Frank's POV

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I watched Fallyn as she dropped her head back on the seat, only now had she stopped panicking about the large amount of people.
I have to admit that there's really is a large amount around here today, I have a different reaction when it comes to a crowds though.

The dumbass part of my brain takes over and tells me that I have to show off to get the attention of people that I'll never see again.
Now my stomach was growling, fortunately not loud enough for her to hear and notice.

Which was good because it would be fairly hard to explain that I have a rare condition that makes me hungry whenever I think of people's blood, especially hers.
With a sigh I rubbed my eyes and allowed my head to drop back on the seat like she'd already done.

I'm not tired, just frustrated with myself and everything else that's going on in my head. Only one day and this girl is making me act like an idiot, and that's saying something considering that we are talking about me.

"What's the matter Frank?" She asked looking at me with a concerned frown on her pale face.

"Nothing, I'm a little tired but that's it." The lie slipped easily out of my mouth. I mean, why not lie to another person because I've been lying to everyone by making them think I was human for the past year.

"You're not tired from carrying all those bags are you? If that's it I can carry a couple more." She was too sweet sometimes and that was going to get her in a dangerous place one day, I could only hope that I'd be around when that happens.

"No the bags aren't heavy. I think that I might have slept on an angle last night. Come on, we have to get you a mobile before the guys finish shopping. Did you know that Mikey hates having to go shopping?" I took her hand and gathered the bags up in the other, the talking was hopefully distracting her from all the people.

"Really?" Why would he hate it?" I spotted a technology store on the floor below us and started walking towards the escalator.

"Before he joined the band he worked as a checkout boy."

"A checkout boy? Seriously? I can't imagine Mikey doing that."

"Well he did, Gee used to work in a comic book store, he got paid in comics." We'd made it to the escalator and I don't even think that she'd noticed, it maybe she had and was just hiding it.

"I could imagine Gerard doing that, what about everyone else?"

"Bob and Ray used to work as male strippers." I said jokingly.
.
"Were they practicing your bathroom act?" She laughed as I pulled her off the escalator and towards the tech store.

"What about you?" I guess that telling her I used to be a full time stoner was out of the question.

"I worked in a dog shelter for a while, it was more volunteer work but the dogs were so cute." So cute that Gee had to stop me from practically adopting the whole shelter when he met me and I joined My Chem.
Apparently we couldn't have twenty dogs on the bus and keeping them at home would be mean.

"I like dogs too, but I prefer the big ones. It's not that I don't like little dogs, they're just so yappy. Katelyn used to have this big dog called Pyro, I think he was a giant breed or something like that."

"Was it a Great Dane?" She shook her head and her some of her blonde hair fell in her face.

"No, it was similar though, I think he was a St. Bernard cross. Yeah, that's was it." My talking had managed to keep her distracted while we walked over to the tech store.

"What are we doing here?" She asked as I led her into the shop that had different kinds of gadgets, phones and accessories all over the place.

"Gee told me to buy you a phone, so I'm buying you a phone." I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't happy.
She didn't want us spending any money on her and I couldn't understand why, we were only giving her stuff she needed. It not like I was trying to buy her a car or a house.

"I really don't need one. Who am I gonna call with it anyway? All of my friends live in Blackford and they weren't even real friends."

"What about me? I'm your friend aren't I? So are Gee, Ray, Bob and Mikey. You've got friends." Damn, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"But you hardly know me. I could be a horrible person for all you know." I handed her a tissue from my pocket and she wiped her eyes.

"You like dogs, how bad can you be?" Fallyn gave me a faint smile and laughed slightly, she really needed people to be there for her more often.
I was out of the room when she was talking about her mother but I'd heard everything and felt sorry for her.
To be treated like that by your own Mum so soon after your friend died would be awful.

"Thanks, Frank. It's nice to know that somebody wants to be my friend, especially someone like you." Her smile was so beautiful.

"Call me Frankie if you want. Gee calls me something like that but the nicknames are much longer."

"Oh yeah? Like what."

"'Hey, what are you doing over there?' Or 'get off that stuff we need it', and occasionally he'll get affectionate and use. 'What the fuck are you doing?!'" As I talked she began to laugh loudly, thinking that I was joking, Gerard would actually talk to me like that when he got pissed off.

"He can't be that mean."

