[64] When Hearts Like Ours Meet [Frank Iero]

We walked into the club-well, everyone else waited and I was dragged there by the hyperactive and overexcited birthday boy. Gemma snuck up behind me to whisper in my ear about how it would be a long night, and asking why the girls were here. She didn't hold a grudge against them or their rude and impolite behaviour, but was confused as to why they would snub them off one minute and then invite themselves to a party the next.

There were loads of people at the party-all of them family and old friends of his. Even the guys from the club were there, sitting together at a table and laughing together as they goofed around. The dance floor was littered with various people, but James ignored them all as he dragged me and led the guys towards a large table he had obviously reserved for us. As usual, the camera that documented his everyday life was clutched in Gemma's hand as she tried her best to record James' big night so that he could watch it again when he forgot.

We all slid into our seats, me sitting in-between Gemma and James as they talked to each other by leaning over me and shouting over the loud party music. I looked at the end of the table to see the guys taking their seats. Gerard placed two gift bags on the table and I realised that he had remembered mine when I had forgotten it. He called James and slid the bags towards him over the table with a smile when he had gained his attention.

James' eyes lit up with an excited sparkle and his lips parted in a huge, white grin. I think he had forgotten that Toyah and Sam weren't friends, and that we were all friends of his. It was that, or the fact that he hadn't noticed they were there in his pure excitement of having a birthday party. Just seeing him so happy made me happy.

He grabbed the bags and opened the gift from Mikey and Gerard. He pulled out the home-made CD, and looked down at it.

“are they good?” he asked and I burst out laughing as I watched him looked down at the CD out of interest.

“what?” he asked, turning to me with narrowed eyes, not being able to conceal the grin at the fact that I was laughing at him.

“it's Gerard and Mikey's band. You like their stuff, so they made you a CD,” I told him over the music and his jaw dropped. He looked over to the guys and asked them if it was true. They nodded and he broke out into another grin surprisingly bigger than his previous ones.

“I am so going to listen to this loads. I love it. Did you make it yourself?” he mumbled and they nodded again, a smile on her lips out of pride that he appreciated their effort and their thought.

“now I'm going to open yours,” he grinned to me, pulling open the gift bag towards him. I smiled and wriggled in my seat out of excitement. He peeked into the glittery gold gift bag, before pulling out a present wrapped to match the gift bag, with a purple bow. It was the first time I had ever wrapped a present, and it wasn't very neat at all. My mom had to help me, holding down the paper when I tried to tape it shut.

“open it then,” I smiled, when he just sat and looked at it, twisting it gently so that the lights in the club caught on the paper and made it sparkle. He met my eyes and smiled, before pulling the paper off gently, trying to preserve the 'magic' paper.

He pulled out the case and looked at the hand-drawn cover. The cover wasn't great, but it was the first drawing I had done. OK, so all I had done was tried to draw his name all fancy and curly and pretty, but it was still my first attempt at art, unless you class ruining friendships with everyone I knew, art. I know I appeared to have a talent for screwing everything up, and such a gift could be classed as art.

“what is it?” he asked and a smile broke out onto my lips.

“it's a DVD. It took me ages to make. Gemma helped me. It took like, a whole week,” I said and he smiled, a grin on his own face. He held it to his chest and reached towards me for a one-armed hug, before hugging Gemma too.

“I'm sure I will love it,” he smiled and I narrowed my eyes threateningly.

“you better!”

“lets set his party on fire!” Gemma randomly shouted, and I turned to her, to see her getting out of her seat. She grabbed my hand and James' before motioning to Mikey and Gerard to get onto the dance floor also. With that, we all made our way to the dance floor where we really did set the party on fire, throwing out some random and crazy dance moves. We were the only ones on the dance floor, after scaring everyone away with our dancing.

What shocked me about the night was not that Toyah and Sam appeared to be enjoying themselves as they danced around with their boyfriends, but that they also danced with myself, James and Gemma. They appeared very much to be enjoying our company, and that was what shocked me, but not the biggest surprise of the night.

