Everything But Time is Running Out

Silence was all I heard once I had finished giving a less-detailed-than-they-were-expecting overview of Thursday's events. Frank, of course, had heard the full story as he was there with me when we filed the police report, but much to my appreciation, he did not say a word as I huffed and puffed frustrating events, cried during shameful and embarrassing moments and shied away during their questions and answers throughout my awkward speech.

"So..." Bob was the first to speak, "you have no clue of the identity of those bastards?"

"All we have to go off of is the name Kirk." I told them, sadly.

"Well, at least Kirk isn't such a popular name, right? It should be fairly easy to find the guy." Gerard tried to offer optimism. The rest of the guys nodded their heads solemnly. I smiled lightly at Gerard for his kind words.

"Yeah, but we haven't heard back from the police yet," Frank added, grabbing my hand.

"Don't worry about it, man," Ray said. "It takes forever and a day for policemen to track people down, and then they need to interview and interrogate and then with all of the reports and paperwork they have to legally document and confirm, it very well may take a bit before you do hear back from them. But, I bet you my ass, Kara, that you can rest assured knowing they are doing their best to catch these jerks and put them behind bars for life!"

"Well, maybe not for life," Mikey said, putting a damper on Ray's pep talk, "but perhaps put a felony on their records and put them away for at least a year or so."

"As long as they catch the Goddamn guys, I'll be on fucking cloud nine," Gerard said. "Hell, if it weren't illegal, I'd even help to catch them."

"Gee, you can't even beat me in arm wrestling and you want to take on the three dudes that have the steel conscious to assault a random, helpless girl?" Ray taunted. I could see the challenge automatically accepted between their gazes and right away, they made way on the living room table and got in stances for an all-in arm wrestling match.

"When I prove you wrong, Toro, you're gonna be my slave until the end of time," Gerard confidently warned.

"And when I win, Way, you're gonna let me choose the next theme to the next album." There were gasps taken throughout the room and Gerard's face was pricelessly scared shitless. "Wanna back down and just give in?" Ray offered with hope.

"Not even in your dreams!" And so the match started. I was honestly glad that the overall mood had shifted from my depressing energy to one that was bright and lively. I decided now was a good time to take a shower and finally get into some different clothes. Frank helped me grab my things and we made our way down to his room.

"Hey," Frank started confessing, "I did actually hear from Ofc. Medley right before we met you here."

"Really?" I perked up, the tone of my voice going higher than it had in a few days.

"Yeah..." he didn't seem too happy to deliver this news. "They haven't found anyone named Kirk who is a part of a fraternity. I mean, they did find one guy, but his major's department isn't even close to that frat's building so he doesn't even have reason to be at that part of campus, especially that late at night."

"Oh..." I continued to grab my things, becoming less interested in what we were talking about.

"Aww, doll, don't be like that..." Frank made me stop what I was doing to hug me. "They are still going to investigate this guy the best they can and they told me they'd call me as soon as any progress was made. I... I just thought I'd keep you up to date with the whole thing, even if it was a bit disheartening..." I could tell he felt bad for being the first to deliver bad news, especially because it was the very first piece of news that I was hearing.

"Thank you so much, Frank," I said returning the hug. "I truly do appreciate everything you did and are doing for me. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for you. I'm just so relieved to have you."

"And happy, right? You're happy we have each other?" I nodded eagerly.

"Of course."

"Good. Because you got me if you want me, and you should definitely know by now that I want you."

"No dipping the wick while we are in the house!" Gerard yelled right next to us.

"Douchebag!" Frank insulted, punching Gerard, but not before Gerard had dodged and retreated into the bathroom causing Frank to hit a fist full of air. "That is definitely not what we were talking about!"

"You could've fooled me!" Gerard's voice echoed from the bathroom. I saw Frank roll his eyes as he gave me a sheepish smile. I laughed and shoved Frank out of the room so I could change. His face was holding mournful puppy eyes as I closed the door in his face. When I walked out, the guys were huddled over top of the small living room table, all trying to get a peek at a single piece of paper.

"No!" Mikey said, shooing me away.

"Why?"

"Because!" He wasn't giving anything away as to what it was or why it was secretive.

"It's for our show tomorrow," Frank explained.

"Yeah! And nobody is allowed to know ahead of time what goes on about it! Not even us band members!" Mikey said, which confused the hell out of me.

