Getting Surreal

“So he’s back with Jamia?” Ray asked Becks as they walked along the river.

“Yeah, I guess so. We ran into her at the bar and he brought her home…”

“Oh, God, you didn’t have to listen to that, did you?” Ray chuckled a little.

“No, thank the Lord,” Becks chuckled, too, and stuffed her hands in her hoodie pockets. “I ended up hanging with Mikey and going back to his and Gerard’s.” Ray nodded his head. “Yeah, so he’s been taking her out every other night or so. I like her. She seems really nice.”

“Yeah, she is,” Ray agreed, kicking at a small stick on the path they were walking. “I’m actually really glad they’re trying it out again. She’s good for him.”

“Why’d they split?”

“Uh, I don’t really know,” Ray shrugged. “She was working hard with school, he was working hard with music…life just kinda happened, I guess.” Becks let out a low hum. She knew how that went. “Anyways…how’s living with Frank?”

“Not much different from tour, I guess. We kinda just…chill, each junk food…drink.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Yeah. I can’t believe I never straightened out what I’d be doing in between tours.” She laughed wryly at herself, shaking her head.

“I mean, hey,” Ray gave her a consoling sort of look, “this whole thing just kinda dropped in your lap out of nowhere, right?” She nodded, the wry smirk still on her face. “I don’t know…I feel like I wouldn’t have thought to tie up the loose ends, either. Your place in all this is just so…” he paused, lost for the word.

“Surreal?” Becks offered.

“Yeah, that! I mean, we didn’t even know you, you didn’t even know us, and now you’re on tour with us because, what…Frank went to your show and thought you’d be good?”

“Pretty much.”

“Yeah. Surreal is pretty much the only word for it.” He chuckled as he spoke. “Hey,” he stopped walking and Becks followed suit, looking up at him. “Want to go get a coffee? That shop’s pretty good.”

She looked over to what looked like a small café that Ray was pointing to and thought a nice, warm coffee would be great. It may have been springtime, but springtime in Jersey could still have a bite of cold.

“That sounds great.”

“Awesome,” Ray smiled as he led her off the trail and across a parking lot to the little shop.

---

“So how was your date?” Becks asked a few hours later from her spot lounging on the couch and watching tv as Frank walked in.

She and Ray had spent around an hour at the coffee shop he’d pointed out, and she had a great time. Ray was just so chill and, in spite of being a self-declared hermit, he was really great to sit and chat with.

“Great.” He smiled as he threw his keys on the table near the door. “Also…I’m thinking about maybe hosting a smallish kind of party.”

“Oh?” At this, she tore her eyes from the screen and focused on Frank where he sat in the chair near the couch, her eyebrows raised in curiosity. “What for?”

“Uh, well…”he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Jamia’s trying to get this clothing line she’s kind of helped start off the ground, and, uh…I thought a party would help her get the name out there, you know? I’m, uh…” he leaned forward a little, his eyes lit up in excitement, “her stuff is pretty punk rock, you know, so I’m gonna invite everybody in the scene I know.”

“Oh, wow,” Becks sat up straighter in her seat. “How many people? Here? When?”

Frank chuckled a little at all her questions, rubbing at the back of his neck again. “Uh, I’m not too sure on how many people, yet. I mean, I think she’s got, like, two other people working with her on this stuff, and then there would be all of us. You, me, Mikey, Gee, Ray, Brian…” he paused and squinted at the ceiling in thought, “I don’t think Bob’ll be back here, yet, so that’s nine people, and then I’d like to see if the guys from Thursday want to come, and maybe some people down at Eyeball, and, well…pretty much anybody from the local music scene, I guess.”

Becks blinked as she took it all in. Holy shit, that’s a lot of people, she thought.

“So…what do you think?” Frank asked her. Not realizing she’d been staring blankly at her lap as she processed everything, Becks shifted her gaze to Frank and, noting his hopeful and excited expression, her heart warmed and she smiled a little.

“Well…uh, I think it’s a great idea…” his smile grew even wider. “Just, uh…it’ll be a lot of work, I think.” When Frank’s face dropped just a little, she jumped right back in with, “but really, I think it’d be cool.”

“Cool,” Frank nodded, his smile back in place again. “Yeah, it’ll definitely be a lot of work, but…I really wanna do it.”

“Okay.” Becks sat forward in her own seat, then, mimicking Frank’s posture, so that they were both facing each other directly. “So, do you have a plan?”

As Frank’s eyes went wide in a clear, ‘oh, shit, I didn’t think that far’ sort of way, Becks felt a slow and fond smile spread across her face.