"He's not mean, he just has a different way of expressing his emotions. He'll mean 'come here and I'll give you a hug' but what he says is 'Frankie stop being an idiot.' It's like we have our own secret language."

"Excuse me, can I help you?" I looked at the sales clerk who was standing next to us and eyeing my neck tattoo as if I might steal something.
Which I wouldn't.

"Yeah, we're looking for a mobile for her." He looked at Fallyn who looked like she was uncomfortable with having to talk to other people.

"Do you know what type you'd like?" She stood there like a deer in the headlights.

"Um."

"Whatever you have that's non girly, touchscreen and can take good pictures." She didn't look like she wanted to talk so I gave him a list of what I'd require in a phone.

"Okay I think that we may have something like that." He led us over to a stand with multiple kinds of phones that had varying prices but all looked the same.

"This one can take high resolution pictures, is touchscreen and comes in black and white." He handed the model phone to Fallyn and she stood there looking at it with a confused expression on her face.
I lent over her should and showed her a couple if different uses on it, the camera, the FaceTime and iTunes.

"Even if you don't want to call anyone you can use it to listen to music." The second I mentioned music a smile spread across her face.

"I used to have a MP3 player but it got broken a couple of months ago."

"Do you like this one?" I asked her as she turned the iPhone over in her hands.

"I guess." She was looking at the music section on it again.

"Can I get a black one of these?" I said looking at the sales man who nodded and walked off.

"He thinks you wanna steal something." She giggled as he disappeared into a staff only area.

"What makes you think that?" I smiled as she continued to giggle.

"Because you look like you wanna steal something. I'm not against them but the tattoos, piercings and hair isn't doing you any favors among the norms."

"You have a piercing too." I said while poking her lip ring.

"I know that but I'm a cute girl. I can get away with more stuff than you."

"Hey! I'm cute too."

"Yes you are, but I think the sales guy is straight." She blushed and put the iPhone back on its stand as the sales man walked over to us with the phone in its box.

"Here's your phone, would you like to come over to the counter and pay for it?" No I think that I'll take it and run out of the store, I thought sarcastically as I nodded and followed him over to the register.
I pulled out the credit card, scanned it and entered the pin while Fallyn stood next to me looking as if she felt guilty.

"Thank you and enjoy your phone." The second the credit card was approved he completely dissed us and went back to his own mobile phone.

"I'll hold the bag, you've got enough." She said while trying to take the bag containing the iPhone in its box.

"I'm fine holding it, you don't need to carry everything." I was trying to hold the bag out of her reach which I could barely do considering that she wasn't much shorter than me.

"Please let me carry something. I feel as if I'm treating you like a pack mule." Somehow she managed to pry the bag from my fingers and danced out of my reach when I tried to get it back.

"You're being nice to me, let me be nice to you." She held the bag behind her back and I gave up in trying to take it from her.

"I had no idea you were so stubborn." I said while walking out the front of the store.
We had about three minutes to get to the entrance of the mall before Gerard would get there and start freaking out.

"Well I am so get over it." I laughed as she stuck her tongue out at me and walked in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be going.

"Fallyn! Wrong way." Before she could get too far ahead of me I grabbed her hand and started walking in the right direction.

"What?" She asked as I laced my fingers into hers and started walking towards the front of the shopping complex.

"You were going the wrong way. We have to meet the others remember?" I pulled her around a group of people and she flinched when her shoulders brushed one of them.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that. You know, you guys are surprisingly nice for a rock band."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that rockstars were supposed to be up themselves and stuff like that. You all seem pretty down to earth and nice." I could see Gerard standing near the doors with Mikey, Ray and Bob. He's probably been waiting there for the past half hour so he could yell at me for being late even though I wasn't.

"Don't forget that we are people, and we haven't let the fame go to our heads." Gerard wouldn't let us if we tried.

"I think that you are nice people in general." I looked at her and she gave me a small smile that I returned. It was nice of her to say something like that but she didn't remember what happened last night.

She'd have a completely different opinion of us if she knew what we really were.
I was slightly tempted to tell her the truth but after last nights reaction it made me rethink.
If I told her more gently without any blood or cuts healing magically though...

"Did you get everything?" Gee asked, he was holding a bag in each hand like the rest of the guys. He was also staring with a angry expression at Fallyn and I's laced hands.
I quickly let go of her hand and let out a sigh, I wasn't even trying anything and he was making assumptions.