"What he means is that we have gotten nowhere with our progress regarding set lists or anything," Bob said, a little irritated.

"We're making progress now!" Gerard screeched impatiently. "That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you guys now! So when we all walk on stage..." His voice droned on as I silently excused myself and walked into the kitchen for a snack. Little did I know that I wouldn't be allowed back for at least another hour. I got sick of looking at my phone so I decided to sneak through the room to get my art stuff, which was located in Frank's room.

"Hey!"

"Not yet!"

"Peeping Tom!"

"Cheater!"

"Ahhhhh!"

They all yelled at me as I inched my way toward the hallway. Mikey was the once who screamed, taking one for the team and completely shielding their notes with his body, crinkling and partially ripping pages. I held me hands up and escaped into the hall, hurrying to Frank's room. Motherfucking. I realised I had forgotten my water and my phone in the kitchen. I sighed aloud. Today is going to be a long ass day.



I stretched and yawned as I looked over my progress. My BioShock poster was nearly finished. I was impressed with how I had managed to blend the background of the deep, dark sea with flashing neon lights of the signs welcoming you to Rapture. A little sister was leading Big Daddy, holding hands, through a glass tunnel while Jack suspiciously approaches from behind, his hand sparkling with Vigor. Narcissistic thoughts were widespread in my mind while I admired the way I transitioned black, grey and white charcoal to a rainbow of colors as the eye reaches further into the photo. My hands and arms were covered in dust while my face was likely to look the same. I was stiff, tired, exhausted and thirsty as hell.

I made my way to the bathroom, trying my best to not touch anything. As I was attempting to turn the doorknob with nothing by my elbows and my shirt, I noticed that the atmosphere seemed a bit too quiet. I slowly turned my head to see I had an audience hunched over each other, observing my not-so-stealthy lack of coordination of trying to get to the sink.

"Will she successfully make it? The world may never know..." Ray questioned, imitating a talk show host's deep voice. Gerard stepped forth to gentlemanly open the door for me and turn on the sink.

"You are gonna test the water temperature for her too, Gee?" Someone from the hallway called out, jokingly. And just because someone had mentioned it, he forced me to wait until the temperature was absolutely perfect body temperature, slowly twisting the handles back and forth. When it was finally to his liking, I curtsied to him and thanked him for his services. He bowed at me, walking backwards and dismissing himself to give me privacy. Shockingly, that was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me; the water felt heavenly and I wish I could've just stood there, letting the water cascade over my skin, but alas, this was not my water bill to pay.

"Are you ready to rock and roll?" Mikey asked me when I approached the living room. He jumped over to me, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"What? I thought your show wasn't until tomorrow?" I was a little confused.

"Bros gettin' shitty in hotels tonight!" Bob exclaimed, already holding up an uncapped beer in his hand.

"Wait, we're already drinking?" Gerard said, upset that he had missed the memo.

"No we are not! We still gotta pack up all of our shit and then drive there!" Frank's voice called out from the hallway closet that I never knew existed. He was trying to tug out a giant amp while holding a couple guitar stands. "Would one of you fuckers give me a hand?" Nobody moved and I noticed Gerard take baby steps toward the kitchen, probably in hopes of sneaking out a beer for himself. "Okay, not everyone fucking jump at once." Aggravation leaked from his voice. I volunteered, moving forward. "Thank you, love! What a surprise that the only one who isn't in this Goddamn band helps get ready for our show tomorrow." I looked over my shoulder and Gerard raised his beer can to me in cheers. I laughed to myself, trying to stay quiet because I'm sure Frank wouldn't appreciate his gesture of laziness.

Not long after Frank and I finished moving everything that was in his closet, I was ready to shed my skin due to a thick layer of sweat covering me. Mikey had dragged Gerard to the car in order to get their gear from their place. Ray and Bob had planned ahead and had their stuff loaded in the vehicle all nice and safe. They were relaxing on the couch, going on their third and forth beer, stacking up the cans to begin making a tower.

"What are you going to do when we leave for the hotel?" I nodded toward their five-can piece of art.

"Take it with us, of course!" Bob said, raising his can and splashing some on Ray's face.

"Uck! Dude!" Ray said, wiping his hand over his face. Shortly after staring at it, though, he licked his hand, giving Bob a thumbs up.

