Romance Reloaded

Franks POV

“Wake up, Frank.” I felt Ray’s hands gently shaking me as I woke up. My neck was stiff from sleeping awkwardly on the back seat; Mikey was still asleep next to me, with his head on my shoulder. “Hey, man. Get off me.” I pushed him off me and groaned. My eyes soon adjusted to the light as became more alive. We had been traveling for 2 days now; stopping in hotels along the way, passing through so many states. We were all short on money so getting a plane to LA wasn’t an option, but a 1 day and 16 hour road trip was. My first journey out of New Jersey and we were going right to the other side of the country.

“We’ll be arriving at Eyeball records in about 10 minutes.” Gerard said as the turned the car onto a slip road next to a sign at read ‘Welcome to Los Angeles CA.’ That’s when the excitement hit me. We’ll be a signed band in a few hours! I ran my hand through my hair as I gazed out of the window dreamily. Thoughts of the tour, gigs, festivals and fans began to fill my head. I’d dreamed of this so long and now it was becoming a reality, but not quite how I planned. I’d give anything for Jade to be by my side as I travel the country with my 3 best friends. I’d give anything to be performing on stage with Kat watching me proudly from the wing. That wasn’t an option though.

Gerard parked outside a huge skyscraper in a street bustling with people. We all got out of the car scanning the perimeter in amazement. “We should start unloading the trunk now, guys.” Ray said from the back of the car. No sooner had the words dropped from his lips Brian came out the huge automated doors in the front of the building. The doors were guarded by too tall, well-built doormen in black suits. “Hello boys! You’re just in time. Let me escort you to my office.” Brian put his fingers to is mouth and whistled loudly. Immediately the two doormen walked over and began taking out our bags and carrying them into the lobby. “Uhh. We only need our recording equipment.” Mikey informed the doormen. “Nonsense, Mikey! You’re not touring in that car.” Brian scoffed. “We’ll leave the bags you don’t need in my office and once you’ve signed all the papers we’ll take you to your hotel in the My Chemical Romance tour bus.” Brian turned towards the door and beckoned us to follow him.

We arrived on the top floor and Brian escorted us to his office at the end of the corridor. There was a huge desk in the middle of the room and countless framed contracts on the surrounding walls. He sat down at the desk and we gathered around. “Right.” He said, fumbling through a pile of papers. “Here’s the contract, if you would each read through it and take some time to discuss it that would be great.” Gerard took the papers and thoroughly read through them. I scratched my neck awkwardly and looked out of the window. The city was so vast, so big and I was so small. Despite my excitement of getting the band signed I was so scared we were just gonna get chewed up and spat out by the music industry. There’s so much competition. What makes us special? The more I thought about it the more I got cold feet on the matter.

“Frank?” The sound of Mikey’s voice pulled me out of my day dream. He jabbed at my hand with the documents and I took them from him. I was the last to read them. Scanning each page carefully I began to smile, the discouraged feeling soon faded. I raised my head and nodded in consent at Brian and the guys. Each in turn we grabbed a pen and signed the contract. “Welcome to the music industry boys.” Brian smiled and shook our hands individually. Written on a piece of paper in front of me was my dream. My living. Breathing. Dream.

The first night in the hotel was amazing, we spent it drinking all the champagne in the minibar and blasting Mistfits until the neighbours were knocking on the wall for us to turn it down. “Its all champagne and guitars from here on!” Ray was standing on the table yielding a half empty bottle of champagne, he fell as he got down but Mikey caught him before he hit the floor. I laughed loudly and downed the rest of my drink. “Yep. Fancy living.” I agreed. It wasn’t the first time Ray had made a toast standing on a table, the only difference was Kat wasn’t here to join in the festivities.

Before I knew what was going on Gerard threw his arms around me and kissed my cheek. “We’ve just been fucking signed! Try to at least smile a bit Frank!” I didn’t even realise the loneliness from missing Kat was beginning to show. “I know you miss her, man but let’s have some fun.” Gerard tried to move his feet but the champagne didn’t allow him to and he fell on to me. “What happens on tour, stays on tour. Yeah?” he said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes and helped him to his feet. “Yeah, okay.” my agreement was involuntary.

We stayed in California for a fortnight, playing at venues in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento. It was the most amazing experience of my life, and it was about to get more intense. Today was our first day on tour, we set off from Sacramento at mid-day to travel out of state to Phoenix in Arizona for our first major tour, the excitement was over whelming. Some days on the tour bus got a little boring but when I slept nearly all day anyway I guess it didn’t really matter. There were 4 bunks on the bus: Ray’s on the left and above that Mikey’s. On the opposite side, separated by a small corridor covered in a thick red carpet was Gerard’s bunk and above that was mine. To say we were on a bus it was pretty luxurious.

A few weeks passed, travelling from state to state. I had no idea what day it was, I lost track after our gig in Colorado. Gerard walked lazily past my bunk in his skeleton pj’s. His hair greasy and tangled, Gee didn’t care. Neither did I. “Got any cigarettes, Frank? I’m all out.” I sat up from my bunk and grabbed my jacket from the floor. Rummaging through the pockets I pulled out a packet of cigarettes and something I didn’t quite expect. One of Kat’s diamond gauges. I rolled it around in my hand watching it twinkle in the fluorescent lighting. Each day I was missing her even more. My Jade. My Angel.

“Thanks!” Gerard startled me as the snatched the pack from my hand and proceeded to take out a cigarette and light it between his lips. He threw them back to me and walked to the back of the bus. I laid back down and continued to study the gauge in great detail, it was the only reminder I had of Kat. Carefully unscrewing the back I took out one of my own gauges and replaced it with hers. I decided it wear it on stage so in effect I had a small reminder of Kat to inspire me.

One night in New Orleans we were in the middle of performing Headfirst For Halos, I was throwing myself passionately around the stage as the chorus began. The crowd was huge, there must have been 300 people there or more. It was crazy. I raised an eyebrow as I noticed Gerard approaching me towards the end of the chorus. He grabbed my head kissed me passionately. I dropped my guitar and embraced the moment. The crowd screamed excitedly. Gerard’s face was hot and sweaty. Eyeliner was melting down his cheeks but neither of us really cared. I don’t even know what we were doing or why, the adrenaline was over powering and my heart was pounding a thousand times per second. He detached his lips from mine and stared seductively into my eyes for a moment before turning back to the crowd and bursting into song once again. I stood still mesmerised by what just happened, suddenly I came back to reality and picked up my guitar to play the final verse.

Notes