Sleep

Frank shoves his hands into the pockets of his zip-up jacket after shutting the door to his apartment. He takes a deep breath of the harsh cold air and tosses the strap of his guitar case over his shoulder but abruptly hears buzzing coming from the pocket of his skinny jeans, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. Gerard is calling. Frank feels a tingle run up his spine as he clicks the answer button.

“Hello?” Frank lifted the phone to his ear.

“Frank?” The voice on the other end of the line wasn't Gerard, Frank loosened up a bit.

“Oh, hi Ray...” Frank tapped his foot, the cold air started to eat away at his hands.

“We are going to rehearse today and are meeting up at Mikey’s house, but me and Gerard are stuck inside our house. It got snowed in”

Frank could hear Ray grunting as he struggled to open the door, Frank sighs.

“I'll come help you guys.”
Frank hangs up before Ray can thank him. Frank starts making his way to Ray and Gerards house, kicking rocks on the sidewalk as he blows on his hands trying to warm them. Frank looks up and sees a local gas station, Frank beams and assumes he can get a new pack of cigarettes, and before he knows it, he's walking through those automatic sliding doors and is flashed with the bright lights and a wave of warm air. Frank sighs deeply with relief, having a break from the cold air was awesome. It sucked that Frank couldn't afford a car yet, so he is stuck walking in 20-degree weather.
Frank looked around aimlessly until his eye caught the last pack of cigarettes in the whole gas station, he darted towards them and shoved the small box in the pocket of his jacket. Frank looks back at the cashier, he was a young guy. Probably not even in his 20s, so Frank tries to walk out of the door with them without paying, he’s done this many times before with much success, so Frank had no worry about it. Once he reached the outdoors, he grabbed the small lighter that was shoved in the pockets of his jeans and lit one of the cigarettes and was back on his way to help Ray and Gerard.

Once Frank arrived, he could surely tell they were snowed in. A large pile of snow was cemented at their doorstep which prevented entry or exit.
Frank looked around and saw a shovel leaning on the door to a small shed, he grabbed it and started to dig away at the pile of snow.

“Frank? Is that you?”
A familiar voice calls out, Frank immediately knows its Gerard.
Frank's face feels hot and flushed, he quickly spits the cigarette he had out of his mouth and stomps on it.

“Yeah! Give me 5 minutes, I'll get you guys out!” Frank huffs and keeps digging.

Eventually, Frank got to the door after what felt like hours, but it was really 10 minutes. He knocked on the door and it flung open; Ray was standing in the doorway.

“Thanks so much, Frank, if you want, we can give you a ride to Mikey’s place. I know it's not that far, but I bet you wouldn't want to walk in this weather” Frank considers for a moment and shakes his head.

“No, it'll be fine” as Frank declined Ray's offer Gerard came running up behind him, frantically swinging his gray and black scarf around his neck and adjusting his thick winter jacket.

“Frank! Thanks a lot, dude, without you we would be stuck in here for hours!” Gerard smiled and Frank avoided looking into his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. Before Frank could reply, Gerard’s smile faded.
“Oh my god, you don't even have a proper jacket.” Gerard looks at Frank sympathetically, Frank quickly puts his hands up.

“Oh, no I'm fine, really!” he laughs nervously. Gerard shakes his head.

“Ray, you can take the car without me. I want to go with Frank, he’s going to freeze if he’s out in this weather like this!” Ray looks at Gerard and raises a brow

“Are you sure? It's really cold...” Ray picks at his arms under his sleeve, but Gerard nods persistently.

“Yeah, I want to make sure Frank doesn't freeze out here. Also, I could use a nice walk. Mikey’s house is very close.” Gerard quickly takes off his scarf and gives it to Frank.
His face turns bright red, and he quickly hides it with the scarf.

“Thanks, but you really don't have to...”

“But I want to.” Gerard smiles and grabs Frank's wrist and they start striding in the direction of Mikey's house.
Ray rubs his temple and groans, then grabs his keys and starts to head out after the two Infront of him are well ahead.

“That guitar must be really heavy” Gerard points out, he sees Frank slightly struggling to keep carrying his guitar case.

