12:00am

Above Times Square

New York City, New York

January 1st, 2005

Ten!

Nine!

Eight!

Seven!

Six!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One…!

Happy New Year!

Two hours prior…

“What the fuck do you mean ‘no’; do you know who I am you little shit?”

“Yeah, a pain in my ass, you annoying—”

“Ahem,” Frank interrupted with a glare directed to Brain. Brain rubbed his eyes tiredly and took a deep breath before looking at Elliot again.

“That’s my decision Elliot; you’re not going adventuring this close to midnight, not after what I heard you did in Frisco,” Ellie stops him before he could finish.

“Oh my God, that guy was fucking harmless!” She defends.

“And these guys are not, Elliot,” Brain says, “ I cannot have you getting killed, trampled, or kidnapped, this is New York… this fucking New York two hours before New Year’s—you’ll stay here with us, and watch the guys do the performance thing, and that’s it, I will put a leash on you if I have to.” Brain said sternly, “I mean it Elliot. Frank, keep your eye on her.” Brain then proceeded out of their green room.

Elliot huffed and flopped back down to the couch next to Frank. She was bored out her eighteen year old mind, and goddamn Brain was such a fucking Killjoy.

“He’s right you know,” Frank sing-songed.

“I know, I know,” Ellie sighed out defeated.

“Maybe you should call your mom? I’m sure—”

“No, that is a terrible idea,” Ellie quickly snapped, “she’ll either ignore me, or cry.”

“Elliot, be reasonable here, she probably thinks you’re dead as well… she hasn’t seen you since June, you weren’t home for your birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and you’re not going to be home for New Year’s—I think she deserves a call.” Frank tries.

Ellie stood up angrily. She had been extremely ornery within the past five days. Frank persisting that she should call her mom, she should call her friends, that she should get ahold of someone from home to tell them that she is alright, healthy, and alive. But with Elliot being the stubborn little shit that she is, she refused and ignored the requests every time they were thrown at her. Frank had even got the rest of the band in on it. Elliot threw a shoe at Bob the day before when he had brought it up.

“She didn’t come to graduation, she gave up after everything happened, I’m not calling her, just drop it Frank, please?” She pleaded, ready to run out the door and ignore everything that Brian had told her not even five minutes prior.

“You can’t hold that against her Elliot—” Frank braced his elbows on his knees looking at Ellie.

“Like hell I can! She acted like what I was dealing with and what she was dealing, which was the same damn thing, were two different things! I lost my fucking brother, the kid I had seen every day of my damn life since fucking birth. Frank, just stop okay? I have my reasons, just stop.” She choked out and quickly ran out of the room.

Frank sprang up out of the couch and sprinted after her down the hallway. She too began to sprint when she heard him running behind her. Where ever they were playing had a maze of corridors to get lost in, perfect for getting someone, who was chasing you, off your back.

But Lady Luck was not on Ellie’s side that day, Frank caught up to her in an abandoned hallway gripping her upper arm and making her face him.

“Stop running, take a deep breath, holy fuck you can run fast,” Frank gasped out, regaining his breath.
Frank’s grip tightened around her arm when she tried to pull away. Her hair was down and was sticking to her face from the tears spilling. She had spent too much crying lately, and goddamn she wanted for Frank to get off her back.

“Frankie, please…” she hiccupped and fell against the wall of the hallway and slid down, bringing Frank with her.

“Why are you so damn stubborn?”

“Why are you so damn persistent?”

“Okay,” Frank dropped to his knees in front of her, sitting back on his heels; he released her upper arm and put a hand under her chin to bring her eyes up to his, “Maybe I shouldn’t have made you tell me what happened, maybe I should’ve just let it be, but I could tell that something was eating at you,” Frank began, “Look, something bad happened to you, something very fucked up happened to you and I can understand why you would want to skip town, but running away from your problems doesn’t solve anything—Elliot, your mom deserves a call, if she asks for you to come home just tell her that you have things to take care of, and that you’re fine and healthy and alive, she deserves that much, okay?”
Ellie sniffed really loudly to get herself under control and wiped her face with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“Okay,” she mumbled and pulled her phone out of her jean pocket, “Stay with me, please?” she asked Frank.

