Love Can't Save You

She had brown hair at the time. It was a little lighter than my natural hair color, but way darker than Mikey’s. Her natural color, same as Frank’s. Her eyes are icy blue and when she wore black eyeliner they had little green flecks in them. Her eyes are the kind of eyes that would make you want to do anything just to see them all the time. Her lips were a reddish color, and her skin pale to the fact where she looked like a modern snow white. She has tiny brown freckles that dust the bridge of her nose and her arms.

Her icy blues were outlined with red eyeliner that day and she wore a black band tee tied in the back because it was way too big for her. She has a slender body, but still a little meat on her bones. Her cheeks are chubby and she looked like a girl version of Frank, but it never dawned on me that she was his sister. She has that fierce, hotheaded attitude and a bad temper but she also has a really fun trusting side. Not to mention she’s adorable when she’s jealous. I managed to pick that much up about her in the five or ten minutes that day we met.

She was exactly the kind of girl I’ve always wanted but never went for. The kind of girl I knew I would have to spend the rest of my life with. She would keep me challenged and out me in my place. I think it was hate at first sight for both of us. I’m sure your saying in your little heads ‘but Gerard! You two fall in love and get married and have billions of kids together!!!’ but that’s not what I mean at all. (And don’t get ahead of yourselves. We’re are only 31 and 28). We both represented the thing we feared the most, love. The second we heard about each other from our friends and peers we convinced ourselves that we hated each other. Maybe the line between love and hate isn’t so thick after all.

***
Lissa Iero. Melissa Iero. Lissa. Iero. I’ve heard both names before. Lissa is commonly known by every guy in Jersey as easy, but she really isn’t from what I’ve heard. She’s had a lot of boyfriends but she’s only done it with a few of them, the ones she trusted and known for a long time. Oh god I sound like a fucking girl. She has that effect on me. She was beautiful though. No, I argued with myself, I couldn’t think about the enemy like that.

“Gerard, Frank’s here with Alicia and Jamia. He said his sister will be here after her shift is over.” Toro called from where he was tuning his guitar. We were practicing in his basement again since we have nowhere else to go.

“Hey Frank.” I called as I walked over and sat down next to him. He smiled back at me in his weird Frankie-like grin.

“Hey Gerard!” He squealed. Jamia rolled her eyes at him and I laughed. Jamia was good for him. Kept him calmer.

“Hey Jamia, Alicia. What’s up?” I asked politely. Jamia turned her attention from Frank for a second to wave a little. Alicia smiled at me.

“Hey Gerard. I’m doing pretty ok. How are you?” She answered just as politely, then giggled.

“Same,” I smiled. “How is your band doing? Heard you’re pretty much our only competition.” Her face fell for a second.

“Not very good. I’m trying to convince our drummer to stay in the band for just one more gig. Our guitarist is quitting too, but Liss can play the guitar so we don’t need her, though we’ll definitely miss her. It’s just so fucked up. Liss has tried so hard to make this work and I can’t even fucking tell her they’re quitting.” Alicia ranted. Her face fell and Mikey sighed.

“It’s ok, Leesh. We’ll figure this out.” He murmured. The sound of a car pulling up in the driveway filled our ears and Alicia sighed.

“Lissy’s here. Shut your mouths.” She muttered as Melissa Iero ran down the stairs. The same one from the shop, why didn’t I realize before she was Frank’s sister? She flew down the stairs in a big hurry, with her brown hair flying behind her. It looked like she had tears in her eyes.

“I am going to fucking KILL them!” She screamed. Frank jumped up and ran to her. Alicia sighed, guessing what the matter was.

“What’s wrong Liss? What happened?” Frank asked hugging her. She sniffled for a second and stopped her hysterical crying.

“The fucking bitches just called me and quit. I almost had a fucking accident trying to get here.” She sobbed, then tried to control herself again. “Sorry I didn’t take the bus.”

“It’s ok, it’s ok.” Frank whispered, and led Lissa to sit next to me on the couch. She had stopped crying but now she was kind of hiccupping, which was weird because I’ve never actually seen somebody do that before. Alicia pulled out her cell phone and grumbled incoherent words while dialing a number.

“I’ll be right back.” She muttered. I sighed, this practice was just about ruined, but at least I had some time for my thoughts. Melissa was Frank’s sister! Why didn’t I ever realize? It was so obvious; they have so much in common. The same eyes, nose, and hair. The same chubby face that you couldn’t stay mad at for more than a second. And definitely the same hyperness.

But Frank was my friend. Would he approve of Melissa and I, knowing the way I treat other girls? Probably not.