I'm the Last One That You'll Ever Remember

Frank pushed open the flaps of his orange tent to check out the last group of his friends arriving late. It was October 31st and Frank Iero was allowed to spend his night out camping in the woods with his friends. So far, Quinn, Bert, eye-candy Ville, Jacoby, and Adam had made it just in time but Pete, Vic and their boyfriend’s Patrick and Kellin were just now arriving. Frank let out a full blown grin at seeing all his friends gathered around the campfire with endless supplies of beers and junk food stuffed in Wal-Mart bags. Tonight Frank will be lucky enough to be celebrating his birthday by getting hammered around a campfire with his closest friends. Frank was so happy his parents allowed him to have a little more freedom tonight instead of making him hand out candy to little kids dressed as superheroes. The Iero’s had finally begun to trust Frank again after all the trouble he put them through last year with all the skipping and ditching classes. Frank’s punishment was so bad that he swore to his parents he’d change his way, and thus gain their trust and his freedom back. All the hard work he had to do worked out in the end, and now Frank was reunited with the sweet taste of the outside world again…well for now it’s just the owls, crickets and the crackle of a campfire, but due time he’ll experience other things.

“Yo Frankie-Baby, where you at?” Vic called, lifting up two cans of foaming beer, spilling them down his arm in the process as he looked for one of the smallest members of the group.

Frank crawled out of his tent and joined the others sitting around the campfire. Vic enveloped him in a tight hug while still holding on to his two beers. Everyone raised their drink and burst into a loud Happy Birthday song led by their conductor, Bert McCracken. Frank was pulled onto Ville’s lap to watch behind his fingerless skeleton gloves as his friends sang to him. Frank could feel his body warm up in embarrassment against the chilly air of the October night. He hid his huge grin behind his hands as his big hazels eyes twinkled in the firelight.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOUUUUUUUU!!!!” They all sang the last finishing line together. Everyone burst into celebratory cheers before Bert’s crazy ass decided to strike up a totally different song that was not rehearsed.

“GO SHAWTY, IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY! WE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY! WE’RE GON SIP BICARDI LIKE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!” Bert rapped, surprising everyone with a song by 50 Cent. Everyone stared at him with a ‘what the fuck’ look before playfully booing his terrible performance and chucking random snacks at him to get him to shut up. Bert was silenced by a cupcake somehow landing directly in his mouth. Bert chew it for a second with an incredulous look on his face before raising his hands to cheer that he caught the cupcake without even trying.

“Da Fuck!” Bert muffled before opening his mouth wide open for them all to see the chewed remains of a once very delicious snack. Everyone turned away in dramatic disgust as they tried to stifle their giggles.

“Ewww!” Patrick cried, cuddling into Pete’s side, burying his face into his boyfriend’s warm neck.

“Gross, man!” Adam exclaimed, turning his face away in disgust as he tried not to choke on some of the bite size Butterfinger snacks.

“Dude, shut your fucking mouth!” Vic demanded with a playful laugh as he turned Kellin’s face from viewing the horrendous sight by holding his head to his chest. Kellin giggled, going along with it.

Bert flipped them off before taking a bow and sitting down. Everyone burst right back into riots of laughter before everyone settled down and started talking about random shit that had happened when Frank was grounded for a million years. This is what Frank loved about his close friends; no one was ever excluded, you could talk openly about anything and everything, and they were always there for you no matter what was going down, and as an added bonus they can make anyone laugh, rain or shine. Frank couldn’t ask for a better birthday present except for the one he’s expecting from his parents next month. Frank was so excited! He’s always wanted a tattoo and instead of waiting for the day he will legally become an adult, his parent’s took pity on him and decided he can have a tattoo at 15 if he could get his grades up before Halloween, which he immediately did. The birthday boy shook off the excitement for now so he could enjoy this moment, here and now, with his friends.

