Too Good to Be True

I was sitting on the steps in the yard when the bell rang. I didn't remove my head from my hands, just stayed frozen in time, too miserable to even move.

"Hailey? You coming?" I slowly looked up to Iona with teary eyes. Damn, why couldn't I handle this like her? Her eyes had remained dry, and the only emotion that existed on her face now was anger. Or maybe anger was an understatement....

"Nah." I stood up shaking my head. "I'm just gonna go home."

"Home? You'd rather be at home than in school?" she gasped.

"No, no, I...I didn't mean home, just...away from here. I dunno, I might go to the park?" I sighed. Iona pulled me into a hug.

"Don't worry about this Hailey. Kim messed up big time, and she'll pay for what she's done," she spoke quietly, but it didn't make anything any easier.

"Don't worry? Don't worry!? Kim and I were best friends for years Iona! Longer than me and you! Of course now it doesn't mean a thing, but it's gonna be hard to get over how much of my life I've wasted believing in her," I was almost crying again, so Iona pulled me in for another hug.

"Chill, chill. Sure, I can't change that, but for the now, just know that i'm here for you, okay?" I nodded. "Now, don't go back to that shithole. You can go to my flat if you want, watch some TV?" I pulled away again.

"Nah, its fine. I'll just go...somewhere, and then pick Tommy up. I'll uh...i'll see you soon?" I whispered. She nodded. "Just...don't get too rough with her!" I laughed, and she smirked.

"She can take a few punches!"

I shook my head and turned to walk up the steps. "I'll see you around Smithy." I heard a 'bye' and slipped through the school gates.

~*~

Emerging from the school gates, I felt my heart begin to crumple again,. Where was I going to go? The park? The town centre? Home? No, I couldn't go home and face my parents for the sake of it. I'll just go....somewhere. URGH! I pulled my hair in frustration and leaned against a tree. Feeling the tears coming back, I slid down to hide my face in my knees. I tried to stay strong, like Iona, but I couldn't help but let loose a few tears.

After I'd managed to contain my tears, I heard a very familiar voice coming from beside me.

"Are you okay?"

I looked up, and my eyes met the most beautiful hazel eyes. I wanted to smile, but my heart stopped. My first encounter with Frankie had been all imagined, to me, so this could count as the first this time...I guess. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. After a while, I only managed to whisper.

"Not really." As much as I was in shock, I wanted to talk to Frank. Surely that would cheer me up, right? I mean, having a conversation with Frank Iero!? I put my head into my knees again, trying to calm myself down. I felt an arm around my shoulder.

"Hey, what's up? It's to do with that girl, isn't it? Ashley?" I heard his voice so close to me, so close to my ear, and couldn't help shivering.

"Y-yeah. But the little slut is only part of the problem." I replied, my voice going back to normal. I heard him lick his lips, not sure of what to say. "Do you want me to tell you what happened?"

"Sure, go ahead." I removed my face from my knees and fixed my hair. It probably didn't fix it that much, but I didn't let it bother me too much.

"Kim was...Kim was our best friend. Ollie's known her the longest, though, 11 years. Iona, Mandy and I have known her for 5. That's 5 years of us, relying on each other, trusting each other. Best Friends, right?" I stopped to take a breath, and control my tears. I resisted the temptation to turn to face him, I knew i'd just break down, and I had to stay strong. I had to tell him. "Thats what we thought.

"Fast forward to this all wonderful, spectacular, present. After I got your text last night..." wait...should I tell him? Wouldn't that just be a little embarrassing? No? Okay, carry on. "After I got your text last night, I couldn't sleep. I just felt like for once, there was something in my life to look forward to, one thing that actually mattered...So yeah, I got pretty much no sleep last night." I couldn't help but smile when he chuckled."And then it came back and hit me at 4th period. Only 15 minutes until I could see all of you again, and I fell asleep..." He chuckled again, and I joined in this time. If he was almost laughing now, wait 'till he hears me falling off the chair. "Yeah, so, our chemistry teacher screamed at me, scared the hell outta me, and I..." I started laughing. "I fell out of my chair." My mood immediately lightened as I heard his laugh. I wonder if I should just leave it there, and not move on to the miserable part of this....

