Frank's POV. I awoke the next day and took in my surroundings, remembering the night before

I awoke the next day and took in my surroundings, remembering the night before. My eyes had crusted really badly because of the tears that leaked out as I'd cried myself to sleep. I looked at the clock 9:05. Fuck! I was supposed to be at work 5 minutes ago! Had Gerard already gone yet? Walking around, I noticed that he must've. He wasn't in the bedroom, or the bathroom. Mikey's bedroom door was closed, meaning that he was still here. I knocked on his door. He answered it to me and immediately began to speak.

"Gerard told me to tell you that he's called in sick for you today, so you can just hang out at home or whatever," Mikey told me.

"You're not mad at me?" I asked him.

"It's not my fight so I'm not taking sides. But you did tell me to piss off last night which wasn't very nice. You're lucky I'm mature and didn't run away crying," Mikey spoke over-dramatically.

"Oh. I'm sorry about that. But I'm not having a sick day. I'm going to work," I decided.

"Ok, you do that. I'm gonna go fix my morning wood," Mikey told me. I scrunched up my nose at him.

"Ew," I said, making him laugh.

"Deal with it, fucker."

"Hey, I didn't fuck anyone last night, so I'm not a fucker," I retorted.

"No, you're the fuck-ee," he joked, making me poke my tongue out at him, before walking to Gerard and I's bedroom to get changed.

Pulling on some clothes and leaving the house in super-speed mode, I made it to work within 2 minutes of finishing my conversation with Mikey. It was now 9:10.

"Hey! Gerard said you were sick!" Erica exclaimed as I walked into the shop.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better now," I told her.

"Oh that's good. I was a little worried. Gerard wouldn't say what was wrong with you," she said to me.

"Just my period. Nothing new," I joked, making her hit my shoulder.

"Don't joke about womenly issues, Frank!" she exclaimed.

"Frank?" I heard Gerard's voice question. "Erica, did you say Frank's name?" he asked, walking into the front of the shop and noticing me straight away. "Oh," his tone became suddenly flat. I noticed Erica raise her eyebrows as Gerard walked back out of the room.

"What're you fighting about?" Erica asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, acting dumb.

"Oh come off it! It all makes sense now. You had a fight. You cried yourself to sleep like the Pansy you are and then you overslept, Gerard didn't wake you because he didn't want to talk to you and called in sick on your behalf so he didn't have to see you today and then you came here and he was disappointed to see you. It's totally obvious," she said.

"Damn, you're good!" I exclaimed.

"So what're you fighting about?" she asked again.

"It's stupid really. I just accused him of a whole bunch of shit and we called each other stupid and Gerard won't speak to me until I've grown up. But there's a fat chance of that ever happening. I think I'm gonna be 2 foot-3 forever," I said. I wasn't really 2 foot-3. I was 5 foot-5. Erica was 5 foot-6, so I was an inch shorter than her. And she often wore massive goth-boots with huge platforms on them.

"Well I think he has a reason to want you to grow up. You are pretty immature," Erica said.

"Oh, so you're siding with him?" I questioned.

"I never said that. So stop twisting my words. Now get to work and keep training Gerard as the manager. You don't want this place to fall apart while you're away," Erica ordered me.

"Hey! Who's the manager here?" I asked her.

"Was that supposed to be a stupid question?" she asked.

"I'm the manager. I order myself around. Not you. And I'm staying in my office and reading the newspaper all day," I said to her.

"Wow, how reminiscent of the past," Erica replied sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked her.

"It's back to how it used to be. The days of the fire-fucker," she said. She was right. It was eerily reminiscent of those days.