Jamie was in awe of Frank Iero. Frank would show up at a local venue with his retro punk band shirts on, tattoo's poking out from underneath the sleeves, and collar, his dyed hair and piercings, and white les paul with the sticker on it reading "pansy" which practically lived in his car, sit on a couch in the corner of the room, and minutes later he'd be surrounded by High School kids of both genders. Though he played in a small band that wasn't exactly well known, Frank somehow still managed to attract a crowd regardless of whether they knew who his band was or not. Without exerting any effort whatsoever, Frank Iero was a celebrity. He didn't have to be on television, or in magazines, or for that matter, do anything and still people he didn't even know would approach him, teeth bared in large smiles and eyes gleaming "You're Frank Iero!" they would say. Frank hated hearing that. Like they thought he didn't know his own name or something. Still, he put up with it. The crowds that lingered around him at all times, waiting for so much as just a glance in their direction to let them know that he had actually acknowledged their existance. He was the indifferent god of Belleville's youth, and Jamie was amazed by him. Jamie was walking home one afternoon, when she passed the abandoned building that used to be a Coca Cola factory sometime back in the 90's. In the large bare parking lot that was usually empty, excluding the potheads and skaters who liked to hang around there, was a white van, standing out in the contrast of the rest of the landscape. Jamie watched as she walked by. Frank was walking out to the van, carrying his guitar, a cigarette hanging loosely from between his lips. He looked up, and Jamie looked away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him load his guitar and a small amp into the back of the van. Jamie didn't see his usual legion of followers anywhere around, and that automatically made her feel more at ease. He looked at her again, and this time she didn't look away. She stopped walking, and took a turn into the parking lot. "Hey, Pency Prep!" She called. Frank looked surprised, which, to Jamie was refreshing, since he was usually either looking bored, annoyed, or scarily friendly. "Hey…" Frank paused, and looked at the black band hoodie that Jamie was wearing. "Bright eyes." he continued, looking puzzled. "That's not actually my name," Jamie said. "I mean… it's a band.. That I really like." "But I don't know your name," Frank said, his eyes danced as he smiled. "Oh, right…" Jamie said, shoving her hands into her pockets. Frank stared at her expectantly, his brows arched, and a sly smile plastered onto his face. "Oh! Sorry," Jamie said. "I'm Jamie." Frank just smiled, taking the cigarette from between his lips and then dropping it to the ground. "Frank Iero," he said, as he leaned against the van. Jamie had to bite her tongue to keep herself from saying "I know". Frank stared at her for a few moments before sighing, and saying, "Alright, Bright Eyes Jamie, I'll see you around." He closed up the doors to the back of his van, and came back around to the front, to open the door on the drivers side. "Wait, I thought we were talking?" Jamie asked. Frank turned to look at her, once he was in the drivers seat, an amused smirk on his face. "We were." He closed the door, and put his keys into the ignition. His van stalled a few minutes before starting, and he looked back at her again when it finally did. Jamie hesitated, 'he probably thinks I'm a moron for standing here this long after he's already said goodbye' she thought. She felt her face getting hot, and given the good weather, knew she couldn't blame it on the cold Jersey wind. "See ya, Pency Prep." she said to him, turning around and walking away. From behind her she could hear the van noisily exiting the parking lot. After that day, Jamie completely understood Frank's followers. She understood exactly now, how they could hang around him all day, even though he rarely uttered a single syllable to them. And how they would still be content, just waiting for him to acknowledge their being there, which he scarcely did. Because it felt nice to be noticed by someone whom you couldn't help but notice. *** Jamie spent her next few weeks, searching for ways to "bump into" Frank. At shows, local venues, it really didn't matter where. And she did. But he never acknowledged her. As a matter of fact, It had been nearly a whopping two months after first speaking to Frank, that Jamie spoke to him again. And this was only because Frank had spoke to her first. There was something almost addictive about Frank, and