Writing for a Cause

17. Every Tenth Letter

Frank's POV

Letter 130
Hey, Gee! We're almost a quarter of the way through our last year of college already! How do you feel about that? It seems like time goes by so fast. Anyway, I love you, and I'm excited to see you again.
xofrnk

That looked like a good enough letter, so I folded it up and put it down on Gerard's desk. Today was Saturday, and Gerard was out drinking coffee with Lindsey. I decided to sleep in, so right now was the first time I had been awake today.

A knock came to the door and I groaned. Who could possibly want to be here at this time of the day?

Of course, I thought to myself when I opened the door and saw Axl standing there. He was chewing his nails and pacing back and forth, clearly still fucked up in the head.

He turned to look at me when he finally noticed I had opened the door. "Frank! Hey! How's it going old buddy? I just... needed to ask a favor of you."

"What the fuck do you want now, Axl? You can't just come up to my room and expect me to just cooperate. Why can't you just get out of my life?"

"Please just listen, Frank! I won't be long!"

"Okay. I'm listening. Go ahead!"

"I need some money. Not too much, just enough to get me through. Think you can spare me a few bucks?"

"I would be able to spare you a few bucks if you weren't going to blow it off on drugs," I replied smartly.

"Why would you assume that about me? I'm not all that bad Frank! You've lived with me for three years! You know that! Never once did I use drugs! You know that? Right?" He was now panicking, but I didn't care.

"Oh for fucks sake, Axl! The signs are all right there. You're jittery, anxious, paranoid, and your pupils are enlarged. What other signs do I need to add in order to get the point across to you that I can see you're clearly on drugs?"

"Agh!" He screamed out in frustration. "Why can't you just listen to me, you stubborn little bastard?" He screamed, slamming his fist against the wall.

"Aggression."

"What?"

"Aggression. Another sign that you're on drugs. Just give up Axl, I'm not giving you anything."

"Damn, you! Always got to ruin my life!" Before I knew what was happening, Axl's fist collided with my face and I fell back into my room. I felt around my face and soon noticed that my nose was bleeding.

"What the fuck is happening here?" I heard someone yell from down the hallway. I recognized it to be Bert's voice, and I was thankful that someone just witnessed that.

"This bitch owes me money, and he's not paying up!" Axl lied. Bert looked over to me and I quickly shook my head to deny the accusations.

"Oh yeah? I've got some money in my room, want me to go get it for you?" Bert directed just question towards Axl.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I don't care who gives me the money, I just need it."

"Okay, follow me." When Axl took a step forward, Bert immediately shoved him to the ground and landed multiple punches to his face. Meanwhile, I was still trying to prevent my nose from completely bleeding out.

"What the hell?" Axl said before standing up again and backing away.

"Get out. Leave. Go back to your own dorm." Axl stood there, sort of shocked. When he didn't make any attempt to move, Bert raised his voice. "Get out!" And Axl quickly scurried away from the hall.