You Give Love a Bad Name

New Jersey is beautiful during Autumn time, and the township of Belleville is no exception.
The streets, scenery, and most importantly, the atmosphere, changes all around you, making you feel like you have stepped into another picture perfect world. The trees start to slowly change colors, from emerald green to fiery red, glowing orange, or golden yellow. The weather starts to get more colder, requiring you to bring a jacket if you want to venture outside, which a lot of people do. A certain excitement about Halloween starts to build up in most households, no matter what age your children are.

October has been my favorite month ever since I could remember. To me, the wind carried more then dy, fallen leafs. It carried magic, wonder, and excitement.

Plus, at the end of the month was my favorite holiday and Frank's birthday; Halloween.

Usually, around this time of the month, I would be thinking of this year's costume, and trying to figure out what to give to Frank that he already didn't have. But this year was different.

For the past three weeks I've been a mere outer shell of my existence. Everything around me was coated in a hazy mist, disabling me to think clearly and putting me in a cloudy state of mind. Every day was a routine; wake up, get dressed, wait for Bob to pick me and Mikey up, go to school, sit through lessons, and escape back home, where I would occupy myself with homework to escape any unwanted thoughts and feelings.

My Dad moved out of the house one week after my parents sprang the news upon me, Mikey, and Gerard. Even though he wasn't around much for the past year or so, always working late, the house still felt oddly empty without his presence.

Since Mikey and I were still minors, the court ruled that we had to see him at least one hour every week. I didn't mind, neither did Mikey. Gerard, being eighteen and an adult, could go about that business however he pleased, but he promised me and Mikey to be there with us every Friday after school, the time that was chosen between my parents for the Father-children bondage, or whatever you want to call it.

The distance between summer and fall wasn't the only thing that was growing apart. I hadn’t talked, really talked, to my friends for a while now. I never ate lunch with my usual group anymore, but instead I went to tutorial so I could get help with two of my worst subjects: English and Calculus.

The reason for that was simple, really. I couldn't take the alarm in the faces of my friends when they would catch me staring somewhere in the distance when I was supposed to be taking part in a conversation. At this point in time, they were better off without me.

Mikey was back to being his usual self, it was Gerard and I that have changed.

Besides my now-everyday dazed state of being, I grew up. I could feel it. Now, whenever I passed a giggling group of girls in one of my school's hallways, talking about boys, clothes, and who was going out with whom, I wanted to turn away and go in another direction. Everything that was of any importance last year, now had no meaning to me whatsoever. It was like the black hole in my stomach was eating the old, happy, sarcastic, Lena whole. The new Lena Way was quiet, brooding, and aware.

Gerard, on the other hand, chose another way to deal with his emotions; he started to drink more than usual. Nowdays, it wasn't unusual for me to find my oldest brother sitting behind the counter, half asleep, and with a huge hangover, whenever I got up in the morning. Since our Mom occupied her time with the upcoming family reunion, she spent most of the evening at our Grandma's house, and woke up after Gerard, Mikey and I were already gone.

Today was nothing special, just another day that I would waste.

I silently suffered through two hours of Calculus, my only cheerful thought being that today was the end of the six week grading period, thus minimum day, meaning that we got out one hour early. That meant that today I would spend one more hour in my room than usual, something that was strangely comforting. Lately, the cheerful chatter of my peers just depressed me.

When school ended, I gathered up my books and started my walk towards Bob's car where I knew he and Mikey would be waiting for me.

The day was cloudy and somewhat cold, totally reflecting my personality. But the colorful Autumn leafs stood out against the gray sky gorgeously.

My black Converse crunched on the gravel as I made my way to the student parking lot, my eyes averted on the piles of vibrantly colored piles of leafs that adorned the campus.

All of a sudden, I felt my body clash with something else.

"Sorry," I mumbled, not looking up, and started to go around that person.

To me great annoyance, as soon as I took the next few steps, the collusion happened again.

Fuming, I looked up.

Frank Iero was blocking my way, arms crossed and an angry expression on his face.

"What?" I asked, taken aback. As far as I knew, I haven't done anything to make him angry. I haven't spoken to him in about two and a half weeks so there was no time for me to do that.

Instead of answering me, he grabbed my shoulder in a deathly grasp and started to pull me towards the direction of his usual parking spot.

"Frank, let go of me. I'll give you till five, then I'm going to scream," I told him as calmly as I could manage. "One, two, three..."

He turned around and stared me straight in the eyes, his face so close that I could count the brown specks in his hazel eyes. The look that he gave me not only smoldered, but also shut me up.

Once we got to his car, he dragged me over to the passenger's side, opened the door, and pushed me in without a single word. When he was in driver's seat, seatbelt safely on, he turned to face me and gave my an expectant look, his hands on the steering wheel.

"What?" I asked him for the second time today.

His eyes traveled to the my unbuckled seatbelt, which laid by my side.

I shook my head. "I'm not going anywhere with you, Frank."

Glaring at me, he breathed out, unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over in my direction. Ignoring my stunned expression, he grabbed my seatbelt and strapped me in. After doing the same for himself, he started the engine and backed out of his parking spot.

About ten minutes into the car ride, neither of us talking, I decided that I have had enough.

"You know that Mikey and Bob realized that I'm gone, right?" I crossed my arms, staring at the colorful scenery outside my window. "And when the police finds me, I'm not going to be discreet about my kidnapper. Just a fair warning."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could have swore that the corners of his lips upturned into a small smile, but when I turned my head to take a closer look, his lips were in a tight line, his eyes set on nothing but the road, and his hands gripping the steering wheel so hard, that I could see white spots on his skin.

Twenty more minutes of silent treatment, and we pulled in the parking lot of some sort of a park. After taking in my surroundings, I realized that we were in Weequahic Park, located in Newark. The last time I've been there, I was fourteen. Gerard drove me and Mikey there, the first day after getting his driver's permit.

Frank got out of the car and started to walk in the direction of the eighty-acre lake that was nestled among the tangle of trees.

I weighted my options. I could stay in the car for God-knows how long, or I could take a walk with Frank and maybe even confront him about his weird behavior.

Of course I could always call the police and have him arrested for kidnaping.

Deciding on option two, I got out of the car and followed a couple of feet behind Frank. We walked for about ten minutes, until we go to the lake.

I gasped.

It was beautiful!

Like in a faerie-tale, orange, red, and golden-yellow trees were framing a clear lake with sprinkles of Autumn leafs on the surface of the water that was closest to shore.

Admiring the scenery, I totally forgot about Frank and when my eyes found him, he was leaning against a tree, arms crossed and face set. His eyes were watching my every move.

We looked at each other for a few painfully long seconds before he sighed and turned to look at the ripples that were left by the falling leafs on otherwise calm lake.

"You want to tell me why you have been avoiding everyone around you?" he asked me, his voice colder than the passing October breeze.

I sighed and looked at the ground, knowing that there was no easy way out of this.