the way that he looked at you when he spoke. "He's like the sunlight" Jamie remembered hearing someone say about Frank at a coffee shop, where he was doing a small acoustic show. "He's like the sunlight and they are all just waiting for him to cast a beam of light in their direction" they had said about his followers. Jamie had went to every Pency Prep show she'd heard of, and had never gotten so much as a wave out of Frank Iero. She watched as the small crowds that came to see Franks band, grew bigger. And Frank's band had soon become pretty much successful by local music standards. Anyone living in Belleville or, for that matter, anywhere around Belleville, who had any musical knowledge whatsoever, would instantly perk up at the sound of his name. So when word got around that Frank Iero had joined a new band with a bunch of kids that no one knew existed (excluding a certain Mikey Way, whom was known only by the fact that he was always at shows, and happened to be one of the lucky few that our Mr. Iero considered a friend.) Jamie made it a point to go and see them play. The tiny bar they'd been schedualed to play at was lacking in people who had actually came there to see the show. There were a few familiar faces, kids who followed Frank around all the time, the other members of Pency Prep were there as well, and some of Mikey's friends, but other than that, the bar consisted mainly of a much older crowd, who had come for the drinks. Jamie wasn't surprised to hear how good the band sounded, what she was surprised by was how they sounded. It was different than any other music that was currently alive in the industry. And everyone seemed shocked at how good Mikey's weird older brother could actually sing. 'My Chemical Romance,' Jamie thought to herself. 'Now THAT'S a band name.' When they were done, and stepped off of the "stage" Frank and Mikey's friends all crowded around the two, eager to voice their opinions on the bands sound. Mikey's older brother had taken his mic and amp outside and then returned back in, to take a seat at the bar, and order up a beer. The other two guys in the band were gathering their equipment up and carryng it out as well. Jamie grabbed her purse from off of the small round table, and swung it around her arm. She stood up and pushed the chair she had been sitting in, back against the table. "Hey, Bright Eyes." she turned around to see Frank standing behind her. "Hi." Jamie said. He looked at her purse, and at the table she'd been sitting at, and pulled a chair out, he spun it around backwards and sat on it, placing his arms against the back of the chair and resting his chin on his arms. "Oh, um.. I really liked the show." she told him. "It was ok. It could have been better. Mikey fucked up a couple' times, but he just started playing bass not long ago so he's doing ok, for a beginner, I guess and Gerard's voice broke a couple' times too." Frank said. "Well, we can't all be perfect, all the time, can we?" Jamie challenged. Frank lifted one brow, staring holes through her. "Um.. I should go." Jamie said, feeling awkward. Frank's face broke out into a smile then, and he began giggling. This would make it the first time Jamie had ever heard his cute little laugh. She couldn't help but smile. "I'm not perfect," Frank said, still grinning. "But I'm sure you could convince me otherwise, after you buy me a few drinks." "What?" she asked, confused. "You have to buy me a drink before you can get in my pants." he smiled. Jamie's face felt hot again. "I- I wasn't trying--" Frank interrupted her by bursting out into another fit of giggles. When the cloud of confusion lifted its self from Jamie's brain, and she realized that he was only kidding, she laughed too. "Who says I even like you?" Jamie asked, in her best flirting voice. "Everyone likes me." Frank's childish, and somewhat innocent smile was enough to make it perfectly fine that he sounded vain. After all, he had the right to be, didn't he? "I don't like you." Jamie lied. "Yeah. Because people who don't like me come to see my bands play all the time." he said sarcastically, still smiling. Mikey walked over then, his face was void of any type of emotion. He pushed his glasses back into place, and looked at Frank. "You ready to rock and roll?" he asked. Frank frowned. "We're leaving already?" "I've got to get Gerard home before he spends his entire paycheck on booze." Frank glanced over at Gerard who was happily sipping away at what looked to be his tenth drink of the evening. "Alright." Frank said. Mikey looked at Jamie for a moment before he turned back to Frank. "I'll be in the car. Hurry up." and