"Yeah we got everything. No, I didn't make her try on anything she didn't want to wear and no I wasn't a perv." Fallyn giggled beside me for some unknown reason, I tried to read her mind but couldn't get anything.

That was something that I found strange about her. If I wanted to know what other people were thinking then I could just tune in, Gee and the rest of the guys could do the same thing.
But it was never guaranteed that I could get to Fallyn's thoughts.
Everything would focus in and out like a staticky radio.

"Don't be silly. Frank would never be a perv, although he could accidentally convince a sales person that he was gonna steal something." She grinned and I laughed a little bit, the look on that guys face was priceless.

I'm actually surprised he didn't try to give me a pat down to see if I was hiding anything before we left. Maybe he was scared I'd stab him or some other thuglike behavior.

"Please tell me that you didn't steal anything, Frankie." Gerard said while giving me an intense gaze.

"When have I ever stolen something. Better yet why would I want to?" Gerard shrugged and looked at Fallyn.

"I got you a toothbrush and some stuff like that."

"Thank you, Gee." He gave her smile and I felt tempted to glare at him. He didn't think of her like I did but it still made me angry that she was comfortable calling him by a nickname.
But after all he was her idol so she had full rights to act like she did.

"I'm starving, how about we get back to the bus?" I suggested while grabbing the shopping bags from Fallyn before she could react and stop me.

"Hey, give them back!" She tried to snatch the bags from my hand but I held them above my head and she was unable to reach.

"We can go back to the bus but why did you take the bags from her?" Ray asked as she made another attempt to grab them from me.

"I'm trying to be a gentleman and not make a lady carry the bags. Not that she's behaving very ladylike right now." At my words she huffed and stomped her foot which caused everyone, except for her, to laugh.

"A gentleman wouldn't refuse to give back a lady's property." She retorted with her hands on her hips.

"Fine you win." I have her the two bags back and he grinned but gave me a light whack on the arm.

"Okay let's go back to the bus before people start asking for autographs. I think that two girls over there recognized us." Bob said then walked out the door before we got a chance to respond.
It's funny how much he disliked cameras, take one photo and he will practically run away. The only time that he'll let you take a photo is when we're having a photo shoot.

We followed Bob through the snow and towards the bus where the driver was waiting with the engine on and the doors open.

"Hey, Greg." I said while waving to our longtime bus driver, he didn't talk much but he was cool when you got to know him. He was also the only human who knew about the bands secret.

"Hi, Frankie. Who's she?" He was taking about Fallyn who was following me up the bus steps.

"Oh, Fallyn this is Greg our bus driver and occasional bodyguard. Greg this is Fallyn, she was the girl I carried onto the bus the other night. She's gonna be staying with us for a while."

"Hello." He waved and her and she waved back and mumbled a response before walking ahead of me and following Gerard into the kitchen.

"She's a bit quiet around people." I said while looking at her retreating figure.

"Does she know?"

"Sorta does, sorta doesn't. She accidentally found out last night and Gee told her, she ended up passing out and when she woke up this morning she forgot everything. We're all walking on eggshells trying to not let her know." He nodded in response, it was kinda good to have a normal person that I could explain things to.
The doors closed behind me and I stepped forward to avoid getting my shirt caught.

"Have you eaten recently because I'm gonna have to pull a couple of all nighters or we won't get to the next city on time."
Shit, this is gonna be a bit of a problem.

"No I haven't had anything for a while. Uh if you could give me fifteen minutes at a populated truck stop I might be able to do something." He nodded again as I walked to the top of the stairs.

"I'll see what I can do, no guarantees. Try to keep your fangs off the girl if you can help it. She doesn't seem like those groupies that you guys usually feed from." I sighed, and rubbed my eyes with the hand that wasn't weighed down by bags.

"She's nothing like them and I'll try to keep my fangs to myself. Thanks Greg."

"No problem." He put his foot on the accelerator and the bus lurched forward, almost knocking me off my feet. I carefully walked through the door and into the kitchen where Gerard and Mikey were unpacking shopping into cupboards.

Ray and Bob were sitting in the booth talking about a tv show or something like that and I couldn't see Fallyn anywhere.

"Where is she?" Gee instantly understood who I was talking about, considering that there is only one 'she' on the bus.

"She went into the bunk area, she was gonna put some stuff away I think." I walked off through the different rooms and into the group bedroom with the shopping bags.