There was a loud clunking noise as I looked out the window. The other guys didn't seem to even notice it. Gerard and Mikey pulled into the parking lot, parking in the non-parking zone right in front of the building. They stepped out and started waving frantically for us to come down. "Guys," I said, "I think we are a Go for the road."

"I knew it was them," Ray said, packing up the empty cans of beer in his backpack. "Fucking Mikey and his muffler."

"I agree with Mikey, though," Bob said, packing up full cans of beer in his backpack. "I'd rather use the money on amps and mikes and whatnot instead of the car that is still technically functional."

"Mhm. True dat, bruh."

I went to get Frank, but realised he was already making his way down, carrying whatever he could to make the number of trips to and from his car as less as possible.

I grabbed the last guitar stand, holding the guitar with great care and followed the guys to where the Way brothers had parked. Passing Frank, he mentioned how him and I were riding together, Ray and Bob and then Gerard and Mikey. Because their cars were pretty much the same size (small AF), we had to take three separate cars to carry all of the equipment along with six adult sized bodies. "The car's unlocked, babe. I'll be right down after I lock up." He jogged ahead while the other guys honked their horns in farewell, pulling out of the parking lot and heading on their way.



"Oh baby! Ow, owww!" Ray cat called out to Frank and Gerard as they kissed. Laughter and wild clapping followed. They had wanted to play Suck and Blow after they became blasted from playing Queens, which started right after we had arrived and Ray brought out the magical drinking deck of cards. Frank had refused to let me play unless I agreed that my turn would only be taking the card from his lips and then returning the card to his lips; he wasn't about to have me kissing every band member in the room. How did he know I was Godawful at this game?

The kiss lasted longer than we had expected; I guess they were enjoying it a little more than anticipated. When Gerard and Mikey had kissed, it ended up with Mikey grabbing his toothbrush to scrub his lips and Gerard grabbing a new beer to gurgle with. "That's how I had always imagined kissing you would be like," Gerard said, dreamily to Frank, who wasn't disgusted. Frank winked at him and then started drinking another sip of the beer.

"How come I'm not a part of your fantasies?" Bob asked, pouting.

"You are!" Gerard replied back, surprising Bob. "You play the butler who serves my every waking and sleeping wish... Now go get me another beer, Butler!" Gerard threw the empty can at Bob, who didn't quite dodge it, but quickly grabbed it to add it to the leaning tower of nasty, sticky, smelly beer cans over in the corner. I suggested they used the corner for stacking after they spent an entire hour trying to get the damn cans to not fall. Using both walls in the corner had helped immensely, but I chose to leave that fact out at the guys were pleasantly pleased with themselves for successfully building them without failing.

"I think the person who has contributed the least to Mt. Me Please has to be the butler!" Mikey suggested.

"Mt.... Me Please?" Bob asked while Frank giggled himself into hysterics.

"Don't mind if I do!" Gerard said, sitting in Bob's lap.

"Get off me, you fag!" Bob yelped ask Gerard pecked him on the cheek, nice and slobbery.

"Only because it's you that I'll let you call me names," he said seductively, hugging onto Bob.

"That sentence barely even made sense."

"Do we know how much he's drank?"

"Maybe the person who has contributed the most to Mt. Me Please should be the butler..."

Frank still hadn't stopped laughing and I couldn't help but to laugh, too. Suddenly, all of us were laughing and five minutes later, we were in tears and cramps, pointing at each other laughing and then laughing even harder. We didn't even remember what was so funny, but the fact that we were laughing over nothing made us laugh.

We were almost calmed down, hiccuping and chuckling when suddenly Ray let one loose quite loudly and that started a whole new round of giggles. "Guys..." he said urgently, "GUYS!" We all quieted down, trying to figure out why there was a sudden urgency for our attention. "I think I just had an accident..." And that comment alone just killed what was left of us. There was no sympathy for Ray as he got up to change as Mikey tried to comment about what had just happened.

"Oh my... God... What if... that... hap-happened... tomorrow... on stage!"

"Holy... shi...t ... dude, you...'ve got to... get that... checked... out!"

There were incomplete sentences everywhere as Ray apologised to me about his IBS, I am guessing because I was the only girl and he was a little embarrassed. I waved him off as if it was no big deal because honestly it wasn't; we all have bodily functions. It just so happens that Ray's was less behaved and more responsive than others.

