February 24th, 2005
Venice, Italy
Hotel Rialto
4:45pm
It was a hotel night. And after a lot of begging, pleading, and downright desperation from the both of them, Elliot and Frank managed to get a room all to themselves for some much needed privacy.
“I swear to God,” Gerard said earlier that day in the hotel lobby, drawing attention to from the other hotel people, “You make me an uncle; I am going to be so pissed.”
Elliot rolls her eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me young lady, you’re only eighteen,” he says exasperated.
“Young lady? Excuse you, it shouldn’t concern you what Frank and I do after hours, while behind closed doors,” she said a little irritated, “You have some nerve to call me ‘young lady’ Gerard.”
Ellie makes the move to slap him only to be stopped by a very irritated Brian who had been watching their little argument.
“Children, play nice,” he grumbled and grabbed Ellie by the upper arm and dragged her over to Frank who was waiting with Bob, Ray and Mikey by the elevator, “Don’t make me change my mind,” he said into her ear and practically handed her to Frank.
But none of that concerned her at that moment, not when Frank told her that he was taking her out on a date. Their first date.
“And why not in Italy, my motherland!” he exclaims excitedly jumping around like a teenage girl. Something that Elliot should’ve been doing, but she just watched him prance around the room from the bed they were sharing.
“Do I need to look fancy?” Ellie asked from where she was sprawled out.
“Yes, we’re going to a nice restaurant, and we’re going to take a ride in a gondola because I’m a sappy mother fucker,” Frank rattles off.
“Seriously, a gondola?” Ellie shot up from the bed and looked at him excitedly, “I’ve always wanted to ride in a gondola!”
“Really?” Frank asks looking at her somewhat surprised.
“What girl doesn’t?” she leaps out of the bed and walks over to her suitcase, “What should I wear?” she asks.
“Did you bring any dresses when we left your house?”
When Ellie went home to see her mom, she had packed up some more of her clothes to take with her so she wouldn’t just have the same five pairs of jeans and ten shirts to wear for the duration of the time she would be on tour with the boys. And that included a dark blue dress she used to wear for nice occasions.
It was a knee length chiffon one shouldered dress that she would wear with black nylons and her black pea coat with if it was cold. She loved the fucking thing, and always looked for an excuse to wear it, which included her senior prom.
Ellie dug it out of her suit case hoping it wasn’t wrinkled.
“I wore this for my senior prom and every other special occasion I had senior year,” she smiles and holds up the dress, “I originally got it for this art show I was featured in at the beginning of Senior year, but it turned out to be my go-to dress all year long because I love it so much,” she grins and hugs it. It still smelled like Elias’ cologne she wore prom night.
“It still smells like Elias’s cologne,” she mumbled.
Frank gives her a look and she bursts out laughing.
“On prom night, the last time I wore this, my date wore my perfume, and I wore cologne because we didn’t believe in gender distinct smells, so he wore my Marc Jacobs and I wore Elias’ Hot Water, it was really funny because girls all night came up to my date and I and told us how good we smelled,” she explained laughing.
“Feminist are you?”
“A little woman empowerment never hurt anyone,” Ellie shrugged, “I mean look at me, I’m this dainty looking flower, but I could kick your ass, and Brain’s ass, and Gerard’s ass, probably not Bob’s ass, but you get where I’m going?”
Frank only nodded and laughed.
-
February 24th, 2005
Venice, Italy
Venetian Restaurant
6:34pm
Frank and Ellie walked hand in hand toward their first stop of the night which was a nice little Italian restaurant. It was small inside, but beautifully decorated. Everything was made from dark wood: the tables, the doors, the window sills. The curtains keeping the dining room dark were made from a fabric of a dark red color, as well as the table cloths. In the back of the dining room were a set of double swinging doors that led to the kitchens, on the other side was a hall way that led to the restrooms. It was loud and dark inside, but then again it is an Italian restaurant in Italy.
“Frank, this is gorgeous,” she said when they were seated.
He smiled and nodded. He was wearing a simple suit. Black pants, black waist coat, white oxford, black tie, and black suit jacket. His hair was combed and styled somewhat cleanly, but it was a bit hard to make a Mohawk look professional, and he had just a dab of eyeliner on. Ellie was in awe every time she looked at him; it was unfair how attractive he looked.
