You're My Favourite Sound

I know I don't like Hollywood, but Kat Von D is a legend. After the amount of times I'd pestered Hazel into making her introduce me to Kat, she finally agreed to it during her last week of working at LA Ink. Frank had mentioned he wanted to add a few things to the tattoo of his grandfather that Kat had done for him anyway, so we decided to go together before I went to work.

Kat was lovely. She'd been so enthusiastic and friendly when we arrived, and was happy to see Frank again after a long while. She even commented that Frank and I fit together perfectly, obviously thinking we were a couple, but the two of us just laughed it off and Kat apologised for asuming wrong.

I stood leaning against the counter as I watched Kat set up for Frank's tattoo.

"If you could you sit up straight just for one second," she told Frank, who was on the stool in front of her, "I just wanna mark this out, relax your arm."

Frank did as he was told and I watched as she shifted her own stool closer to him to use the pen on his arm. Hazel, on the other side of the shop, breathed a heavy sigh after saying goodbye to the client she had been working on for the past hour.

"Hey, want any help?" I asked her as she went back over to her working station.

"Yeah, sure," she smiled to me, and I walked over. "Oh, hey," Hazel said as we began cleaning up, "It's just over a month 'til the wedding! How scary is that?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe how scary that is, Haze," I replied, stealing a glimpse from Frank, and then added in a mumble, "Trust me."

"Ooh, you're having a bachelorette party, right? Ooh, Joshi and I will arrange it, we'll do everything! We can have it at our apartment and we can order a stripper and get really really drunk, and we can put decorations up and, and, ooh! We can wear costumes! And you can have a crown and everything! It'll be great, October, it'll be the best send off ever!"

I just stood there, gawking at Hazel's motor mouth as she continued to ramble on and on, before exhaling air in overwhelment. "Um... as great as that all sounds, Haze, I, uh, I don't think I'm gonna have a bachelorette party..."

"What?" she frowned, "You've got to have one, it's the rules! You've gotta celebrate your last night of being single."

"Well, why bother? I mean, why celebrate the fact that you're never gonna be single again?" I said as casually as I could.

She gave me a strange look, and then shook her head from side to side. "You're just getting cold feet," she asumed, picking up her used cloths with a shrug, "It's normal."

After the pair of us had cleaned up, Hazel started talking about dress shopping, reminding me that I still hadn't sorted out bridesmaid dresses, let alone my dress. As I was 'listening' to her ideas, I was thankfully distracted by Frank and Kat as I caught them both staring at me, Frank, a little pink, and Kat, smiling in awe.

I arched an eyebrow, "Should I feel my ears burning?"

Kat shrugged, "Just a little, maybe."

I tucked the lock of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear timidly, and Kat smirked.

"Don't worry, all good things," she said. Spraying solution on his tattoo, Kat wiped down Frank's arm, "You're all done, check it out in the mirror."

Frank stood up and walked to the front of the shop. "That's fucking awesome, Kat," he grinned, turning his arm around to inspect his new tattoo.

"Glad you like it," she smiled as she peeled off her black latex gloves and tossed them in the trash.

After bandaging him up, Frank and I said our goodbyes to Kat, aswell as Hazel, and were on our way out of the shop. I still had another forty five minutes until I had to be at work, so Frank said he would take me somewhere on the way.

He walked over to the passenger side door of the SUV, unlocked it, and opened it for me. I laughed, thanked him, and slipped into the seat. He closed the door, and walked around to the other side of the car. He got in, and let out a sigh.

"Where we headed to?" I asked, looking over at him.

"You'll see," he winked.

I cranked up the air conditioning and pulled my knees up to my chest as we sped off down the highway. Knowing that Frank wasn't going to reveal his plans, I merely sat back and watched as the scenery flew by.

I liked this feeling. Sitting in the passenger side of his car, listening to Black Flag, quietly giggling, depite my best efforts not to, as Frank sang along. For the first time in my life, I felt safe with a boy, as cheesy and cliche as it was.

Not long later, we pulled into a parking lot at some abandoned restaurant. I took a look at the boarded up place, and smiled to myself.

"Hope they've got good food," I said.

Frank laughed. "Dork," he said, stepping out of the car. I smiled and looked out past the resturant. It seemed to be a forest.

"We're not going camping, are we?" I asked.

"Mmhmm, that was the plan. A couple of punks going camping with not even a blanket or tent, and everyone comes to LA to camp. Good one, Octy."

I laughed, "Well you know what? I wouldn't have put it past you."

"True," said Frank. "Come with me, I'm gonna show you my favourite part in LA."

Walking hand in hand, silently for a minute, we came to the edge of the forest.

"Are there animals in there?" I asked a bit nervously.

"Just the occasional blonde turtle, some Botox squirrels, some fake-tanned deer, perhaps... the usual for Hollywood, you know."

I squeezed Frank's hand, "Protect me from the Botox squirrels?"

"Of course," said Frank, walking into the forest with me, still clutching his hand, walking behind him.

We walked for about five minutes, before Frank came to a stop. I, completely oblivious to him slowing down, walked right into his back and fell over. I burst out laughing as Frank helped me to my feet once again.

"Jesus, you're like a wall," I said with a giggle.

Frank flexed his arms, "It's all the power juices."

I laughed, "Is this the place?"

"Almost," he said, "We gotta go across the water."

I looked to my left. I hadn't realised it before; we had been walking along a river path. Frank began to walk once again, clutching my hand, and I followed, speechless. He didn't expect me to swim, did he?

We came to a clearing, where I finally saw the full river flowing into the sparkling lake. I looked around for a bridge, but there was none.

"How're we gonna get across?" I questionned.

Frank let go of my hand and turned his back, "Climb on."

