When they were about halfway done recording, Gerard got a phone call from Frank. He'd already gotten four calls that day: two of them were from telemarketers, and the third was from his credit card company, so he was glad to see Frank's phone number on his caller ID and hear his voice on the other end of the line this time. "Hey Gerard," Frank said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," Gerard said.

"You don't sound okay," Frank said.

He wasn't okay, not at all, but he didn't want to admit that hearing from Frank was the best thing that had happened to him all day, so he changed the subject. "What city are you playing in today?" he asked.

"Chicago," Frank said.

"I've never been there, but it sounds amazing."

"You've said that about every city we've been to."

"I just want to see the world. Is that too much to ask?"

Frank groaned and said, "Chicago is so two years ago, and honestly, I don't think there's anywhere in the world that's better than Jersey."

"Yeah, right."

"I'm serious."

"People call our state the Armpit of America for a reason."

"I like the dirtiness of it," Frank said. "Besides, New Jersey can't be that bad if you're there."

Gerard smiled, and not for the first time, he wished that Frank could be there with him. "When are you coming home again?" he asked.

"We're playing in Chicago tonight, and then we're driving back tomorrow to play a show in Newark on Wednesday," Frank said. "Thank God this tour is going to be over soon. It's been awful."

"What happened?"

"We were thought that more people would come to our shows, but they didn't, and now, I've taken a whole semester off of school just to lose money on this tour. Also, I think Tim and John are trying to kill each other."

"Why?"

"I don't know, really. I heard something about Tim smashing John's bass, but that doesn't seem like something he would do. Anyways, everyone's taking sides, and I can't stand to be in a room with any of my bandmates right now." Frank paused and then asked, "Has that ever happened to you?"

"No, not really," Gerard said. He had never been more thankful that he got along with everyone in My Chemical Romance. They'd had their petty arguments over everything from which shows to book to what equipment to buy to which superhero was best, but at the end of the day, they were all still friends with each other.

"You're lucky, I guess. It must be nice, having such a close-knit band."

"Yeah, it is."

"How's My Chemical Romance doing, by the way? I talked to Mikey yesterday, and he said that the album's coming along well."

"Yeah, it's coming along."

"You don't sound super excited about it," Frank said. "Come on, Gerard! You're recording your first album! It's going to be amazing!" Gerard laughed, but that just made his tooth hurt even more. He yelped in pain, so Frank asked, "Is everything okay over there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Gerard said as he reached over to grab more painkillers. "I just have this really bad toothache, and it's making it hard to sing."

"Maybe you could postpone the recording sessions?" Frank suggested.

"We can't. Geoff's only in town for two weeks, and we have to record...ow, it hurts!" Gerard took a few more pills and then kept talking. "We have to record while he's here."

"It really doesn't seem like you're doing too well," Frank said. "Maybe you should go to the dentist or something."

"I'm fine," Gerard insisted. "As I said, we need to record."

"Okay, Gee," Frank said. "I'd give you a hug - you seem like you need one - but that's a little hard to do through the phone, so I think it's going to have to wait until I get back. Are you doing anything Wednesday night?"

"No, I'm not."

"You should come to the Pencey Prep concert. It's going to be a lot of fun, and we can chat in person after the show."

"Yeah, that sounds great," Gerard said, smiling.

"Cool. You know..." Frank kept talking, but Gerard couldn't hear him with all of the voices yelling in the background. "My bandmates are fighting again," Frank finally said. "We'll talk soon. See you Wednesday!"

"Yeah, see you then," Gerard said before Frank hung up. As he crashed back onto the couch, he knew that Wednesday could not come fast enough for him. All he wanted was to see Frank again, bickering bandmates and aching teeth be damned.

The days trickled by. Gerard and the rest of My Chemical Romance kept on recording, but Gerard's toothache got even worse. Sometimes, it got so bad that he thought he was dying. He wondered if anyone would miss him if he did die. Maybe Frank would, but Gerard suspected that he would be the only one.

Eventually, Wednesday came, and Gerard went to the Pencey Prep concert as promised. He stood in line, talked to a couple of other fans, bought another Pencey Prep T-shirt, and waited patiently for Frank to take the stage. He had waited for this moment ever since Frank had left: the opportunity to see him just one more time.

The crowd was restless all through the opening act's set, but Gerard wasn't impressed. The bassist was playing out of time, the guitarist clearly didn't know how to play more than three chords, but most importantly, Frank wasn't there. Gerard considered sneaking backstage to see him, but he decided to wait until after the show was over. They would have all of the time in the world then.

All of a sudden, Pencey Prep started playing. Frank looked beautiful as always, cradling his guitar as he walked across the stage. His hazel eyes met Gerard's for just a moment, and when the music started, he took the microphone and gave it everything he had.

There were waves of distorted guitars and beating drums, but above it all, there was Frank Iero. He was howling and screaming, and even after being on the road for almost two months, he was full of energy. He ran around the stage like he owned the place, and he jumped so high that Gerard wondered if he had somehow managed to defy the laws of gravity. He was on fire, and everyone knew it.

The only thing Gerard wanted at that moment was to be up on stage with Frank. He imagined them standing there together, their microphones side by side. He imagined them singing along to the raging sounds of Frank's guitar. He imagined the kind of music they might make together: something loud, theatrical, emotional. He imagined Frank coming close and kissing him, right there in front of everybody. He knew that it would never happen, but it was fun to fantasize.

After the show was over, Gerard wandered around for a while, looking for Frank. He poked around backstage, but all he could find was audio equipment. He ran into a couple of Frank's bandmates, but none of them seemed to know where their frontman could possibly be.

Gerard was about to give up and go home when Frank ran over and tightly wrapped his arms around him, almost knocking him over in the process. "I'm so glad you came," Frank said. "I missed you so much."

Gerard smiled and said, "I missed you too. You guys were amazing out there, by the way."

"Thanks," Frank said as he finally let go of Gerard. "How's everything going?"

"The album's coming along, but my tooth still hurts and Ray still hasn't finished rewriting 'Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us.'"

"Why does he need to rewrite it? That song's great."

"We didn't like how it sounded when we tried recording it."

"That happens sometimes."

"Yeah. Ray thinks he can fix it by rewriting the guitar part to give it a fuller sound, but he's been working on it for over a week now, and he hasn't gotten anywhere. We might end up having to leave it off the album."

"That would suck. That's one of your best songs," Frank said. "Then again, all of your songs are great."

"Thanks, Frank."

"It's true."

"So how was the tour?"

"Could we maybe talk about this outside?" Frank whispered. "I don't want my bandmates to hear."

"Yeah, sure," Gerard said.

Frank quickly packed up his guitar, and the two of them wandered around outside for a while. They chatted for hours, with Frank giving Gerard a play-by-play of the entire tour, and Gerard offering his witty commentary on the situation. They had both missed this over the last two months, just talking and laughing and being together, and now, they were desperate to make up for lost time.

There was something looming on the horizon though. Neither of them knew it then, but the Newark show was the last time that Pencey Prep would ever play together.