The Heartbeat Of a City

So anyway, Frank and Sam head off to band practice and Gerard is there already, with this kid who raises his eyebrows dramatically when they walk in.
“Gee, aren’t those your clothes.”
Gee just shrugs and says “Yeah there was a situation.” The kid just raises an eyebrow even higher and Gee is gets all flustered and red.
“Not like that idiot!” He pouts, screwing up his nose. This other kid with an afro comes and is like, “A girl?? who’s the lucky guy?” Gerard sighs and goes “No-one there were circumstances.” Sam laughs at the pair and Gee sort of grins awkwardly when the afro guy rolls his eyes.
“Sure, whatever you say Gee.”
Eyebrow kid is all “I knoow riiight” and they both snicker when Gee blushes. Franks been pretty silent, and Sam realizes that he actually fell asleep. She’s like oh yeah, he got about as much sleep as me. As the rest of the band bickers waiting for the mysterious final person to arrive she drifts off, once again resting her head on franks shoulder, his head on hers. A little bit later, she wakes up with a jerk because Frank jerks awake because the afro kid was drawing a mustache on him. She sees it and starts cracking up and Franks got this offended air but then starts cracking up too and the afro dude (Ray) dramatically puts his hands on his heart.
“AWWW I shouldn’t have woken you up you two were sooo cute.”
Sam rolls her eyes but flushes just a little. I mean, frank saved her and all. Frank, she sees with a shock, is blushing too and he throws a pillow at Ray. Ray giggles and falls back into Mikey who had wandered off and was strumming a guitar. Mikey is all like, DUDE, MY GUITAR and Ray is like Sorry! Gee is smiling and Frank laughs a little, and Sam decides she really likes Frank’s laugh. Then the 5th person finally arrives and he’s this stocky blonde dude who raises an eyebrow at her.
“I swear frank, I thought you were gay and then you surprise me with this?” which makes Frank rolls his eyes.
“I’m bi dude, it shouldn’t be a surprise.” and then he realizes what he said and hedges “I mean she’s not anyones girlfriend okay there are circumstances, unless I mean you want I mean OH GOD I FUCKIN’ HATE YOU GUYS” ‘Cuz everyones cracking up.

As they begin to play, (by the way they are in a studio ; Reprise records) Sam realizes they must be a pretty well-known band. Then she recognizes a song and begins inwardly fangirling. She’s like are you guys MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and when they say YES she grins.
“I saw you guys play at Big Daddy.”
“We’ve gotten a little better since then, I hope.” Frank says, and she giggles.
“Don’t worry about being good, you guys are brilliant.” and Rays starts giggling then, half choking on his ‘fro.
“Nice gf you have there, Iero. Or is it Gerard? or whichever of you.”
Frank suddenly is very busy tuning his guitar, and Gerard quickly clears his throat and they both begin denying it really really hard. And then when Ray laughs Frank spits a Japanese curse at him and then Sam starts laughing, making they stare at her weird.
“I’m -” choking laughter “-sorry Frank its just you speaking japanese-” pause to catch breath “-is not what I’d chalked up as one of your abilities.”
They all sort of laugh and Frank grins.
“We just returned from a tour in Japan actually. I sure as heck don’t know how to speak Japanese but I do know fuck off.” Sam nods straight-facedly, and is like; thats a good attitude to languages and he’s like ikr? Then she breaks down, snorting with laughter. The light banter probably would have gone on longer, but the new guy Bob interrupts with;
“PLEASE stop flirting, I still need to learn this song.” which causes them to go back to playing a few blushes and sniggers later.

Sam listens mostly, and tries not to bother them after that. They really do work hard, it’s pretty amazing. A couple of hours later they go to get it in the car. She moves to go after them, but her knees buckle because of the pain and Gerard catches her arm. She see’s Mikey glance at her worriedly, like oh god, what did my brother pick up? But Frank pushes past him and helps pick her up, supporting her until she gets into the car. Its Gerard’s car but the apartment is Frank’s, but Gerard like lives there half the time and it’s complicated apparently. Anyway they all end up back at the apartment and a movie is put on. She curls up on the couch ‘cuz she’s not sure what to do, the realization that its not her home sinking in. But she doesn’t want to go back home since she knows her mom won’t exactly be forgiving. At some point it registers Gee is calling her.
“Huh? sorry I was out of it.”
He shrugs off her apology absentmindedly. “I asked what college you’re at and what’re you majoring in?”
“Oh, I’m junior at Princeton majoring in pre-med. but I don’t dorm, I live at home.”
Theres a little bit of silence where Sam hides behind her hair because its pretty damn awkward to tell somebody who’s letting you stay at their house that you live reasonably close. And have parents there (or at least most people assume the parents bit). But he doesn’t say much, just is like, do you have classes today? and she’s like dude, its saturday. and he’s like oh oh yeah and looks away which she is glad for ‘cuz his gaze was all intense and serious.

