Get in Line and I'll Grieve You

****Two days later****

I groaned loudly and got up off the couch to answer my ringing phone. Ceri had gone out so I had managed to get five minutes of peace and I was watching some random morning TV show. She's been going out a lot lately, I'm not complaining but I can't help but wonder why.

"Hello?" I answered, turning down the TV with the remote in my left hand.

"Bob, Frank's awake!" came Mikey's excited-sounding voice from down the phone.

"About fuckin' time, how is he?"

"He's alright, obviously hurting but the doctors said he will make a full recovery."

"Has our friend been there to see him yet?"

"Who, Lewis?"

"No fucking father Christmas, of course Lewis!"

"No he hasn't, nobody called him to tell him Frank is awake."

"Well let's keep it that way, I'll come down to see him now."

"Alright see you in a bit," said Mikey, putting the phone down.

I shut off the TV and pulled on a jacket and some shoes, grabbed my keys from the shelf and left the house.

Twenty minutes later I was walking down the hospital corridor to Frank's room.

I knocked his door and was met by Ray a few moments later, he smiled and let me in, closing the door behind me.

To my huge relief Frank was sat up in his bed, propped up by a stack of fluffy white pillows and looking a hundred times better then the last time I saw him. He grinned widely as I came into the room.

"Hey Bob!" he said excitedly as I sat down in a chair at his bedside.

"Hey man how do you feel?"

"I kinda hurt everywhere but... other then that I'm fine."

"Well I hope you feel better soon."

"Yeah I don't actually remember..."

BANG! The door slammed open and hit the wall as it did and in came a bedraggled looking Lewis.

Frank looked terrified as Lewis walked over to the other side of his bed to me and sat down, taking Frank's hand in his own. I could smell the alcohol off Lewis from over here, it was only 11am and he was already plastered. Mikey, Gerard and Ray all looked uneasy now at Lewis's arrival but Frank looked terrified.

"Frank was just telling us how tired he is and that he is just going back to sleep, we were just on our way out," lied Ray easily.

"Yeah, you'd better come too Lewis, let him rest after his nasty um... fall," said Gee, catching on. I could feel Lewis's eyes on me.

"Yes?" I asked, looking at him, he seemed surprised.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Well no, what do you want, I could see you staring at me, do you have a problem with me being here to see Frank?"

"As a matter of fact I do, look how scared little Frankie looks, obviously because of you," said Lewis, Ray quickly disguised his snort of laughter as a cough.

"Totally," I said, rolling my eyes and looking around at the others for help.

"Yeah anyway, Lewis you had better some with us, Frank needs his rest, don't you Frankie?" asked Gee, now looking equally as scared as Frank.

"Yes," squeaked Frank, hiding more and more of himself under the covers and sliding back down into a laying down position as we spoke.

"Look! You've scared him you bastard!" said Lewis, jumping to his feet and dropping Franks hand. Frank let out a small, frightened squeak and quickly buried himself completely under his covers.

"I didn't do anything! He was fine until you got here!" I said, also getting to my feet.

"You wanna take this outside?" sneered Lewis, rolling up his sleeves.

"Uh, no thanks, I'd rather not waste my time fighting some drunk-" the rest of my sentence was cut off as Lewis tried to dive at me but Ray grabbed him and held him back.

"I think - it would be best - if you left - right now," snarled Ray as he struggled to contain a livid Lewis. Gerard looked like he would like nothing more then to sink into the floor and be out of the situation. Mikey looked angry, Ray was obviously furious, I had never seen him get involved in physical disagreements before the whole time I had known him.

"Bye baby!" he called to the quivering lump of blanket that was Frank. With one final death glare at me he left the room and slammed the door behind him.

"What a fucking prick!" I cried angrily as I flung myself back down into the chair I had been sitting in before. I could see Frankie's hand just poking out of the blankets where he was hiding. I took it and he flinched but then gripped it tightly.

"Frankie, he's gone, it's OK," I said and he slowly untangled himself from the blankets and his face re-appeared.

"Thanks Bob," he said, squeezing my hand and then letting it go.

"Bob you shouldn't have said all those things, you just provoked him," said a very pale Gee.