"So...he gave me a detention, which of course, I wasn't all that happy about. Detention was fucking boring, as always, until Ollie came in. She gave Miss Jordann a note, saying I could leave. Of course, it was a fake. Miss Jordann was just to thick to see that. But of course, once we got downstairs, Iona and Mandy were with Nora. They took us to the bushes, and of course, you know what happens from there on out." I finally looked up at Frank, and found him looking out up to the sky. "What did she say?" I held in a gasp as he turned back to look at me.

"Ashley?"

"Yeah."

"Not much. She called you emo freaks." he shook his head as he said it. I nodded slowly, understanding, and looked away, but when I looked back to Frank he seemed...shocked. "You don't seem all the surprised, or even bothered about it." I shrugged.

"I've been dealing with it for years. Whenever Kim was there, Ashley was there. I dunno, they must have been friends in early primary or whatever. But...Ashley was always there to whip up insults. One thing that got me was that as much as Kim stood up for us, she never dealt with it. After all, you could say she was closest to her, even though we all guessed it was because of Kim's connection to you guys." And we were right - weren't we? "She's a fan too."

"Yeah, I figured." he groaned. "She came running up to us, sorry, me, squealing." He shook his head and looked away again. "But that doesn't really explain why you're so upset."

"It was all because of earrings." I bit my lip. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. "Nora explained to us that Ashley had given her these 18 carat gold earrings in exchange for ditching us taking her outside to meet you guys." I groaned and shook my head, now feeling anger coming to the surface as well as misery. He must have sensed this as his grip on my shoulder tightened and he pulled me closer. "She chose that cow over us for earrings. Earrings." I felt tears come to my eyes, and Frankie pulled me into a hug. I felt myself crying harder as I realised what I was doing - hugging Frank Iero. My best friend had betrayed me, and here was Frank Iero hugging me, comforting me. I couldn't get over how sweet he was being.

"Ssh. Sssh. She's not worth it. Come on, Hailey." I sank into him, and memories of Tuesday flooded back into mind. I tried to block out the fact that Kim had arranged that party, and without her, Frank wouldn't be here hugging me. I...I couldn't hate her completely could I? Still, she betrayed us, and I wasn't going to let that go.

"Frank?" I asked, pulling away. I wiped a tear as I stared into his eyes. "Thank you." He smiled, and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it."

For some reason, I felt myself leaning in toward him, and I saw him doing the same. I gasped as I realised where this was going. I was going to kiss him again. I leaned in further, and caught something in the corner of my eye. Was that....people....at the window!? PEOPLE AT THE WINDOW!? LOOKING AT US? My eyes widened and I squealed, rolling over into the bushes, and pulling Frank with me. As I realised we were safe, I lay back on the mud and laughed hard. Now thats what I call Close Encounters! I opened my eyes to see Frank looking at me with a confused look.

"You better get out of here!" I laughed. He still looked confused. I couldn't blame him. I just pulled him out of a possible kiss. "My class was at the window. For some reason someone saw us from in class, and....yeah. You better get out. Those kids will be running down and out this second." His eyes widened, but soon he started laughing too.

"I get it now. Maybe I should...but...before you go..." he crawled over to me and pulled something out of my pocket. I gasped as I saw him place a VIP pass into my hands.

"Are you serious?" I gasped.

"What? Of course I am." I looked up at him to see that beautiful smile. "I want to see you backstage." I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, but closed my fingers over the pass. Looking back up at him, I grinned.

"I'll be there. But....what about the others?"

"Gee's got them. I don't know if he gave it to them, or how he gave it to them, but I wanted to give you yours personally." I blushed again, which made him chuckle. "I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Bye." I said, smiling. He smiled back, before climbing out of the bushes. I watched as the bushes closed back over, and I remained, lying on the mud. I closed my eyes, and for the first time in way too long, felt tears of joy.