You're My Favourite Sound

It was the beginning of the week and already October had been given a shit load of work to do for college. She'd had to stay behind for a while, just to sort some of it out, and she didn't get back to the apartment until around 7 that night. Ethan was away for a couple of days with work so she came home to Aidan purring at her legs, wondering why the place had been empty for so long.

The minute she walked in the door, her cell started ringing. Aidan was getting annoyed because she hadn't greeted him yet as she checked to see who was calling. Frank's name flashed across the screen and a discreet smile broke to her face.

"Hey," she said as she dropped her keys on the kitchen table and made her way to the bedroom.

"Hey yourself," his voice resounded through the speaker.

"How was the studio today?" she inquired further as she sat down on the edge of the bed and kicked off her Converse sneakers. The cat instantly hopped onto her lap, yearning for his owner's attention, which she soon gave him, scratching him behind the ears.

"It went really well, we got some tracks laid down and I think they're gonna turn out great," he replied. The excitement in his voice made October smile to herself. "How was school?"

"Oh, it was fine. Bunch of notes and 'don't fuck up' lectures. We got our project assignments for the next few months..." she trailed off. In her exhausted state of mind, she had forgotten how nervous she was about her next project.

"What's yours?" Frank asked as he threw open the door to his apartment and flicked on the light. He glanced back down at his car to make sure the headlights had gone off, and then slammed the door shut.

"Oh, well, since I want to be a producer, they thought I should start as a mixer, so, um, this band from Northern California is coming to our studios, and uh, well I'm gonna mix their demo tracks," she replied softly. She and Frank had never really talked about what she did in school specifically and after saying this, she wondering what he was thinking of her at the moment. When it came to her work, October was very self conscious.

"Fuck, that sounds awesome! If that's what I could have done in school, I mighta stayed," he laughed. "Who's the band?"

"I don't really remember the name, in fact, I don't remember if they even told me the name. All I know is that they've got that Californian pop-punk sound and that my professor thinks that I'm the best one in the class to work with that type of music..." October trailed off, realising the hint of arrogance that might have just slipped out of her mouth.

"Well you are, I mean, look who you're talking to," Frank said in a faux cocky tone. He looked around his apartment and sighed. It felt empty. "Octy, I need to see you."

"You just saw me this morning," she laughed. It was true, she'd stayed with him the night before.

"I know, but I miss you already."

"Mr. Iero, you're ridiculous... but I miss you, too."

"So come over, I'll make dinner and we'll watch a movie or something," he pleaded.

"I can't, I've got fuck loads of work to do and I haven't even properly started," October sighed. In all honesty, if he had been face to face with her, she wouldn't be able to resist, but the phone was making it a little easier. But only a little though.

"So bring it with you, I'll help."

"Yeah right, like I'll get anything done with you."

"What? I'll be good," Frank said with a sly smile that coated his voice enough that October could tell exactly what expression was on his face.

"Bullshit," she laughed. She pulled herself up off the bed and moved over to the desk. She plopped down in the chair and spun herself around so she could reach her backpack.

"Baby, please? I swear, I'll be good, I just need to be around you, I need your energy."

"My energy? What are you some kind of fucking hippy now?" October sighed. Truth be told, she could use his help trying to get her stuff together for her project, and she really did miss him, but still, she hesitated. "I can't go over there, all my stuff is here."

"Then I'll come to you, if that's okay..."

October smiled at his persistance. How was it that Frank Iero always got what he wanted?

"What are you bringing me for dinner, because I know that you weren't actually going to cook," she said, signaling that she had given in.

"How does pizza sound?"

"Sounds great, but remember, I have work to do, so you can't be... yourself," October warned him.

"You won't even know I'm there," he retorted with a sly smile.

"Yeah, we'll see," she said sarcasically.

They exchanged goodbyes and October snapped her phone shut. Knowing that he was coming made her feel a little better, but the work that loomed over her evening with him made a sigh of irritation escape from her mouth.

About a half hour into her homework, a buzzing sound came from the living room. October finished the last line of the paragraph she was reading and put her book down on the bed, before rushing to the intercom and buzzing Frank in. She opened the front door, too, and went to the kitchen in search for a couple clean plates for the pizza.

When she went back to the living room, Frank was at the coffee table, opening the pizza box. He looked up, walked over to her and put his arms around her waist, pulling her right up against him.

"It's your favourite," he said, "Plain and simple."

"Yeah," October sighed, "At least you're good for something." She snaked her arms around Frank's neck and moved up to kiss him. His lips were soft as they pressed against hers, moving her tongue briefly over his teeth and then pulling away. "I'm hungry," she smiled as she pushed Frank away playfully.

"Me too," he said mischievously with a raised eyebrow.

October laughed and bent down to pick the plates back up from the coffee table she'd put down before greeting Frank. As she stood up again, Frank came up from behind her and stuck his hands in the front pocket of her hoodie. He began to kiss her neck softly.

"See, this is what I was talking about," October said, pulling his hands out and turning around to look at his innocent smiling face.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm done, I promise," he said, kissing her on the forehead and grabbing the pizza box. "Let's go work."