“Of course,” he smiled and moved so he was sitting up against the wall on her right side. He took her right hand as she dialed her house phone number.

It rang four times before someone answered.

“Hello?” Ellie felt a sharp intake of breath in her chest get stuck and she couldn’t make any noise come out of her mouth.

“Hello? Who is this? Is this a prank? I’m hanging up,” Her mom said into the phone after thirty seconds of silence on Elliot’s side.

“Mom?” Ellie breathed out frantically, “Mom, it’s me, it’s Ellie,”

“Michael, you son of a bitch,” Cara Webster said angrily in to the receiver.

“Mom, don’t bring the Archangels into this, not their fault you have a stupid daughter,” Ellie laughed into the phone.

“Thank you Lord, thank you,” Elliot heard her mother murmur something else and knew she was crossing herself, “Elliot, are you okay? Do you need me to come get you? Elliot, you’re not hurt are you?” Cara asked frantically, Ellie heard the jingling of keys from her end.

“Mom, I’m fine—I’m in Times Square actually, I’m healthy and alive, don’t worry you don’t need to come get me,” Elle assured her mom.

“I can tell you’re alive, are you coming home? How in the hell did you get to Times Square?”

“No mom, I’m not I’m going to Europe for a few months, um I have a job with this band –”

“So you’re a groupie now? Is that it?”

“What? No! I have a job, I’m the bus keeper, I keep the tour bus clean and organized,” Ellie could tell her mother was getting irritated, “Look I just wanted to call you to tell you that I’m okay so you don’t have to worry anymore.”

“I’m a mother Elliot, I always worry.”

“Well, I’m alive, is that enough?”

“No, Europe? Europe? Who is this band?” There it was, the mother that Ellie had been missing for the last six months, back at it like the mama bear she was.

“Um, My Chemical Romance?” Ellie mumbled into the phone

“Those vampire looking kids from Jersey?” Her mom asks surprised, “The one’s that Eli was always talking about?”

“They don’t look like vampires, but yes, those guys,” Ellie replies rolling her eyes.

“How did that happen?”

“Lady Luck?” Elle tries.

“Right, Lady Luck, well shit—” Cara lets out a sigh, Ellie could only imagine she was running her right through her hair out of frustration her youngest and only kid was making her deal with, “Europe though, are you going to come see me before you leave?” Cara asks like a small child, and Ellie could imagine her making the face that Ellie made as well when she was trying to get what she wanted.

“I don’t know…,” Ellie trailed off and looked at Frank.

“What?” He asks.

“She wants to know if I can visit her before we leave for Europe,” Ellie tells Frank.

“Elliot, who are you talking to?” Her mom asks.

“It’s just Frank mom,” Ellie replies while waiting for Frank’s answer.

“I think that is a great idea, we can see her this week, probably Wednesday we can drive up,” Frank answers grinning because he knows that his plan is working. Reconcile mother and daughter so daughter won’t be such a damn hard ass and actually let Frank take care of her.

“Frank? Who is this—?”

“He’s in the band mom, don’t worry,” Ellie rolled her eyes once again.

“You know how many times I heard that while you were in high school?” Cara laughed.

Ellie pulled a laugh from somewhere too, “Yeah ‘Ellie, Eli where are you going?’” Ellie mimics her mother’s her voice and then “‘we’re going to Jacob’s house, don’t worry mom, he’s in the band,’ you never liked me hanging with the band kids,” Ellie says.

“They were some odd children,” Cara answers distantly.

“Mother, your children are odd,” Ellie points out matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, I was blessed with some innovative kids…” Her mother trails off, and Ellie can see the reminiscent grin on her mother’s aging face.