"Hey. Perfect timing, I was putting the stuff away can you help?" Fallyn was sitting on the ground with her duffle bag on the ground in front of her, it was unzipped and the contents was all over the floor.
There wasn't much stuff, some shirts, a pair of jeans, a thick book, a cd and a small plastic container.

"Sure I don't mind." I put the plastic bags on the floor and sat down next to her. She looked into a couple of bags before pulling some jeans out of one and handing them to me.

"You fold the pants and I'll fold the tops." She got the shirts out of another bag and began folding them in silence.
Despite the fact I only had to fold five things and that she had to fold around twelve she was long done by the time that I finished.

"Thanks." She said as she took the pants from me and putting them into the duffle bag which she followed up with the neatly folded T-shirts.

"So what were you talking to the bus driver about?" Fallyn asked while putting her underwear into the bag.

"Nothing much, we're going to be driving nonstop for a couple of days so we'll get to the city in time but that's about it." Almost everything was packed away now and I sat next to her while she stared at the book and cd on the floor.

"What's that?" I asked, picking up the cd that looked very familiar.

"Katelyn got it for me a couple of years ago as a birthday present. I'm pretty sure that you'll recognize it." Of course I recognized it.
Her friend had given her our first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

"That was nice of her." I couldn't think of anything else to say and sat there awkwardly for a moment. I handed her the cd back and she put it away with her clothing, along with the thick book that smelled like flowers.

"What's in that?" I asked before she got a chance to put away the dark purple plastic box that sat on the ground. She picked it up and moved closer to me.

"I'll show you but first you have to guess."

"Chocolate." I said taking a complete stab in the dark because I didn't have the slightest idea.

"Nope, not even close." She smiled and opened the box so I could see what was in it.
There were some photos sitting on top.
It was two girls sitting in front of a lake with big grins on their faces.
One had blonde hair with black tips and the other one had dark brown hair.
I assumed that the brunette was Katelyn.

"These are pictures that we took at Lake Blackwater last summer. That's Katelyn and that's obviously me." I was right about the brunette being Katelyn. She took the photos out of the box and lent closer to me as she flipped through them.

There were a couple of different pictures, some of one or both of them swimming, a picture of Fallyn pulling a cute face and a fair few pictures with both of them standing or sitting next to each other.
In one I could see the cuts that ran up and down Katelyn's arms, damn, Fallyn wasn't kidding...not that I thought she was.

The last photo was of them wearing dresses, makeup and huge smiles while in the background I could see a freeze frame from one of the bands music videos.
It might have been Vampires Will Never Hurt You, how ironic.

"Katelyn and I were going to a school dance in this one. That was four weeks before she died." Fallyn smiled at the photo and picked up the box again and I noticed two familiar objects that had been hidden underneath the photos.

"What is this?" I said with an mock accusing tone as I took the joints from the box.

"Katelyn and I rolled them the last time we were at the lake. There were four but we smoked two." She shrugged as I looked at the surprisingly large joint.

"How the hell did you get hold of enough marijuana to make one of these?"

"That's the funny story. When we were going hiking around the forest there was this cousin of Katelyn's boyfriend who was tending the crop and he payed us with marijuana to keep quiet. Best bribe ever." She laughed and took the joints from me and put it back in the box along with the photos.

"I wish I was bribed like that when I was a teenager." She laughed again and put the box safely away in her duffle bag.

"We were gonna get really high on my birthday. It sucks that we weren't given the opportunity."
At mention of her birthday I remembered something.
When I heard her say that her birthday was four days ago I thought that I'd give her a present that was inspired by her guitar skills.

I've always had a spare guitar pick attached to my key chain but I came up with the idea of turning it into a necklace for her.
I'd bought a chain in Hot Topic while she was getting changed and threaded the chain into the pick while she was trying stuff on in the bra store.
I'd finished transforming it into a necklace and nearly forgotten to give it to her.

"Fallyn, can I give you something?" I asked, pulling the necklace out of my back pocket.

"Uh, okay I guess."

"Close your eyes and hold out your hand." Without asking any questions she closed her eyes immediately and I dropped the necklace into her hand.
Her eyes opened and she looked at it then held the guitar pick necklace up.

"You got me this, that's so nice." A smile spread across her face and I started smiling as well.

"Even better, I made it, it's one of my guitar picks. It's a bit late but think of it as a birthday present. Do you want me to put it on for you?" Fallyn nodded and turned around so I could put it around her neck.

