If I Knew Who You Were

Lilly and I were walking with one another through the mall. I don’t know why we were here. She’d decided that we were going to go shopping, but once I explained to her that all my money got stolen, she claimed that she wasn’t going to do any shopping either, because then we could be even, and that's what friends are for. So why we’re actually here right now, I’ll never know.

“I don’t think Frank could have done it,” Lilly said after a couple of minutes of silent wondering.

“I don’t either,”

“Then why’d you yell at him?”

“Well, at that point I didn’t know what to think. I just took it out on the first person that could have possibly done it, and Matt gave a pretty realistic reason,”

“What made you change your mind?”

“Frank just...he has this way about him. You can tell if he’s lying,”

“You obviously can’t,” Lilly snorted slightly, before looking up at me quickly an apologizing.

“I know the signs to look out for now,”

Lilly nodded, and we once again carried on walking, my mind still swimming with thoughts. Ever since Frank had showed up in my life, everything had just exploded into this mess of confusion and lies. I didn’t know what was going on at all anymore.

I kind of wanted to leave. Being around all these shops was just a constant reminder that I didn’t have any money and I still didn’t know why. There are several questions you could be asking right now. The first, why not call the police?

Well, if it turns out Frank did actually take my money, sure I’d be majorly pissed off about it, but can you not see why he would have done it? I’d also feel like the worst human on the face of the earth if I got Frank put in prison or something. I think he’s been through enough hardship so far in his life.

The second question could be, why not tell your Dad?
Well, the answer is severely similar to the above. Dad had a shit-fit just knowing that Frank had been talking to me, but finding out that he could have potentially stolen some money from me, would mean that everything would get a whole lot worse, and not only would Frank probably be put into some kind of prison (because Dad has enough money and connections to make it happen) Linda would probably lose her job at my home, and I couldn’t let that happen knowing that I was the cause.

The thought of Linda made me twitch slightly. I’d been so rude to her. “Lilly, I need to get back,”

“But we only just got here!”

“Yeah, but I have some stuff I need to do. Plus, there’s no point being here, is there?”

Lilly shrugged slightly, and glanced down at the floor. “We just haven’t spent any time together recently,”

“We’ve both had a lot going on,”

“So? Why does that mean we can’t still spend time together?”

“Listen, Lil’ I’ll call you later okay, but I really need to do something,”

She sighed, and rolled her eyes before motioning her hand in a way that let me know that I should just go, so I did. I know that maybe I’d been a bit harsh with her, but I really needed to talk to Linda.

That woman practically raised me, and there I was, being a complete ass to her.

* * *

“Linda?” I called as I made my way into my house. There was the usual hustle and bustle of everyone around me as they got on with their work, but Linda was nowhere to be seen.
I made my way down into the workers rooms, and upon walking into her room, I saw her sitting on her bed, her arms wrapped around the shaking shoulders of a smaller body.

“Gerard? What are you doing down here?” Linda asked suddenly, the smaller body jolted away from her and instantly their hands flew to their face, wiping away tears? The figure turned around, and my theory was in fact correct, for there was Frank Iero, staring up at me standing in the door way, with those big eyes, bloodshot and sore, small shiny trails leaving tracks down his cheeks to his chin. I just wanted to kiss those tears away for him, because I knew that he hated crying in front of anyone.

“I-I just needed to talk to you, but I’ll come back in a bit,”

“No, Gerard its fine,” Frank said, standing up and walking into the bathroom that was joined to the room.

I looked almost helplessly at Linda, who had the same expression on her face, only it was directed to the now closed bathroom door.

“I just wanted to apologize to you. I was really horrible, but I jumped to all the wrong conclusions, and I was really mad,”

“I heard,”

“Is that what Frank was crying over?”

“No,”

“What was it then?”

“It’s not my place to say,”

In her eyes I could just see that they screamed “I know something you don’t know,” and almost straight away knew what it could have been. “You know where he’s been, don’t you?”

“Not completely,”

“That’s bullshit!”

“What?”

“He told me that he couldn’t tell me because I’d tell you, then he goes ahead and tells you anyway!”

“Gerard, I’m his mother, is he not allowed to tell me things? Why should he have to tell you first? You just accuse him of things that he didn’t do after taking false information from someone you barley even know,” Linda snapped.

That was something I really did admire about her. Most people who worked here were too afraid to yell at me and put me in my place like that. They were like that with everyone in my family, at fear of losing their form of income. Linda however, was fine with yelling at me and Mikey whenever she felt that we deserved a good telling off. Usually it was Mikey more than me; I was such a suck up when it came to Linda. Obviously with my parents it was an entirely different situation.

“Just take it from me Gerard, and forget about this Matt character,”

“...I don’t think it’s your place to tell me who I can and can’t-”

“And I don’t think it’s your place to accuse my son of something that he claims not to have done. I’ve tried to intervene and it’s obviously too late now,”

“Intervene? Intervene what?!”

“...It’s not my place to say,”

I shook my head at her slowly. This was getting ridiculous. Why can’t I know anything? I should have a right to know when it’s going on under the roof of my home, a place where you shouldn’t worry about every little thing that goes on.

A doorbell sounded upstairs and I raised my eyebrows choosing to ignore it. The butler could do it.

“You should get that,” Linda said, glancing at the bathroom door again.

“That’s someone’s job,”

“When did you get like this?” Linda asked, almost in disbelief. “There was a time when you’d help anyone with anything just to make their lives a little easier. You hated your life of luxury and the fact that people had to work beneath you for it to be like that. You’ve changed Gerard. You really have,” she sighed, standing up and knocking quietly on the bathroom door and letting herself in. I heard a small sniffle before the door closed and my heart almost fell of out my chest.