Mikey stared into his coffee cup. He wanted to throw it on someone. Just get the confusion out of his system before he went insane. He had the urge to cause some kind of chaos, just so the chaos of his life would stop. Sighing, he took a sip and frowned. It was cold. He pushed the paper cup away from him and leaned back in his chair, his eyes wandering over the handful of patrons scattered around the little Starbucks. His gaze stopped on a teenage couple sitting in the window, their arms wrapped around each other and their lips connected. Them. He wanted to throw his coffee on them. Break them apart to ease the raging pain in his chest.

Tucking his hands in the front of his green hoodie, he avoided the temptation, instead turning his gaze to his cell phone sitting a few inches to his left. He reached for it, hitting the button to light the screen up and stared at the backlight. Biting his lip, he rolled his thumb over the center button, scrolling through his contacts. It stopped on Gerard and he sighed. He hadn’t spoken more than two words to his brother since his conversation with Dom. No matter how much Gerard wanted to explain himself or his actions, he just didn’t want to hear it.

“Um, excuse me?” a soft voice interrupted Mikey’s angry stupor and he looked up into the pale face of the teenage girl he’s contemplated throwing his coffee at.

“Hi,” he cleared his throat and dropped his phone on the table, the plastic slapping hard on the surface.

“You’re Mikey Way, right? From My Chem?” she asked hopefully and he sighed.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he nodded.

She grinned and pulled napkin and a pen out of her purse and held it out to him, “Could I get an autograph? I’ve been a fan since Bullets.”

“Sure,” he nodded and scribbled on the page, handing it back to her. She thanked him with flushed cheeks before running off after her boyfriend who waited by the door.

At least the fans still loved him. His frown deepened. The thought was depressing. All he had was his fans. He didn’t even know where the band would go from there. He could barely be in the same room with his brother let alone share a stage with him. How were they supposed to get along after that betrayal. The screen on his phone caught his attention and he picked it up, sliding his sunglasses over his eyes.

‘Can we meet?’

Dom’s question was timid through the text and he wrinkled his nose, ignoring it. There was no way in hell he was going to speak to her after what she’d done. He didn’t care how childish he was acting. There was no way he wanted to be around Gerard or Dominica without inflicting physical pain.

He slid from the booth and stuffed his phone in his pocket before making his way out into the morning. Instead of making his way back to the subway he wandered around the city, enjoying the sun and serenity of the early day. His phone went off again in his pocket and he rolled his eyes, stopping to look at the ID. It was Ray.

“What’s up, Toro?” he answered.

“Where are you? We’re supposed to be practicing right now, dude.”

“I needed some air,” he grumbled and Ray sighed heavily.

“You know you’re going to have to talk to them. We can’t have this awkward shit the entire tour.”

“You should’ve told Gee that before he fucked my best friend,” Mikey snapped.

Ray scoffed, “Hey, I’m not the one you should be taking it out on. But in all seriousness, you should talk to them. Dom’s a wreck, Mikey.”

“How do you know?”

“I was at her place yesterday. She was an emotional mess. She trashed her studio and I think she might have been considering dabbling in the fare of drugs when I showed up. I’ve never seen her eyes so bloodshot. If you keep silent for much longer she might hurt herself.”

“I’m tired of babysitting her,” Mikey refused to budge. “She gets like this as a call for help and just expects me to fall right back in to her trap. Not this time. She was fine without me before so she’ll be fine now.”

Ray remained silent for a while. The silence stretched and Mikey scratched the back of his neck, knowing what he was trying to do.

“That’s cold, dude.”

“Yeah well,” he shrugged. “What do you expect me to do? I can’t just forgive her, man.”

“You could at least hear her out.”

Yeah, he could, but he didn’t want to. Not while he was so upset. He pushed his sunglasses up his nose and molded in with the people rushing into the subway. Swiping his MetroCard he hopped onto the train before the doors closed and leaned against one of the poles by the exit. Static filled the heavy silence on the line and he glanced at the screen to make sure the call was still connected.

“Ray, I can’t even look at her right now.”

Ray’s voice crackled and the train lurched forward, providing a moment of better service. “—That may be but you could at least try to talk to Gee. You know he didn’t want to hurt you.”

Biting back an insult, Mikey rolled his eyes, “Fine, I’ll try but don’t blame me if it doesn’t work. I might end up just socking him in the fucking face.”

“At least you’ll be communicating,” Ray chuckled. “That’s better than awkward silence.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“And you used to be the peace keeper, man. What happened to that?”

Mikey sighed. Yeah, he used to be the good guy and then Dom happened. “My best friend and my brother betrayed me, that’s what happened.”

Ray remained silent, the crackling filled the phone and then it beeped. Pulling it away from his ear he frowned at the ‘Call Was Lost’ message on the screen. He slipped it back into his pocket and pulled his hood up to better hide his face, disappearing into the crowd of people when the car stopped and the doors slid open.