with that, he turned and made his way to the bar where he began trying to coax Gerard away from his martini. Frank and Jamie stared at each other in silence before Frank's smile returned. "Last chance to buy me a drink, Bright Eyes." he joked. Jamie rolled her eyes and smiled. "Pshh. You wish, Iero." Frank just smirked and shook his head. "Did he really just learn bass?" Jamie asked. "Who? Mikey? Yeah.. I know that it sounds wacky to make a band up of a guy who really can't play bass for shit yet, his weird older brother who like never leaves his basement, and his brother's two friends, but.." he paused to laugh. "You should have heard how rediculas the whole concept sounded whenever Mikey first talked to me about it." "You left someone out." Jamie smiled. "The infamous Frank Iero, guitarist and vocalist from Pency Prep, and neglectful babysitter to all those persistantly obsessed eleventh graders from Newark who never leave his side." "You make me sound like a super hero." he grinned. "Frankie!" Mikey called from the doorway, he had his arm around his brother. "I'll meet you in the car." Frank told him. "So I'll see you around, Iero." Jamie said. Frank stood up, and nodded. "See ya, Jamie." *** Over the next few months, My Chem seemed to be getting more attention than Pency Prep did. And Mikey, had managed to score them a deal with a record label called Eyeball Records. And Jamie, and Frankie, had somehow became friends. After the night at the bar, Frank had went back to ignoring every other living being on planet earth who starved for his attention, aside from his band mates, close friends, family, and pets. And had it not been for Jamie's in it to win it attitude, they wouldn't have been friends at all. Jamie would say hi to him now, whenever she saw him. He had been blunt, and rude in the beginning, appearently not liking the idea of someone speaking to him when he hadn't spoken to them first. But Jamie would always push the conversation on, even if Frank was only answering with "Yes" and "No" and trying to cut her off in mid-sentence by saying things like "Are you still talking" or "You can go away now". Soon enough, Frank stopped trying to get rid of Jamie, and started happily greeting her every time he saw her. He usually hugged her, like he did all of his close friends, but lately he'd made a habit of taking a running leap on to Jamie, causing them both to go crashing to the ground. And then always saying something like "You were SUPPOSED to CATCH me! That's how they do it in the MOVIES!" One day, as the two of them were walking to the comic book store, where Gerard worked to meet up with him for coffee, Jamie saw a flyer on the sidewalk. "Oh wow, look at this," she picked it up, and scanned her eyes over the bold black print on the dirty flyer. Frank kept walking, until, three steps ahead of her, he realized she had stopped. "You don't pick up things that you find on the street in Jersey. Didn't your Mother ever teach you that?" he said, blowing out a thin line of smoke, as he ashed his cigarette. "It's a flyer." Jamie said. "No shit? You live in Jersey. And you found a filthy flyer on the sidewalk. How uncommon is THAT?" he said sarcastically. Jamie ignored him. "There's going to be a Memorial Day parade in Branch Brook Park.. Wow. Dude, they have floats… and pie. Free pie." "That's nice." Frank said, looking bored. Jamie gripped him by the shoulders. "PIE, FRANK! FREE PIE! CAN YOU BELIEVE YOUR EYEBALLS?!" She screeched, all excitable. Frank just frowned. "I guess I'm going to have to, since you just made me prematurely deaf." "Frankie, we have to go! We NEVER get parades here, and I LOVE parades. And.. Pie!" "Mmhm, mhm." Frank said, taking a drag from his cigarette. "No, I mean. I agree completely. We HAVE to go. Because, ya know, there's obviously someone holding guns against our faces, shouting 'you have to go to the mayday parade or I'll blow your fucking brains out'. I mean I totally agree with that." He said, heavy on the sarcasm. "It's Memorial Day. Mayday Parade is a band." Jamie frowned. "Whatever." Frank shrugged. "Anyway, you can't go. You already have plans. You said you'd come have coffee with me and Gerard." "You have coffee with Gerard all the time!" she objected. "But you don't." "And there's a reason for that. All Gee-tard ever talks about is comics, what he drew last night, and lyrics he's working on." Frank stared at her, trying to think of a come back to that. "That isn't ALL he talks about," he managed. "We talk about Star Wars a lot too." "Please, Frankie, PLEASE?! We can have pie and watch the floats and fireworks together, and then we can