Kill This Venom From My Heart

By the time my flight arrives in Jersey it's 1am and I take a cab to the closest hotel, checking in and going up to my room. Once I've settled in bed I lay staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, wondering if this is a mistake and I should just get on a flight tomorrow and go back home. I decide to sleep on the decision and I roll over, curling up on my side and it takes a while but I eventually fall asleep. The next morning I wake up and decide to stay, checking my phone and seeing fifteen missed calls from Jamia and that only encourages me in my decision. I spend the morning hanging around my hotel room before going out and walking around for a while, finding somewhere to have lunch, the waitress being a fan so I take a photo with her and sign a napkin and when I'm done I look at my phone, seeing it's not long until Gerard should be done with school for the day so I get a cab and tell them which school I need to go to. The ride takes about twenty minutes and when I get there and the cab leaves I start to second guess myself again, my breathing getting a little shaky as I start to feel like a creepy stalker. Showing up at this kids school is possibly the worst mistake I've ever made and I feel like my whole life is about to end. I stand on the sidewalk outside the school, leaning against the fence and considering calling another cab and leaving before he sees me when a few girls come out and spot me, squealing to themselves as they rush over and I let out a small sigh before forcing a fake smile to my face and signing their stuff, taking a picture with them and when one of them tries to hug me I tense up, feeling my stomach churn but I keep the fake smile plastered on my face as I quickly hug her back. As I pull away from her a lot of other kids start pouring out of the school and a few start crowding around me and I worry I will miss Gerard but as I'm taking a picture with some kid I spot him walking out of the front gate, gazing curiously in my direction, obviously wondering what the crowd is for and I push through the kids, ignoring their protests as I step towards Gerard, a smile on my face and when he sees me he looks shocked. "Gee" I call out as I jog over to him and all the kids on the street are focused on the two of us. "Uh... Frank what are you doing here?" He asks and my smile fades as I realise that this was a mistake and he thinks I'm a total creep now. "I um....I had some time off and I had to get out of LA but I can go and....yeah ok" I rush out, my breathing becoming unstable to the point where it's obvious I'm having difficulty breathing as I turn my back to him and take a few steps away but a warm hand on my shoulder stops me and I turn to see Gerard looking concerned. "Are you ok?" "Yeah I'm fine, I'm just gonna go." "So you flew all the way across the country to leave again?" "I...." I trail off not having anything to say and he smiles at me and says "You came here to see me?" "Well....yeah I thought maybe we could hang out." Gerard's smile grows even wider and I smile back a little as he says "Well I can't hang out with you if you leave. Come on, let's get out of here."

We take the short walk to Gerard's house, half the school following us and when we go inside I look around the hallway, smiling to myself as it looks homely and inviting, so different from where I grew up. "Gee is that you?" I hear a woman call out and Gerard sighs before saying "Yeah Ma. I have someone I...." But a woman, I'm assuming his mother, steps out of a doorway further up the hall and smiles before saying "Oh hello. I'm Donna, are you a friend of Gees?" "Yeah it's nice to meet you I'm...." "You look familiar, have we met before?" She cuts me off to ask and I smile sheepishly as I say "I don't think so. I'm Frank." She continues to stare at me, trying to figure me out when footsteps sound down the stairs and a skinny teenage boy with light brown hair steps off the bottom step and into the hallway, rubbing his eyes before his gaze lands on me and his eyes widen before he says "No fucking way." Donna starts to scold him for his language but he cuts her off to say "Mom do you know who that is?" "Yeah Gees friend Frank." The boy scoffs before saying "That's Frank Iero" and then turns his attention to Gerard and says "How much did you pay him to come here? And more importantly where did you get the money?" Gerard's head drops, his gaze on the floor and I reach out to gently touch his arm as I address the other boy. "He didn't pay me anything. Gerard's my friend and I came to visit him." Gerard lets out a soft sniffle and starts walking away from me, pushing past the other boy and opening the door at the end of the hallway, disappearing through it and I stand in the hallway feeling awkward, both the boy and Donna staring intently at me. A few long seconds later Donnas eyes light up and she says "You're on a poster in Gees room." I smile and shrug as I say "Am I?" She lets out a small laugh and nods before saying "Thats his room if you want to go down" pointing to the door he disappeared through and I nod before walking towards it and as I pass them Donna starts scolding the boy, Mikey, for his behaviour and treatment of Gerard. When I reach the door I slowly open it, finding a set of stairs that go down and I realise Gerard's room is the basement and I take a few steps in, closing the door behind me before calling out, making sure it's ok if I come down. "Yeah come down" Gee calls back and when I reach the bottom of the stairs I look around, my eyes lighting up when I see how awesome his room is.

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