Sleep

“Wake up sleepy heads!” A loud voice echoed through the small van, Franks ears perked and he took the earbud he had in his ear out. Gerard looked up and took his out to, they saw Bob sticking his head into the door to get into the back seats. Mikey jolted awake and nearly fell out of his seat.

“Dude! What gives!” Mikey shouted at Bob.

“We need to go, Ray got us somewhere to stay parked for today since the shoe is tomorrow. He also got us somewhere to eat food, he’s waiting for us. We gotta go. Frank looked at Gerard and followed him out of the van, they all stretched and groaned after being cooped up in a van for hours. “Shouldn’t be far, Ray told me a diner was right down the road. Like, a 10 minute walk at most. Let’s go.” Bob started off deeper into the small city they were planted in. Frank looked like he was on edge and nervous. Constantly adjusting his hoodie and pulling on his collar. Mikey side eyed him with suspicion, he thought something was up.

“Hey Frank… is something going on?” Mikey pushed up his glasses and stared at Frank as they walked. Frank looked startled.

“Um.. no. Nothings going on..” Frank scratched at his arms and shoved his hands in his pockets to hide his claw like nails. Gerard pretended to not be paying attention to their conversation. Mikey raised a brow and shrugged it off, he still thought something was off. For the whole walk Mikey eyeballed Frank and watched him closely.

Once they all arrived at the diner, they saw Ray sitting at a table already. He lit up and waved them over. The group all went towards Rays table and sat down.

“Luckily it’s not packed this morning.” Ray chirped as they got settled. “This place is told to have good food, I don’t know. It’ll do, Atleast it’s not outrageously expensive. We can’t afford much.” Ray opened his menu and gestured for everyone else to also look to.

“None of this is vegetarian friendly…” Frank complained. He closed his menu and crossed his arms. “I’ll just get a soda.”

“That’s not breakfast Frank.” Mikey stated. Frank glared at Mikey.

“I don’t care! I can’t eat any of this stuff!” Frank slammed his fist on the table and snarled, his long fang like teeth were visible. Mikey looked at Frank like he had two heads and Frank covered his mouth and sunk back into his chair. Mikey slowly looked back at his menu. Frank pulled on the strings of his jacket and Gerard planted a hand on franks shoulder to comfort him.

“He probably didn’t notice…” Gerard whispered. “Or Atleast didn’t think much of it.. I hope. Wishful thinking.” Gerard moved his hand and closed his menu. The waiter came over and took everyone’s orders then got to Frank.

“What about you?” The waiter clicked his pen.

“Coke.”

“That’s it..? Its 8am we aren’t serving soda currently…”

“Please.” Frank looked up. The waiter sighed and wrote down Franks order.

“I’ll be back soon with your food.” The waiter walked away quickly into the kitchen and the group got to chatting with each other.

“After breakfast we have dress rehearsals until 6.”

“6 PM??” Frank shouted. “Uggghh.” He put his head in his hands.” Ray sighed.

“You’ll be fine Frank.” Bob spat.

“Maybe if you eat something you won’t feel like shit the whole time.” Mikey grumbled. Frank shot daggers with his eyes at Mikey.

“I got us lunch already, it’s waiting at the stadium right now. It’s just sandwiches, Franks is tweaked to be vegetarian friendly.”

“Thank god!” Frank fell back in his seat dramatically, Ray giggled and got back to talking.

“We have some shitty motel to stay in tonight, it only has 2 beds. We need to share.”

“I’m sleeping on the couch.” Bob said immediately.

“I can share with you, Ray.” Mikey looked at Ray, Ray looked away and cleared his throat.

“That leaves you and Gerard.” Ray looked at Frank and Gerard.

“We can share it’s no biggie.” Frank said blankly, he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying he was to focused on his small phone. Gerard looked at Frank and his cheeks turned pink.

“Yeah it’s fine..!” Gerard chimed in. Ray nodded.

“That settles that.” Ray sighed, he looked up and saw the waiter coming back with their food and Franks soda. Everyone ate and Frank took his drink to go.

“We can go back for the van or walk, up to you guys.”

“Van is already parked near the motel, we should just leave it. We need the exercise.” Bob grunted. Mikey nodded and fixed his hat.

“I could use a nice walk. Stadium isn’t that far, is it?” Ray shook his head.

“No, it’s not more than 15 or 20 minutes.” The whole group agreed to walk there. Ray was far ahead of the whole group while Frank and Gerard lagged behind them all. Frank kept fixing his hood in the harsh wind. When they arrived it was 9am, everyone started to hook up their guitars which Ray already transported there for everyone.

“Thanks for doing all our busy work Ray.” Frank grinned, Ray played with one of his curls.

“Oh it’s nothing really. I like doing things for you guys to help.” Ray turned to his guitar and quickly tuned it, he looked at Gerard who was struggling to get his microphone working. “You guys have your costumes?” Everyone nodded. Frank looked at Ray and bit his lip.

“You see um.. can I work this hoodie into my outfit..?”

“Why?” Ray crossed his arms.

“Bad haircut?” Frank shrugged. Ray groaned.

“Hat in the back I think. best you’ll get” he turned back to the group and everyone went to get changed and Frank found that hat to hide his ears, then used a pink sparkly belt to keep his tail down and hidden in his pants.

“Perfect!” Frank smiled in the mirror. He walked out of the bathroom and saw everyone else waiting for him.

“You finally ready princess?” Mikey giggled, Frank rolled his eyes and grabbed his white pansy guitar.

“Whatever dude.” Frank looked at Gerard who was ready to go, then at Ray who gave them a dorky thumbs up. They started to play through their set list for that show over and over, by the end of it all they were exhausted. Frank threw his guitar against bobs drum kit and went to the bathroom. He splashed water on his face and scrubbed it vigorously. As he was washing his face and cooling himself off, he saw a sweaty Gerard come in.

“Sorry I need to wash my face to.” Gerard shrugged, “the others took the rest of the bathrooms, you left the door open in here.” Frank face palmed.

“Fuck.” He groaned.

“It’s fine, dude.” Gerard closed the door and nudged Frank out of the way and started splashing water on his face. Frank sat on the toilet and took off his hat, he stared at Gerard while he washed himself. His heart started racing, Frank admired Gerard and how he moved. Gerard flipped his hair and looked at Frank. Frank stood up and grabbed Gerard’s forearms and stared at him long and hard. Gerard seemed startled, but didn’t pull away from Frank. Frank slowly leaned into Gerard, standing on his tippy toes to reach his face. Gerard giggled sheepishly and bent over slightly to reach Frank. Their lips pressed against one another firmly, Frank wrapped his arms around Gerard’s shoulders and Gerard grabbed Franks hips. They slowly pulled away from one another and looked into each others eyes.

“Woah..” Gerard whispered. Frank blushed, realizing what he did he pushed Gerard away and his face turned bright red.

“Shit! I’m sorry fuck, I need to kill myself my bad dude.” Frank put his hat back on and started to leave, Gerard grabbed Franks arm.

“Wait!” Gerard shouted, Frank looked back. “Don’t be sorry… I enjoyed it.” He smiled. Frank looked away. “You still need to change, don’t you?” Gerard commented. Frank nodded. His muscles loosened and he looked at Gerard. “I’ll help you.”