First Love

Frank's pov
The week after we got back to LA was my birthday, 21 years old, finally legal although I'd hardly been waiting or anything.
I was still feeling kinda crappy from the week before, and to be honest didn't really feel too much like celebrating. There was only one thing that I wanted for my birthday and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get it.
We spent the day in the studio recording a new song, after that the guys persuaded me to go out with them for drinks.
"It's your birthday man, you should be happy!" Said Gerard from the front passenger seat.
"Yeah, show us happy or I'll hurt you," said Bob who was driving.
I laughed and gave them the cheesiest grin I could manage.
"See look, I'm happy," I said pointing to my face.
"Shut up fuckass," said Bob reaching back and hitting me on the legs.
"Hey, don't hurt the birthday boy," said Mikey pointing a finger at Bob.
For the first time that day I actually smiled because I was really happy, after a while my smile disappeared when I realised we were heading in the opposite direction to the bar.
"Where are you going?" I asked puzzled.
"We've gotta go and pick up Annie," said Gerard.
No-one had told me that Annie was coming, I started to feel the butterflies.
"Why's Annie coming?" I asked, I must've sounded like an idiot.
"Uh, it's your birthday, she's your friend. The two things kinda go together," said Ray shoving me.
"Right of course," I paused. "Do I look ok?" I asked.
"Why, you wanna impress someone?" Asked Bob.
"He wants to impress Annie, he loves her, he wants to be with her, he wants to have tiny little babies with her." Said Mikey.
"Shut up! I don't," I said scowling.
"Yes you do, Abbie told me." He said grinning.
"What! she told you." I shouted.
"Of course she did, we tell each other everything." He said.
"You tell her about the time you pissed your pants at school?" Butted in Gerard making Ray and Bob laugh, usually I would've joined in but I was hurt. I thought Abbie wouldn't tell.
"Shut up Gerard," said Mikey hitting the headrest of his chair.
"Calm down Mikey, don't want you having anymore accidents," laughed Gerard, sometimes I didn't mind being an only child.
"Look," said Mikey ignoring Gerard. "I know she probably shouldn't have told me but you don't have to worry, she wont tell Annie."
"Yeah, I hope not." I said looking down at my hands.

Frank's pov
Finally we pulled up outside Annie's apartment block, but instead of one of us getting out of the car to let her know we were there everyone got out. Not wanting to look stupid sitting by myself in the car I joined them on the sidewalk.
"Where are you guys going?" I asked scratching my head.
"Oh well it's still kinda early so we thought we'd go up for a little while," said Mikey walking inside.
As we got to her door I knocked on it and waited for her to answer, as she opened it she flung her arms around me and pulled me into a bear hug.
"Happy birthday!" she said kissing me on the cheek.
"Thankyou," I replied blushing slightly.
"Come on in," she said opening the door wider.
As we walked inside we were suddenly greeted by all the firends we'd made so far in LA.
"Happy birthday Frank!" they shouted throwing streamers at me.
I turned around and looked at Annie and the guys who stood behind me with huge grins on their faces.
"Suprise!" they said in unison throwing their arms out wide.
After everyone had gone home and we'd attempted to tidy up, I was stood talking to our manager Brian when Annie walked over.
"Mind if I steal him for a minute?" She asked Brian.
"Go ahead," he said smiling.
She took hold of my hand and led me towards her bedroom, she gestured for me to sit down on her bed and then walked over to her dresser. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a small package.
"I know it's not much, but you're kinda hard to shop for," she said sitting down and handing it to me.
I opened it to find a small scrapbook, on the first page was a picture of me, her and Mikey on my 18th birthday. On the second was a little poem she'd written for me about a magic guitar that turned you into some kind of a super human creature when you played it, on the third was a quote that she said reminded her of me and so on.
"Annie, this must've taken you ages." I said flipping through it.
"Yeah well, you're worth it," she said leaning her head upon my shoulder.
"This is the best present ever, even better than my poor unfortunate guitar strap," I said.
"What do you mean unfortunate?" she asked looking up at me.
"Um well, let's not go into that right now." I said smiling.
"Ok then," she said putting her head back on my shoulder. "Hey you wanna stay here? we could have like a slumber party," she said jumping up.
"Sure," I replied smiling.
We went out and told the others, Annie invited them all to stay but as I expected they all declined. After saying our goodbyes they left shouting 'have fun!' and winking at me, fortunately Annie failed to notice that.
We sat up talking for a while before deciding to go to bed, I was nervous about sharing with her but once we were in bed it just felt so natural and comfortable.
"Goodnight," I said closing my eyes.
"Goodnight Frankie," she said snuggling up to me.
I lay there for a while enjoying feeling the warmth of her body upon mine.
"Annie," I said.
"Mmm," she replied sleepily.
"I love you," I said stroking her hair.
I lay there for a moment waiting for her to reply but she didn't, I wasn't sure whether she'd heard me or not but it felt good to have at least said it out loud to her.

Annie's pov
I lay there next to Frank trying my hardest to get to sleep but I couldn't stop going over the three words that he'd just said in my head.
I probably should've said something back rather than pretending I was a asleep, but I was scared to tell him how I felt in case he only meant it as a friend.
Oh my god why am I always making excuses for my lame ass self, even if he only meant it as a friend I still should've said it back, at least I'd be a little bit closer to telling him everything than I was right now.
I listened to his breathing as he slept, feeling his chest slowly rise up and fall down. I wished that this moment would never end, that we could just stay here like this forever.

The week later was my birthday, my parents made a big deal about me turning twenty-one and invited pretty much everyone that I'd ever met in my whole life over to their house for a big party.
I did the whole birthday girl thing, talking to all the guests, dancing, blowing the candles out on my huge cake. It was nice but my heart just wasn't in it, I had too much on my mind.
After a while I went outside into the garden and hid in the little treehouse my dad had built when I was a kid, I sat there by myself just thinking about how I was going to sort my love life out when I heard someone coming up.
"Hey beautiful," said Adam sitting next to me.
"Hi," I replied looking away.
"I saw you come up here, what's wrong?" he asked stroking my arm.
Before I could say anything I burst into tears, my whole body shook uncontrollably.
"I'm so sorry," I said in-between trying to breathe.
"Sorry, what have you got to be sorry about?" he asked, I could hear the concern in his voice and that made me cry even harder.
"I'm just really sorry," I said trying to think of what to say next.
"Annie, why are you sorry? tell me please." he said softly.
"I'm sorry that I'm not the kind of person that you deserve," I said looking at my hands.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Adam, I love you I really do, but I'm." I paused to catch my breath, "I'm not in love with you." I said.
He sat for a moment holding my hand and taking in everything that I'd just said.
"So what now?" he asked without looking at me.
"I don't think we should be together anymore," I said tightening my grip. "I'm so sorry."
"It's ok, I understand." He said sadly making his way out of the treehouse. "Oh Annie."
"Yes," I said looking over at him.
"It was nice, you know being with you." He said smiling sadly.
"Yes, it really was," I said in reply.
I stayed sitting there by myself until I heard the party dying down, slowly I made my way back into the house to find only my family and Rain there.
"Where were you? we were looking for you," said my mum as I walked in.
"Sorry I just didn't really feel in the mood," I said looking down.
"Is everything ok?" She asked seeing that I'd been crying.
"No, no it's not," I said as she put her arms around me.