When we all had finally calmed down, we were suddenly totally drained. It was four in the morning and we all (or rather, they guys) had to be up and moving by one to drive to the place, get set up and familiar with the stage and the sound systems, etc. Nobody said anything as we started getting ready for bed. Ray had excused himself to go shower in his room while Gerard and Mikey scooted all of the shit (figuratively speaking) off of their bed. Frank lazily grabbed hold of my hand, helping me up and we waved the Way brothers goodnight, followed by Bob who made his way toward where Ray was.

"I'm so glad we didn't all decide to party here," Frank expressed, collapsing on the bed. I sleepily nodded in agreement, changing into my pj's. By the time I had washed my face and did my nightly routine, Frank was lightly snoring. I took a moment to admire his sleeping face. His soft features were enough to just about make me fall in love with him. Wait... Fall in love? That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but I just didn't expect my feelings to progress so quickly... I wonder if Frank feels the same... I thought to myself as I tucked myself in. As always, Frank was the last thing on my mind when I passed the fuck out.



"How the hell are you fuckers?" Gerard yelled into the mic. The entire place cheered and yelped and howled. Good crowd, I thought as everyone seemed stoked to have a live band. I was relieved that it was going well. Sound check went smoothly, moving and putting together the stage was perfect and the energy of the guys went through the roof about two hours before they were on.

I head banged and was bouncing and dancing as they played through their songs. I couldn't tell you the names of the songs, but the energy was grungy, but happy, but sad, but morbid. It was awesome. Absolutely awe-inspiring. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. I enjoyed myself, dancing as just another die-hard fan in the crowd until the song had ended. I was panting in exhaustion, wiping my brow with my arm. I haven't felt this alive in so long. I was totally letting myself go, feeling the music, feeling the energy of the crowd. Nobody knew me enough to judge me, nobody recognised me enough to talk to me; I was just another face on the earth, another face body in the pit. I wasn't sure if Frank or the guys noticed me at all in the front rows, but I didn't care. I just let my instincts take over, guiding me to how to move, dance, breathe.

"Alright guys, I've got a special little surprise for you all! Or rather, for a certain somebody..." Gerard announced. The crowd screamed in excitement regardless of whether they thought it was about them or not. "This next song is called Weight of the World, written by yours truly and someone else who we are not too familiar with writing song lyrics!" That caught my attention and I saw how Gerard was gesturing toward Frank. "That's right, folks. There was a spark of inspiration and dare I say L.O.V.E.-" Gerard made eye contact with Frank, who looked a little bashful, but he smiled and waved, "-and this, ladies and gents, is how the song goes!" And with that, they started playing. I was listening intensely to this particular song because Gerard all but gave away that it was about me. Of course, nobody in the crowd knew that, but I'm sure Frank had probably wanted him to hint about it so I would know as they played.

Who's to say there's a way this has to end?

We're writing our own rules
Who's to blame?
Give me names and what they said.
Oh how could they hurt you?

And when you crumble away under pressure...
You need to borrow my strength and I'll let ya.
It's getting heavier hold, hold it steadier.
I see...

Life is throwing you curves.
You can make it
Take it in, try again, you don't deserve this
I just wanna save you.
You can take it on the chin.
Try again.
You'll make it
You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

Separate what you hate from what you love.
Once and for all
And if you tumble my way I can catch ya.
If you follow my lead,
And I'll bet ya its feeling heavier.
Hold, hold it steadier.
I see...

Life is throwing you curves.
You can make it.
Take it in, try again, you don't deserve this.
I just wanna save you.
You can take it on the chin.
Try again.
You'll make it
You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

Life is throwing you curves.
You can make it.
Take it in, try again, you don't deserve this.
I just wanna save you.
You can take it on the chin.
Try again.
You'll make it
You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

Don't have to carry the weight

You don't have to carry the weight of the world.

Carry the weight of the world.

Who's to say there's a way this has to end?

As the song ended, Frank found me standing in front of the stage made eye contact with me. All of a sudden, it was just him and I in the building. As lame as it sounds, it was like rose petals were falling from the skies and I felt myself floating up to meet his gaze. He smiled a glowing white smile, his angelic face brightening the room. The sounds of the screaming crowd faded back in and I realised I was probably the only person not cheering. I smiled back at Frank as he nodded at me, taking one last glance before walking over to Gerard and the mic. "Thank you guys and goodnight!" The stage lights all went out simultaneously and they were off stage in a blink of an eye. I still stood there a little breathless trying to recall the lyrics that Frank had written for me. Sa-woon.