointedly not looking in Honey’s direction. Honey had seen him throw a few stolen glances her way as he checked her out, but other then that he refused to acknowledge her. Honey had heard that he and Brian had had a small scale fight over Gerard’s refusal to attend this party. In the end, Brian had won as logic had over-ruled Gerard’s weak argument and Gerard was stuck with going.

“I’m done!” Frank squealed and ran over to Honey, “lets go, date!” Frank had been calling Honey ‘date’ ever since Honey asked him to come with her. It was cute so Honey had taken to calling him that back, much to his delight.

“Okay, date, but first, don’t you think you should maybe get dressed?”

Frank looked down at himself, nodded quickly and ran off to the bathroom. A few moments later Frank returned, with Mikey who had been fixing his hair, completely dressed.

“Limo’s here” a camera man called out to the group.

“Ready, date?” Frank asked Honey, holding out an arm for her to take.

“Yes, thank you, date,” Honey replied taking Frank’s arm. Gerard rolled his eyes at their childishness which didn’t go unnoticed by Honey who shot him a glare. If she had known these nicknames would annoy him so much she would have been calling Frank that a lot more before.

Frank and Honey led the way down the limo, which was parked in the hotel underground car park away from any prying eyes and climbed in, followed by the rest of the band. Gerard sat as far away from Honey as he could, that sad look that practically never left his face still evident.

“Champagne, date?” Frank asked Honey, leaning over her to grab the bottle and the flutes. Honey nodded, taking a champagne flute from Frank and watched as he filled it up halfway. Honey brought it up to her lips and noticed Gerard watching her intently. Honey locked her eyes with his and drowned the whole glass, never taking her eyes off his as she did. Gerard gave her a look of guilt and sadness before returning his eyes to the floor.

After that, the limo ride to the party was awkward and boring. They all sat, staring out of the windows or to the floor waiting to arrive.

“Stay with me, Frankie,” Honey whispered in his ear as they pulled up at the red carpet. He nodded and gave her a reassuring smile, letting her know he would look after her.

The limo came to a stop and Honey put her ‘game face’ on, knowing she would be the first out of the limo. The door was pulled open and Honey stepped out, much to the delight of the celebrity watchers that were gathered at the foot of the carpet. Honey gave them a wave and smile, turning to wait for Frank to come out of the limo. He scrambled out and resumed his place next to Honey, linking arms with her once more for support.

Honey walked over to one side of the carpet, where the fans were being held back by a metal fence, to sign some things, being the kind celebrity she was.

“Honey you look amazing,” one fan gushed as she held out a piece of paper and pen.

Honey detached herself from her friend to sign it.

“Thanks,” Honey replied cheerily, evidently giving the impression nothing was wrong in her life.
“Is he your new boyfriend?” another asked, pushing a new piece of paper at Honey.

“Who him?” Honey jerked a thumb in Franks direction. The fan nodded.

Honey snorted, “No, I wish. If I had a guy as good as Frankie I would never let him go.”

“Awe,” Frank said upon hearing the last part, ending the conversation he was having with one fan.

Honey laughed. “We should move on,” she told him, even though she was dreading the reporters and their questions. Frank nodded, taking her arm once more as they walked together and joined the band that were having their pictures taken. When Honey approached the cameras instantly spun her way and began snapping. Honey smiled, and stood next to My Chemical Romance in a blatant promotion of the show.

“Honey, can we get one of you and Gerard together?” a photographer yelled out. Honey shook her head, thinking Gerard would be incredibly against the idea but was surprised when she felt Frank’s arm to be moved out of hers and an arm wrap around her waist. Honey looked to her side and saw Gerard standing there holding her, his mouth smiling even though his eyes were not. He looked down, his eyes meeting hers looking hollow and empty. Gerard leaned down and placed a kiss on Honey’s lips, lingering there so that the photographers had plenty of time to capture it.

Honey pulled back and looked at him in shock, while he just continued smiling and pulled her up the rest of the red carpet away from the photographers. Once they were out of sight and only surrounded by other celebrities and their assistants, Gerard let his arm drop back to his side and walked away from Honey.

Honey whirled around to see if Frank was behind her. She quickly spotted him and gave him a look that said, ‘did you see that!?’ He just shrugged, confused about his friends actions as everyone else.

Honey turned back around and raced after the mysterious Gerard. Pulling on his arm she forced him to stop and turn around to look at her. Honey looked at him for a few moments before exclaiming, “What was that Gerard?”

“Acting,” was his short reply.

“Acting?” Honey looked at him incredulously.

“Yes,” he leaned down to her ear, “I may have lost my fiancé but I am notgoing to loose my dignity as well. I’m not going to look like a fucking slut who has one night stands and sex is all he ever wants, so if they think we’re together then at least it doesn’t seem like we were just sleeping together for the sake of it.”

Honey jumped away from him and stared. He didn’t kiss her because he wanted too, he kissed her to hide the truth, that was just like every other guy Honey had ever met. Gets what he wants and then never looks back.

Honey glared at Gerard before shoving her strong arms into his chest, making him fall to the ground. Everyone around them turned to look in shock when they saw Honey Meadows pushing her supposed beau to the floor, wondering what they could be arguing about.

Honey stormed off towards the building after turning and hissing one last thing to Gerard.

“How is your fucking dignity now?”