Frank couldn’t help but laugh at the embarrassing story about Jacoby that Adam was telling everyone, before he glanced over to his left to catch Vic and Kellin having a moment. Vic was sitting on the log while Kellin was sitting on the floor between his legs. Vic had been gentle caressing the bare skin of Kellin’s neck for a while before Kellin leaned his head back on Vic’s lap to look up at him with his blue eyes. Vic gave him a soft adoring smile before leaning down and softly pressing his lips all over Kellin’s face with lingering kisses. Kellin closed his eyes and softly smiled back before Vic ended his journey with a hungry kiss to his lips, spider man style. Just like every kiss Vic and Kellin shared, it turned into a heavy make out session. It didn’t take long for everyone to hear the loud smacking of their lips too.

“Hey knock it off you two!” Quinn objected first, throwing mini marshmallows at them. Kellin and Vic merely smiled in their kiss and continued as if nobody was there.

“Oh my god, do they ever stop?” Ville mumbled beneath his breathe from behind Frank’s ear.

“C’mon guys, we’re serious. It’s Frank’s birthday and our first get together since he’s been ungrounded.” Jacoby complained, opening his second beer. The duo continued to kiss, ignoring the their friends.

“I swear to god you guys, I will march right back to the car, get the crowbar in my trunk and pry you two apart. I’m dead serious.” Bert threatened, opening the family size bag of Doritos.

“Alright alright!” Vic exclaimed, pulling his lips away from Kellin, who proceeded to pout and whine, making everyone laugh again.

“I gotta pee.” Ville announced as he lifted Frank off him, and placed him back down on the log as if he weighed nothing.

“Thanks for sharing that with us.” Frank joked, making everyone laugh once again. Ville winked at him before trekking into the dark woods alone.

The group went right back to talking about things Frank had missed, which apparently is a lot. Vic’s little brother Mike had walked in on Vic and Kellin several times already in the past month alone. Ville had dated some skateboard guy that turned out to be a heartless asshole. Pete finally took Patrick’s virginity. Jacoby has gotten his old band back together and Adam recently got a new cat. Oh, and Bert and Quinn got wasted at a party and slept together. You can say that Frank was completely blown away.

“Why is it that no one told me any of this when we were in school?!” Frank cried out incredulously.

Everyone was silent as they thought about it.

Quinn spoke up first. “I think it’s because we only ever talk about this kind of stuff when we’re outside of school. I mean think about it, we only ever talk about the shit that happens at school when we’re IN school. And when something happens outside of school, say on the weekend, we meet up or call each other about it.”

Frank’s shoulder slump when he realized that Quinn was right. When Frank got grounded he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere but school, and he wasn’t allowed on the phone or computer unless it had to do with education. That torture had gone on for a month before Frank went crawling to his parents to end his suffering. Never again does Frank plan on upsetting his parents that badly enough to ground him like that for that long.

All of a sudden, there was a loud piercing sound from deep in woods that had everyone jumping out of their seats and almost out of their own skin. It wasn’t the howl of a hunting wolf, or the roar of a killer bear. The sound was something unmistakable, and alarming. The sound was a scream not too far from where they were standing. Vic held Kellin and Frank close as everyone’s heart beat raced away in suspense. In seconds they all scrambled to the opposite side of the campsite.

“Did you guys hear that or was that my sixth beer kicking in?” Jacoby whispered loud enough for the others to hear.

Quinn shook his head, his eyes wide and scanning the tree line. “No dude, I heard it too.”

Adam shakily nodded, also looking towards the woods where the sound came from. “Yeah, me too.”

“Who was that?” Pete demanded, shielding a trembling Patrick behind him, who was clutching onto his shirt.

Frank looked around, realizing that Ville hadn’t returned from his bathroom break. “Where’s Ville?”

Everyone took a quick look around for their friend until they were interrupted by the sounds of twigs snapping and leaves rustling. Bert grabbed a nearby fallen tree branch for protection and stepped in front of the group. The sounds of someone panting for air was heard before a figure burst out from behind a bush. Everyone jumped back and screamed in fright at the sight of a possible murderer.

The dark figure fell to his knees, wheezing for air before looking up at them. Tears came to Frank’s eyes as they all let out a gasp. Ville had blood on him that stood out evidently against his clothes.

“Jesus Christ, Ville!” Bert cried out in horror, his eyes glued to the blood.

“Wh-What happened to you?” Vic demanded as he and a few others stepped forward to help him.

Ville shook his head and shouted out one word that had them halting in their step. “Run!”