---

After an hour or so of party planning, the pair felt they had a pretty stable idea on what was they were going to need for it. Sagging back in her seat at the dining room table (they’d moved to the dining room for their planning session), Becks let out a huff of air.

“Yeah,” Frank yawned out, stretching his arms wide as he leaned back from the table himself. “I think we’re good for this today. You hungry?” He shot a look at Becks who seemed to ponder his question deeply.

“I don’t think so…not yet.”

“Yeah,” he made a small face. “Me neither. What now, then?” The two sat there for the next couple minutes in silence, both trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their day. Becks looked outside and noted that the sun was only just starting to go down, meaning they still had the whole night in front of them. Suddenly, a thought struck her.

“Hey,” she said, grabbing Frank’s attention. He shifted his eyes to her from where he was staring outside, his chin in his hand. “Wanna go get a tattoo or piercing or something?” Becks watched as slow, mischievous smile spread across his face.

“You’re a genius, Becks.” She just smiled back, excited.

---

The clock on the dirty wall above Frank read that it was eight thirty-two.

“Here you go, guys.” The waitress said, and Becks stopped her surveying of the sketchy-looking inside of the sketchy-seeming Mexican joint that Frank had brought her to, and she looked down at the plate of tacos that was being placed in front of her. She was starved and could not wait to dig in.

Apparently, Frank could read her mind, because he let out a chuckle. “Hungry?”

She looked up at him like he was crazy because, no-duh, was she hungry, then she stopped, her (less than) witty response dying on her lips, and she instead smiled when she caught sight of his new lip ring.

When they’d gotten to the tattoo and piercing shop, a lip ring to offset the nose ring he already had was what he decided on. And looking at him now, she was so happy he did.

“Fuck, dude,” she said, taking a huge bite of her first taco. “You make that piercing look so good.”

“Mmmph?” He mumbled out around his vegetarian enchilada. Becks took it to mean ‘oh yeah?’

“Yeah. And it’s so beast with your new hair, man,” she said, nodding. He’d talked before about cutting and bleaching out the sides of his hair, and the final product was, in Becks’ opinion, epic. “Jamia’s one lucky girl.” She shot him a playful wink and Frank just smiled back.

“Well, that nose ring was fuckin’ meant for your face,” he quipped, nodding at her, bringing up the hoop she’d gotten on the left side of her nose, mirroring Frank’s own piercing. She just scrunched up her nose in a little smile and kept shoveling down the tacos. Frank seemed to be right – the seedier the taco joint, the better the food. The pair ate in silence for the next little while, the adrenaline from getting pierced having left them both borderline ravenous.

As she was finally slowing down on her taco intake, Becks spoke again.

“So,” she said, leaning back in her seat and casually throwing an arm over the back of the booth. Frank peered at her from over the beer he was washing down his food with. “Party is on Saturday.” Frank nodded. “Today is…Monday?” He squinted a little, thinking on it before nodding again.

“Yeah,” he said, dropping his beer to the tabletop as Becks picked up her own to take a hefty swig.

“Right, so,” this time she nodded, “we’ve got, what…five days to get this party off the ground?”

“Uh, yeah.” Frank slumped back into his seat, content and full.
“And we’re hoping for…”

“Uh…I’m gonna start calling around tomorrow, buuuut, hopefully thirty or forty?” His voice went high in question at the end of his sentence, his shoulders hunching up a little.

“Shit,” Becks whispered. That’s a lot of people on such short notice. “And food?”

“Nah, I’ve got it all covered,” he said, reading her thoughts again. “I’ve just gotta clean up the house a little, invite some friends, which I was gonna do anyways, and cater in some food.” He gave a small shrug. “Easy-peasey.”

“Where you catering in from?”

“Becks, relax,” Frank chuckled and she huffed out a sigh. “I’ve got this covered.”

Becks nodded slowly and picked up her beer again. “Sure you do,” she said lowly, shooting him a wink before finishing off her drink.

---

“So what’s up with all the doctor appointments? Are you sick?” Becks was standing on Frank’s patio with Mikey and Gerard, her concern for the younger Way’s health showing clearly in her tone. The Ways were a little bit late to Frank’s small backyard barbeque because Mikey had had another appointment that afternoon they were arriving from. Mikey just looked down at her in mild surprise.

“Oh!” He exclaimed, his eyebrows raised high. “I never told you? Geez, how did I forget…” he trailed off and rubbed at the back of his neck. “No, I’m, uh…I’m not sick. It’s just…”

“He’s getting Lasik,” Gerard cut in. Becks looked at him, a mix of surprise and confusion playing across her features, then back at Mikey.

