"How are we doing tonight, everybody?" Gerard shouted into the microphone.

Gerard struck a pose, hoping to bask in the adoration of the crowd for a few moments, but most people simply walked on by. Gerard glanced back at Frank, and like Gerard, he looked disappointed with how the show was going so far. Then again, maybe that was what they got for booking a show at the local theme park, where people couldn't care less about their blistering rendition of Headfirst For Halos.

"It's going to be okay, Gee," Frank whispered to him as Ray tuned his guitar and Mikey blankly looked out at the passersby. "We'll turn this around."

Gerard smiled slightly, hoping that Frank was right. "We've got a new one for you guys, and it's from our debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love," he said into the microphone. "It's called Drowning Lessons."

The rest of the band began to play, but Gerard immediately noticed that something was off. They were all at different parts of the song: Frank and Ray had started at the beginning, as they were supposed to, but Matt was playing the chorus, and Mikey was playing the bridge. With Matt and Mikey playing the wrong sections, and Frank's guitar still in the wrong key, it sounded nothing like Drowning Lessons. It was a cacophonous mess.

Gerard took a deep breath and started to sing, hoping that the others would get back on track. "Without a sound, I took her down..."

It was then that he realized his mistake.

He'd come in three bars late.

"Fuck!" Gerard shouted, causing him to become even more out of sync with the others. He started singing again, but it was too late. The song had already fallen apart.

Mikey was the first to finish, much to his confusion, so he started playing random notes in the outro, which only made things worse. The others tried to fix things too: Frank attempted to re-tune his guitar in the middle of the song, while Matt drummed faster and faster, hoping to get this song over with. Gerard, for his part, just screamed over the top of the rest of the band. Maybe if they can't hear the instrumentals, they won't notice that we can't play this song, he thought to himself.

They played the last chord, and finally, the song (if you could call it that) was over. Gerard wished he had a time machine, just so that he could go back in time and erase the last four minutes of his life. He looked back at the rest of the band, and they were all just as embarrassed about their performance as he was. Gerard was half-tempted to stop the show right there, cut their losses, and go home.

Gerard's hazel eyes met Frank's, and in an instant, he knew what he had to do.

"THIS SONG IS ABOUT SUCKING DICK FOR COCAINE!" he screamed into the microphone, but nobody seemed to notice or care.

Maybe it was for the best.

Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Us went quite smoothly, as did the rest of the set. Before long, they were packing up their instruments and equipment, ready to head home and get some rest. They were playing another show tomorrow, after all.

"So about Drowning Lessons..." Frank said to the rest of the group before they went their separate ways.

"I think we need more practice before we can play that song live again," Ray said.

"Yeah, more practice sounds good," Gerard said.

"Does tomorrow morning work for everyone?" Matt asked.

"My D&D group meets tomorrow morning," Gerard said.

"Come on. You can skip D&D for this."

"Actually, I can't. We're fighting the Black Dragon, and we can't do that without everyone there."

"Let him go to D&D, Matt," Frank said. "We can practice another time."

"What about the show tomorrow?"

"We'll just take Drowning Lessons off the setlist, and replace it with...is everyone okay with playing It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A Fucking Deathwish instead?"

"Deathwish is hard," Gerard complained, but he nodded anyway. It was certainly better than playing Drowning Lessons again.

"How about Tuesday next week?" Mikey said. "Can we rehearse then?"

Everyone agreed to rehearse on Tuesday, and before long, everyone except for Frank and Gerard left the venue. "Thanks for standing up for me," Gerard said to him.

"Anything for you, Gee," Frank said. "Listen, I'm sorry about Drowning Lessons. I should have tuned my guitar before the song started, but I was kind of distracted..."

Gerard looked around to make sure that nobody was watching and then gave him a quick kiss. "It's not your fault, Frank," Gerard said as he embraced his boyfriend. "We just need to practice it more."

"I hope you're right," Frank said.

Gerard didn't respond, but he knew he was right. All they needed was some time to polish up the song. Next they played it live, it would be perfect.