She tries to go back to the movie but can’t concentrate. Her mind wanders and suddenly she remembers that when she was date-raped by the guys at the party they didn’t use condoms. Uh, shit. She needs to get morning after pills or something, and soon. Theres quiet talking behind her, and she doesn’t want to interrupt it. She looks around awkwardly but both Frank and Gee are involved in the convo. She sits, fiddling anxiously for a minute. Then she jumps up suddenly.
“Uhm, can I be driven to the nearest pharmacy please? I need to get some stuff.” Mikey raises an eyebrow and she rolls her eyes, trying to seem less suspicious.
“No dude, I’m not preggo.”
It works, he makes this sort of shocked expression and the tense atmosphere that’s been hanging around since they got back from band practice lightens up a bit. Frank pushes back his chair.
“Sure I’ll drive you.”
As they go Sam starts freaking out a bit. How long after was the morning after pill effective for? how long had it been? She reckoned it had happened a little after midnight the night before. And it was like 8pm now.

She doesn’t have much of a thumbnail left by the time she gets there. Frank notices.
“Are you okay?” He glances at her worriedly.
“Yeah. Yeah. M’okay” She doesn’t look at him.
He asks If she needs money and she’s like probably not and walks in. He bites his lip, but doesn’t say anything. The pharm at the back of the store is open and she asks about the morning after pill, explaining the situation. Thankfully its free and it works effectively within a 24-hour time limit. Frank, who has been standing awkwardly by the store entrance, smiles a bit but still looks nervous when she comes towards him. Sam clutches the small pills clutched tightly in one hand, not wanting him to know how dirtied she is.

In the car on the way back Sam tries to swallow them inconspicuously, but Frank notices. He swerves over and parks, spinning the wheel so fast Sam hits her head on the seat. He twists around, his face furious. She’s scared. She doesn’t know why he’s angry, but she doesn’t want him to be mad at her.
“Spit them out!” He’s shouts, shaking her roughly.
“What do you-”
She tries to protest, but he climbs into the backseat and holds her down, forcing her mouth open. He’s surprisingly strong, but she’s already swallowed them. He snorts angrily.
“I never took you to be a druggie.” He’s serious, and she laughs because he’s so off mark. Frank’s face just twists further, obviously thinking its the drugs kicking in. He puts more pressure on her shoulders, asking what she took, and how much. She can’t help it, she just giggles more but begins crying too, his dark anger frightening her. Sam’s a little bit happy as well, since her seems really upset for her sake.
“Its not drugs frank, god I’m so fucking sorry I probably should have explained.” She finally manages to choke out. Frank stares at her warily for a moment, but he lets her up. He’s still straddling her though, and as she explains how she was raped, kicked out and betrayed by her best friend he snakes his arms around her hips. He holds her gently and rocks her when she sobs into his shoulder. After a little bit she looks up at him, eyes watery.
“Shit I’m sorry, I’m so useless. All I seem to do is cry and sleep.” Frank laughs, just a little bit, and apologizes for being rough. He talks about how Gee went through a stage with drugs and how awful it was when he’d try to hide it and stuff She wraps her arms around him and squeezes. He does the same, and they just sit there, quietly, dried tears on their faces as they listen to eachothers heartbeats and breath, and to the life of the city outside of the little time capsule they had created.

Notes

IM SORRY I DIDN'T UPDATE. I didn't update any of my other stuff either, so I have no excuse.
THANKS FOR READING. I enjoy writing this story, its relaxing and I don't have to worry about grammar so much. it gets a little more into frank and sam and their pasts after this, but also more into the future, cuz i mean staying at a strangers house for more than a few days is a little odd.

~comments are cake and ratings are candy~