“Lasik?” She asked, and Mikey nodded with a small smile on his face. “What’s that?”

“It’s for his eyesight,” Gerard explained, walking over to the pair – he had been sat at the far side of the patio, but was now stood in front of where Mikey and Becks were leaning on the railing. “It’s some kind of laser surgery that permanently fixes it.” Becks eyes went wide at that and she looked back at Mikey again.

“Really?”

“Mmhmm,” Mikey nodded vigorously, his excitement on the matter currently outweighing his nerves.

“Like, permanently?” Becks had never heard of this sort of thing before.

“Supposed to,” Mikey gave a small shrug.

“So,” Becks’ brow furrowed as she took it all in, twisting in her spot so that she was facing Mikey dead on. “You won’t need your glasses anymore?” Mikey shook his head a little.

“Nope.” Becks just stared up at him in wonder and confusion, and it made him chuckle. “What?” He asked her.

“I, uh,” she shook her head as though to clear her thoughts, but kept staring up at him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without your glasses,” she said quietly, cocking her head to the side a little. “Like, I’ve literally seen you asleep, but you still had them on.” She gave a tiny chuckle that Mikey was going to reciprocate, but then she was reaching up towards him and he froze, suddenly unable to even breathe or blink. “Can I?” She asked quietly with her hands up next to his head.

Mikey suddenly seemed to have a hard time catching his breath. Becks was right up in his personal space and almost touching his cheeks and he just couldn’t seem to find his voice, so he just nodded lightly, swallowing nervously.

At his allowance, Becks brought her hands up just a bit more and gently grabbed the sides of his glasses, about to take them off him, when suddenly the door burst open and Frank strode loudly onto the patio with Jamia in tow. In her surprise from the sound and intrusion, Becks quickly withdrew her hands from Mikey’s glasses and spun around, coming face to face with an extremely amused looking Gerard, who, in all honesty, she had forgotten he was even there for a few minutes.

Becks blinked at him, giving an expression of mild confusion (towards his amusement or the fact that she’d forgotten him being there, she didn’t know) before looking past him and to Frank who was listing all the food he had and was about to start grilling.
“And Ray said he should be here in about twenty, so, yeah.” He nodded to himself, hands on his hips, then looked over at Becks and the Ways, noting all of their odd expressions. “What? Did I miss something?”

Gerard just smirked and shook his head. “Nah, nothing. You need help with that?” He threw an arm towards the grill and Frank nodded.

“Yeah, sure, dude.”

---

Forty minutes later, and the group had all eaten and were just chatting about. Frank was showing Gerard something inside, and Ray, who had shown up with a case of beer just before the food was ready was stood at the far end of the patio, talking excitedly with Mikey.

Becks was sat with Jamia on the bench along the house, and was watching the guitarist and bass player with a fondness in her heart. Ray seemed really happy tonight and Mikey? He seemed over the moon, for whatever reason. Becks couldn’t keep her eyes off of him as he laughed and gave Ray full-fledged, toothy smiles, while gesturing wildly with his hands as they spoke. His happiness was having an effect on her, and she could feel a swell of something (she wasn’t quite sure) in her chest.

“So, any guys on your horizon?” Jamia asked Becks.

Hearing the question snapped Becks out of her small daze and she tore her eyes away from the younger Way to look at the girl sat next to her.

“Uh, not really,” she shrugged a little. When Jamia gave her a look that clearly stated ‘oh, come on,’ Becks added on, “I don’t really have time for it when we’re on tour, I guess.”

Jamia hummed as she took a sip of her beer. Becks wasn’t quite sure, but she thought it sounded a little unconvinced.

“Anyways, I’ve never been too good at the whole dating thing, I guess.”

“Nah, you’ve just gotta find the right guy. The rest’ll come easy.” Cheesy though her words seemed, Becks found them to be surprisingly soothing.

“Yeah, so like, you and Frank?”

Jamia gave a shy, happy little smile. “Yeah, I guess,” she answered quietly.

“I think you guys have something really good,” Becks said, reaching down for another beer.

“Me too,” Jamia nodded.

“Yeah.” Just then, Frank and Gerard burst back out on the patio, all giggles and smiles. “You’re a lucky girl, Jamia.” Jamia gave her a small questioning look. “Frank’s such a good guy and adores you to pieces. And the party tomorrow is gonna be great!”

Becks eyed the small blush forming across Jamia’s face, then shot her a smile and stood up to go see what Ray and Mikey were chatting about.