go for a walk in the park or something.. That sounds fun, doesn't it?" Jamie pressed. "That sounds like hell on earth." Frank said, dropping his cigarette butt into a drain. Jamie pouted, giving him her best puppy dog face. "Oh fine!" he gave in. "We can go to your stupid parade and eat your nasty pie, and watch your retarded fireworks. AFTER we have coffee with Gerard!" Jamie smiled, jumped up, and hugged him. "Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" she giggled. "This is going to end horribly, though," Frank told her. "Just so you know." They had coffee with Gerard and Jamie listened to Frank and Gerard argue over who would win in a fight with Batman against Wolverine, both of them saying 'no, that's bullshit! Jamie who do you think would win' Jamie ignored them, and sipped her latte. When Gerard had to go back to work, Jamie reminded Frank about the parade. When they got there, most of it was already over. The free pies, had already been consumed. The parade was ending. And Frank wouldn't stop bitching that the free Sundrop the two of them had managed to get, and were sharing, tasted flat, even though he still drank most of it. The fireworks had just started going off when they had arrived. They had sat down on an unoccupied bench, and Frank was leaned over, with his head resting on Jamie's head as they watched the fireworks in silence. "Oh did you see that one?" Jamie asked. "Yeah. Pretty." he said. He placed his arms around her waist, and pulled her over onto his lap, so that he could rest his chin on her head more comfortably as they watched the show. When Jamie watched the fireworks, all she could think about, was how beautiful the colors were, and overall, content she was at that moment. And Frank wasn't one for secrets, but as he watched the show, he was thinking something completely different. The biggest secret Frank had ever kept, was that he got bored and started a fire at his old privet school, and let the blame fall on a slow kid, and that wasn't a secret at all. Frank had managed to tell that story at least 9 times to people he'd only just met. For him, that was a perfectly acceptable ice breaker. Most people knew that the only password for everything Frank used was "erection" and had been since he was 10. They also knew that he laughed every time he said it. But now he had a secret all his own. Frank was in awe of Jamie. The way that she was beautiful, and made it seem easy, and how she put up with all his bullshit. The way that she blushed when she was nervous. And all the retarded jokes she would tell, that Frank would pretend not to like, and then later when he was alone in his room, randomly burst out laughing about when he retold them to himself, in his head. And how she saw right through his "bad-ass" façade, and rude remarks. "She smiles like sunshine," Frank remembered telling Mikey this the night he'd talked to her at the bar. "It's like… all the colors you get with the sunrise.. Like you can feel the whole damn rainbow expanding in your chest whenever she smiles." Frank was completely intrigued by Jamie. And no matter how dumb he thought parades were before, his perspective had been completely changed that night. If Parades were what it took to have her close to him, without having to explain himself, or even open his mouth to talk, he would have been willing to make up a new rediculas holiday every day, just so that he could have a parade there for her. He squeezed her tightly for a brief moment, and sighed. At that moment, he wished he could just keep her against him forever, but he was afraid he would never be strong enough, to keep them both safe. "Thankyou for coming to the parade with me." Jamie said quietly. Frank just smiled to himself. Cause he had wanted to all along. "Yeah." he answered. The wind carried the smell of the many cherry blossom trees in the park, and for a moment, he felt unbelievably small, and helpless. The last firework of the night went off, and he only noticed by the fact that Jamie had said "Well, that was really awesome." He wanted to be able to stay there, with her in his arms, to make the fireworks come back and give them both a little more time to enjoy the world. But he was afraid he'd never be strong enough to give her everything she deserved. So instead, he let go, and she stood up, and zipped up the same black hoodie she'd worn when she had first spoken to him in the parking lot that day. Frank rose to his feet, and stretched. "Where to?" Frank asked. "Home for me. I'm exhausted." Jamie said, yawning. Frank just nodded. He walked her home, the two of them expressing small talk, which mostly