"Can you lift your hair?" She moved her hair out of the way. Her neck was graceful, long, pale and looked like vampire bait.
That vampire bait happened to be working on me and it took some effort for me to stop myself from biting her.
Not because I was hungry, but because she looked beautiful like that.
She turned back around and looked at the pick.

"Thank you so much Frank, it's so sweet of you to think of giving me a present." I gave her another smile and went to say something but was stopped when she wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a hug.
I swear, this is the girl that's going to make my heart start beating again.
Her heart was beating hard and fast against my chest as I hugged her back.

"It's no problem, don't worry about it." Her arms tightened and I think that she started crying.

"No one has ever been kind to me like this except for Katelyn. I'm sorry that I'm crying but I'm not used to this." She pulled back and smiled at me while her eyes were filled with happy tears that threatened to start spilling down her cheeks.
Wow, her eyes actually looked like an ocean.
Her long, shaggy blonde hair fell over one eye and I pushed it out of the way.
Is it just me or is her mouth seeming close to mine right now?

The breaks on the bus suddenly came on and we both dropped to the ground. I got lucky and broke her fall.
I lay there grinning like a dopey idiot with her on top of me for a moment before I heard Gerard start mind yelling.

'Frank get your ass up here and stop flirting with Fallyn before I break your neck! I think we hit an animal or something like that. Make her stay there but come up here.'

Gerard...forever a buzzkill.

"Fallyn do you think that you could get off me? I have to go and do something. Why don't you start setting up your mobile."

"Uh, okay." She rolled off me and stood up while I took a moment to collect myself on the floor.

'This better be good Gee.'
I thought to him while standing up and looking at Fallyn who was blushing bright pink.

'Oh sorry did I interrupt you while you were hitting on a girl whose six years younger than you and alive?!'
I pushed the curtain dividing the bunks and the living room out of the way and started heading towards the front of the bus.

'Guy's chill out, I'm sure Frank wasn't going to try making a move on Fallyn.' Bob came in and tried to smooth things over between Gee and I.

'To be perfectly honest I kind of was.'' My thought speak was as sheepish as it could get.

'I fucking knew this was going to happen! Lay one finger or fang on that girl and I will murder you!'

'Gerard, you realize that we're immortal right?'

'Then I'll murder you again!'
That wasn't going to help him achieve his goal.

I walked down the bus steps and saw Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Bob standing on the side of the road while Greg did something at the front of the bus.

"Fine if you want me to stay away from her so much then I will. Happy?! Now what the fuck's going on?" Gerard crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me, flat out refusing to say anything.

"Greg thinks that we hit an animal and he's trying to get it out from underneath the bus right now. We don't know what it is." Mikey said while pushing his glasses up his face.

"Ow! It bit me!" Greg appeared from underneath the bus and held his finger which was bleeding.

"You should probably go and get a bandaid." I said through clenched teeth, the second I saw blood coming from his finger I held my breath.

"Sure, don't want to put any strain on you guys if I can help it." He walked up the steps of the bus leaving the rest of us standing by the side of the road wondering what to do.

"How are we gonna get it out?" Gerard started talking again but was refusing to look at me.

"One of us will have to climb under the bus to get it." Mikey did an excellent job of pointing out the obvious.

Mikey 'Captain Obvious' Way has struck again.

"I also suggest that while we're out here we settle any issues going on between Gee and Frankie." Mikey added before taking off his glasses and polishing them.

"Yeah, what the hell do you think you're doing? She's practically a little girl."

"Only to you, you're twenty five. I'm twenty two. There's only a six year age gap."

"But it's enough of an age gap for you to be in your twenties and for her to be in her teens." Great, Gerard was starting to act like a sassy diva.
This was going to be a logical argument.

"I think that Frank should be friends with Fallyn, but not have any romantic connection."

"Thanks for being helpful Bob."

"I'm sorry but you're willing to make your bandmates dislike you over a girl that you have only known for a day. I like Fallyn and everything but what about your friends?" He started muttering to himself and walked towards the back of the bus.
Now I felt bad for being mean to him.

"If this is what you guys think I'll try to behave myself. I'm sorry." I hated apologizing to them but sometimes it had to be done.

"Good, I'm sorry too." Gerard came over and patted me on the back, I knew from his thoughts that he was feeling smug.

"Now that, that is over what are we gonna do about the critter?"