Ellie herself was in the dress she had brought, a pair of grey thick tights, a black pea coat and black flats. She had actually put on make-up which included foundation, neutral eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, and just the smallest dab of blush for some color to her high cheekbones. She had pulled her hair up into an intricate bun that her mother taught her to do when she was a freshman, and damn did she feel and look hot. Every time that Frank thought she wasn’t paying attention, he was raping her with her eyes.
“Stop undressing me with your eyes,” Ellie smirked.
Frank’s eyes widened and he diverted his eyes to his plate sheepishly.
The two talked about random topics throughout dinner, it was the first time the two them were able to sit and talk about themselves to each other since they had left the States a month prior. Elliot was telling Frank random stories about her childhood differentiating from her times in Fenway Park with her parents and her brother.
“This one time,” she says laughing, “The hotdog vendor threw a hotdog at my dad and it slapped my brother across the face, that was actually the last time we all went to a baseball game before he died,” she says somewhat solemn, “yeah, that was opening day for Boston, and exactly a month later he was killed…” she looks at her plate with a scrunched up face.
Frank reached across the table and took her left hand in his right one and squeezed lightly in a comforting gesture. Elliot squeezed back and gave him a tiny smile when she looked back from her half eaten plate of vegetarian rigatoni.
“Any other trips or stories from your childhood?” Frank asks releasing her hand.
“I got lost at Disney World when I was 7,” she laughs, “But I really don’t remember that, what about you? Anything interesting happen to you when you were young?”
Frank thinks for a moment before answering, “I don’t know how cool this sounds, but I was always in and out of the hospital when I was younger because my puny lungs threw a fit every other month and always left me with bronchitis or pneumonia, so really I was just sick a lot as a kid.”
“You’re still always sick,” Ellie deadpans.
“I know that, but like I’ve always been a sickling, so my childhood was boring, I didn’t start having fun till I was like 11 when I started my first band,” he smiles at the mention of his first band, “I knew when I was eleven that this, performing and making music, is all I would ever want, I mean I still went to college, I dropped out once My Chem started doing its thing, but I was majoring in music anyway.”
“What about you?” Frank asks a minute later, “What did you want to go to school for?”
Elliot thought for a minute, she knew the obvious thing would be to go to school for Art, but she didn’t know what she would do with an Art degree.
“The obvious choice for me would to go to school for art, but I really don’t have a clue what I want to do with the rest of my life, I mean starving artist is definitely up there on my career list,” she finally says, “I’m only eighteen though, like I shouldn’t have to have my life figured out just yet, give me two years and I’ll have an idea,” she says, “You know the weird thing, my mom always brings this up, on mine and Elias’ ninth birthday, him and I both told our parents we couldn’t see ourselves in ten years celebrating our nineteenth birthdays, which is creepy you know? Elias is dead, he didn’t even see his eighteenth birthday,” she nearly whispers, “It’s like some weird Final Destination shit, honestly though at nine, I didn’t see myself turning ten, so I don’t know… I’m just rambling…” she trails off.
Elliot closes her eyes for a quick moment then opens them to see Frank’s eyes widened into hazel saucers, his fork halfway to his mouth.
“What?”
“What you just said, that doesn’t creep you out?” He asks urgently, “No nine year-old thinks about their birthday in ten years, I get that, but neither of you saw yourselves turning nineteen, and Elias died… doesn’t that just put you off?”
“Well of course if does, Frank,” Ellie rolls her eyes, “I should be dead, you don’t get it, well I haven’t told you really, but before you found me in Washington nearly four months ago, I had faced so many near death experiences I have no clue how on God’s green earth that I am still breathing,” she finally admits, “Like I followed around drug dealers and other terrible, terrible people, I saw stuff that no nice human being should see ever in their lifetimes, I was put through some awful situations, ask me anything, I probably had to deal with it…”
“Like being nearly raped?” Frank nearly jokes.
Ellie nodded though, “I don’t like talking about that though, I like to keep that tucked away, it’s not something I want to reminisce on,” she mumbles, “I will tell you the guy will not making any children ever.”
Frank just looked at her.
“I was joking when I asked that.”
