Trick or Treat

Frank Iero yawns as he opens the door to the walk in closet.

He’s not entirely sure what articles of clothing to choose, as he doesn’t really know where he’s going. He just knows that he should probably get out for the day.

The previous night had been spent going house to house with Jamia and his children, all of them in a matching set of ghostly costumes, knocking on strangers doors and screaming “Trick or Treat!”.

It had been amusing to watch his kids compete over candy afterwards, tallying up how much each one got and declaring that Cherry was the winner of this years Halloween candy-off.

The whole evening had been so fun that Frank was now having a harder time than usual dealing with their absence.

Jamia had taken the kids to go spend the rest of the weekend at their grandparents house. And just as he always does when they go visit the Nestor household, Frank stayed home.

The tradition had started after a nasty argument over parenting issues last spring. And ever since then, it had been agreed that it would be best for both sides, as well as poor Jamia’s sanity, that Frank steer clear of his in-laws, at least for some time.

However Jamia herself was very close to her parents, and Frank had the good heart to insist that their difference in opinions should not get in the way of that. He knew how she wanted her parents to also have a good relationship with their grandchildren, and Jamia was grateful for his understanding.


But now this leaves Frank with three whole, child-less, Jamia-less days.

Still, there is a lot of ground to cover. He is, after all, barely home from a tour that felt like it took ages to get back from. He has friends to catch up with, movies he could watch, favorite restaurants he could visit. So many things he could do now that he’s finally home, but Frank is still stumped as to what he wants to do.

Actually, he does have the impulse to see someone in particular.

But that someone is someone he should essentially, be sick of seeing. Someone he’s spent the past few months with and whose probably sick of seeing him.

Yet Gerard has not stopped creeping into his thoughts since the night they returned. The last he had seen his friend, he had been disappearing into the crowd of the welcoming party, his shoulders draped over by some guy’s arm.

He had been too busy to be bothered by it then, but now that his attention wasn’t being vied over by multiple people at once, he suddenly realizes just how concerning the sight was.

Concerning?

Why was that concerning?

Well obviously because they had no idea who the fellow had been, and he had not seen or heard from Gerard since.

Frank shakes his head. He’s obviously spent way too much time with the Way brothers. He’s turning into Mikey!

Gerard is an adult, he can take care of himself right?

But Frank feels an unsettling amount of doubt about that. During the last half of the past tour, Gerard’s behavior had actually been somewhat less than “adult”.

He had been served the divorce papers while they were in New York, when they were literally on the opposite side of the country. And god, trying to play their show that evening was one of the biggest struggles the band had ever faced.

Not that Gerard had much of an initial reaction to begin with, but the whole affair had just been…awkward.

They carried on with the tour waiting for an outburst. A break down. They waited for Gerard to burst into tears, start throwing things, flip tables, punch someone in the face.

They kept waiting for him to snap.

What they got instead was nothing more than a slow withdrawal.

Maybe Frank heard a muffled sob here and there, a sniffle or two when he would walk the around bus at 3 in the morning, when everyone else was supposed to be asleep. Otherwise Gerard had simply decided to keep his speech to a minimal, and to only smile when he had to.

No one tried to force him.

Well, except maybe Mikey at first. But he gave up on it quickly, and Frank noticed that Mikey himself became somewhat withdrawn.

So it is kind of odd, thinks Frank, that Gerard would go off under the arm of some dude they’ve never met, when he barely wanted to talk to the people he was closest to for an entire month.

He remembers seeing Gerard take a shot somewhere at the beginning of the party, and figures that that may have something to do with it.

But at the same time, it makes Frank worry more.

A drunk and depressed Gerard was never the best of decision makers.

You’re fretting too much, he tries to tell himself. If anything was up, Mikey would be alerting everyone and their mothers by now.

Frank chooses a simple white shirt and a black blazer, with some freshly washed black jeans. He inspects himself in the mirror for a second and then goes back into the bedroom to snag his iPhone off its charging station. Checking the time, he sees that it’s a quarter to noon.

He decides he wants lunch at Tam’s, and then maybe he’ll shoot Gerard a text while he’s there.

You know, just to be sure.

As he steps out of his front door into the open sun light, Frank nearly falls backwards out of surprise.

For Gerard is already sitting on his front doorstep.

“G, what are you doing here?” Frank ventures.

Gerard looks amiss. His eyes are sunken, his skin paler than usual. His red locks fall over his face, and his head is bowed, so it’s hard to read his expression.

His whole demeanor looks shaken.

He stands up, turning to face Frank. He smiles a little, and asks in a nervous tone,

“Can I stay over for a night?”

TBC

Notes

A/N: This story is going to alternate between the present day and flashbacks to the haunted house. So next chapter, we'll get to see what happened back at the house. Just to avoid any confusion!