You Put the Spike in My Heart

"Is there a story behind that outburst or does she just hate me?"

Frank shrugged at Gerard's question and tried to hide a smirk behind his hand.

"Both I think. She does seem a tad touchy with you."

Gerard walked over to Frank and smacked him upside the head.

"Be serious. What the hell did I do?"

Frank sighed and looked at the floor again. He knew exactly why she had flown off the handle like she did, but he hadn't expected it. Her sudden reappearance had made him think that she'd gotten over everything that had happened. He knew he couldn't just tell the guys what was up with her, she'd kill him if she found out.

"She's kinda sensitive on the subject of her parents."

Gerard raised an eyebrow.

"Kinda? You could have warned me about that before we met her, you know."

"I didn't know how she would react to anything, okay? I haven't seen her in a long time."

Mikey piped up from the couch.

"What happened exactly?"

Frank shook his head. He needed to avoid this.

"It's not my story to tell."

Frank got another smack to the back of the head as Bob walked towards the door.

"I'm going to get my shit together."

"Me too!"

Ray smacked Frank as he followed Bob out of the room.

"What the hell, guys?"

Frank crossed his arms and sat next to Mikey on the couch only to get smacked again. He glared at Mikey who only smiled back at him.

"It looked like fun, I didn't want to miss out."

Gerard cleared his throat and they both looked at him.

"Shouldn't you go after her or something?"

Frank curled up into a ball.

"Hell no, she'll kill me. You can go after her if you want."

"Why me?"

"Cause you set her off."

"You want me to go find her...and apologize...for what exactly?"

He was becoming frustrated. He didn't feel like he did anything wrong - and he was also confused as to why he cared. He couldn't help but feel his immediate uneasy feelings toward her were almost justified. But then there was something else at the pit of his stomach...

"No, no, no. Don't say you're sorry to her. She hates that. Oh and, try not to tell her she looks anything like her father again. They don't have the best relationship."

"This is ridiculous, are you telling me I have to walk on eggshells for the rest of the tour?"

Frank shrugged and looked towards the door in thought.

"Not really. You don't even have to go and find her. Just try and stay out of her way for the rest of the tour and things should be fine."

Gerard nodded and then looked at Mikey who had been smiling at him throughout the entire conversation.

"What are you smiling about?"

"She likes me better than you."

He stuck out his tongue. Gerard rolled his eyes before knocking Frank and Mikey's heads together and leaving the room.

Gerard stood in the middle of the hallway for a few minutes thinking over his choices. He could either go looking for her and try and apologize for...whatever the hell he did - or he could forget about it completely and try and ignore her for the rest of the tour. The latter didn't sit with him well, nor did it seem likely to work out for the best. Bert was likely to catch on and he didn't need any controversy between the bands.
His body making more of a decision than his brain, he started to move up the hallway only to stop short a couple of doors down. He could hear a muffled argument coming from inside that sounded incredibly...one-sided. Before he could get any closer to the door it flew open to reveal Bailey - phone in hand and incredibly red in the face.
He felt embarassed, it must have looked like he was eavesdropping, but what she did next took him off guard. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him inside the room, pushing him roughly into a chair before taking a seat beside him. Gerard looked at her like a deer in headlights but she simply stared straight in front of her as a husky voice screamed to her from her phone.

"Daddy, please stop yelling."
-
"I don't have that kind of money!"
-
"Daddy, stop. I - "
-
"How do you propose I accomplish that? I'm not even in Pennsylvania anymore!"
-
"I'm touring with Bert's band."
-
"Daddy, don't call him that."
-
"Daddy, if you can't be nice, I'm going to hang up."
-
"If we happen to go through Pennsylvania I'll try and come visit you."
-
"Daddy, stop yelling. I'm serious...ah, fuck it. Goodbye!"

She hung up the phone and clenched it in her fist so hard Gerard was surprised it didn't break. When she looked up at him she gave a strained smile and pointed to her phone.

"Speak of the devil. Funny how that happens. It seems like every time he gets brought up in conversation I tend to hear from him shortly after."

She ran a hand through her hair as her phone rang again. She looked away from Gerard but held the phone out to him.

"This is a pretty nice phone. Turn it off so I don't break it, would ya?"

He took it from her hesitantly, opened it up and powered it down. He set it back in her waiting hand and she smiled graciously at him, as if she had never looked at him the way she did before that. He could hardly even remember the blackness in her eyes. He saw a lot of weariness in them now, but her smile was genuine. He'd known this girl less than twenty-four hours and already she was making him question his sanity.
He couldn't wrap his mind around what to say. All he could do was look back at her until her smile widened.

"Gerard?"

He noticed that his mouth was hanging open and was quick to close it.

"Yes?"

She bust into laughter suddenly and leaned back into her chair, looking close to tears.

"You look so confused. I hope you do that a lot."

He blinked. What was this girl on? Before he could think much more, words tumbled from his lips.

"Are you bipolar?"

She burst into laughter again and smacked him lightly.

"No. But I've never been to a psychiatrist before so I could be wrong."

She grew silent but her eyes still danced with laughter. She kept them trained on his, like she was waiting for something. He shook his head and looked away to try and focus on why he'd come looking for her.
Oh yeah, that's right...

"Listen, Bailey. About what happened before -"

"No."

He looked back up at her, confused and wary - waiting for her to burst again. He was surprised to see her still looking amused.

"I'm sure Franky told you it was a bad idea to apologize."

"Well, he might have mentioned -"

"Good old Frank. He still doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, does he?"

It was more of a statement than a question, but he couldn't help but smile slightly. She set her phone to the floor and picked up the broken eyeliner that she had dropped earlier. She held out her palm to him as if asking permission to finish his makeup. He smirked before pressing his chin into her hand, looking up like before as she went to work on his bare eye.

"You see Gerard, I was brought up to never apologize for anything. I learned at a young age that most of what people do or say is what they intended. Why apologize for that? Why apologize for doing the things you want to do and saying the things you want to say? Seems silly to me."

She watched him carefully as she spoke, surveying his reaction. Disagreement was written all over his face as he looked back down at her. She removed her hand from his face and discarded the eyeliner.

"But that's just my opinion, I'm not going to make you guys stop apologizing to me just because I take a disliking to it. Just don't go apologizing for what you said to me. You were only making an observation, and you were right."

She gritted her teeth and squeezed her fists until her knuckles were white.

"I look very much like my father, especially because of my hair. You took me off guard is all. You don't have to worry though, you probably won't see me get like that again. I'll be prepared next time we talk..."

Gerard turned his head towards the door as Ray pulled it open, Frank peeking behind his back.

"...that is if you ever intend on talking to me again."

He could feel her eyes on him but he couldn't look back. He didn't know what he intended to do.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get on stage."

He felt relief flood through him as her eyes left him and trailed to the door.

"Nothing to interrupt. Good luck, guys."

That was his cue to move, he made his way out of the room and everyone followed except for Frank.

"Everything cool, Bailey-Face?"

"Very cool. Cooler than you, Franky-Pants."

Frank shook his head and headed after the rest of the boys.