I stared at him. "No offense, but even you can't walk on water."

"I am Jesus," said Frank, "I can walk across water."

"Alright," I said. I hopped onto his back and he lifted me easily.

"Ready to go?" he asked. He didn't even seem to be struggling.

"Sure," I replied.

Frank took off a bit further down the path, until we came to another clearing. Wet rocks lay spread out across half of the lake, and automatically, I knew how Frank was going to get over.

He began hopping from one rock to the next, surprising me with a lot of agility. Suddenly, though I expected him to keep going, he stopped dead in the middle of the lake. Amazingly, he was able to swing me around into his arms.

"You alright to walk over there now?" he asked.

I looked over to where he had pointed. I hadn't noticed it before, and it gave me quite a scare. At first I thought it was a whale, but realising that there were no whales in lakes, I soon realised that it was...

"A bridge?"

Frank nodded. "Sunk about four years ago. I come out here sometimes, write songs and shit on it."

I hopped down out of his arms and made a leap across to the bridge. It creaked a bit, but didn't move. Frank followed after.

I walked into the middle of the bridge and gazed up. The sky was a bright blue with numerous swirls of white. The warm sun made the lake shimmer and was so vibrant I had to shut my eyes and bow my head.

"It's beautiful," I breathed, walking to the railing. I grabbed on tightly and leaned against the wood. I leaned even further forward and gazed into the water.

I felt Frank's arms as they were placed around my waist, and leaned back against his front, letting out a quiet little sigh. He rested his chin on my shoulder.

"How'd you find this spot?" I asked quietly.

"Just walking around one evening," said Frank into my shoulder.

"You just happened to be walking around here by yourself at night?" I asked quizzically.

Frank shrugged, "Things happen and I found myself here."

"Well I don't blame you; it's gorgeous here."

The two of us stood on the bridge for a good fifteen minutes. Frank gave me a sense of security I had never had before. It didn't matter if he was shielding me from a gunshot, or just holding me around the waist. I was safe.

Frank checked his watch. "It's 3.20, baby," he said softly, his bristly chin rubbing against my neck.

A small annoyed groan found its way up my throat, "I'd rather stay here with you."

Frank sighed, "Me, too."

I turned around to face him. I looked at him and opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it quickly again. Frank leaned forward and placed his lips gently on mine. He leaned into the kiss so much that he had to stick one hand on the railing to keep us both from falling over the edge, but I grabbed onto his collar and pulled him down with me as I leaned backwards on it. Frank willingly complied as our kisses became rougher and longer.

"Shouldn't we be heading back?" Frank asked during his breaks for air.

"Whatever," I said, pulling him back in. I knew I should get to work, but after he kissed me like that, it felt wrong to stop.

"Baby," Frank broke away again, "Come on, I have to magically get you to the club in less than ten minutes now. I don't want David yelling at you."

I shrugged, "David treats me like a daughter."

"Dads yell at their daughters," he pointed out with a smirk, grabbing my hand as we began our journey back to the car.

Somehow I was only a few minutes late, and even better, Frank said he'd hang out at the club for a while. He stayed as Alex and I set up for tonight's show, helping anywhere he could. David didn't mind, he was grateful that Frank was in a helping mood today.

Whilst Frank and I worked together, we couldn't help but get couply every now and then when it was just Alex around us, but only when it was just Alex. Now that someone at work knew about Frank and I, we were glad we didn't have to hide it all the time, but we had to be careful.

For instance, right before Frank had to leave, we snuck off to a closet in the back to say a proper goodbye. Alex rolled his eyes with a hint of a smirk across his lips as he watched us, changing a couple spirit bottles behind the bar.

As soon as that closet door was closed, our lips were locked, and a mop crashed down into a bucket as Frank had me against the wall in full speed, making a loud crash sound. But it didn't last long, as the door was burst back open again.

We shot apart and our eyes flew to the person in the doorway. We were both dumbfounded as we saw Jamia stood there.

"I tried to stop her," Alex told us, jogging up behind her, shaking his head slightly.

Guilt struck me hard. My breath was literally knocked out of me as I saw the pure hurt and disappointment in her eyes, I couldn't move. I didn't need to, she was gone in a flash, pacing down the hall and out the back exit.

"What the hell was she doing here?" Frank blurted, looking at Alex.

"She's leaving back for New Jersey tonight, she wanted to say a final goodbye and the guys told her you might be here," Alex said in one go, causing Frank to mumble "shit" under his breath. "When I told her you'd be out in a minute, she figured I was hiding something and shoved past me. You guys were making a racket in there, I'm not surprised she found you."

"I better go after her," said Frank, looking from Alex to me, before jogging down the hall.

"Jesus, fuck," I cursed as I shoved my face in my hands. "Fuck! What the fuck am I gonna do? She's gonna go straight to Ethan and tell him everything, Alex, what the fuck am I gonna do?!"

"Calm down, calm down," Alex ordered, placing both of his hands on my shoulders. "Listen to me a sec, I'm pretty certain Jamia won't do that, okay? She's a nice girl, understanding. Even if she will, she couldn't, she's gotta be at the airport in an hour anyway."

"Okay," I nodded, regaining my breathing.

"Alright, Halloween, but listen," he continued, "I'm being honest here. I've known about you two for a month now, and I really want to help you out, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up for." My eyes shot up to him as the panic started to creep its way back in. "I hate that everytime I see Ethan, I have to lie to his face, it's just not me, I'm not a liar," he said as calmly as he could, "This shit has got to get sorted, October, something needs to be done, and soon 'cause I can't keep lying to Ethan anymore, I just can't. You've got to do something about this. You understand, right?"

I swallowed. I inhaled and exhaled. I nodded. Alex was right.

I had to do something about this.