Paint It Black

Frank's POV

"She's beautiful," I mumbled to no one, "she looks so grown up."

I flashed through pictures, clicking to the next, taking a few minutes to examine every little detail of it. Sunny's beautiful smile was in the next shot, a small gesture of happiness.
 
She had on a polka dot dress, her hair black, wavy and down to her shoulders. Her smile was small, innocent, and genuine. Beside her was a guy with a faux hawk, a little facial hair, and looked to be a little flamboyant. He was kissing her cheek, his arms secured tightly around her waist, and both of them had red plastic cups in their hands. Underneath the photo was the caption: Reluctant shot of @SRome and myself. The guy had this on his own twitter, a link I had gotten from her's.

I wasn't stalking her, just admiring her, on twitter. I had desperately searched the Internet for a little piece of Sunny, and found a few gossip sites, and eventually her twitter. She didn't update much, probably every other week, and it was small stuff like @ replies and promoting magazines and bands. I couldn't tell if she ran it herself, most times.

We all had these twitter accounts, but none of us followed her; Ray and Mikey talked about it, but never did. I kept her link in my bookmarks and checked it periodically. Occasionally personal pictures of her would show; I knew now that she had a lot of tattoos, changed her hair color a lot, and traveled everywhere.

I didn't tell a soul about my discovery, that I made over the past year, for fear of judgment and arguments. After 2 years of being hated, I didn't need anymore hatred. 

The tour in Japan was a bust, I was ignored and shunned, because of what I had done, and tried my best to play as hard as I could (just for Sunny). My phone rang all the time, thanks to Marilyn, who wouldn't leave me alone for 5 fucking minutes. I tried to be civil to her, but she annoyed me to death.

Telling everyone about her was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do. My mom was so upset, saying that she wished it had been Sunny, my dad was disappointed, and the guys gave me the silent treatment for a while. It got so bad that we all decided to take a break after the Japanese tour.

Marilyn gave birth to a little girl on January 15, 2009. She ha named her Kara, and I had missed it. She had called me all night about going into labor, and I tried my best to be there, in Chicago, and missed the birth by a few hours. When I held Kara for the first time, I didn't feel that connection that I thought I would. Even my mom said I'd feel it, but nothing. I didn't doubt her for a moment, though, because she had beautiful green eyes. But as I continued to look her over, I couldn't see the resemblance, I tried to, but it was like looking at a stranger.

Over the next few months, I kept quiet about it, and raised Kara as my own. It wasn't until, that I was checking Sunny's twitter, that I questioned my paternity over Kara. When I saw she had @ replied a fan of ours ask about us ever dating; "@SRome did you really date Frank Iero of MCR?". All my feelings sunk when I read her reply: "Nope". 

I won't lie, it hurt like hell for her to just reply as simple as that. I felt like such a dick, so stupid for letting her go as easily as I did. I wanted to find her, tell her how much I loved her, and how much I cared, but it wouldn't be that easy. Sunny looked happy now, she looked comfortable, had a great group of friends, and I didn't want to come between that. 

It was after that reply, back in January ('10), I confronted Marilyn for a DNA test. She didn't object, and looked confident. We went, had swabs taken, and had to wait two weeks for the results. During those two weeks, I didn't tell anyone, but my parents, about it. My folks were happy, hoping for a good outcome, even though they had tried to get close to Kara. I was worried, because I had become close to that little girl, she's beautiful, and deserves the world. I didn't know how to act when the results came back.

Marilyn had opened the manila envelope, sighed heavily, and pulling out the sheets. She looked at them, then at me, then back at the sheets.

"What do they say?" I asked her, impatiently.

She exasperated again, "Ok...look, I knew Dave was the father all along."

When those words left her mouth, I nearly slapped her. Instead, I snatched the papers from her, reading them myself.

"99.9 % positive that Frank A. Iero is not the biological father of Kara C. Iero," I read aloud.

I looked at her, sheets clutched in my hands. Marilyn stood by, shaking a little, while fire had been brewing in my veins. She opened her mouth to speak, but I put my index finger up to stop her. She closed her mouth, and I bit at my lip angrily. I had, had so many angry thoughts and words growing that I had to leave, and I did.

When she had called the following day, I yelled so much I had lost my voice. She said she would change Kara's name and never call me again. I hadn't spoken to her in the past 3 months. The only thing I miss is that little girl; I had taken care of her for over a year, and not it was all over. I only wish Kara all the happiness in the world.
--

The guys and I, after taking 8 months off of touring and recording, we decided to get back to it. We all had separate ideas, but the boldest was strumming away from the dark and gloomy things we had once lived in. Everyone was happier now, aside from me, and we needed to make some different records. Gerard went through changing his hair color a few times, as did Mikey, while Toro and I stayed the same. We all had been on the same page of the direction we wanted to go in, all except Bob. He wasn't negative about it, he just wanted to do something different. He left the band in January, and there is no hard feelings, we all still talk occasionally.

The stuff Gerard was writing was a lot more adventurous, and I couldn't help but wonder what Sunny would think about it all. She had loved Gerard's writing, so into what he thought about and sang for. I wished I could have told him this, but bringing up Sunny was tough for us.

"Where are we recording this?" Toro asked as we met to discuss what and where we would record this record.

"I was thinking Jersey, but California sounds more logical," Gerard has shook his hair, it was the brightest red.

"Cali?" Mikey asked raising his brow.

"Yeah, why not?" he just shrugged.

"There's that studio we went to last time, we had the best time," Toro grinned.

"Sounds cool," I added.

"Alrighty," Mikey clasped his hands, "When do we start?"

"Beginning of June, end of May?" Gerard asked around us.

"Sure," we all said in unison.

California is a nice place, the weather is great, and a piece of me always hoped she would be there. She had said she moved to California, but her twitter said otherwise. I know she traveled there a lot, but I wouldn't know if she'd be there during the summer. I hoped that she would, that would make my life complete.