Subway Train ➫ Frerard

chpt. thirty-seven ➫ her

frank sat in the center of the train station, quietly bawling his heart out. he didn't know what else to do. his card was out of money, and the only cash he had was $3.48.

"hey, dude," frank heard an extremely unfamiliar voice. "i'm sorry, but you have to get off of the floor. people need to get places, and the floor's just straight up nasty."

frank looked up to see a bright orange haired girl. her bangs covered her eyebrows, and her eyes were hazel, just like gerard's. she held a hand out to frank, trying to help him up. frank took her small hand into his and stood up.

frank smiled at her, as did she. they made this weird eye contact, as if they've known each other for a really long time.

"thanks." frank nodded.

"anytime." the stranger nodded. "i'm hayley."

frank shook her hand. "frank iero."

"interesting name." hayley said, kind of mumbling.

"thanks," frank chuckled. "so is yours."

hayley smiled as frank walked out of the station with her. he thought that they could become friends, and hopefully she'd tell him how to get home.

"so where ya headed, frank iero?" hayley asked, hands in her pockets.

"oh," frank stopped. "i'm actually trying to get back to east 23rd street... near gramercy park?"

hayley stopped walking. "gramercy? how'd you get here, if you were trying to go back there?"

"well... it's a long story." frank shrugged.

"i have time." hayley smiled.

--

gerard expected to see frank at the apartment, he was ready to squeeze the living daylights out of him.

"fra-"

gerard walked into an empty apartment. he was visibly confused and disappointed. he pulled out his phone to text frank, but the thin chance that his phone ran out of battery was becoming a very, very thick chance.

frankie, where are you??

he set his phone on the coffee table and sighed. he sat down on the couch and decided to watch a movie. he needed something to "psyche him out" as frank says instead of "scare me." he flipped through his digital library and picked a scary movie to watch. there weren't too many good ones he had before, but frank downloaded a whole bunch of them since he moved in.

gerard chose the movie the shining, and he's watched this about ten times with frank. it couldn't scare him anymore, but he does get a few kicks here and there.

"here's johnny!"

gerard chuckled as he felt his eyelids become heavy. he checked the wall clock for the time. 1am. he was worrying about frank, where he could be, who he could be with. a lot can happen in a few hours. what if he's kidnapped again?

"agh." gerard smacked himself in the face for thinking that. he can't be. he has a phone, and wherever he is, i'm sure he's fine, gerard thought. he slowly drifted to sleep, trying to forget about all the problems he was having, but the one thing he couldn't keep off his mind was frank.

--

"that's awful," hayley sighed. "i'm so sorry you had to experience that."

frank shrugged. "it's whatever really. i was getting really bad trauma from it."

"i would've, too." hayley said as she leaned against her kitchen counter, sipping her warm tea. she watched frank cross his legs atop her dining room chair and drink out of his mug anxiously. "might i ask?"

"anything." frank said, mouth moistened from the tea.

"what happened to you before that caused you so much trauma?" hayley asked. "something must've happened before for you to have this trauma again."

"oh, uh.. well, long story short—i was kidnapped. they found me two weeks later and my kidnapper was shot dead, and the other one was arrested. i just remembered hearing the gunshot, and the body and ah." frank shook his head, remembering so much from that one day.

"oh my goodness frank, that's terrible. it's glad to hear that you're safe and alright now, we wouldn't have been talking," hayley smiled. "it's just so horrible to hear that other people do this to completely innocent and harmless strangers. we're all the same species, why do this to someone of your kind?"

"i couldn't agree more," frank said. "it doesn't make sense."

hayley nodded. "this is a sick world, frank. nothing makes sense anymore."

frank looked down at his mug and stared at the black tea inside it. he tapped the side of the cup with his finger and it made this clink, clink sound. he didn't say anything for a really long time.

hayley cleared her throat. "so, tell me about gerard."