"He started on me, I'm not going to just stand here and watch him scare the shit out of Frankie like that!"

"Be right back, going to get coffee," said Mikey and he left the room silently.

"Frank you didn't fall down the stairs did you?" asked Ray sadly.

Tears formed in Franks eyes and they slowly ran down each cheek, he wiped them away hurriedly.

"I fell down the stairs, it was my own fault," said Frank, sounding like he about to cry.

"You lying is just protecting him," said Gee with a sigh.

"I'm not lying! I fell! Serious I did!"

"Oh yeah sure you did, Frank we know what happened," said Ray. I was staying out of this.

"I fell and that is what happened, Lewis brought me here thankfully," Frank began to cry again and I felt so desperately sorry for him.

"Frank, please tell us the truth?" I asked, my eyes meeting his. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I c-cant! He s..said if I t-told anyone h..he would k-kill me!" gasped Frank through sobs.

"Frank its OK," I said, getting up and sitting on the edge of his bed. I opened my arms and hugged him like a brother, he cried into my shoulder as I awkwardly stroked his hair, trying to soothe him a little.

"Frankie tell us what happened?" asked Gee, now sitting at his other side.

"H..he h...hit me."

"Well yeah, we can tell, what else?" asked Ray, now sat next to me. All four of us crammed onto one single bed.

"He f..forced me to h..have sex with h..him and d..do s...stuff t..to him," sobbed Frank, his tears falling faster now and his face still buried into my shoulder and his arms around me.

"Sick fucker. When I get my hands on him I'll-" started Gee but he was cut off by Mikey bursting into the room, no coffee, just a newspaper folded in half clutched tightly in his hand.

"Wheres the fire?" asked Ray, seeing the look on his face.

"Bob- Bob I'm so sorry, she... she..." Frank let go of me and I stood up, Gerard took over cradling the sobbing wreck that was Frank and I took the paper from Mikey and unfolded it. I groaned loudly as I saw a picture of me in a little box on the front page in the bottom corner where they always print trash stories.

The real Bob Bryar, drummer of My Chemical Romance, revealed by his estranged ex-lover, turn to pages 26&27

I fumbled to get to the page and once I got the double page spread open I gasped and almost dropped the paper on the floor. There was a big picture of Ceri, posing with a smug look on her face, black make up all around her left eye looking like a bruise and a huge headline draped across the top of the page.

"Bob Bryar beat me up."

Shit. What a fucking bitch to make up something like that!

I read the paragraphs as fast as I could and was completely stunned by what they said...

Fans of the New Jersey Emo rock group 'My Chemical Romance' will be shocked to learn that the band's drummer, 27 year-old Bob Bryar is in fact not all he seems to be. In an exclusive and very open interview his now ex-girlfriend gives a shocking insight into his anger issues and disturbing personal problems...

'Well it all started when they left for their most recent tour,' as told by ex-girlfriend Ceri, who does not want her last name mentioned for privacy reasons, 'he was quiet and reserved all the time and I was pretty worried about him. They he started to get angry all the time, he would yell at me and he's a big, built up guy and when he gets angry it's pretty scary.

When he would be home from touring he would just be on the phone to his band mates at all hours and he would never spend any time with me. When I asked him about it he got really mad and threatened to throw me out.

When he recently returned from tour he was violent. He would break things around our house and he once hit me. He forced me into sex - sometimes threatening me. Sometimes I was so scared of him I would just lie awake and cry all night about it. He once made me sleep on the floor because we had had a row, I couldn't believe it. In the beginning he was so sweet and caring but he just turned into a violent control freak. If I didn't do what he said he would rage at me.

I think he does have some serious issues with himself. He needs help and to stop taking them out on innocent girls. I'm positive he cheated on me with at least two other girls too, nobody should ever trust him again. When he started to hit me it was the final straw. I would lay there at night, my body covered in bruises, fearful of the next day and I knew it had to stop.

I told him it was over and he punched me in the face. I just grabbed my things and left, thankful to be away from him. He seemed to nice to begin with but he really, truly isn't the guy he appears to be.'

