Don't Stand So Close To Me

3 months later

“Where the fuck were you?” I hissed at Frank.

“I got held up by the feds, are you okay?” He cupped my face in his hands. I pushed his hands off and looked away.

“I’m sorry hon. Are you okay? Did anything happen? Did you seal the deal?” He furrowed his eyebrows at me.

“If I hadn’t had the gun on me, I could’ve died. They could’ve stole the product Frank. Never send me to these things by myself again. They see some little white girl and you expect them to take me seriously? Jeremy tried to touch me!” I screamed.

“That fucking bastard,” Frank punched the wall multiple times.

“Did you kill him?” He glared.

“N-No, I only fired warning shots.”

“I’ll tell Ray, we’ve got to send a message. They don’t fuck with our crew.” He spat.

“What are you going to do?” My lip quivered.

“Set them on fire. Put them on display.” He scoffed.

“What happened to us?” My knees let out, and Frank caught me on my way down.

“Life happened.”

“I want to go back Frank, I want to go back to Harvey Cedars, I want to go back to school.” I began to sob.

“I know, I know love. I’m so sorry. I promise you, once it’s safe we’ll go back, alright? You can finish school, you can go to college, we can start a family.” He kissed my forehead.

“Are you sure?” I cried.

“Yes baby, I’m sure.” He rubbed my shoulders.

“I at least want out. I want out of the drug business, and I want you out. It’s too dangerous.” I tugged on the collar of his shirt, my eyes pleading with him.

“You know we can’t do that, we can’t afford it.” He sighed.

“Get a proper job!” I screamed.

“That’s not an option..” He shook his head.

“Take the rest of the money, buy your instruments start your band back up. You guys have been talking about it forever.” I sighed.

“We’ll be broke Lana. Do you know how hard it is to start a band in this economy? We won’t make any money, even if we are successful.”

“So what, just be drug suppliers for the rest of our lives?” I turned my nose up to him.

“No, I’m not saying that…” He frowned.

“Do it for me, just try it. Please. If it doesn’t work then it doesn’t, we can go back. But please just try Frank. Please.” I was holding my heart in my hands.

“Yeah.. Alright. We’ll try it.”

“We can tell the guys tonight, okay? We’ll all talk it over.” I smiled.

“Sure…” He sighed. I rolled my eyes, unable to hold back the smile forming on my face.

|| Pause

So, you’re wondering how we got here huh?

We sure did make it to vegas. Frank and I got married. Gerard stormed off for a few days, bringing back his little brother, Mikey, with him. We never questioned it. Mikey made him happy, and that was enough for us. Shit, Mikey made all of us happy. He was a little ray of sunshine in a very shitty place.

But before we knew it, we were broke. We were in Las Vegas broke as hell.

Gerard got this bright idea.

It just started with marijuana, and then we expanded to cocaine and shrooms. Following that, it was heroin and crack. That’s when shit got dangerous.

The dealers we were supplying, it’s not long before they got cocky. Try to scam their way around us, rob us. At that point we had to put them in their place. To maintain our level of prestige in the business of course.

A lot of people were killed. And we never once batted an eyelash at it, we kept living.

Then came along Ray Toro. Ah, good ol’ Ray. He changed. The teacher I once knew back in Harvey Cedars was gone. What the fuck is wrong with all the teachers in that town anyway? Is everyone this corrupted?

Anyways.

We found him at a rock bar where we were supposed to be meeting a dealer. It was open mic night and he was performing, a guitar in hand. Gerard and I recognized him immediately, the fluffy fro of hair. He nearly pissed his pants when he saw us, heard our story. Our unbelievable story.

He wasn't making any money, so we brought him into our fold. He helped us with the business. And before I knew it we were all this little family. Dealing drugs to people.

Eventually a pretty young thing walked by and Gerard hopped on that. She took him for all he was worth, sucked him dry, robbed him. So there was that downward spiral, he would occasionally get into the drugs, depression consuming him. But Mikey kicked his ass back into gear every time this happened. Gerard never truly hit rock bottom thanks to Mikey.

No news from Lucas’ side of the family. We hadn’t seen them, they hadn’t seen us.

So there you have it, at least that part of our lives was looking up.

► Play

“Is dinner ready? I’m starvin.” Gerard walked into the kitchen where Mikey and I were preparing food.

“Yep,” I said quietly.

“Chill your tits Gee, go sit in the living room it’ll be ready when it’s ready.” Mikey rolled his eyes.

Gerard groaned and walked out.

“Why are you so hard on him?” I chuckled.

“I’ve gotta be, what kind of brother would I be if I wasn’t?” He smiled, nudging his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

It was a quality I quite admired about him, his glasses never seemed to stay up.

When we finished dinner we set the table and served the plates, Mikey called everyone in and I sat at the table.

“Mmm, smells good.” Ray, Frank, and Gerard walked in.

“Thank you baby,” Frank kissed my cheek.

“Thank you Mikey,” Frank leaned over and kissed his cheek as well.

“Ew, Frank! Stop doing that!” Mikey gloomed.

“You know you like it,” He winked and tossed his hair around.

“Frank, stop bullying my brother.” Gerard said boredly with a mouthful of pasta.

“Oh do I sense a bit of jealousy?” Frank raised an eyebrow.

Gerard gave him the finger, his mouth too stuffed with food to muster a witty response.

“Mm, so, how did the trade go today guys? Did it sell?” Ray asked, turning his attention to Frank and I.

“It went bad.” I mumbled.

“Very bad.” Frank added.

“But, we’ve got something to tell you guys.” I said.

Everyone at the table stopped eating, focusing their attention on us.

“Spit it out.” Gerard said in a low voice.

I nudged Frank with my elbow and took a deep breath in.

“We want to quit, just for a while. Start the band back up, do some gigs. Lana almost got seriously hurt today… How could I continue? What we’re doing is dangerous.” Frank said.

“No one told you to get your little wife involved Frank! Why would you bring her into this if you couldn’t protect her!” Gerard stood up and started screaming.

Frank couldn’t reply, he was speechless. I held his hand in mine, squeezing it tightly.

“Sit the fuck down.” Frank simply said.

“Oh fuck off, Frank.” He shot back.

“Gee… seriously, sit down.” Mikey muttered to his brother.

“So…you’re proposing we start the band back up?” Ray raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Frank shrugged.

“Well I’m for it.” Ray grinned widely.

“I.. I don’t think that’d be so bad. I was starting to dislike the drug stuff anyways..” Mikey said quietly, picking at his food.

I stared up to Gerard.

“What’s it going to be?” I said.

“We need a singer, Gee.” Frank sighed.

He dragged a hand down his face, groaning.

Notes

Heya guys, so I wanted you to know that it's been amazing writing this story and talking to all of you.
I just wrote the ending, there'll only be a few more chapters
and I cried my eyes out T_T broke my heart to write it.

But I have a story to tell and I told it.