“No, it's fine.” Frank sighs, Gerard was able to hear him struggling a bit through his voice.
Gerard frowns, he knows Frank doesn't like when people worry about him.

“We’re here!” Gerard grabs Frank's hand and Frank feels flushed again; he pulls Gerards scarf over his face a bit more to hide his bright red cheeks.
Gerard opens the door and sees Ray beat them there already and was sitting on the couch with Mikey as he tuned his guitar.

“Hi guys,”
Frank pulls down the scarf and wriggles his hand free from Gerard’s.
He sets his guitar case down and stretches, lugging around a guitar for an hour did not feel good on Frank's back.
Frank takes off the scarf Gerard lended him and holds it out to Gerard, implying for him to take it back.

“You can keep it for now” Gerard smiles, “I assume you're going to need it on the walk back, right?” Frank looks down and nods.

“Yeah, you’re right, thanks.” Gerard smiles and walks over to join Mikey and Ray.

The rest of the group chat among themselves as Bob and Frank both start getting the guitars and microphones set up; after getting everything put together Ray picks up his guitar and stands in front of the drum kit then motions for Mikey to come join him.
Mikey grunts and stands up, then grabs his bass which was leaning against the drums. Frank is already standing in his spot, adjusting his microphone as he waits for Gerard to pick up his own microphone. They all run through Three cheers for sweet revenge, to make sure they know what they're doing before the upcoming shows. As the sun sets outside, Frank feels dizzy. He starts to feel a horrible headache come upon him.

“Hey guys… mind if I take 5?” Frank took his hand and started rubbing the top of his head where he felt the headache at its worst. Gerard nodded and told everyone else to take a break too. Frank fell on his back and sighed very loud. Frank reached into his pocket and lit a cigarette, and Gerard sat down next to him. Frank's cheeks turn pink, he holds up the cigarette as if to offer it to Gerard. Gerard takes it and inhales once then hands it back to Frank.

“Are you feeling alright?” Gerard’s eyes soften as he looks at Frank.

“Yeah, kind of, I just have a headache.”

Frank flinches because of a sudden sharp pain at the top of his head. Gerard tilts his head, looking worried. Gerard puts his hand on Franks and looks at his head, 2 bumps had manifested onto his head.

“Uhmm…” Gerard shuffles in his spot and moves his hand. “You have something on your head. Did you get hit by something? Did Ray whack you on accident?”

“What?” Frank runs his hand through his hair and feels the two bumps. Frank grows confused and stands up. “I’ll be right back...” he runs off to the bathroom and locks the door. Frank looks in the mirror and sees 2 triangle shaped lumps on his head, they are sensitive and hurt when Frank touches them. Frank silently panics, what could those bumps possibly mean? Where did they come from?
Frank throws his hood over his head and speeds out of the bathroom. He starts to pack up his guitar and everyone starts shouting at him.

“Dude! We’re in the middle of playing, are you kidding me?”
Bob shouts from behind the drum kit and looks at Ray who looks back at him just as confused.

“Frank, what are you doing? We haven't finished running through the album” Mikey comes up behind him and puts a hand on Frank's shoulder.

“I... need to go.” Frank mumbles as he hurls the guitar case onto his back. Frank hesitantly goes over and picks up the scarf Gerard let him borrow and flings it around his neck and runs out the door while everyone is shouting and yelling behind him.
Gerard is the only one who wasn't shouting after him. Frank ran straight to his apartment in the pitch black, freezing cold night. Frank felt dizzy, his body felt heavy, and he started to fall over.
“No.. no fuck… what the FUCK..” he began to panic more and fell to his knees. What is this? Some weird fucking black magic? Were those cigarettes laced? Can you even lace cigarettes? Frank dropped his guitar and fell onto the hard cement sidewalk. He felt jolts of pain all throughout his body, his head and tail bone feeling the most painful. Frank could hear quiet but quick footsteps coming towards him.

“Frank? Frank oh my god! What happened?”
Frank could barely hear the panicked voice of Gerard. He was blinded by agony and pain.
Gerard shook Frank eagerly; he was slightly shaking from panic of seeing one of his friends rolling around helplessly on the ground.
He could feel the pain fading, and his pupils dilated, but the moment Frank could start to sit up he fell flat on his face and passed out.