“And that Frankie, is why you never joke about rape,” Ellie says seriously, “I’ve had a gun pressed to the back of my head, I’ve been pushed to the edge of cliffs, I’ve been forced to stay up for days on end, and the list goes on, and this was all in the matter of five months, I’ve lived what some people, and God Forbid they would ever have to, will never see in their lives, and I don’t wish it on anyone, except maybe those bastards that nearly beat me to death in Washington, but that is beside the point.”
Frank just gawks. He stays silent, his mouth closed, his plate in front of him forgotten, and his hands in his lap. He just stares silently.
“I just dumped a lot on you, didn’t I?” Ellie asks sheepishly.
“You think?” He squeaks.
Elliot just shrugged, smiling awkwardly.
-
They skipped the gondola ride seeing as it was too cold. As much as Ellie wanted to experience a ride on a gondola, she preferred the feeling in her extremities. She had a feeling Frank had the same idea.
So they ended up back at the hotel, in Gerard’s and Mikey’s room, watching a crappy horror movie.
“Dawn of the Dead, the remake?” Ellie asks flopping next to Gerard.
“Hell yeah,” Mikey says excitedly pressing play once the menu title came on.
“Don’t try to be sneaky Ellie, it probably scares you,” Frank teases from where he was sitting.
“Shush,” she glares.
It actually did scare Elliot. She hated scary movies, no matter how crappy. Her friends made her sit through this movie when it came out in theaters and she hid in the hood of her hoodie throughout the whole movie.
“That was one waste of ten dollars,” she says passively once she tells the tale of that encounter.
“Seriously scare movies really scare you?” Gerard laughs his eyes moving away from the screen to hers.
“I don’t like to be surprised! When shit pops out of nowhere on screen it gets me every time, especially when the music is all like ‘someone is definitely going to get their head chopped off you just don’t know when’ type of thing, nope, I’m not having any part of it,” she defends.
“Shush!” Mikey exclaims from his spot next to Frank, who too was watching intently.
Elliot rolled her eyes.
“I’m going to go change; I’ll be right back,” Elliot announces fifteen minutes into the movie when things were starting to get sketchy.
She walked the short distance in between the two rooms and entered her and Frank’s shared room.
She changed quickly into some pajamas and one of Frank’s hoodies; she took her hair out of its bun and took off all of the make-up. Before retreating back to the other room.
She approached the door and realized that the door had been propped open by the dead bolt that was attached at the doors frame. She opened the door warily instinctively knowing that one of them was going to scare her, but the only thing was, she didn’t know when.
The room was pitch black, the T.V. was off and she couldn’t see anything.
“Very funny guys,” she calls into the room, not succeeding in hiding the shakiness in her voice.
She puts her hands out to feel around for a light switch, when something went over her head and she dropped like dead weight to her butt on instinct. She tore the thing, which she assumed was a pillow case, off her head and started kicking and punching till she connected with flesh.
Then she screamed absolutely terrified. In the darkness of the room she saw the figure she met in her dreams weeks ago. It was his silhouette, his white hair barely visible because the lack of light, his laugh full and maniacal but not loud and boisterous.
A light switched on and The Man disappeared.
Elliot looked around the room and saw Mikey and Gerard looking at her like she grew two heads and Frank was standing behind her as he was the one who flipped the light back on.
She started laughing from where she sat on the ground. Why not? When seeing random figures pop in and out of your reality and dreams, might as well just laugh it all off otherwise your friends are going to think you’ve gone completely insane.
And Elliot wasn’t going insane.

Notes

Hey! This was a little quicker than the last!
It's a little short. But I felt that I put a lot of good plot moments?
I know, I gave the presumption at the beginning of the chapter that something a little more spicy was going to take place.. and there was supposed to be.... but I was like "nah too soon."
So keep on the look out.
Now, I plan on another ten or so chapters. I want to finish this before the summer, that's my goal because as of right now I'll be on tour during the summer. (Which I'll go into later if any of you want to know...)
Right now, I'm working on the last chapter... I have nothing else in between written (i have it planned out) It's just I've had the idea in my head for so long I had to get it out.
Okay.

That's all for now Killies!
(see what i did there? Ellie, Killjoys?)

Okay....
Till next time!
xo Taye.
(OH! And hey, my butt? It's off limits!)