“Hey, I have to be on in about 45 minutes, you okay here?” Frank whispers into her ear.

“Um, two more minutes and then I’ll go with you?” Ellie murmurs looking at him.
He nods silently.

“Okay mom, I have to go but I’ll be over this week—Wednesday, yeah Wednesday.” Ellie assures her mother.

“Oh…okay,” Ellie heard the disappointment in her voice, “I’ll see you Wednesday,” her mother pauses,

“I love you Elliot, okay? Don’t forget that, you’re all I got left,” Cara’s voice began to shake and she sniffed loudly into the phone.

“I know, I love you too, I’ll see you soon.”

“Alright, see you soon baby doll.”

“Bye,”

“Bye baby.”

Ellie pressed the end button looked at Frank with a smile. She tackled him in a hug and squeezed him tight.

“I hate how you’re always right.”

“No you don’t,” he laughed and pulled her up from the ground.

“No, I don’t,” she grins and grabs his hand as he leads her back civilization.
-

“Where were you two?” Gerard asks as the two walk into their green room hand in hand. Gerard didn’t think anything of it, Ellie and Frank holding hands had become a common thing.

The two of them disappearing out of now where wasn’t a common thing.

“I went to call my mom, Frankie went with me so I wouldn’t get lost,” Ellie shrugged nonchalantly letting go of Frank’s hand and taking a seat on the couch.
She ignored the feeling of emptiness that appeared in her stomach every time she had to let go of Frankie.

“How’d you make her do that?” Gerard laughed.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Frank said cryptically.

“Right,” Gerard rolls his eyes, “We’re on in half an hour, and I don’t know where the rest of the band is…” he trails off.

“If you find one of them you’ll find the rest of them: Mikey is almost always with Ray, and Bob is either with them or Brian, you’re good,” Ellie says absentmindedly, she was texting Marigold laughing because Marigold was three hours behind her and it was like 7 o’clock in San Francisco.

And Marigold was yelling at her in all caps because Ellie got to spend New Year’s in Times Fucking Square. Ellie was grinning like the Cheshire cat she was.

“How do you know that?” Gerard asks, coming to sit next to her.

“How do you not know that? Mikey is your damn brother,” Ellie laughs, and then sends a reply back to Marigold.

Marigold and Ellie had been texting non-stop since Ellie got her phone. Once Ellie had the phone figured out she immediately began telling Marigold everything that had happened to her since she left home. Something she hasn’t even told Frank. Yes, she told him about her brother and father, however there were a few incidents where Ellie was faced with her life besides the Seattle parking lot fiasco. Too many incidents—way too many incidents: Ellie should be dead. She really should be.
Ellie was born with this uncanny ability to get herself in and out of sticky situations. She calls it Lady Luck. She doesn’t know where it comes from, or why she was blessed with it, but one day she knows that it’s going to run out, and that her stupidity and overall curiosity is going to get her killed. However, she also realizes that she doesn’t care, because what is life without risk?

Ellie, you should care. You’re 18, and you’re looking to get yourself killed. What a waste of life.
During the boys performance Ellie got to watch from the crowd. Many of the kids watching knew exactly who she was; a lot of them glared at her as she meandered around the crowd, but she couldn’t get a good view of the stage without someone twice her size standing in front of her.

Fuck being small. I wonder what Frank would think if I asked one of these guys if I could sit on their shoulders during the set?

Ellie’s face had been popping up around the internet and her name was swarming in the message boards. It scared the shit out of Ellie. If those guys in Washington really had a grudge to kill her, they knew where she was. She kept this to herself though; she believes that the messes she gets herself into should never involve anybody but her and the party that she messed with. So, make that Huge Secret That Will Get Her Killed #2 that Ellie was keeping in the safe of her mind.