Mr. Bryar was unavailable for comment. No doubt police will want to look into his aggressive and downright violent behaviour.

"That-" started Ray.

"Fucking-" said Mikey.

"BITCH!" I cried, throwing the paper on the floor. I never laid a fucking finger on her how dare she? how dare she!? What gives her the fucking right to make up a load of shit about me and then sell it on to some shitty newspaper.

I pulled my cell out of my pocket and flicked through my contacts, stopping at Ceri's name. I hit call and the guys all shot me warning looks.

"Oh hey babe," she answered, a silky quality to her voice.

"Oh hi honey interesting story in the news today isn't it?" I said through gritted teeth.

Never. Never had I gotten so angry I had screamed at her without her screaming first or giving me a very good reason to yell, this was a good reason but I didn't want to lose my cool in the middle of a hospital and give her more shit to sell.

"What story?"

"Oh you know, the one you sold saying I beat you up? What gives you the fu… - the right to do that? You know I've never laid a finger on you! Why would you do that?"

"Why would you cheat on me?" she said coldly.

"I DIDN'T CHEAT ON YOU!"

"Somebody had better watch their temper."

"You fucking cheeky bitch. You've got some nerve." Ray snatched the phone from me and put her on speaker before ripping into her himself.

"How the hell could you make up such shit about Bob?"

"I'm sorry to whom am I speaking?" she asked, her voice sickly-sweet and false.

"None of your fucking business lady but I swear, one more story about Bob and I'll..."

"Do nothing because you can't hit women," I said, grabbing the phone back.

"Ceri why?"

"Bye baby I've got another interview."

"We are so finished, if I get back to my house and any of your shit is still there, I'm throwing it all in the trash. You're a lying bitch, I did nothing to provoke this, everyone will know you're a fake."

"Well, have fun with that." I was met with the dial tone and I just looked around at the guys in total shock.

She's made up a load of shit about me, sold it, everyone will have seen it. Brian will probably shoot me next time he sees me. The silence in the room now was slightly unnerving. Frank was reading and re-reading Ceri's lies, as if reading them over and over would make them go away.

"Well at least you didn't get a 'kiss-and-tell'!" Joked Mikey, giving me a gentle nudge with his elbow.

"This is worse," I said glumly.

"Well what would you rather, some bitch saying you hit her or some bitch making up that she slept with you and then telling everyone you have a little-" said Mikey but I cut him off.

"I do not!" I protested, blushing a little.

"Yes he does! He's blushing!" said Ray, laughing as I grew redder still.

"Well I'll prove it to you," I got up and went to unzip my jeans and he put a hand over his eyes and pulled a face.

"You can keep that information to yourself," he said, removing his hand from his eyes as I sat back down.

"Yeah we all know It's Gee with the tiny weenie!" laughed Frank and Gee just looked stunned as we all burst out laughing. At least they left me alone.

"Wouldn't you like to know Frankie," teased Gee, getting up and walking around to the other side of the bed.

"Not particularly... you're not really my type."

"No?! Frankie, I am shocked, well what is you're type?" asked Gee, smirking as he kept the conversation going.

"Well, I dunno, big and strong, good looking, caring, kind..."

"Why are you describing Bob?" asked Mikey, raising his eyebrows. Shit! I'm blushing again!

"I'm not!" cried Frankie, a little too quickly if you ask me…

“It can’t have been me, I’m a vicious woman beater remember? And I’m not good looking…”

“Yes you a… don’t put yourself down, forget about Ceri, find somebody else,” said Frank with a smile.

“I’ll try.”

“Mr. Iero?” came a voice from the doorway. It was a young looking doctor whom I had seen a few times since over the last few days of visiting Frank.

“Hey doc. When can I go home?” asked Frank brightly.

“Well, I think you should be well enough to go home in another few days, you just need to take it easy when you get home.”

“Alright I will do, thanks very much,” said Frank with a smile, the doctor nodded and left the room.

“What if he does this to you again?” asked Ray.

“He wont,” I said firmly “If he lays a finger on you he’ll have me to answer to.”

“Bob, you’re the best you know that?” said Frankie, smirking faintly.

“Yes Frankie, I know.”