“I'm gonna go get a drink,” I shouted to James over the music. He nodded and continued dancing, throwing his arms into the vogue pose as he pouted and Gemma imitated him with a mirror pose. I laughed and weaved my way off the dance floor, before making my way back over to our table. I slid into the empty table and picked up my glass of orange juice. I watched the guys on the dance floor, dancing and posing away together to Vogue by Madonna. For someone who couldn't remember the song, James had picked up the vogue pose quite easily from Gemma and was now dancing and strutting his stuff like a birthday boy should.

I took a sip of my once-was-cold-but-is-now-warm orange juice and licked my lips as I looked down at the table, the dance floor lights reflecting around the room casting shapes onto the wooden table.

“hey,” I heard a voice faintly over the music, and I looked up to see Sam sitting at the table in the chair opposite me. She stretched over the table to her drink, but couldn't quite reach. I stretched and grabbed it easily, sliding it across the table to her. She smiled a thanks and took a sip, her eyes never leaving mine as she obviously debated whether she should say what was on her mind.

“can we go outside to talk? It's a bit noisy in here,” she said suddenly when she carefully and slowly placed her drink back on the table. I stared at her in shock, before nodding cautiously. What did she want to talk to me about? She hadn't talked to me in ages, months. Why would tonight be any different?

She stood from her seat and made her way towards the exit door. I was pretty sure that we weren't allowed out of the fire exit door, but I wasn't going to complain. There were people out front and it would feel pretty crowded allowing those completely strangers who were taking a cigarette break, to hear our awkward and stunted conversation.

Instantly, the loud and thumping music died down dramatically as the cold winter air hit our skin unflatteringly. I shivered and pulled my cashmere cardigan over my arms for warmth, though it did nothing to protect the lower half of my legs which weren't covered by the full skirt on my dress.

“what did you want to talk about?” I asked as I went to lean on the brick wall, but noticed the chewing gum stuck to it and thought better of it. I stood and faced her with my arms crossed over my chest. She sighed and crossed her own arms over her chest, rubbing her arms where she didn't think to bring a cardigan like myself.

“that I'm sorry,” she said and I started, amazed at the words that had left her lips in an almost inaudible whisper.

“I'm sorry for not being a good friend and I'm sorry for being so rude and immature. Mikey told me what you meant and how you feel and I knew that what I had done was wrong, but I was too proud to admit it. But here I am, admitting I was wrong, and apologising,” she said and I simply stared at her in shock at what I had just heard come out of her mouth. I couldn't believe that she was apologising and trying to patch things up with me.

“I'm also sorry that I was rude to Gemma and James, and I know now why you and the boys like them so much. They are funny and cool and I'm really sorry,” she said, her tone of voice changing dramatically from the strong and self-assured that it had been to a pleading and apologetic tone.

I simply stared at her perplexed, before it all dawned on me and I understood just what she was saying.

“I'm sorry for not understanding you more and not knowing how you were feeling, and I'm sorry for comparing you to the girl I used to love before the accident” she apologised and a smile made it's was onto my lips.

“I should have told you how I felt, instead of bottling it up-” I started, feeling as though her confession earned a few confessions from myself.

“I'm sorry for being rude and ignoring you without hearing your side of the story,”

“I shouldn't have blew up the way that I did-”

“I'm sorry for being so selfish and jealous at the fact that you were hanging around with Mikey and Gerard,”

“I should have tried to be more of a friend-”

She cut me off once more by rushing towards me with a huge hug. She wrapped her arms around me with such a force that I heard a few of my vertebrae crack. I could tell in that hug how much she really had missed me. She squeezed me as though she was afraid to let go. Afraid that if she did let go, then our friendship would let go too, and we'd never make up. After feeling just how much she missed me, I allowed myself to admit just how much I had missed her too and wrapped my arms around her, returning the bear hug she was giving to me, clinging on with all of her might.

I really had missed her so much. I'd missed the friend that she was, and although I didn't miss the pretence that her friendship appeared to have brought before this whole mess, I missed being able to talk and goof around with her. I missed all of the guys, Frank the most, but if I could rekindle my friendship with 3 out of 8 of my friends, then that was a sure sign that the same could happen with the others. Things really were looking up.