"Shit! Someone's awake, Frankie". I looked at my best friend, who was staring at me groggily, still half asleep.

My parents had never approved of Frankie; they thought that he was some kind of "bad influence" on me. Yeah, right. I think I was more of a bad influence on him, to be honest.

Frankie looked up, and then looked at the open window and grinned. "See you tomorrow, Gee" he said to me, and crept towards the window. "Frank, don't, you'll hurt yourself. It doesn't matter if they find out you're here, I'll take the blame."

"No, it's okay. I don't want you to get in trouble for me."

I heard footsteps come towards my bedroom door, and I lay down so that I could pretend to be asleep. I heard a soft thump and then the rustling of the dry autumn leaves that littered the ground outside, everywhere you stepped. I didn't hear the leaves for long enough though. It sounded like Frankie had gotten only a few steps before he had stopped, and I was not prepared to learn the reason why.

My heard began to race. What if one of my parents had found him outside? Maybe they were telling him to never come back here. What if… I never got to see him again?

My door creaked slightly as it was slowly opened, and my mother poked her head into the doorway. On the outside, I probably looked like I was in a dead sleep. On the inside, though, my mind was spinning. I really hoped that my father hadn't found him. I was almost positive that if he had, or happened to find him, I would never see my Frankie again.

Stop thinking that way! I thought to myself. He was probably just being careful, is all. Maybe he started stepping really quietly, and I just didn't hear anything after a while. Yeah, that has to be it.

I heard my bedroom door quietly click, and I knew it was closed once more.

I lay there for what seemed like forever, but I didn't want to get up too soon just in case my mom, and possibly dad were awake. My parents were incredibly strict. It was nearly three AM, and they got mad at me just for being awake at midnight.

So I crept down the hall, then slowly went down the stairs. The house was very creaky, so I was being careful not to wake anybody. My little brother, whose room was beside mine, woke up though.

"Gerard, what are you doing?"

"I'm just going downstairs to get a drink, Mikey. You can go back to sleep". I told him softly.

"I had a nightmare, I can't sleep. Can I stay up with you?"

I thought for a while. It's not like Mikey was one for tattling. "Yeah, I guess so. I wasn't going to get a drink; I was going to go outside for a while."

"That's okay, I just don't want to stay in my room by myself" he told me, smiling softly.

"So, what was your nightmare about?"

"Oh, I can't really remember. Something about being trapped underwater and having people watch me drown. I guess it doesn't really seem all that scary, but it sure freaked me out."

"I'm sure it was scary, Mikey."

We continued on for a while, walking slowly, but I was dying to check if Frankie was out here, if he had gotten caught outside our house.

Since we had walked out through the sliding doors at the back of the house, we had to walk around the corner to get to where my bedroom window was.

At first all I saw was a mound of black on the ground, a few feet away from the house. I knew what it was instinctively, but I didn't want to believe it.

I slowly approached him, hoping that he would be awake, at least.

I looked at him, found that he was unconscious.

"Oh my god. Frank. Oh my god."

So. Chapter one. I decided to leave a cliffy, because I'm evil like that. Ma ha .