Fuse was turned on and the television blasted 'Rock Hour' pretty loud. Gerard and Frank were wrestling on the living room floor while Ray played keep away with Mikey's hat and Bob lounged back on the couch trying to watch the tv. A knock came on the door and Ray peeled himself away from the commotion to answer it. He had to keep one arm raised high in the air so that the jumping Mikey still couldn't reach his hat. On the other side of the door he found Jamia, who was looking gorgeous as always dressed in a red hoodie, with a black skirt hanging down to her knees and red tights. God Frank had been lucky when he'd been dating her. She blushed slightly, looking at the scene in front of her.

Ray still had alcohol on his breath and was the least sober he'd ever been in his whole life, which was still more sober than Gerard had been for their last gig. Mikey, shirtless because they guys had made a game of stealing his clothes, blushed and sort of hid behind Ray after snatching his hat back and cramming it on his head. Bob belched loudly, unaware of company, especially female company. On the floor Frank and Gerard paused their wrestling match and froze in a rather awkward position that could be mistaken for sexual in the wrong eyes.

Frank smiled at Jamia as she stood awkwardly in the doorway, and pried himself off of Gerard, who sat back on the floor and stared at nothing with a blank expression.

"Hey, Jamia," Frank gave a huge smile that was very cute while Jamia stood there uncomfortably.

"Hey," she offered weakly. "I didn't realize you had company,"

"We're just hanging out before our gig tonight," Frank explained. "Why don't you come in?" He felt a pain in his chest remembering the times Jamia would simply barge in happily, wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him lustfully. That had been before the kiss, before he'd met her parents, and before he fucked things up. She no longer felt comfortable, because if he was gay then kissing him was a sin. It was all a bunch of bull shit. He wasn't gay, or bi really, or anything! And it shouldn't matter anyways. Homophobia is gay.

"No, that's okay, really," Jamia sighed. "I just wanted to say..." she took a deep breath, obviously intimidated by the four pairs of male eyes focused on her (Bob was still watching tv).

"Why don't we talk outside?" Frank offered, stepping out onto the porch and closing the door behind him. He leaned back against the railing and watched her as she fussed with her skirt in her hands. God, she was so freaking adorable!

"What were you saying?" he asked.

"I heard that you started the food fight today," she said.

"As far as the principal knows, Gerard did it," Frank said.

"But it was really you,"

"Yeah,"

"Why'd you let him take the blame?"

Frank stared at her for a second. She had a good point. Why had Frank not set the woman straight when she'd said Gerard confessed to everything? He'd been shocked, but why hadn't he said anything? "Well I wasn't exactly in there when he did it. And he didn't seem upset or anything, he seemed really happy. It was like he wanted her to think he'd done it, so I let him go with it,"

"He's a really good friend of yours, huh?" Jamia asked.

"Ever since we were little," Frank grinned widly, trying to cover it by tilting his head down. "There's nothing gay about us, despite what you think," Frank added. Then shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. "Even if there was, homophobia is gay,"

"I know," Jamia whispered. "I also wanted to apologize," Frank raised an eye brow but said nothing, waited for her to continue. This was, however; something he wanted to hear. "I kinda freaked out on you, but I was just suprised. And my dad, he's always been very opiniative about those things. I know I kinda kicked you out..."

"You DID kick me out," Frank interrupted.

"I didn't want him to say anything else to offend you."

"You said a few things to offend me," Frank countered, disappointed how negative this conversation had become. He knew it was mostly his fault, and he could hear himself being a dick, but he couldn't stop it.

"I was scared, Frank," Jamia protested.

"Of what?"

"What if you really were gay, where did that leave me!? What did those weeks we had together mean? Nothing? What if you and Gerard broke up for me? I would feel terrible. I didn't want any more drama,"

"You don't have to worry about that," Frank sighed, his voice soft again. "I'm not gay, and Gerard is my best friend, but I'm in love with someone else,"

"Oh," Jamia's face dropped, and Frank kicked himself mentally. He was going to scare her off again.