Actually, I wonder if any of these guys will let me sit on their shoulders…

She didn’t have to ask anyone though; she finally found a spot in the crowd where she was squashed in between a girl and a guy behind the first row of kids, on the left hand side where Frank will be preforming, and jumping, and screaming, and being an idiot, and jumping on Bob’s drum kit and nearly killing both of them in the process.

Why do you even like him? He’s insane, and he’s going to break your heart like everyone else. What happened to First Rule of Street Life: Don’t trust anyone?

Elliot found herself ignoring her mind more and more lately. She justified her mind being the mess that it was by the fact that she had made a lot of rash decisions lately and now her conscience was trying to make sense of it by trying to guilt Ellie into leaving the guys. Ellie was comfortable though, she was traveling, and she was going back to Europe for the first time in eleven years, so she wasn’t going to let her stupid conscience that won’t ever just shut the fuck up, ruin it for her.

The lights dimmed as the band took the stage, immediately the kids in the back began to push forward, the screaming was getting louder, and Ellie was beginning to sweat. She loved being in concert crowds, there’s a charge to the air when you’re in a crowd of people whom you all share a common interest and that is band on stage. You forget all the shit back at home, or the fact that you have a ten page research paper due at the end of holidays, all that you care about is the band on stage, and the words that they are screaming at you.

Ellie had been to three shows in her life time. All punk shows, and every time she came home with bruises from moshing, and her voice completely shot from screaming.

The last show she saw was in February. Her brother, Marigold, about 6 other friends, and her all ditched school on Friday the 13th to go see Fall Out Boy. They woke up at ass crack of dawn to go wait in line all day just to be able to be squished on a barricade and lose their voice to a band that meant
the world to them.

It is so powerful, it really is.

My Chemical Romance would be playing five songs, but only one of which will be televised which is ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ and that is what they kick off their set with. Ellie watched Frank jump around in the little space he had, while she was singing to every word that Gerard sang, she moved with the crowd as it swayed, she jumped to the beat that Bob was producing, and bobbed her head from the bass licks that Mikey was just killing. She screamed as Ray did his solo, she was proud of them.

“You go Ray!” she screamed knowing he couldn’t hear her but whatever.

I wouldn’t give this up for the world.
-
11:57pm

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is three minutes till the New Year, we are live from Times Square and Imagine has just started playing.”

Ellie and the boys were in the building that overlooked Times Square; they could see the ball from where they stood by the windows that overlooked the street. They were about fifty stories up. And it was a beautiful.

Ellie flopped on the couch of the room and wrapped herself around Frank like a Koala. An arm was wrapped around his chest, her head on his shoulder, her face in his neck, her breath tickling the skin. She could feel that Frank found it oddly relaxing just by the way his bones practically turned to Jell-O under her grasp. They both were exhausted. They all were; they were totally looking forward to the two and half week long break before Europe, before Taste of Chaos, before Warped Tour. The band was booked till August. And it was January.

Holy shit, it’s nearly January.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two

One!

Happy New Year!

“Happy New Year, Ellie,” Frank mumbled and planted a clumsy kiss on her head.

“Happy New Year, Frankie,” Ellie mumbled back and planted kiss on his jaw.

Notes

As I said when I posted this chapter on Mibba, I don't know how to react to it... I thought it was okay, and funny at times but it is a filler that leads us to another sub-plot moment which is the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, it's going to be loooonnnngggg. Which is why I haven't even finished it yet. It was a particularly hard chapter to write because I had to introduce an entire new character and actually give her substance among other things. And I re-wrote the goddamn thing about four times because i couldn't get anything down correctly. Basically I hit a small writer's block with the upcoming chapter. It's almost finished, but my version of 'almost finished' may mean something completely different to the rest of you...
I'm a detailed writer-at least I try to be-if you haven't noticed so I put a lot into whatever I write...
So it may be a few days till the next chapter... sorry in advanced!

okay that's all for now.

xo taye.