Frank followed the twenty one year old back into her room. When he entered it, he realised that he had never been in her room before, well not properly, he'd only stood at the doorway when he came to see the apartment for the first time. It was different from her old bedroom, it had no posters but some gig tickets tacked up around the large mirror in the centre of one of the walls. It was pretty neat on Ethan's half, but the bed was messy and books littered the floor, giving it a very lived in-October look.

Frank put the pizza box down on the floor, taking in all the details that made up the room. "Okay, so what are we doing?" he said finally, making himself comfortable on the big double bed.

"Well, I have to finish these notes, so you can just chill for a bit," October said in between bites of pizza.

Frank frowned. "I'll get bored," he whined.

October picked up an issue of AP magazine and threw it at him. "Here, read this, you'll like it, its about you."

She laughed as Frank's face lit up to see himself, as well as the rest of his Leathermouth bandmates, plastered across the cover of the magazine. He began to flip through it, mumbling to himself, and October turned back to her books and blank spiral pages in front of her.

Silence engulfed the room as October engrossed herself in her textbooks, scratching down notes about psychology of musicians, and Frank read intently about what the readers of the magazine thought about the band's second album.

Frank kept his promise by keeping quiet, but didn't hesitate to steal glances at the girl opposite him as she focused on her work. He watched her as her eyes scanned over the pages in the book, all the while drumming her pen on edge of the desk. A smile crept to his face as he watched her expression change as she read through the paragraphs, trying to comprehend all that they were throwing at her.

Finally, October slammed her textbook shut and spun around to look at a surprised Frank. The loud noise in a dead quiet room had startled him.

"Finished?" he said, tossing aside the magazine.

"With my notes, yes, but with my homework? Hardly."

Frank smiled sympathetically at her distressed expression. Her eyes were weary and an exasperated sigh flooded out of her mouth. "What's left to do?"

"I have to start figuring out a schedule and shit for recording for the band," she mumbled as a nervous knot formed in her stomach. She had never worked with a real band by herself before, and the anxiety of the situation was enough to push her over the edge.

"Cool," Frank added, perking up, "I can help with that! Do you know how many pieces their group is?"

October fumbled through some papers that her professor had given her. She finally stumbled upon the one she was looking for.

"It's a quartet. Two guitars, bass, drums, one lead vocals, two back up..." she read off.

"Alright, well, you haven't really heard them, so you might want to set up some time for them to just play through their stuff so you can get a feel for it all," the older man began.

October nodded. "Yeah..." she said quietly, taking notes on what he was saying. It was a wonder how she was writing comprehensibly, because her mind was drifting off in different directions. Frank continued to talk about recording all the music first because that's what he liked to do, but stopped abruptly as he noticed the apprehensive look on the younger girl's face.

"Are you alright?" he asked suddenly, jerking October out of her daze.

"What? Oh yeah, right, music first," she wrote down quickly. "That's a good idea, I think it would work better too..."

"Octy, what's the matter?" he pressed on.

"Nothing really, just thinking about other things, sorry, I didn't mean to make you do all the work."

Frank laughed and looked around confused. "What work?" he smiled, "What 'other things' are you thinking about?"

"Just stupid stuff about school, nothing really of any significance."

"I doubt it's stupid. You say that about a lot of things that aren't stupid. Is it about these demos?"

"Yeah," she mumbled.

"What about them?" Frank inquired further, motioning for her to come sit on the bed. She reluctantly dropped her pen and sat on the edge of the bed next to him.

"About how, I'm kind of... nervous about doing them," she mumbled in a barely audible tone.

"Why would you need to be nervous? You're great at this stuff. Your professor even said so."

"I've never worked by myself with a real band. Not in the studio. What if I fuck everything up?" October said, her voice shaking slightly.

"You won't fuck anything up, you won't let yourself," Frank said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back towards him. October pulled her feet up on the bed and leaned her back against his chest, placing her hands over his that were clasped in her lap.

"I just, I've just got a lot riding on this and I'm scared that I'll screw it all up and then have no where to turn," she continued.

"Hey, I know how that goes," Frank said with a comforting smile, "But you don't need to be scared, you're too smart to screw up everything."

"You never needed to be scared like this," October mumbled.

"Oh I didn't?" he raised his eyebrows.

"You're telling me that you got scared, too?"

"Are you kidding? Every day for three years I was scared. I didn't even finish my scholarship at Uni. But you can't let being afraid of failing stop you from trying, as fucking cliché as that is."

October laughed softly and sunk further into his arms. "Yeah, but you had the guys there, I mean, you weren't alone," she added.

"What the hell am I to you? Invisible? You're not alone either, baby, you'll never be alone. Even if everyone in the world tells you 'no', you only need one person to tell you 'yes' to keep going, and until the day I die, I will always be your 'yes'."

October turned around and looked into Frank's soft hazel eyes. Her knees went weak and she reached up and kissed him passionately. Their teeth clashed up against each other as Frank held on to October's waist so she wouldn't lose her balance. The blood in her veins raced with renewed warmth, making her entire body feel weightless. Frank let out of soft moan of pleasure as the energy from her kiss sunk into him, making his heart beat faster and faster.

"Frank," October breathed heavily.

"Yeah," he exhaled, looking to see why she had stopped.

"I want to be your 'yes' too," she whispered and kissed him softly on the lips.

"Thanks, baby, but you already were."