"Those weeks meant a lot to me," Frank said. "You heard the song on the PA today... it was my band. I wrote that one, with Gerard, the night I met your parents,"

Jamia didn't have any words to say to that and Frank stood there fiddling with his tongue and his lip ring. He wanted to say more but he didn't know what.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Me too,"

"But I don't know if we can go straight back to where we were," Jamia sighed sadly. At least she was being honest.

"We could start by being friends," Frank held out his hand to shake, and she pulled him into a hug. Frank hugged her back and felt his heart soar. Friend zone- better than no zone.

"I was worried for your soul," she stated.

"What do you mean?"

"Homosexuals are supposed to go to hell,"

"I'm going to hell anyways," Frank laughed. "Because I do all the stuff they tell us not to do. I cuss and drink and jack off..."

Jamia broke away from the hug. "And you kiss boys,"

"Only on special occassions," Frank winked at her and she giggled. "So you want to come inside?"

"No, I can't. I have to get back home, but thank you," she smiled at him.

"For what?" he asked, pushing his hands into his hoodie pockets and staring at her. She only an inch shorter than him, so he could stare directly into her eyes. He was fiddling with his lip ring out of habit and had no idea how cute Jamia thought it was.

"This," she said and gave him a butterfly kiss on the lips, so light he barely felt it, but he was left with a tingling sensation. "And everything," she trotted down the steps and started down the road without looking back at him. He stared at her back with his mind blank and his face beaming. After a few minutes he realized he was cold and went back inside.

The guys started teasing him as soon as the door opened, singing the lyrics to "I Just Had Sex," and being very weird. He laughed, telling them rather rudely to shut up. Then Frank noticed that Gerard hadn't been singing. He was sitting back on the couch watching tv with a blank, if not cloudy, expression on his face. What's up with him? Frank wondered.

!

Basement concerts were the best. A bunch of people gather in someone's basement to listen to live rock music and have fun. Some other new band was going at it at one end of the basement and of course My Chemcial Romance was hiding out in the corner. This basement, at least, was better than the church, so it would do. A few people came up and talked to them and eventually someone broke out the kegger. What is a teenage party without a kegger? Gerard started washing away his nervousness with beer and ADHD medication. Soon he felt the familiar numb take over his mind and he smiled.

Mikey noticed that Ray had a beer in his hand and stared at him curiously. He didn't think Ray was a drinker, but whatever. At this kind of thing anything goes. Still, he tried to keep count of how many his friend consumed, just for something to do.

The music was loud, the spirits were many, and the adolescent insanity lasted until midnight. Bob wondered absently who's basement they were in, and why their parents didn't care that they were all there. Normally, fifty sweaty, drinking teens dressed in black and mutilating the basement is on a parent's list of nightmares.

My Chemical Romance rocked it out and actually sold some of the cd's they'd made. They were pumped about that and left in a happy high. Nobody realized how drunk Ray was until he passed out. Bob caught him, thankfully, before he hit the concrete, and he and Frank carried their friend to the car. Gerard was coming down from his high but really needed to sleep it off. Frank agreed to keep Ray at his house, but all of them were worried that he might have alcohol poisoning. Everyone except Bob went back to Frank's house to look after Ray. Bob had to go home to make sure everyone was okay and taken care of there. The first nights after his father took off were always the hardest.

Mikey researched alcohol poisening on the computer while Gerard and Frank looked after Ray.

"We should keep him awake, make him sit up," Mikey instructed. "He's probably going to start puking..."

Just as Mikey had predicted Ray threw up as soon as they woke him up. "Just let me sleep," he moaned.

"No, you might die," Frank stated plainly and Ray threw up again.

"Come on, buddy," Frank rubbed Ray's back while Gerard held his hair back so he wouldn't get vomit in it. They'd never seen Ray like this and it was kind of concerning. Gerard and Frank had both gone through this and knew what Ray was going through. He was lucky to have them there.

Eventually they all passed out in a much needed sleep around four in the morning. Mikey was curled up in a ball in an arm chair and Gerard and Frank were leaning on each other on the floor. Ray woke up an hour later to throw up again, and then stumbled to Frank's room and collapsed on his bed. Linda came home a bit later than usual and shook her head at the kids scattered around her house. It wasn't the first time, it wouldn't be the last. She switched off the tv, which for some reason was always blaring, and went to bed herself.