You Give Love a Bad Name

I was still thinking about my encounter with Manda when I was walking across my school's lawn and towards the parking lot, where Bob's car was stationed.

There was one thing that she said that brought a smile to my lips.

"Almost every heart in the school is broken. That boy is gorgeous."

If only she knew...

"Yo, Lena!"

I stopped walking and whirled around, a huge smile planting itself on my face when I saw who it was. "Hey, Frank."

When he was a couple of feet away from me, he stopped running and started to power walk the rest of the way over, excitement clearly evident in his face.

"What's up?"

"You know those Green Day tickets you gave me?" he asked somewhat breathless.

I slowly started to walk towards my previous destination, Frank falling into step by my side. "Yeah?"

"Well, I've been thinking that...you know how you gave them to me so I could go with Manda?"

I nodded.

"And you know how we're no longer together?"

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him staring straight ahead. "Yes."

Frank stopped and turned to face me, causing me to do the same. "Maybe you could go with me instead?"

We were now a couple of feet away from Bob's car and I could see him and Mikey already in it, looking at me and Frank with impatience in their eyes, eager to get home.

My eyes traveled back to Frank's and I saw that he was still waiting for my answer, his hazel eyes lit up in anticipation. "I can't."

He looked crushed.

"Is it 'cause of Logan? We would go as friends and -"

"No, Logan has nothing to do with this," I cut him off quickly, taking one of his hands in mine. He was wearing fingerless gloves today. "Well, not really. I promised Melanie that Logan and I would go on a double date with her and Mikey. If...if you'd have asked me this morning or something, I would have said 'yes'."

Bob beeped his horn and Frank flipped him the bird with the other hand, not bothering to look away from me. "Oh. I guess I'll take Gerard instead."

I was fully aware of how warm his hand was against mine. How his flesh seemed to burn a hole through my palm, despite the glove. The butterflies came back again. "He'd like that."

"LENA!"

"Shut up, Mikey!" Frank and I turned to glare at my brother at the same time.

He shrank back against his seat. "Sorry."

I dropped Frank’s hand. "I have to go."

"Right," he looked at me for another lingering second and then leaned in to give me a hug, "I'll see you tonight. We have band practice."

"See you then."

When I got inside Bob's car, I had this nauseous, empty feeling inside my stomach. There was nothing more I wanted to do than run after Frank, tap him on the shoulder, and tell him that I wanted to go to the Green Day concert with him.

Fuck that, I'd go anywhere with him, as pathetic as it sounded. As long as it was with Frank, I didn't care if he asked to go and raid a dumpster with him at midnight.

...Much.

But I already made a promise to Melanie. And I wasn't going to break it.

As if reading my thoughts, Mikey turned around from the passenger’s seat, flashing me a smile. "Melanie told me that you and Logan will be joining us tomorrow."

"Yeah," I mumbled, still fighting that hollow feeling inside my stomach. "Where are we going?"

Mikey pushed his noses up on the bridge of his nose. "It's a surprise."

"You shouldn't have said 'yes'."

"I know that now," I groaned into the phone. "You have no idea how much I want to cancel the whole thing with Mikey and Melanie, and just go with Frank."

It was almost seven o'clock, and I was talking on the phone with Logan in my room for almost one hour, homework forgotten.

"Tell Melanie I have mono."

"I'm not going to lie to her!"

"Where's Frank now?"

I looked down at the floor, faint music coming from downstairs. "In the basement with the rest of the lot."

"Band practice?"

"Yeah."

"You know what that means, right?"

"Not really."

"Frank's probably with his shirt off, sweating as he -"

"Shut up, Logan!"

He started laughing on the other line. "Someone's feisty today. But who can blame ya? All those hot guys -"

I rolled my eyes.

"- in one room, making sweet music together -"

"You make it sound like an orgy."

"I should totally be there."

"Oh yeah. Totally. I bet you dream about Gerard rubbing his moobs Simon Cowell-style, while gazing lovingly into your eyes."

Pause. "Amongst other things, yes."

I tried to block out the disgusting images that crept into my head. "Change of subject. Have you talked to Mikey today?"

"Yeah."

"He won't tell me where we're going."

"If it makes you feel better, Melanie doesn't know where we're going either. Mikey wanted it to be a surprise."

"Do you know?"

"Yes."

“"Are you gonna tell me?"

"Nope."

"Ugh, you suck." I stretched, yawning slightly. "Hey, I have to go. I still need to call my Dad and tell him that Mikey, Gerard and I are seeing him on Saturday instead of tomorrow."

"Okay. Good night."

"Night."