All Around Me

We were standing outside the little venue in the freezing cold, and I wasn't sure of this.
"Frank is in Alternate Ending? Are you sure?"
Gerard turned to me with an exasperated look on his face. "Yes. I'm sure. Now can we go?"
"Yeah, fine" I muttered.
Even though Gerard would have been twenty one if he had lived, he was still acting like a stroppy teenager. I walked up to the doors where a woman was sitting by a desk, looking awfully bored. She looked up at me as I approached and sat up straight. "It's almost over, you know."
"Yeah, I know. It's okay, I still want to go in." I said trying her with a small smile which she didn't return.
"Fine. One?"
"Huh?"
She sighed. "You have to buy a ticket to come in, love."
"Oh. Er, right." I said, blushing. "Two, please."
Gerard cleared his throat and I looked at him. He was shaking his head, a grin on his face.
"Oh! I mean, um, one."
The ticket woman sighed, rolling her eyes, and handed me out a ticket. I muttered an embarrassed thanks and walked through, Gerard following behind me, laughing.
"Shut up." I muttered.
When we went in and heard the music and saw the people on stage, Gerard really did shut up. His face took on a hard expression and he looked up at the stage wistfully. "There he is." He said quietly. I almost didn't hear him over the noise.
I followed Gerard's gaze and recognized him straight away. He looked a bit older than when his face was all over the papers, but he hadn't changed that much.
"Have you come to one of his gigs before?" I asked Gerard discreetly, trying not to be seen talking to myself by the people there.
Gerard shook his head solemnly. "No. I try not to be around him. it hurts too much, not being able to talk to him, or.. Or anything.."
I don't know if Ghosts can cry, but Gerard looked pretty close to it at that point. In that moment, all my reserved fear and wariness of the dead boy in front of me completely vanished. He was just a kid that needed help. And I was the only one who could do it.
"How do we-" I started to talk, but the voice of the girl on stage drowned me out.
"This is our last song!" She announced in a loud voice. "It's a new one.." The screaming of the crowd got wilder, and I barely dodged the elbow of one girl who got over excited.
"It doesn't have a name yet. We just call it Frank's Song for now."
I felt Gerard stiffen beside me, and I looked over at him. His eyes never left Franks face, and I wondered if Frank could feel it somehow.
The guitar intro started, and right before my eyes Frank changed. Before, while he was playing, he looked indifferent to everything. He barely looked at the crowd. Now, his face was contorted in a mask of pain, and his body was visibly shaking.
The girl, whose name I had figured out was Viv through the fans screaming out her name, put a comforting hand on Franks shoulder before putting both hands on the mic and singing in a low voice.
"Here I stand, empty hands.."
"No" I heard Gerard choke out beside me. I looked at him in confusion, but he still hadn't taken his eyes off of Frank.
"Wishing my wrists were bleeding, to stop the pain from the beating.."
Frank was singing bits of the song, his deeper voice mixed with Viv's higher notes making it an interesting sound. Gerard was still gazing at Frank, his expression hard to read. It looked like shock, mixed with something else. but I couldn't figure it out.
Watching Frank singing that song was heartbreaking. Even the crowd had stopped screaming. They were just listening.
Frank was shaking visibly, and at the chorus I swear I saw a tear roll down his face. The rest of the band kept flashing him worried looks but they carried on regardless. Even though Frank was only singing some lines in the song, he sang them so well- they made the song. Despite his shaking body and his face screwed up in what almost looked like pain, his voice wasn't shaking at all. It was strong, and I think everyone in the room could feel how much these words meant to him.
"I.. I can't believe it." Gerard said. His eyes were filled with sorrow. "This is.. It's- it's-"
Gerard didn't finish his sentence.
"You were the truth, outscreaming these lies. You were the truth, saving my life."
The song ended suddenly with a crash of the drums.
The cheers erupted again, and suddenly the whole band were smiling again. Even Frank managed a watery smile at the bassist with the chestnut hair.
They all left the stage then after Viv shouted out her thanks to everyone who came out, and I turned to Gerard again. "What do we do now?"
Gerard's face was expressionless. "We wait. Frank will go straight to the bar." He nodded his head toward the bar in the venue where the stools were beginning to fill up, despite most people there being underage. I wondered briefly if this was the sort of place where they served underage. Not that I cared that much, anyway.
"How do you know Frank will be out here? I thought you didn't stay around him too often."
"I don't. But the few times I was around him, he was always drinking." I saw a shadow pass over Gerards face, and he sighed. "How the Hell did it come to this?"
If I could, I would have put an arm around his shoulder. He looked so disheartened in that moment.
"Do you know what you're going to say to Frank?" I said uncertainly. "I mean, er, what I'm going to say to Frank for you?"
Gerard shrugged. "Not really. But I'd better think of something quick, because he's coming this way."