Someone Out There Loves You (Adopted by Frank Iero)

51

FRANK

I wound down the window and lit up a cigarette once I parked the car in the side street. Glancing at the time on the dashboard, I saw I was a little over ten minutes early. That gave me enough time to give Gerard a quick call.

With the cigarette between my lips, I picked my phone up from its spot in the drink holder beside me and scrolled through my contacts until I got to his name. I hit call and held the phone to my ear, pinching the cigarette between my fingers and blowing the smoke from my lungs out the window.

"Hey Frankie, you on your way?" Gerard answered the phone excitedly.

"Hey man, nah not yet. Lex gets out of school in ten - I just wanted to let you know we'll be over in like twenty or so, depending how bad school traffic is."

"Ah, that's all good, no rush. I'm not going anywhere."

"I still don't have details on what exactly she wants to go over, but you'll be able to figure it out," I grinned confidently. If anyone could help her with art stuff, it would be Gee. I had no doubts about it.

"I hope I can."

"You'll be able to. Any bit of help she'll appreciate. She's so stressed about it - not just art, but all her midterms. I'm getting kinda worried about her."

"Shit, really?" he asked, his voice switching from excited to concerned.

I hummed as I brought the cigarette to my lips and inhaled. "She's been in her room pretty much all day every day for the past week and a bit studying. I managed to get her to move her stuff outside on the weekend but she didn't leave her books for longer than half an hour for the entire day. I really only see her for dinner now and like, in the morning before school. She looks exhausted. She's always spacing out and like, it's like she's not always with it. I haven't seen the happy, carefree version of her since last Sunday when we all caught up."

"Oh man, really?"

"Mhm. I'm worried about her, y'know?"

"Yeah, I bet. I can try get her to talk about what's on her mind, y'know how sometimes just talking about it with someone can help it seem less scary or overwhelming?"

"Please do," I sighed, flicking the cigarette butt out the window before pinching the bridge of my nose. "I don't want her going downhill. Is that... is that selfish?"

I could imagine Gerard shaking his head.

"That's not selfish. You love her, you don't want to see her down a dark path or struggling. No part of that is selfish."

I chewed on my lip, wanting to tell him about last night. If it weren't for waking up in Lexa's room this morning as her alarm went off, her still cuddled up next to me, it very well could have passed as a fever dream.

Just as I was about to, Lexa came into vision, approaching the car in a way that I could only describe as hesitant.

She was shy with me this morning, detaching her limbs from around me and apologising. I wasn't sure if she had been apologising for getting high, for asking me to stay with her, or for sleeping so close to me. Either way, it didn't really bother me. The only part that didn't sit well with me was why she was getting high alone on a Monday night. That screamed escapism to me, opening up a million questions I wanted to ask but couldn't bring myself to when I could see how tired she looked and the sadness in her voice when she spoke about school. The toll it was taking on her was insane.

I let out a sigh and ran my hands through my hair. "Lex is here - I gotta go. I'll see you soon."

"See ya soon, Frankie."