Emo Trinity x Reader (Book 2)

Frank Iero x Reader - One Mil

Summary: Frank's spending his birthday, playing an open mic
Warnings: beer
Word count: 2 049
A/N: Sorry, I'm late. I was too shaky to prove-read. These bastards... Regardless, Happy Birthday, Frank. I'm so done with the world now.

Frank's fingers pressed down on the strings of his guitar just like they had done a thousand times before while playing this song, yet he felt the nerves rising as he spied the camera, that was focused on him now, in front of the stage. He liked playing at the open mic nights in this little bar, but he had started loving them when you had turned up for the first time.

Usually you worked at the bar, but every now and then you grabbed your camera to take pictures of the artists playing, pictures that were later added to the website of the bar.

Nervously he continued playing, hoping his voice would not give in for the first notes he had to sing. His voice often quit its service when he was nervous, and that was only one of the reasons he had not talked to you yet. In the months of having seen you here three times a week, he had always ordered his drinks through your colleague Michael, and even though he loved sitting at the bar, watching, and listening in on your conversations, he had never once found the courage to talk to you. Not to mention that he did not want to be the guy who hit on the bartender. But from these overheard conversations he had learned a lot about you already, and he liked every little piece of it.

Now you were standing right in front of the small, slightly elevated stage, your camera lifted up to your face, as you snapped a couple of pictures.

Frank was concentrating so hard on not looking down to you that he even missed his cue, and had to play a couple more chords before he eventually started singing. After the second chorus he finally felt confident enough to take a look at you, but when he blinked against the slightly blinding lights, he found that you had already disappeared again, which sent a sting through his heart. But honestly, he did not have a chance with you anyways, right?

After his performance was over, he cleared the stage, and packed his guitar back in its case before walking over to the bar, sitting down in his usual spot. He was still deep in thoughts, wondering how it was possible to feel so small, so unimportant, so... hurt, every time he thought about you; and he did not even know your name.

"Well played."

Confused he looked up, searching for the source of the soft, somewhat familiar voice that had spoken to him. You were standing right in front of him, at the other side of the counter, a smile on your face. You were wearing the red shirt with the logo of the bar, and a black apron over your jeans.

"Uhm..."

The moment Frank had looked up to your face, it seemed like all the words had left his brain. At least that did not give his voice the opportunity to mess up.

"Can I get you something," you asked, as if it was completely normal to not answer to a compliment. But then again maybe you were used to people losing their ability to speak in your presence, you were stunningly beautiful after all.

"Oh, ahm," Frank cleared his throat in embarrassment before a few words finally tumbled out of his mouth, "just a beer, please."

"Coming right up," you smiled, and quickly prepared his drink.

A part of him had hoped that you would turn away, and leave him alone after bringing the glass over, but the bar was sparsely visited today. After all it was Halloween, and everybody was at some party, so there were hardly any other guests to take up your time. And you seemed bored.

So while a part of him did a little internal victory dance, when you casually leant against the counter to talk to him, the other part inside him started screaming in panic.