Fever Dream || Frank Iero

.10.

MELISSA

After a two hour explanation of why a phone number wasn't a big deal, a few tears from Jessica, and heaps of patience, I finally got her to calm down. As much as I wasn't a fan of Pete and had difficulty defending his side, It was my job to be the honest friend. Being friends with Jessica for so many years meant that this was not the first, nor the last conversation I would have with her about a boyfriend. In retrospect, this wasn't nearly as bad as the time one of her high school boyfriends cheated on her with her cousin. Oh, and tried to steal her car.

"Remember that time Jeremy told you that you smelled like his grandma and he didn't understand why you got so mad?" I said, us now reminiscing about past boyfriends. Jessica snorted and leaned her head back, shoving a chip in her mouth. We were sitting on the ground in the hallway across from each other, leaning back on the bunks behind us.

"He was so dumb," she laughed, "Do you know that he once told me he thought thunder came from two clouds running into each other?"

We both erupted in laughter, Jessica half-choking on a chip. I felt like a teenager again, sitting on Jessica's purple sheets with a feast of junk-food scattered around the bed. Oftentimes when Jessica went through a bad breakup or a fight with a boyfriend, we would buy as much crappy snack food we could afford, a little weed if we could get our hands on it, and spent the entire night laughing about our terrible relationship decisions even if they took place only mere hours before.

Our dynamic never really changed, although on paper it should have never worked. A lot of the things Jessica said or did would normally irritate me if they had come from anyone else, but when it came to her, I was never phased. Despite how dramatic she was known to be, she was a good friend to me. On the outside, maybe it appeared to be one-sided- myself always dropping everything to pick her back up when she screwed up, and letting her push me into things I didn't always want to do. Her intentions were good, and that was all that mattered to me. Not to mention that when it came time for her to help me through my last breakup, it was such a doozy that it almost made up for her array of relationship debacles.

Our laughter slowly tapering off, Jessica caught her breath and looked at me. "This is nice," she said. "I miss doing this."

"Yeah, me too."

"Hey, speaking of- what happened with your date? You never really said anything about it, I didn't have a chance to ask you in the middle of all the chaos last night."

Last night, I thought. Reality came back to me and I remembered Frank's lie from earlier, knowing I could validate my sanity with Jessica. Not wanting to sound too eager, I remained calm and decided to answer her question first.

"It was pretty awkward at first, honestly. We both decided we didn't really feel it and only really did it to appease everyone else. We're better as friends." I said, digging a chip out of the bag Jessica was holding.

"Oh bummer, okay. I thought you guys would have been cute together. I guess I got ahead of myself, huh?"

"Weird, you never do that," I laughed.

Jessica chuckled and threw a chip at me, trying to hide her agreement.

"But hey, now that you mention last night," I hesitated, not wanting to let her think something was going on. "You like, saw what happened, right?" I winced a little, immediately knowing I could have phrased my question better.

"What do you mean? You helping Gerard upstairs?"

"Well, yeah. Like helping him upstairs with Frank."

"Oh yeah, I remember. I wasn't that drunk, Mel, what are you trying to say?"

I realized Jessica thought I was asking her if she was blacked out in a roundabout way, which truthfully worked in my favor. I didn't want to lie to her, so instead I said next to nothing.