consisted of Jamie going on about the firework show, and Frank pretending to be uninterested. When they got to her house, they both paused, looking at each other. "Well, I had fun." Jamie said. Frank looked up at the sky, then back at Jamie and smiled. "Me too." "I thought you didn't like parades?" Jamie said. "I didn't." Frank told her as he started walking away. "But I like the sunshine." Jamie watched him walk away in confusion. *** That night, Frank sat in his bed with a notebook and a pen, and scribbled down the lyrics for what he knew would be the best song he'd ever written. And for what would be one of the only songs he'd ever written that would only ever be heard by 2 people. *** The next morning, Frank called Jamie at around 2 and told her to meet him at the old coca cola factory. Jamie had no idea why Frank wanted her to meet him there, he wouldn't say. She knew that Pency Prep sometimes secretely broke into the building and used it to practice and then get wasted in later, but she doubted that he would invite her to such an event. When she got there, she saw the white van parked in the empty parking lot. And Frank was leaned up against it wearing a black shirt that had "I am a monster" written all over it, some ripped jeans and a pink tiara. *yeah you've all seen that outfit before xD* Jamie laughed as she approached him. "To what do I owe the honor, Princess My Chem of Pency Prep?" she asked. Frank had an acoustic on his back, and he took her hand and lead her into the building. "We shouldn't be in here.." Jamie told him, looking around at all the empty beer cans and bottles that were scattered across the floor, and rusty machines. "You shouldn't be allowed to talk." he told her. He stopped walking then, and turned around, looking at her. "What?" Jamie asked. "Want to wear my tiara?" he offered. Jamie smirked. "Sure." he put it on her head and they continued to walk through the abandoned factory until they reached a room where bean bags were placed around the floor, a cooler was put next to one, as well as some battery operated lights, which were turned off, since it was day time and the sun was coming through the windows. Frank plopped down on one of the bean bags, and instructed her to do the same. She did as told. "You guys brought all this shit in here?" "It isn't shit, Jamie. It's cheap furniture. But yes. Now shut the fuck up. I made something for you." he said, placing his guitar on his lap. He tuned it for a moment, and cleared his throat. "If you're asking for my opinion on a song about beer and boobs, I'm going to have to say that I'm not going to listen to a damn word." Jamie said. "Shut up." Frank told her as he started strumming out some notes on his guitar. He started singing then, *by the way, this song was not written or preformed by Pency Prep, OR My Chem. It's Trading Yesterday's song, but in this story Frankie wrote it. So yeah.:]* "If all the flowers faded away And if all the storm clouds decided to stay Then you would find me each hour the same She is tomorrow and I am today And if right is leaving I'd rather be wrong She is the sunlight and the sun is gone If loving her is a heartache for me And if holding her means that I have to bleed Then I am the martyr and love is to blame She is the healing and I am the pain She lives in a daydream where I don't belong She is the sunlight and the sun is gone And if right is leaving I'd rather be wrong She is the sunlight and the sun is gone She is the sunlight and the sun is gone…" he sang perfectly and Jamie found herself hanging on ever word he'd said. She stared at him. He cleared his throat and looked around, then frowned at her. "Well don't just fucking look at me, say something!" he said. "You made that for… me?" she asked. He nodded slowly. "Frankie that was… beautiful." she said. He smiled. "You… love me?" She asked. "Everyone loves you." he smirked. "I'm serious." She said. "So am I." He stood up, and placed his guitar back on the bean bag, Jamie stood up too. He moved closer until their bodies were touching. "Of course I love you." he said quietly. Frank was never one for secrets. The biggest secret he'd ever kept was that he was completely head over heels for Jamie. And he had managed to tell her, and anyone else who would listen at least a million times every week.

Notes

This story is incredibly old and was written as a requested fanfic for a girl (Jamie) I was friends with on Mibba way back in the day. Please excuse any mistakes in grammar as well as spelling; I wrote this at 3 AM when I was all hyped up on coffee and never got around to editing it. Soooo... Yeah. Hope you enjoyed it! :)